The State of the Unions and the Budget Deficit at PASD

Facing a shortfall after of $2.8 million to get to a zero percent tax increase for the 2011-2012 school year, one thing is notably absent from Phoenixville Area School District’s budget.

No salary increases are included. When a Schuylkill Township resident asked the board Thursday night about decreasing pay for teachers, Board Treasurer Josh Gould noted that all three unions are currently in negotiations with the district.

The Phoenixville Area Education Association (PAEA), representing the teachers in the district, has been since June 30 and negotiating with the district since January 2010. Negotiating has begun with the clerical union as well as the aide/professional union in the district.

As a contract isn’t settled for any of those unions for 2011-2012, the preliminary budget assumes that the unions will stay in status quo, working under the old contract, Gould said, or that the district will negotiate zero percent increases.

“What we’re saying in this budget by saying there are no salary increases is that either the negotiations will continue through the fiscal year that we’re budgeting for or we’ll negotiate, we believe we’ll negotiate no salary increase,” Gould said. “One of those two things has to happen.”

The Act 93 group, which consists of 20 members of the administrative staff excluding the superintendent and others with separate contracts, for the 2011-2012 school year in a recent agreement. The savings from that agreement amounted to $33,925 in raises for 2011-2012.

Gould said because the district is negotiating with the other groups, it can go with the zero percent increase number in the preliminary budget.

“In this budget there [are] no salary increases for anyone projected for next year, and we can do that because we are negotiating, and while we’re negotiating and once those contracts expire, they stay in what’s called status quo,” Gould said.

If the district negotiated zero percent increases for its three unions and Act 93 group for 2011-2012, it wouldn’t be alone in the state. According to a recent article in the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era, Hempfield School District in Lancaster County had its entire staff agree to zero percent raises for next school year. Like Phoenixville Area, Hempfield is facing a multi-million dollar deficit.

“In addition to the teaching staff of about 525, some 50 Hempfield administrators and 374 support staff members earlier this year agreed to pay freezes,” the article states.

Hempfield, however, may be an outlier.

“Unionized teachers in other parts of Pennsylvania have rejected wage-freeze requests in recent weeks,” the article, published March 14, states. “A spokesman for the Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, said he was not aware of any other teachers who had agreed to a wage freeze for [2011-2012].”

Typically, Gould explained, the district is bound by the collective bargaining agreements for raises going forward.

“It’s at least partially in our control right now where normally it’s not in our control,” Gould said.

The next district budget meeting will be held April 4 at 6 p.m. in the high school cafeteria.