The Daniel Boone Board of School Directors and the Daniel Boone Education Association met for a bargaining session on April 27, 2016. At the meeting on April 27th the Board negotiating team, comprised of Board Members Dave Rathgeb, Rich Martino, Jeff Scott, and Tamara Twardowski made a comprehensive counter proposal to the District’s largest labor union.
The proposal includes maintenance of the parties’ current healthcare program for the first two years of the contract, with increasing contributions to the healthcare plan in the final year of the contract.
With the community and the District continuing to face a maelstrom of economic issues; including unprecedented spikes in state pension obligations, aging district facilities, a decrease in population and ever increasing costs for healthcare and special education, the District is proposing a wage freeze in the first two years of the contract with wage increases in the final year of the Contract. Currently, the teachers in the District are some of the highest paid in Berks County while the tax effort for the District’s residents remains on the higher end of the county.
One of the primary difficulties facing the parties in these negotiations is the District’s inability to offer alternative healthcare plan options due to the District’s participation in the Berks County Healthcare Trust and the restrictive nature of the plan options available. Currently only one plan exists for the participating Districts in Berks County. The District strongly desires the opportunity to explore ways the District could offer competitive healthcare plan alternatives to its staff so they can be consumers in their own healthcare. The ability to offer alternative healthcare plans could mitigate the need for the need for increasing premium contributions from the District’s employees.
Dave Rathgeb, chairperson of the negotiating committee noted, “the School Board must balance the interests and needs of the school district and the taxpaying community of the District. We are negotiating in unprecedented times and we are hopeful the Association sees we need a partner to ensure the economic viability of the District. Our proposal is an attempt to get us to an agreement and to maintain the educational services the student’s deserve.”
The parties will continue to negotiate a contract with the terms of the expired contract still in place. The Board looks forward to getting to a settlement. The current agreement expired on August 30, 2015.