Mayor Kenney said Thursday that he will get involved in
the Philadelphia teachers' contract negotiations, directing a top lieutenant to
intervene in stalled talks between the school system and its largest union.
"Talented educators have gone far too long without a
fair contract or salary increases, and we risk losing many talented educators
to other fields or school districts," Kenney said in a statement.
"This is simply not fair and it's not good for our kids."
Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of
Teachers, said he had asked the mayor to bring the two sides together.
Kenney made his statement in advance of a School Reform
Commission meeting Thursday where Commissioner Bill Green divulged details of
the latest district offer to the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, made at a
negotiating session in June.
He said the district offered a 3 percent lump-sum raise
to members, plus "step" increases for members' years of experience.
He said the proposal would cost the district less than $100 million over five
years.
Green said the PFT's "ridiculously absurd"
proposal - whose terms were not disclosed - would have cost $593 million over
five years, money he said the district could never afford. The teachers'
proposal would have meant the district's five-year deficit would balloon to
$1.1 billion, he said.
"Serious offers have been put on the table by the
School District," Green said. "They have been rejected by the
union."
Jordan scoffed at the offer, which he called "an
insult," and at Green's making it public.
"It's an absolute joke to think that this could be a
serious offer," said Jordan, who did not attend the meeting. "I would
not ever take that to my members. It disrespects the educators who work so hard
for our children every day."
In her last meeting as SRC chair, Marjorie Neff also
addressed the issue, saying that she wished she could return to the
"contract structure and expectations of the past," but that it won't
work given the district's fiscal situation.
"To the PFT, I ask that you recognize that our success
and future depend on having a financially stable district," said Neff, a
former district teacher and principal.
Neff, who has served on the SRC for two years, and
Commissioner Feather Houstoun, a commissioner for five years, both resigned
last week.
Their resignations have reignited calls for an end to the
five-member SRC. Several dozen protesters gathered outside School District
headquarters to demand a return to local control.
Kenney said he wants local control, "but the timing
for that to happen within the next year is not practical." The SRC must
vote to dissolve itself, and would have to do so by December for action to be
taken by next school year.
"I do not think that pursuing that option is in the
best interest of our students, teachers, and families at this time," the
mayor said. Instead, he said, the community must work to figure out what form
of governance would come next.
The SRC was scheduled to vote Thursday night on
recommendations to end operating agreements it has with Aspira Inc. of
Pennsylvania, the company that operates Olney Charter High and John B. Stetson
Charter School for the district. Officials have concerns about financial and
governance practices at the schools.
The votes have been delayed multiple times, and Neff
urged her fellow commissioners to act Thursday night. No new information about
the schools would be forthcoming, she said, and the SRC had an obligation to
vote.
But no commissioner would second the resolution, so the
measure failed to come to a vote again.
Neff suggested that by not voting on Aspira, the SRC was
not being true to its standards for charter schools, leaving "consistency
and transparency" by the wayside.
Green has said he favors a conditional charter for Aspira
with provisions that force it to surrender the charter if it fails to meet any
of the criteria. He said he does not believe the district could do a better job
educating students at Olney and Stetson.
Source: Philly.com
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