By Kevin Duffy

Of The Morning Call

September 29, 2008

Teachers are back in the classroom in the Saucon Valley School District, and now it’s up to an arbitration panel to see that they stay there.

Classes resumed Tuesday on the school district campus, but no settlement between the district and the teachers union was reached. Therefore, a second strike remains a possibility unless a three-person panel can help both sides come to consensus on salary, health care contributions and other considerations.

When the union agreed to return to work short of the Oct. 17 strike cut-off set by the state Department of Education, the process of nonbinding arbitration started.

Now, both sides will present their proposals to an arbitration panel and hear a recommendation for ironing-out a new contract. But the tenor of that recommendation will largely be determined by only one of the three arbitrators.

That’s because one of the three is selected by the district and another by the teachers union, the Saucon Valley Education Association. The third member is picked mutually by both sides from a list of seven members of the American Arbitration Association.

Once final best contract offers from both sides are exchanged and comment from the community is taken, the panel then will hold private hearings and put together a proposal for the district and union to consider.

The third, independent arbitrator typically writes the proposal, said David Davare, a researcher for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

”It’s pretty much what the neutral party decided,” he said.

That proposal will be made based on the arguments that are brought forth and not through a process of ”dissecting” details, Saucon Valley School Board President Ralph Puerta said during a public meeting at the district campus Tuesday.

”It will be the justification for each proposal as it stands right now,” he said.

If either side rejects the proposal, the union could call a second strike, and another date for how long it could last would be set by the Department of Education.

The board’s solicitor, Ellis Katz, will represent the district, while Thomas Hofherr, Pennsylvania State Education Association regional field director for the Eastern Region, will present the union’s proposal.

Both sides have agreed upon the independent panelist and are waiting to hear whether that person will accept, Puerta said.

Once the third party is in place, both sides will have 10 days to put together their proposals before a hearing date is set. Puerta said that date could be determined by the third party’s schedule, and the date might not come up until the end of October.

”It may, in fact, be 30 days before we present our case,” he said.

Students, in the interim, will remain in the classroom with teachers there to instruct them.

The district has offered a schedule of 4.7 percent annual salary increases over the term of a new four-year contract, while the union recently lowered its request from 6.5 to 5.5 percent increases over five years.

The union also has made concessions on health care contributions, offering $20 per month for individual coverage in the first year of a new agreement, topping out at $40 per month per teacher in the fifth year. Currently, the district covers the full cost of teachers’ health insurance per month, with teachers paying $45 per month for spouses and family.

kevin.duffy@mcall.com