A neutral arbitrator rendered a decision on the teachers’ contract dispute in Palmerton Area School District, but the situation remains unresolved.

Palmerton’s board of directors rejected the arbitrator’s recommendation Thursday night by a vote of 7-0.The neutral arbitrator, Walt De Treux of Philadelphia, said he sided “by the slimmest of margins” with the teachers’ union, the Palmerton Area Education Association, because of the absence of retroactivity in the district’s last best final offer.The district offered a 9.71 percent salary increase over four years with no retroactive increase for the 2016-17 school year.Meanwhile, the association proposed a 16.35 percent increase over four years, including 3.06 percent for 2016-17.“The inclusion of retroactivity in the district’s last best final offer may have brought it in line with the comparators and would likely have signaled beyond doubt that the district had moved past the prior difficult negotiations and was seeking common ground,” De Treux wrote.“It would have further reinforced this panel’s view that the association should restart negotiations with a counteroffer to the district’s latest offer. The absence of retroactivity causes the district’s last best final offer to fall slightly behind the association when considering the Act 88 criteria.”In his dissenting opinion, David Conn, a lawyer and arbitrator representing the district, wrote that “these negotiations provide the perfect example of why retroactivity should not be automatic.”Conn said, “It was the association which refused to move from its initial proposal throughout the 2016-17 school year. If retroactive pay is always provided, then the association has absolutely no incentive to compromise on language issues.”Board President Barry Scherer said the district is more than willing to sit down with the teachers when it receives a counteroffer.“To this point, we have received one proposal from the association and it has been the same one given to the arbitration panel,” Scherer said.De Treux also said he was stepping outside his jurisdiction to “suggest the association consider further negotiations with a counteroffer to the district’s salary schedule proposal.”Teachers ‘disappointed’Association President Tom Smelas said the union was disappointed with Thursday night’s vote.“The board had the opportunity to put this to bed,” Smelas said.“We reluctantly went to arbitration after close to 12 months of them insisting for us to go. We didn’t want to spend the taxpayers money. We believed we could solve these issues amongst ourselves,” Smelas said. “We reluctantly went and they rejected the decision. We paid a pretty penny and so did the taxpayers of Palmerton.”The existing salary schedule includes a $12,000 jump step between Step 15 and 16.Both parties attempted to eliminate the jump step by shortening the steps and spreading the large salary increase over several steps.Director Tammy Recker said she voted to reject the arbitrator’s decision because she wants to see teachers get the $12,000 jump step.“I believe those people who are slated to get the $12,000 bump should get that because they worked here and they deserve it. I believe that should be there and it’s not. You don’t pull the rug out from under someone like that.”The arbitrator’s ruling came back on Sept. 7. The district had 10 days to act on it or it would have automatically become accepted.Smelas said the teachers overwhelmingly accepted the decision.“We put this package together as our last best final offer,” he said. “A neutral party came in and his job was to evaluate both offers based on district finances and the needs of the district and after all that, he came out giving us the decision that our package was the better of the two.”Smelas also questioned the timeline following Thursday’s receipt of the decision.“I was very disturbed to hear that the district’s negotiating team claims they did not see the arbitrator’s report until this past Tuesday night and really didn’t have enough time to digest it,” he said. “The arbitrator sent his report to both representatives on Thursday and I’m wondering why it took so long for that information to be shared with the board’s team?”The teachers’ offerThe average salary increase for Carbon County districts is 3.22 percent per year.PAEA’s offer was for a 4.1 percent increase per year, while the district came in at 2.4 percent per year.“Had the association received the district’s last best final offer as a proposal during negotiations, it is likely further bargaining would have brought those increases closer to the average,” De Treux wrote.Health insurance proposals were “significantly different” for the two sides.“The association proposed a plan as part of a health insurance trust,” De Treux wrote.“The district rejected the prospect of joining the trust, but generally matched the plan design of the association. The district added a proposed high deductible plan that eliminates any premium share for employees. The district’s PPO proposal includes significantly higher premium shares than the association’s proposal, which provides for only modest increases in premium share. A resolution likely lies in between the proposals,” De Treux continued.During negotiations, the district proposed eliminating a salary schedule and replacing it with increased starting salary and across-the-board wage increases.Teachers, meanwhile, was “adamantly opposed to its elimination and refused to budge from its initial wage proposal until the district agreed to continuation of a salary schedule.”In its last best final offer, the district accepted the salary schedule framework.“The association was in no mood to negotiate as the nonbinding interest arbitration procedure had been set in motion and the hearing was only days away,” De Treux wrote. “The association expressed concern that a delay in the arbitration proceedings would cause an even longer delay in an eventual negotiated settlement.”The arbitration hearing was held on June 28.Palmerton teachers went on strike for two weeks in January.“We’re going back to the table,” Smelas said after Thursday’s outcome. “We are moving forward. We’ll figure out when the next meeting will be.”Palmerton resident Ken Sutton, whose wife is a teacher in the district, encouraged future negotiation sessions to be opened up to the public, an idea that was supported by the board.“We won’t negotiate in public,” Smelas said. “Nobody negotiates in public. It’s just not going to happen.”