Wissahickon SD Support Contract Talks Continue; Teacher Negotiations to Begin

Wissahickon School District will begin negotiations this month with the Wissahickon Education Alliance (WEA) on a teachers’ contract while it continues to negotiate a support staff contract on Jan. 15, according to the Ambler Gazette. 

Negotiation talks with the WEA regarding support staff – secretaries, classroom aides, bus drivers, custodians, technical and nursing assistants, and maintenance, grounds and security personnel – led to a scheduled strike on Oct. 29 of last year, which was canceled in favor of a 45-day “cooling off period.”

Talks have continued since then, but no deal has been struck.

WEA Co-President Ann Marie McDowell said that she hoped the next Jan. 15 bargaining session would be productive, and that the district moves away from its position to “strip benefits from members” and the “threat to subcontract” the special education department.

During support negotiations, the school district demonstrated a savings of outsourcing classroom aides and child-specific aides that would save over $1.1 million per year.

District chief negotiator Jeffrey Sultanik said that holding two simultaneous negotiations is “not unusual,” and that the City of Philadelphia does it regularly.

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