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DALLAS TWP. — Negotiations between the Dallas School Board and Dallas Education Association are back at square one following a meeting on Monday.
Health care and salaries continue to be at the center of the stalemate.
On Monday, union leaders presented a proposal that contained no health care concessions and cost the district $1 million more per year in additional expenses, said Vito DeLuca, solicitor for the Dallas School District.
“We are not even close to a deal,” DeLuca said.
The union’s newest proposal had some changes, such as calculating teachers pay raises in dollar values as opposed to percentages and extending the contract two years to create a seven-year agreement, DEA President Michael Cherinka said.
Neither side would release further details of the negotiations.
“The board is playing games with us,” said the union’s chief negotiator, John Holland. “We gave them a very fair and responsible offer that would have saved the district $180,000 a year in healthcare costs, and they turned it down.”
Holland is referring to a mid-February proposal that contained a health care program redesign.
“Premium shares can go up,” Cherinka said. “If you want to save taxpayers money, a healthcare plan redesign is where to look.
“We are not the only union not paying premium shares.”
The progress made at the mid-February negotiation was shattered when union members walked out of a Feb. 21 meeting and called the district’s counter offer “regressive.”
“It gets to the point that they came in so low that we came in high,” Cherinka said. “We have to meet in the middle.”
To get to that point, DeLuca said the union was invited to have their actuaries sit down with the district’s business manager to review the school’s budget to see what was affordable.
“They agreed but have not yet done it,” DeLuca said.
Cherinka said the union’s number crunching is handled through the Pennsylvania State Education Association in Harrisburg.
“It is tough to get them to come up here,” Cherinka said.
Holland said there are two more negotiation sessions scheduled on March 22 and April 3.
The Dallas School District teachers have not had a contract since August 2015. Both parties started negotiating to develop a new contract in 2014.
Teachers went on strike from Nov. 14 to Dec. 19. The DEA has filed an intent-to-strike notice for March 24.
According to state law, teachers can strike twice in one year.
The first strike must end in time to complete 180 days of academic instruction by June 15. The second must end in time to complete 180 days by June 30.