MAR LIN - The Schuylkill Intermediate 29 Board of Directors and teachers are planning to return to the bargaining table for a negotiation session Wednesday, Diane M. Niederriter, IU 29 executive director, said last week.
It will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Maple Avenue Campus, James G. Caravan, Schuylkill Haven, the solicitor for the board, said Thursday.
"We met briefly on Feb. 8. No progress was made," Niederriter said.
Prior to that, the parties met on Jan. 22 for a one-hour session.
Following the January session, Jamie Kuehn, a social studies teacher and president of the IU 29 Education Association, said the sticking points included "the salary schedule and benefits."
The IU's 87 teachers have been working without a contract since June 30, 2012, when their three-year contract expired.
On Jan. 22, Kuehn said the teachers were not considering a strike.
"We're hopeful that with the active engagement of the mediator, we can reach a settlement. The association has been in a settlement mode since fact-finding and as a result has been focusing its efforts toward that end rather than on the crippling impact a job action would have," Kuehn said Thursday.
"I really don't have anything to say. I don't really know what to expect. I hope to make some progress," Caravan said Thursday,
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, 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."