NFT, School Board Will Negotiate in Rescheduled Meeting

The Neshaminy School Board and Neshaminy Federation of Teachers will meet tonight to again discuss terms of a new teachers contract.

This will be the 45th negotiation session between both sides.

In , neither side could come to an agreement on one particular point of contention: the language surrounding the length of the work day.

The school board has proposed an 8-hour work day, but the NFT wants to keep the current 7-hour work day. When the arbitrator proposed a compromise of a seven and a half hour work day, the board agreed but the union did not.

"This issue remains unsettled, and prevents agreement on the list of twelve items," school board President Ritchie Webb stated following the last bargaining session.

The school board presented the NFT with its latest offer in writing at the last meeting, proposing to agree as part of a contract to the twelve items that were part of the , which was signed off by the board's attorney, Chuck Sweet and the NFT attorney, Tom Jennings.

Following the last negotiation session, t seeking his intervention in the contract talks for the second time.

When the union filed their first request of this kind, Baldi refused to bring the courts into the impasse and said that if contract talks failed to lead to any progress in July, he would consider the motion if either side decided to request the courts' intervention again.

Both sides will likely appear before Baldi August 14, which is the date he previously set for another hearing on the matter.

The school board and NFT will meet tonight in their rescheduled negotiation. Patch will post an update on any progress made Friday morning.