Update: The school district says it was blindsided by the decision to strike
In response to what the Pennsylvania Education Association is calling “outrage and concern” over the operations of the Harrisburg School District’s administration, teachers will be holding a one-day strike on Friday, according to a news release.
The teacher’s union voted Tuesday to strike, voicing concerns over the district administration’s “systemic failure to address the needs of its students.”
The union has also filed an unfair labor practice over the administration’s failure to bargain in good faith, the release states.
“The administration seeks to use the district’s amended recovery plan to push through financial parameters that will prevent collective bargaining over virtually all significant issues including wages, hours and working conditions,” the PSEA release states.
Jody Barksdale, president of the Harrisburg Education Association and a district middle school math and science teacher, said the Harrisburg School District was in the midst of the crisis.
“Despite what Superintendent Sybil Knight-Burney told PennLive this month, these conditions are not typical nor unavoidable for a city school district,” Barksdale said in the release. "Her words do a terrible disservice to our students. Our kids deserve better than this.”
The release states that rather than having HEA negotiators bargaining with the district directly, the administration emailed the state-appointed chief recovery officer and asked her to include 17 “bargainable” items in her amended recovery plan.
While this method is a significant issue to the union, the release also states that this is the latest in a long line of issues that “reveal an administration and school board refusing to act in the best interest of teachers, staff, students and the community."
Among the other issues, the PSEA cites the district refusing to resolve a two-year grievance over the failure to pay veteran teachers for their experience as required by their contracts.
PSEA cites turnover numbers of 214 teachers resigning in the past two school years, and a faulty hiring of 65 teachers on the wrong salary level. PSEA also cited the district continuing to pay the benefits of 57 employees who had left the district.
Most recently, PSEA cited the administration refusing to cooperate with state-appointed auditors and the firing of the district’s Human Resources director as the district having ongoing problems.
HEA does say it hopes receivership can be avoided.
HEA said by voting for new board leadership in the May primaries, there is a chance the new board can turn around the district.
"This was not an easy decision for our members,” Barksdale added. “Our teachers were reluctant to disrupt our students’ schedule and activities Friday. However, we believe that the short-term disruption was outweighed by the need for long-term change and improvements to our kids’ education, well-being and future.”
