Posted: Thursday, April 25, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 5:43 am, Thu Apr 25, 2013.
After working without a contract for two years, the custodial, secretarial and maintenance staff at Morrisville School District will finally have financial stability.The school board voted unanimously at Wednesday’s agenda meeting to approve a four-year contract with the Morrisville Educational Support Personnel Association. The contract calls for an approximate 3 percent pay hike and a modest benefit increase, business manager Paul DeAngelo said after the meeting. The deal was ratified last month by MESPA, he said.
The contract also calls for an early incentive retirement plan, which will pay members a lump sum of $12,500 in two separate payments in July and January, said DeAngelo after the meeting. Five members of the group opted for the earlier retirement, he said.
Although negotiations were somewhat rocky, changes to the contract were minimal, Stoneburner said. The agreement between the district and support staff works for both sides and gives the staff more stability, he said.
“(The support staff) does have an excellent job of keeping the district up and running,” Superintendent William Ferrara said. “They are a dedicated group of people.”
In 2011, the board had considered outsourcing when preliminary estimates had the district facing a deficit of more than $2 million for the 2011-12 school year. However, with the deal reached Wednesday ensures the district will now have each union under contract through the year 2014, Stoneburner said after the meeting.
“Once again Morrisville School District comes through and resolves their contract issues without having it becoming a circus,” Ferrara said.
The 13-member group had been working under an agreed pay freeze due to the tough economy, board member David Stoneburner said after the meeting. The new contract will run through the 2014-2015 school year and will encompass the two years the staff had been working without a deal.
Although negotiations were somewhat rocky, changes to the contract were minimal, Stoneburner said. The agreement between the district and support staff works for both sides and gives the staff more stability, he said.
“(The support staff) does have an excellent job of keeping the district up and running,” Superintendent William Ferrara said. “They are a dedicated group of people.”
In 2011, the board had considered outsourcing when preliminary estimates had the district facing a deficit of more than $2 million for the 2011-12 school year. However, with the deal reached Wednesday ensures the district will now have each union under contract through the year 2014, Stoneburner said after the meeting.
“Once again Morrisville School District comes through and resolves their contract issues without having it becoming a circus,” Ferrara said.
18 comments:
The last comment by Bill Ferrara is a joke. It took two years to negoiate this contract that apparently has few changes that seems like a bit of a circus to me. Pat yourself on the back Bill Ferrara and Paul DeAngelo you once again did a great job, even if you are the only ones who think so.
I suppose it wasn't an external media fueled circus like Neshaminy.
I'm glad it's done. A little bit of labor peace at a reasonable cost is good. They do a good job overall.
It took way to long to come to a settlement, and once again people can be bought out to retire early. When they retire will they be replaced? No one else has. Don Harm can unretire again and come back to Morrisville as a custodian or secretary, at least he will have some work to do in between his vacations.
if you are not involved in the process you have no idea what took so long and why and what needed to be done, lets give those involved some credit for playing it through and moving forward, on both sides
Good Job new members on the School Board you did what the old Board could not or would not do reach a settlement.
Exhibit A. Perception Problem.
Exhibit A. Lots of angry ignorant people out there.
1 comment:
Falls Taxpayer posted at 8:31 am on Thu, Apr 25, 2013.
Posts: 279
Morrisville Borough School District is a complete joke.
A district that is up and running that is unable to teach 50% of the children it has basic math should not be recieving any pay raises.
No wonder why Morrisville offers no AP courses, they don't have anyone smart enough to take them OR TEACH THEM.
The Teachers can't teach AP classes if there are none to teach. Thank You for those responsible for Gutting the Morrisville Schools.
JadedMage posted at 5:35 pm on Thu, Apr 25, 2013.
Posts: 228
Yo Dopey Falls Taxpayer, first Morrisville is part of Falls twp, mr Im so great! and this was for the Support Staff, NOT the teachers. and not for anything but 3% is barely anything. So shut your pie hole and stop with the hate spewing!
Morrisville is NOT part of Falls. Everybody knows it's in Lower Makefield. Apart from that, I agree with Madge. In fact, I'm soaking in it.
Morrisville will be Falls Twp West soon enough. We cant handle being independent. We need someone to tell us what to think
Just because we sh*t the bed and can't handle our affairs properly doesn't mean a knight in shining armor will ride in on a fine arab charger and come to our emotional rescue. You must press on, even if it means being pressed into more and more duty in your sh*t filled bed.
There is a small portion of Morrisville that is in Falls Twp. There is an even smaller part of Morrisville that is in Lower Makefield.
Morrisville Borough is not in Falls Twp or in Lower Makefield, it's an extemely small Borough, one of the smallest in the country.
If I were one of Morrisville Borough's much larger, wealthier neighbors, it would be easier for me to look in and wonder why the hell they don't get their shit together and fix their school district & town. But I'm not, I'm from Morrisville Borough.
I know that more than 80% of the tax base is on the residents backs because of poor management in the Borough's history. I know that taxes are high. I also know that they have to be, because Morrisville Borough is less than two square miles, yet it still has to maintain its own school district, municipal buildings, police force, ambulance squad, fire department, sewer & water department and all the equipment & employees that go along with having them.
Morrisville Borough is not blessed with casino money, a landfill, an enormous business base, or a thriving industrial community.
So what does Morrisville Borough do? We do what's expected, we pay our way and do without what we cannot afford. We make cuts where we can and we seek out opportunities to improve our situation.
Haven't walked in our shoes? Be thankful! We're doing the best with what we have.
Nice post. You pretty much summed it up right there.
Except for the part where bat-shit insane people repeatedly get elected and make a trying situation such as that so eloquently described here even more challenging and in doing so embarrass the rest of the community, giving more ammunition to those from these surrounding communities who so love to fling their insults at Morrisville like the monkeys flinging their poo in the zoo cages.
Well said !
{Thumb Up emoticon}
It's funny how when it's election time and a group of employees who have worked more then two years without a contract thanks to the old board now have the support of the SOC members of the current board, Hope they fell all warm and fuzzy about their votes funny how they voted no for the Teachers contract even though it was great contract for the district,
Tells me maybe the teachers should have held out until an election was close then maybe Ron, Steve and Jacky boy would have voted yes
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