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Friday, February 25, 2005
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Lengthy talks fail to reach accord CROSBY-IRONTON STRIKE Staff Writer After spending a total of 17 hours Wednesday and Thursday in mediation at the local library, Crosby-Ironton School Board members and C-I teachers' union negotiators could not reach an agreement that would settle the 2003-2005 teachers' contract and the teachers' strike.
No other mediation sessions have been planned. Union members said the state mediator told them they remain too far apart.
In light of the union's rejection of their latest offer, school board members released a statement late Thursday night that said they would "aggressively pursue the hiring of qualified teachers to reach their No. 1 goal of returning students to the classroom."
Both sides met for more than eight hours, until 2:45 a.m. Thursday. Talks resumed from 1 to 10 p.m. Thursday at the Jessie F. Hallett Library in Crosby.
Union president Stan Nagorski said union negotiators made serious efforts to get together on proposals exchanged between the two sides. Nagorski said the union is hoping to get together with the school board within the next week. He declined to discuss details of the mediation session late Thursday, saying that both sides were asked not to discuss what happened during mediation in the media.
The school district's statement said the board was "sad and disheartened that a settlement was not reached this week after 20-plus hours of negotiations/related meetings."
The district said that striking C-I teachers rejected a 7 percent total package settlement for 2003-2005 that included a $7,650 annual contribution toward active health insurance with fully paid single insurance, district contributions for retiree health insurance, fully paid family health insurance for teachers retiring by June 30, annual contributions toward a health savings plan for all other teachers and salary ranges of $30,000 to $56,997 for their 179-day work year.
"The board believes this is a fair, affordable offer for a school district recovering from statutory operating debt (SOD)," the board members said in their news release.
Board chair Scott Kile said the state mediator told them they will not call another session until either side has a fully written proposal to present.
JODIE TWEED can be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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