SUMMARY: PR teaching staff contracts expire June 30. Beginning July 1, our teachers will be working with no contract in place because negotiations are dragging out. Teacher morale is already at an all-time low at PR due to board's distrust, disrespect, and micromanagement. And this comes on top of a county-wide teacher shortage, putting PR at increased risk of losing talented teaching staff to other districts.
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Posted June 27, 2024
The process: Contracts for teaching staff are negotiated every five years. There are three main parties involved — teachers' union representatives, school board members (in this case, four), and district administration. Negotiations, which have been ongoing for months, have failed to produce a new contract agreement before current contracts expire.
Unfortunately, this failure to reach a contract agreement in a timely manner comes on the heels of our teaching staff being publicly undermined, micromanaged, and disrespected by our school board. Teacher morale was already at a low point prior to the start of negotiations and has only declined since because of board comments and actions.
Pine-Richland is a top-five district in the County but ranks 31st in career compensation for teaching staff — a dismal and embarrassing discrepancy.
There is already a teaching staff shortage in Allegheny County, and all of the school districts are essentially pulling from the same pool. In order to retain our talented teaching staff and remain a top-performing district, it is absolutely essential to provide competitive pay and benefits.
Pine-Richland School District is one of the more financially stable districts in Allegheny County, thanks to smart investments by previous school boards. PR can afford to pay our teaching staff what they are worth; we CANNOT afford not to.
Don't allow extremists on our school board to undervalue our teachers and put our students' education at risk. Speak up!
Talk to friends and neighbors.
Follow us and share our posts on social media.
Email the board: boardsecretary@pinerichland.org
Show up to support teachers at the July 15 and Aug. 5 meetings. They are asking for support.
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