After nearly four hours of negotiations Thursday night, the Bellwood-Antis School District and the Bellwood-Antis Education Association failed to agree on a new teachers’ contract.

The union and the district were each represented during the 7 p.m. meeting with teams of about eight people and a state mediator was present, according to Conner Lewis, region advocacy coordinator for the Pennsylvania State Education Association’s central region.

According to the union, the district began their negotiations late and provided “an unwritten, verbal take-it-or-leave-it offer that ignored our previous proposal.”

Lewis said the union has not received a formal written proposal from the district since their opening offer in February.

“The district continues to play games instead of bargain contracts,” Lewis said in a press release. “Given the district’s unfortunate decision to walk away from negotiations, we will proceed with our scheduled strike vote.”

The union claims the district “walked away” from negotiations after 3.5 hours and refused to schedule additional bargaining dates, despite a union request for more meetings.

District solicitor Carl Beard said the union’s claim is untrue.

According to a statement released by the district, written by Beard, the district’s team presented a “comprehensive proposal” to the association’s bargaining team that addressed several key issues — health care, a retirement incentive, salary and the salary schedule structure.

The association’s bargaining team remained in a caucus for “well over” 1.5 hours before providing a response to the district’s proposal, Beard wrote.

The district addressed the association’s offer by increasing its salary offer and agreeing in principle to add two additional columns to the salary schedule, which was requested by the association’s bargaining team, he noted.

The association’s bargaining team responded they would not agree to the district’s offer unless the new items that were placed on the table at the last bargaining session in August, regarding how people get placed on the salary schedule, were met, Beard said.

Those items formed the basis of the district’s Unfair Labor Practice charge that was filed with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, Beard said. A hearing on the matter has been set for Dec. 17.

According to Beard, the district’s representatives told the association’s bargaining team that two of the three financial demands were cost prohibitive.

After the association informed the district that negotiations would extend for “a considerable amount of time” if those demands were not met, district officials asked the association to join them in submitting a request to the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board to have a fact finder appointed to consider both parties’ proposals and provide a recommendation to resolve the remaining issues between the parties.

The association did not immediately respond to that request, Beard said, adding the district was advised by the association’s UniServ representative Friday morning that it would not enter into the joint request.

As a result, the district submitted the request to the board on only their behalf, Beard said.

“The district outlined (that) given there is no state budget or monies coming in and the district has to borrow money to meet payroll and other financial obligations, it is a legitimate reason to consider the fact-finding process,” Beard said.

District officials also emphasized that Bellwood-Antis has raised taxes to the maximum amount permitted by the state’s Act 1 Index over the past four years to help fund salary and benefit costs.

That was an additional consideration made before submitting the fact finding request, Beard said.

The association plans to proceed with its scheduled vote to authorize a strike by Thursday, Oct. 30, Lewis said.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.