MAR LIN - There's no talk of strike, but teachers and administrators at Schuylkill Intermediate Unit 29 left a one-hour negotiation session Tuesday night without a deal.
The IU's 87 teachers have been working without a contract since June 30, when the teacher's three-year contract expired.
At the session, union representatives, including Jamie Kuehn, a social studies teacher and president of the IU 29 Education Association, left members of the school board with another proposal to consider.
Asked what the sticking point was, Kuehn declined to get into specifics, but said "It's about the salary schedule and benefits."
Diane M. Niederriter, IU 29 executive director, did not comment after Tuesday's session at the Maple Avenue Campus. However, previously she said the salary schedule was one of the sticking points.
The IU board and education association began negotiations Jan. 9, 2012. On May 25, the teachers union asked the state Labor Relations Board to appoint a fact finder. On Aug. 6, 2012, the IU 29 board rejected the fact finder's report.
The report, authored by Robert C. Gifford, an attorney from State College, can be found at www.dli.state.pa.us/plrb under a tab labeled "Fact-Finding Reports."
Among those present at Tuesday night's session were: Niederriter; Kuehn; James G. Caravan, the IU board solicitor; Robin A. Hetherington, IU board president; Edwin F. Musser, IU business manager; Charles Shaffer, a representative of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, Harrisburg, and Mary Wasilewski, a multi-handicap support teacher in the special education department who is secretary of the IU 29 Education Association.
Representatives of the teachers came out of the meeting first. Asked how negotiations went, Shaffer said, "We don't know. We presented our plan. They listened. They came out and said they need more time to review it."
"I have nothing to tell you," Caravan said when the IU 29 representatives left the meeting.
