North Penn teachers expected to continue picketing Monday
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LANSDALE — The North Penn Education Association is calling in the big guns, and ratcheted up its rhetoric against the district's school board Friday afternoon.
In an afternoon rally outside Penndale Middle School, and within shouting distance of the district's Education Services Center, NPEA President Alan Malachowski rallied hundreds of his union's members in favor of last week's contract offer by a nonbinding arbitration panel.
"Always, I'm accused that I don't speak for you, that I don't tell you the truth and that I'm lying to you, the membership. I think there's only one group of liars in this whole equation, and they meet right over in that building," Malachowksi said, pointing to the ESC as teachers cheered.
Joining Malachowski and the blue-clad teachers was Jim Testerman, president of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, who said he stopped by to show his support for the district's teachers.
"I'm here representing 191,000 of your colleagues across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I'm here to remind you that this contract is not just about this settlement, it's about every settlement hereafter, and about whether or not they will bargain in good faith this time and the next time," Testerman said.
Both the NPEA and PSEA leaders reiterated their version of the past week's events: that the union accepted the arbitration panel's report, that the board has made no new offers since Sunday, and