Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Board: Teachers fear NFT leadership

Meeting #68 Update:

Tonight's meeting lasted approximately 3 hours, but the parties did not meet face to face. And regrettably there is no progress to report.

After another round of talks with no movement by union officials the Board is more convinced then ever that our contract proposal should be voted on by the teachers.

We reject Ms Boyd's claim that the parliamentary maneuver of a voice vote during an informal meeting reflects the will of the certified staff. We believe it reflects their fear of the NFT leadership, and we are confident that the overwhelming majority of teachers would vote for the proposal if an actual secret ballet vote were held. And it is with them in mind that the Board decided to leave its offer on the table.

If we are wrong and our offer is rejected then at least we can withdraw our proposal and restart negotiations in good conscience that all other options have been exhausted.

No new dates have been set for negotiations.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

NFT wants the money, not the language of Board's final offer

Meeting Number 67 Update:

Tonight the Board and the NFT met for 20 minutes face to face. The board restated its belief that the NFT should allow their membership to vote on the Council Rock salary propsal with Council Rock working conditions. The NFT position is that their membership has already spoken and have refused to vote on the Council Rock proposal.

It is the position of the Board's negotiation team that we have provided the NFT with a final proposal that is both generous and well within accepted language for bucks county schools. The NFT is interested in the Council Rock money but not in its language, which is tantamount to rejecting our offer.

The Board will honor its commitment to attend the meeting previously scheduled for next Wednesday, February 13th.