Carbon Career and Technical Institute's Joint Operating Committee voted down a motion to approve a tentative agreement with the teachers' union at Thursday's meeting.

Four out of five board members voted 'no' on the motion, with Gerard Grega abstaining. The vote further delays an already lengthy period of negotiation between the JOC and the CCTI Education Association over a teachers' contract."The association is disappointed that we were voted down, and that we originally had to file an Unfair Labor Practice to even get to this point where they would vote on it," CCTIEA President Joseph Farkas said.Negotiations started last January, with CCTIEA reaching a tentative agreement and ratification within their organization by March.After waiting on a ratification from the JOC over several months, the association filed an Unfair Labor Practice. Attorneys agreed to set the vote on the agreement for Thursday's meeting.The reasoning behind the JOC's decision is unclear, with Farkas indicating that the initial meetings were not problematic."Negotiations went well," Farkas said. "This is not really about the content of the contract, but the ratification of the contract. It's listed as a 'tentative agreement,' so we agreed at that point to the items in the contract."One of the more notable elements of the agreement lies in the CCTIEA requesting that teachers' salaries be based on an average of Palmerton, Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Weatherly and Panther Valley's district salaries."It should be an easy one, because there's five different teachers' contracts out there, and their position is that they want an average," board member Gerald Strubinger said. "But what happens is, other districts are approving contracts in between. I think we can work something out, though."Both Strubinger and CCTI administrative director David Reinbold agreed that the Joint Operating Committee wants to get together with the union and work out the matter.However, there does seems to be a dispute concerning whether or not the proposal fit the definition of a 'tentative agreement' to begin with."I don't agree that there was any 'tentative agreement' to vote on," Grega said in regard to his abstention.Strubinger emphasized that communication would be the key resolving the matter."The understanding has to be that whatever proposal we bring back from the negotiating table from them has to be approved here," Strubinger said. "Then we give them a counterproposal if it's not. Then they can either counter that, go back to their rank-and-file and bring back a new proposal to us. There's not really a tentative agreement until either side approves it."Attorney Robert Yurchak declined to comment on the matter.The CCTIEA will proceed to refer to their legal counsel, ensuring that the vote was conducted in a manner that fits the protocol of Labor Relations Board laws."It's something that in my 29 years here we've never done," Farkas said. "We've never had to do it, we've always had a good relationship with the JOC, so this is a first for a lot of us here."With recent developments with Palmerton's teachers and their contract negotiations, the idea of a strike is ever-present in union members' minds."We haven't even discussed that here yet, but people think about that," Farkas said. "There's always distractors when you're working without a contract."However, the association is trying to remain positive on the matter, hoping that a new compromise can be made."Hopefully, we have a signed agreement in the near future, and continue to be the number one school," Farkas said.