PITTSBURGH — Negotiations between the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers and the Pittsburgh Public School District continue Tuesday, a day after teachers gave notice of a strike starting Friday.
A strike that would impact about 24,000 children ranging from pre-K through 12th grade, union officials said.
Nina Esposito-Visgitis, president of Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, served the notification to Superintendent Anthony Hamlet.
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"Since the beginning of these negotiations over eighteen months ago, the PFT and the District have reached a small number of signed tentative agreements on proposed terms. None of these items includes salary, healthcare, equity for early childhood teachers, transfers, athletic coaches, or any of the other items outlined for members in the Fact-Finder’s report which was posted for public review in October 2017,” Esposito-Visgitis said in a news release.
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More than 3,000 professional, paraprofessional and technical clerical workers will go on strike.
“Normally, the sticking points in negotiations are money, healthcare, benefits, compensation. That's not the issue. That's not the issue at all. We just want to be able to make the best decision for children educationally in the building that we can,” Hamlet told Channel 11’s Aaron Martin.
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"I think the public deserves the truth, we're close. We have one issue of contention right now and that's principal scheduling in the building."
PPS is one of the only major urban school districts in the nation that doesn’t give principals the final say in scheduling teachers, the district said. Right now, teachers pick what grade and class they teach.
Esposito-Visgitis disputed Hamlet's assessment of the negotiations.
"If that is true, I would like to see the signed off tentative agreements we have made because we have not," she said.
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Hamlet said principals need the authority in order to best serve students.
"We've made some concessions and we're willing to make more concessions, but what I don't want to concede is making the best decisions for children," he said.
Esposito-Visgitis said the current system has been working fine.
"There are times when teachers have to move and principals and teachers work together to make those moves," she said. "It has not been an issue in our school district."
Under Act 88, it is mandated that the school district be given 48 hours’ notice of an impending strike.
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“We provided the district with a 96-hour notice in order to provide extra time for our students’ parents to secure childcare for their children, our students, and to provide the parties with sufficient time to reach tentative agreement on new contracts for the three bargaining units prior to the commencement of the strike,” Esposito-Visgitis said.
The district posted a list of locations where students can receive meals if classes are canceled for the strike.
Mayor Bill Peduto said the extra advance notice will help the city prepare to serve families affected by the strike.
"We're working right now and planning for the worst, which means opening our rec centers and having the opportunity with our senior centers to have professional people there to help to take care of kids during the day," he said.
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The district has requested that the PFT agree to submit its final best offer immediately in an effort to encourage a resolution with the least amount of strike days possible.
“Now that the union has called for a strike, they will be mandated to submit to final arbitration should they stay on strike for the maximum time permitted by law. We’re simply asking for the union to go through this process now, rather than later, to minimize disruption to children and families,” District Solicitor Ira Weiss said in a statement.
Esposito-Visgitis said it is hoped that the extra notice will allow the PFT and district to reach a “fair agreement that both recognizes the professionalism and hard work of our members and serves the needs of our students and school system.”
The PFT’s most recent contract expired in 2015. An extension expired in June 2017.