Parents urge Greater Latrobe to settle contract with teachers as new school year nears

Greater Latrobe teachers are slated to return to school Monday for in-service duty, but they’ll be working under the terms of an expired contract until a new one is settled.

Teachers and their supporters packed this week’s school board meeting following the July 31 expiration of the Greater Latrobe Education Association’s previous five-year labor agreement.

Both sides were mum on any issues that may be the focus of contract negotiations, which included a session Friday.

“We are hopeful,” union President Anthony Seranko said of the talks, in response to a reporter’s question after the school board session Tuesday.

District Solicitor Ned Nakles said negotiators for both parties agreed not to comment publicly on the substance of the talks.

“When we go into negotiations, the first thing the two negotiating teams agree to — and to my knowledge everybody holds to it — is that we will not discuss negotiations publicly,” Nakles said.

The district and the teachers union, which has 260 members, met for talks in late June, district Superintendent Mike Porembka said.

Porembka said talks also are ongoing with a Service Employees International Union local representing about 60 members — including custodial, maintenance and food service workers. Their previous three-year contract expired at the end of June.

Regarding talks with SEIU negotiators, Porembka said, “I see that process moving forward. The negotiation team brought some information back to the board tonight.

“SEIU was unable to get their complete membership together this month.”

Josh Cunningham, a district parent who teaches at nearby River Valley School District, urged the board to settle a new contract with Greater Latrobe teachers.

“Contracts that are unsettled make everybody nervous,” he said.

Cunningham argued that the district’s existing starting salary isn’t sufficient to attract new teachers in the current competitive market.

“First-year teachers shouldn’t have to pick between buying a car to get themselves to work and paying their student loans,” he said.

The recent starting teacher salary at Greater Latrobe was $47,057, according to data compiled by the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

“It is the teachers that make the district what it is, not you board members,” district parent Monica Green of Latrobe said. “Get the contract settled.”

“You guys need to give these teachers what they want,” parent Amy Martin told the school board. She said the services district educators provide during the school day are essential for the development of her two disabled sons.

“There’s only so much that I as a mom, as a worker with two jobs now, can do,” Martin said.

“The teachers truly care for the well-being of our children, not only in the classroom, but in their everyday lives,” said Erin Bulava, another district parent. She told how an elementary teacher had provided a confidence boost for one of her daughters by repeatedly sitting with her during lunch period.

Several district teachers who also are Greater Latrobe graduates addressed the board. They noted their investment in the community as they returned to have their children enrolled in district schools and took on extra duties both at school and after school hours.

Julie Teslevich and her husband, Jon, are both elementary teachers at Greater Latrobe and have two children enrolled in the district. She told the board about the strong bond she has formed with her kindergarten students at Mountain View Elementary.

She said she normally revisits her former students to congratulate them ahead of their high school commencement ceremony.

“I find it rewarding to visit them before graduation and celebrate with them, presenting them with a token, wishing them well in their future endeavors and reminding them of how proud I am of their accomplishments and how they have always had a place in my heart,” she said.

This year, as she battled cancer, Teslevich said, one of her former students organized a group from her 2011 kindergarten class that visited her in her home instead.

“This moment spoke volumes about the impact that not only I, but all the teachers in the Greater Latrobe School District, have on their students,” she said.

Greater Latrobe students in grades one through seven and nine will return to the classroom Aug. 26. Students in grades eight and 10 through 12 will have their first day of school Aug. 27, while kindergarten classes will start Aug. 28.

The school board is next scheduled to meet on Sept. 10, for a “committee of the whole” session. A regular board meeting is set for Sept. 17.