Teachers’ contract extended in Peters Township
Peters Township School District teachers are under contract through the 2023-24 school year.
The school board unanimously voted Sept. 17 to approve an amendment and extension to the current contract with the Peters Township Federation of Teachers. Jamison Hardy was not present at the meeting.
Terms include an annual $1,400 salary increase starting in 2021-22 for the 279 teachers, counselor and nurses in the union.
“This agreement helps us to maintain our positive relationship with the federation,” district business manager Brad Rau said. “This extension is fiscally responsible for the community and positive for our teaching staff.”
In June 2016, the school board approved a six-year contract retroactive to the start of that school year, with the agreement through June 30, 2021. Federation members staged a 21-day walkout in October and November of 2015 before returning to work the day after Thanksgiving.
Kristofer Bergman, federation president and a sixth-grade teacher at McMurray Elementary School, thanked board members for the approval, giving special acknowledgement to Hardy, chairman of the board’s finance committee, and Rau for their efforts during negotiations.
“It was very productive meetings that we had, and I think both parties are going to benefit greatly from this,” Bergman said.
Also at Monday’s meeting, board members heard an update about the new high school project from Roshelle Fennell of construction manager Reynolds Solutions. So far, she said, the project is on schedule.
“The first milestone activity that we’re really looking for is the building pad, which is Oct. 9,” she told the board. In the meantime, work has begun on the keyways, excavated trenches that are necessary for slope stabilization, and early stages of erosion and control measures are nearing completion.
In October, Reynolds will begin providing the district with electronic monthly reports that include a log of change orders, one of which Fennell addressed with regard to digging for the keyways.
“They went down to the elevation they were supposed to go down to, and they found unsuitable soil. CEC, which is your testing agency, required them to go down farther and then kind of bring it back up,” she said about Civil & Environmental Consultants Inc. “That requires some additional labor and materials, so we’re putting that change order together for you.”
The new school, at the site of the former Rolling Hills Country Club, is targeted for completion by the start of the 2020-21 academic year.