Board Withdraws NFT Teacher's Contract Proposal

Neshaminy School Board President Ritchie Webb announced Tuesday that the three-year contract proposal to the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers (NFT) was being withdrawn.

According to a press release issued by the Neshaminy School District, the action leaves the school board free to make a new proposal that will become effective July 1, 2011.

Though the school board and NFT have met 29 times since January 2008, and most recently on February 15 of this year, no progress has been made in reaching a new agreement, the release states.

The withdrawn contract proposal, which was first offered to the NFT in 2008, was “highlighted by an average 3.1 percent salary increase, employee health care contributions ranging from 10 to 12 percent, elimination of Master’s Equivalency certificates, increasing the number of work days from 188.5 to 190.5, lengthening the work day from 7 hours to 7.5 hours and removing the $27,500 retirement benefit,” the release states.

Based on the NFT’s “desire to maintain a high cost, top tier insurance plan,” the board’s offer was later amended to include an increase in the health care contribution rate to 15 to 17 percent.

According to Webb, the board did not add any extras to the offer, there were no “throw aways,” and that there was nothing in that offer that they didn’t believe was “absolutely essential to setting the district on the course for the future.”

“The decision to withdraw our offer should not be applauded nor feared,” Webb said at Tuesday’s board meeting.

“It is nothing more than a step towards the next phase of our negotiations with our teachers,” he said, noting that the board will continue to meet with union leaders to discuss the issues.

“Our children are far too important for us to treat this district like ‘The Price is Right,'" Webb said.

Webb continued, stating that he hopes that when the board issues the next offer to the NFT that “they will finally understand that this board is not operating by old rules of negotiations from some playbook our of the 1970s.”

“We must address these issues now so that our district can go about its business of educating our children,” Webb said.

Though financial experts don’t expect the economy to fully recover for another five to 10 years, the board “must” get costs under control now so that when investments generate revenue, that money can be invested into educational programs, Webb said.

“If we do not take decisive actions now to fix our budget, our district will be condemned to a lifetime of program cuts, staff layoffs and mediocre test scores,” he said, and added that is not acceptable to him or the board.

Webb said that he and the board are not just talking about a new contract, but a new Neshaminy.