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By JENNIFER LEARN; Times Leader Staff Writer
Saturday, May 04, 1996 Page: 1A
HAZLETON — Negotiators for Hazleton Area School District teachers have
refused an early retirement incentive and wage freezes in talks that have
turned raucous.
A war of letters is being waged and one surfaced Friday to shed the first
light on the state of the secret talks.
The strongly worded writing by the district’s chief negotiator says the
teachers union has rejected the retirement plan — even though the district
has projected it could save $1 million over about 15 years.
The letter also says negotiators for the Pennsylvania State Education
Association have strongly criticized the Hazleton Area School Board’s plan to
freeze wages.
Gloria Bartnicki, a spokeswoman for the union, late Friday confirmed the
union opposes the district’s call for a two-year freeze on wages “as
unacceptable.”
Taxpayer groups have been repeatedly calling for wage freezes since a
record tax hike in 1994 that was tied to a lucrative teacher’s pact.
The average teacher’s salary in the district is about $52,500 a year plus
benefits.
The three-page letter that surfaced Friday was written by the district’s
negotiator, Pittsburgh attorney Bruce Campbell. It was sent to Bartnicki,
chief negotiator for the roughly 500-member Hazleton Area Education
Association, two district sources said.
Campbell also sent copies of the letter to School Board members. The
letter, a copy of which The Times Leader obtained, responds to a letter from
Bartnicki. According to Campbell’s letter, the union refused to agree to an
“extended wage freeze” for teachers and the retirement proposal.
Neither offer has been discussed publicly. Contract negotiations have been
ongoing since the beginning of 1995. Bartnicki’s letter has not been made
public and could not be obtained.
In an interview Friday, Bartnicki said the union finds problems with the
retirement incentive plan because it is tied to other concessions, including a
cut in the starting salary for teachers, from about $29,000 to $24,000. She
said she has not seen Campbell’s letter, adding she was out of her office
Friday afternoon.
Campbell’s letter blasts Bartnicki for rejecting the “generous” retirement
incentive proposal and for calling the plan to freeze wages “unrealistic and
foolhardy.”
Bartnicki said she used the word “foolhardy” in part because Campbell has
stated a stance on the wage freeze and will not ease away from it to bargain.
“This is not negotiations,” she said.
A district source involved in negotiations said the early retirement
incentive was offered about two weeks ago to convince the district’s highest
paid teachers to retire. Campbell confirmed he wrote the letter but would not
comment on it.
The source said the retirement plan is aimed at 30 to 40 teachers with 30
or more years of experience, each earning about $58,000 per year. The plan
offers those teachers $20,000 over seven years if they retire before the next
school year, the source said. That plan would have cost the district only
$6,000 per teacher because the contract now in effect guarantees $14,000 to
each teacher who retires early, the source said.
District officials project that if at least 30 teachers were to accept the
plan the district would save $1 million over the next 14 or 15 years. The
reason is because the School Board would replace each of the retiring teachers
with a teacher earning about $24,000 annually.
The source said the early retirement offer was not announced to the public
because it was part of the negotiations. The source did not want to be
identified out of fear of being accused of violating the confidentiality of
negotiations.
“They (the teachers) want a lot more money. It’s unbelievable,” the source
said. “Then they come back with an insulting letter.”
Campbell’s letter also criticizes the teachers union’s attitude during
negotiations.
He said the district presented “factual information” while Bartnicki and
her bargaining team “have refused to come to the bargaining table.”
“You have contended that by reciting the facts of life the school board
representatives are talking down and are being demeaning to the collective
bargaining team for the Hazleton Area Education Association,” Campbell wrote.
He said, “The fact is that under your leadership, the Hazleton Area
Education Association has been dilatory at the collective bargaining table and
has refused to change its original collective bargaining position in any way
and has constantly criticized the superintendent and the board both
individually and collectively.”
Campbell and Bartnicki have been negotiating since the beginning of 1995. A
previous, five-year contract expired in September 1995 but the district is
operating under its provisions.
In 1994, property owners in the district saw taxes increase 27 mills — an
increase the School Board blamed on previously negotiated teachers salary
increases.
School property taxes are 171.5 mills in the district. A mill is $1 tax for
every $1,000 in assessed property.