The Whitehall-Coplay Education Association is currently in the midst of contract negotiations with the Whitehall-Coplay School District. The teachers union has been working under the old contract since September 2nd while negotiations have been ongoing since January of this year with no agreement on a new contract in place. The WCEA feels the lack of respect on the district’s part has hindered the bargaining process. The Whitehall-Coplay School District’s own solicitor, Jeffrey Sultanik, blatantly stated, “You don’t think we realize we are paying teachers under market value.” * We are the lowest paid teachers of the Lehigh Valleys 16 school districts. * Our starting salary is the lowest in the Lehigh Valley and it hinders us in attracting and retaining quality teachers. * We have the only salary schedule in the Lehigh County with 18 steps. * Our four neighboring districts vary with 14 to 15 steps in their salary schedule. Whitehall-Coplay teachers gave a year and a half year freeze during the last contract to help the district through tough economic times. We would like our salaries to be competitive with our neighboring Lehigh Valley Districts. We understand that it’s not possible to reach parity in a single contract and we are not asking for that. We are only asking for gains to help realize that goal in the future. This will greatly help the district to attract and retain the very best teachers, and this in turn, will benefit our students.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 21:26:34 +0000
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