The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 154

18-M Thursday, Oct 23, 1986 The Philadelphia Inquirer EDUCATION Both sides hope that talks avert teachers strike at Great Valley a rcHENSTHMytOOK 4 By Reid Kanaley I Jnquirer Stall Writer a Great Valley teachers and administrators are looking for success in a bargaining session scheduled for tonight to avert a threatened teacher strike Monday. Before the session, negotiators for both sides and the school superm tendent suggested that a peaceful set- -ilement could be achieved. Negotiator George Sees, a school -board member, said that he was opti- mistic that a settlement could be reached before the strike deadline, but that a breakthrough would depend on concessions by the teachers. "We've moved substantially," Sees said of the district. "If in the next session we can have some real movement on Ithe teachers'! part, we'Jl probably be there." "I can't see any stumbling block," said teachers' negotiator Jack Blake.

"They Ithe district) have the money. If they can't give it this year, they certainly can next year." School Superintendent William Fitzpatrick said this week that his administration had not yet decided whether it would attempt to hold classes if there was a strike. "We still believe that the contract is going to be settled. But we are prepared to deal with any job action," he said. Special io Tne inquirer SCOTT ROWAN Jack Blake (right) outlines teachers' position at board meeting.

MANUFACTURERS AND DISTRIBUTORS OF PERFORMANCE KITCHENS SINCE 1974 4429 MAIN STREET MANAYUNK, PA 19127 482-0700 SHOWROOM HOURS 9-5 9-8 WED. 10-4 SAT. SALE "We wouldn't let that eventuality just come upon us." Blake said teachers have run out of patience. The old contract expired in June. "You know you can talk forever.

It has to come to a final decision sooner or later," Blake said Oct. 15 after the last bargaining session. After months of weekly talks that both sides have described as cordial, the two teams finally got down to salary issues at that last six-hour session. The district, which had offered 6.8 percent increases in each year of a three-year contact, raised its offer to 8 percent per year. The Great Valley Education Association, the union representing 237 teachers and support personnel, had been asking for 11 percent a year, but reduced its demand to 11 percent in the first year and 10.S percent in each of the next two years.

State mediator John Taylor attended the Oct. IS meeting and was expected to return to the district tonight. The negotiations have continued under threat of a strike since Sept. 3, when the GVEA voted to allow its leadership to call a strike at any time. During the summer, the teachers had agreed to return to work without a contract while talks continued.

Negotiations were delayed for-about two months in the spring because a rival union challenged the GVEA's right to represent Great Valley teachers and support workers. That challenge, by the Great Valley Federation of Teachers, failed in a union vote in June. Blake said the negotiating committee's final decision on whether to recommend a strike to the union membership would be made at 5:30 p.m. Sunday. The teachers are scheduled to meet at 7 p.m.

that day in the Jloliday Inn in Lionville. Blake said he believed that there could be a settlement before the deadline. "We still have Friday, Saturday and Sunday that we could have a meeting," he said. "It's possible that we could have an agreement." If a settlement is reached, the GVEA meeting will be held to ex plain terms of the contract, Blake said. A ratification meeting would be scheduled for sometime later, he said.

Blake pointed to the Radnor and TredyffrinEasttown school districts to contrast Great Valley salaries. He said Great Valley teachers were $5,000 behind Radnor and $3,000 behind TredyffrinEasttown in average teacher salaries. According to the Pennsylvania State Education Association, which represents teachers throughout the state, the average salaries of those districts in the 1985-1986 school year were $31,741 in Radnor, and $30,636 in TredyffrinEasttown, compared with $27,342 in Great Valley. Superintendent Fitzpatrick said that the state education association figure for Great Valley was wrong, and that the actual average salary was $28,571. Teachers in the Radnor School District settled a contract this year with increases of 8.1 percent, 8.6 percent and 8.3 percent over three years.

TredyffrinEasttown's new contract gives teachers raises of 9 8.5 percent and 8.25 percent over three years. The Great Valley teachers, Blake said; "just feel that they are behind. They don't see why." Fitzpatrick declined to discuss salary comparisons. "We get pressure from our members to have the talks cease, and get on with it la strikel," Blake said. "They want it to come to a head." District officials, he said, "tell us constantly that the teachers are their most worthy resource, and it seems that they spend an awful lot of money on programs and equipment, but it seems they like to deny the teachers.

The possibility of a strike has never been mentioned or discussed by either side at the bargaining table, negotiators said. Blake said he did not know what effect the deadline would have. "I cannot predict what their team will do," he said of the district. As for the teachers, he said, they "are very very determined this year, to get what they want." This is your chance. Every single one of our oriental rugs is substantially reduced.

Jerrehian Brothers Station Road, Haverford, PA 19041-(215) 896-8800.