East+Allegheny+board+rejects+fact-finder’s+report,+approves+budget+with+no+tax+hike

= By Patrick Cloonan = =Published by the McKeesport Daily News= =6/12/12= = = = = = = =Before a standing-room-only crowd, East Allegheny School District's board of directors took several major actions Monday night.= =The board again rejected a state fact-finder's teachers contract recommendation, while a 2012-13 budget was passed with no tax increase.= =The $30,316,657 plan is slightly higher than the proposed final plan passed last month. It is based on a 27.54-mill real estate tax rate, with each mill netting approximately $462,000.= =It was passed unanimously. However, a state fact-finder's recommendations for resolving a dispute with the 128-member East Allegheny Education Association again was rejected, this time by a 7-1 vote.= ="We're extremely disappointed that the board again voted no to the fact-finder's recommendations," EAEA president Lou Gerbi said after the meeting, "a fact-finder that they requested and (a report that) includes numerous concessions from our members."= ="The district cannot afford the recommendations," board members said in a resolution rejecting Robert C. Gifford's May 21 findings that included a wage freeze in the first year of a three-year contract, but a 0.5 percent raise plus an increase of one tenure step in years two and three.= =With that latter suggestion, school director Frank Pearsol III said, the recommended annual raise "came out to slightly more than 4 percent."= =School director Beverly Koch was the lone dissenter, as was the case at the first rejection of Gifford's recommendations last month. She said she had to vote her conscience.= ="I thought it was fair," Koch said. "The teachers came a long way in the negotiations."= =Koch has the perspective of a teacher, the job she has at Forbes Road Career and Technology Center. She said she's a union member, but in a different affiliate of the National and Pennsylvania State education associations than the EAEA.= = Several dozen EAEA members attended the meeting in "TEACH" (Tell Everyone All Cuts Hurt) T-shirts. None spoke during the portion of the meeting given to public comment.= =Gerbi said he has had three wage freezes during his 18 years as a teacher at East Allegheny. Gerbi= = = =addressed the district's use of the website to post a rebuttal to his comments as reported in area newspapers.= ="The board should negotiate in good faith and accept the fact-finder's report," Gerbi wrote in a statement given to reporters prior to the meeting. "Let's get back to using the East Allegheny School District website to promote the accomplishments of our students."= =The board's rebuttal said in part that "the East Allegheny School District is one of the most financially challenged school districts in the state." Gerbi's pre-meeting statement used a district action to question that.= ="The board brought in Don Boyer, Montour School District superintendent and co-owner of Education Management Group, to testify regarding the district's financial health," Gerbi said. "Mr. Boyer testified that the district is not distressed."= =Gerbi also rebutted a Daily News account that suggested that his union called for tax increases.= ="I never, never asked for a tax increase," Gerbi said.= = = =Earlier stories quoted the Gifford report, zeroing in on what he called a summary provided by the union. It read in part:= ="Millage rates for property taxes have not been rising at the (Pennsylvania Department of Education) Act 1 index, meaning that East Allegheny has been forgoing some of the revenue it needs to cover the expenditures." Pearsol said that index would allow a 0.58-mill tax hike in 2012-13.= ="We asked when the last time was that the district raised taxes," Gerbi said.= =There was one absent school director, William Gates. District business manager Toni Valicenti said Gates is recovering from recent surgery.= =In light of his absence from recent meetings, Gates gave up his role as board treasurer, a post given unanimously to director Roxanne Sakoian Eichler. Valicenti said Gates is not resigning from the board itself.= = = = = = = = = =News= =home=