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DALLAS TWP. — The Dallas School District does not have much left to offer the teachers’ union, district Solicitor Vito DeLuca said Tuesday.
The school board and Dallas Education Association members met for 45 minutes Tuesday afternoon, but no proposals were exchanged.
Instead, the district requested teachers return to their classrooms and have both parties enter voluntary non-binding arbitration, DeLuca said.
“The union refused,” he said.
Michael Cherinka, president for the Dallas Education Association, said the voluntary non-binding arbitration involves both sides agreeing to let a third party review proposals and develop an offer. Both the union and district would have to agree to the new plan, he said.
If they do not agree, the negotiation process starts all over again, Cherinka said.
“I have never seen it (voluntary non-binding arbitration) work,” Cherinka said. “It halts the negotiation process for several months, and if it is not accepted, you are back to square one.”
DeLuca said the board also wanted to discuss the union’s previous healthcare proposal that projected a nearly $600,000 savings for the district.
The calculations done by an independent healthcare broker were incorrect, DeLuca said.
“(The broker) doubled counted the district’s (healthcare) claims data,” DeLuca said.
“That could be,” Cherinka said, noting the union said it was a “potential savings, not exact savings.”
Cherinka said the independent broker who provided the information used in the union’s last offer did not have the data from Highmark, the district’s healthcare provider.
The union did not receive the district’s healthcare information until last week, Cherinka said, noting the data was forwarded to the broker for a revision.
“We are waiting on a new report,” Cherinka said.
At this time, there are no new negotiation meetings scheduled, according to both Cherinka and DeLuca.
Teachers went on strike on Friday. The state Department of Education requires the teachers to return to class Oct. 19.
Teachers are allowed to strike twice in a school year, as long as the first strike ends in time for the district to complete the state-mandated 180 student-instructional days of school by June 15.
A second strike must end in time to complete 180 student-instructional days by June 30.
The Dallas School District teachers have been working without a contract since August 2015. The school board and union started the negotiating process in 2014.