ARCHBALD — Special education teachers of the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit will get a 2.5 percent raise this year on top of seniority-based increments, and a 3 percent raise for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years, according to the terms of a new contract.
After an arbitrator made recommendations in September, the NEIU 19 Education Association and the unit’s board of directors signed the contract last month. But directors’ lingering questions prompted about 40 of the unit’s 100 or so teachers to wait outside a board room Tuesday night, bracing for a fight that never came.
The teachers showed up to urge the unit’s board of directors to finalize the contract, but they never got the chance. Board members had wrapped up things to the union’s satisfaction during an hour-long closed-door executive session before the regular meeting even began.
Both the union and the school district had agreed on a contract proposal last month, but some NEIU board members did not understand portions of a fact-finding report that listed recommendations by arbitrator John C. Alfano, board President Robert Schwartz said.
The board used the executive session to ensure everyone understood the language put forth in the report. No official action was taken during the session, Mr. Schwartz said.
The board’s attorney, John Audi, explained further: “I need to be very clear, no changes were made in the fact finding report.”
NEIU teachers had been working under terms of an old contract, minus pay raises, since it expired in 2012.
The NEIU provides curriculum, special education teachers and technology solutions to its 20 member school districts in Lackawanna, Susquehanna and Wayne counties. Intermediate units are funded by state and federal money, and individual school districts also pay these units for the services they wish to use.
When negotiating a new contract, teachers and board members had clashed on three issues: salary, health insurance and early-retirement incentives.
Back in September, the arbitrator had recommended a blended contract solution that asked for concessions from both sides to keep the unit financially solvent amid declining state and federal revenue to school districts.
After the executive session, union President Karen Buttillo met one-on-one with board members for an update. She grinned heading back into the hallway where dozens of teachers waited.
“I think there will be some happy people in there that have an answer, definitely,” Ms. Buttillo said.
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