T/E Teachers Contract

Big Contract Change is No-Cost Union Victory

One of the biggest sources of frustration for the Tredyffrin Easttown teachers union is wiped away under new contract and it cost nothing to do.

It was a smoldering issue that could be seen flaring up at several Tredyffrin Easttown School Board Meetings over the past eight months as the board and union clashed over contract talks. Included in the settlement ratified Monday by the Tredyffrin Easttown School Board is a provision that allows the president of the Tredyffrin Easttown Education Association (TEEA) union to speak at public school board meetings. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? Well it's been a big point of contention because the current TEEA President is not a resident of the district. The board's rules require anyone wishing to speak during the comments period of school board meetings to live in the district. Because of that Laura Whittaker, who is also a teacher at …

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Keith Best

5:37 am on Thursday, October 18, 2012

Gov. Scott Walker of WI. has proven that Collective Bargaining for public employees is a privilege and NOT a right, and has made budgeting for municipalities almost impossible. Wisconsin has saved over $1 Billion dollars.   more ›

T/E Teachers Contract

Both Sides Compromise in New T/E Teacher Pact

Tough economic times mean some new pain for both teachers and Tredyffrin/Easttown School District taxpayers.

Five months ago parents, students and teachers union members packed the house as the Tredyffrin Easttown School Board debated demoting the most-educated teachers to save money on a new teacher contract. It was a long, heated and contentious night when the strains of months of contract talks spilled out of the bargaining sessions into the public sessions. Monday night the mood was completely different as members of the school board and the Tredyffrin Easttown Education Association (TEEA) union shook hands, smiled and posed together for photos to mark a contract settlement on a new two year deal. Neither side got exactly what they wanted. For starters, it's a two year pact, not the three year contract the district had long said it wanted.  …

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T/E Teachers Contract

T/E School Board, Teachers Union OK Contract

The deal comes after more than nine months of negotiations.

The Tredyffrin Easttown School District Board of Directors voted Monday night to approve a contract agreement last month with the Tredyffrin Easttown Education Association. The two year deal essentially freezes salaries for the 439 full time members of the TEEA Union. The two sdes did reach compromises that will increase teacher out of pocket costs for many health benefits. The teachers will also face the equivalent of two days of unpaid furloughs in each of the contract years. The contract talks, which at times got heated, ended with handshakes and both sides posing for photos.

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T/E School Teachers to Vote on Contract Offer

After more than six months of often tense contract negotiations, teachers will get a chance to vote on a deal reached last month.

Thursday night members of the Tredyffrin Easttown Education Association  teachers union were to get their first chance to see the details of a new three year contract deal tentatively reached last month with the school board. TEEA President Laura Whittaker told Patch that the meeting would be the first chance for most of the the 400+ members of the rank and file to learn the details before taking a ratification vote. Details of the contract, reached after more than six moths of sometimes tense and acrimonious negotiations, can’t be revelaed to taxpayers until after both sides have agreed to the terms. The school board's negotatior's approved the deal last month at the bargaining table but could not disclose any details until after the …

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T/E Teachers Contract

Big Shift in T/E Teacher Contract Talks

With one week to go before classes resume, the Tredyffriin Easttown School Board announces a big change in its strategy for teacher contract talks.

In a move that was immediately welcomed by the President of the Tredyffrin Easttown Education Association (TEAA) union the T/E School board is changing a major tactic at the bargaining table. The School Board and the union have been trying to negotiate a new contract since February. With just one week week to go before classes resume, School Board Karen Cruickshank announced Monday that the board would start to have board members at the bargaining table. That is a major shift in strategy and a change Union President Laura Whittaker has been asking for virtually since the contract talks began. Last Monday, August 20,  Whittaker and the school board's chief negotiator got into a heated public exchange over the issue after the board voted to …

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TESD Contract Report Sparks Outrage, Debate

Parents, property owners and renters sound off in a fierce debate over teachers' contracts and a report that says T/E taxpayers are rich and should pay up.

T/E Teachers Contract

Fact Finder: T/E Taxpayers are Rich - Pay Up

The state fact finder hired to look at both sides in the the Tredyffrin-Easttown School District teacher contract negotiations tells T/E taxpayers that they're wealthy and should pay up.

The state fact finder hired to make a recommendation for a T/E School District teachers contract says the taxpayers in TE are wealthy and the district should put up more money to support some of what the teachers are asking seeking. The fact finder is not a mediator per se, but serves a similar function by trying to find common ground between two sides in a labor contract negotiation. Unlike a mediator the fact finder comes up with a settlement without acting as a go-between for talks. The fact finder in this case is Timothy Brown.  In his report, Brown makes comments about the T/E District being among the wealthiest in the state. At several points in the report Brown recommends that the T/E School District find the money for several areas…

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T/E Teachers Contract

Details of Rejected T/E Teacher Pact Revealed

The state Fact Finder's report was rejected Thursday by the School Board, but will get a second vote on August 20.

It could have been the final agreement between the T/E School District and its teachers, and there is a possibility (though it appears unlikely) it could still be the new contract. A Pennsylvania Fact Finder's report was released Friday afternoon containing specifics of a deal outlined by the State Fact Finder who took the arguments of both sides into consideration. While not an a binding arbitration, the Fact Finder serves a similar role. When contract talks reached an impasse in June the teachers union requested the fact finder.  Either side could have made the request. The T/E School Board voted Thursday night to reject the state Fact Finder's recommendations for new teacher contract.  The Fact Finder's report is is an "all or nothing" …

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T/E Teachers Union Calls for "Transparency"

As a deadline for a new contract looms, the T/E teachers union turns up the heat to get its message out.

The Tredyffrin-Easttown Education Association is calling on the T/E School Board to "provide full transparency" on the negotiation process. The TEEA has complained both privately and at public meetings that no school board members are on the district's negotiation team and that the school district has not kept the public fully informed. In a posting on the union's website, the union says "recent developments have strengthened our belief in a need for transparency with the public; these include the Board’s continued consideration of the demotion of our best teachers as a viable cost-reduction strategy, the Board’s recent public release of outdated and incomplete facts about negotiations and the violation of our mutually-agreed contract …

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