Monday, April 19, 2010

PhillyBurbs.com: �Teacher strike hits North Penn

PhillyBurbs.com: �Teacher strike hits North Penn

Teacher strike hits North Penn

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phillyBurbs.com

After hours of negotiations Sunday, the two sides failed to reach an agreement.

North Penn School District teachers will strike this morning after eight hours of talks between their union and school board members Sunday failed to resolve their contract dispute.

District and teacher negotiators met from 1 to just before 9 p.m. at the district Educational Services Center in Lansdale, where the union rebuffed several requests to withdraw its strike notice and both sides presented and shot down each other’s new proposals.

Teachers’ most recent contract expired in September.

Their union leaders issued a strike notice after Thursday’s school board meeting, where directors unanimously rejected recommendations for a new labor agreement from a three-member arbitration panel that included advocates for both sides. The more than 1,000 members of the association voted earlier that day to accept the report; they would have had their contract had the school board done the same.

Board member said property taxes would increase by about 25 percent over the course of the five-year