NFT Still Prepared To Negotiate This Week

Despite the Neshaminy School Board , the Neshaminy Federation of Teachers will be at the bargaining table Thursday, January 12 whether or not the board is there.

Prior to the union announcing that it was going on strike and the board subsequently suspending negotiations, both sides were slated this negotiate this Thursday and January 26.

“We’re deeply disappointed by the Board’s cancellation of our January 12 negotiation session,” NFT President Louise Boyd said in a press release.

“All along, the board’s actions have shown their reluctance to negotiate with seriousness and good will. They have rejected millions teachers have offered in health care premium contributions, benefits cuts, and forgone pay. Instead, they have piled on negotiating demand after negotiating demand. We’ve clearly demonstrated the ways we can resolve our greatest issues, but this Board has been unwilling to meet us halfway.”

“We remained hopeful the entire weekend that the Board would do something to avert this strike—but they didn’t. They are still refusing to engage with us regarding our last offer of more than two months ago. The only way we can reach a settlement is to sit face-to-face and hammer out a contract. Teachers remain willing to meet with the Board at any time, in any place, to make that happen.”

According to school board Vice President Kim Koutsouradis, who visited the picket line at Neshaminy High School this morning, it would take the teachers getting back in their classrooms for the board to reinstate negotiations.

"It's not productive," High school Spanish teacher Cara Delorenzo said of the board suspending talks.

She added that there has been a lot of talking to everyone else, but what the board and union need to do to end the nearly four-year impasse is to talk to each other.

"We have tried in numerous ways to show compromise to achieve a solution and [the board] has done nothing to end this," said Christine Richardson, a sixth grade science teacher at .

"We don't believe that we should reward the teachers for going out on strike. We don't believe that is fair on their part. And so it is felt that to negotiate with them with this hammer hanging over our head would not be a smart or reasonable move on our part," Webb said Friday of suspending negotiations.

“The bottom line is that without negotiations, without the two parties talking and working things out, there can be no settlement. If Mr. Webb and his team are not at the table on Thursday evening, they will be failing the students and the community who are counting on us to work together for a fair settlement. An affordable contract is in sight. We need the Board to sit down with us to reach that goal,” Boyd stated.