In a proposed order, a state hearing examiner has determined that the Blackhawk School District owes teachers back pay and interest because it improperly revoked its teacher contract.
In the document made public Wednesday, John Pozniak, hearing examiner for the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, said the district must implement the 2014-18 collective bargaining agreement and pay any lost wages or benefits plus 6 percent annual interest.
The proposed order states it will become final “in the absence of any exceptions filed with the board” within 20 days. In an official statement, the school district said it is examining its options and called its actions a “principled stand to return sanity to the relationship between public employees and public employers.”
“The school district took action to avoid cutting programs and to spare its taxpayers from the dire financial consequences of this ruinous contract because the true cost of the contract was misrepresented to the public by prior board members,” the statement said.
Pennsylvania State Education Association representative Marcus Schlegel said, “The hearing examiner’s decision confirms what we have said from the beginning: This school board’s decision to renege on a legally negotiated and ratified contract undermines the rule of law, harms the district’s credibility, fractures the positive relationship with all staff, has a chilling effect on people exercising their collective bargaining rights and wastes tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars.”
Blackhawk teachers union president Jarrod McCowin called the hearing examiner’s decision “a win for the rule of law and for sanity in the way that elected boards conduct business.”
The Blackhawk School Board ratified an “early bird” contract, 7-2, in September 2013. After four board seats changed hands in December, the new board in February voted to revoke the collective bargaining agreement, raising concerns about its legality and a cost greater than expected.
As a result, teachers were paid under the terms of the previous contract. This led the Blackhawk Education Association to file an unfair labor practice complaint.
In his decision, Mr. Pozniak rejected the district contention that the contract was approved by a lame-duck board, saying the “sitting school board was fully empowered.” He also noted the new board didn’t act at its first regular meeting in January but instead rescinded the contract in February, five months after ratification and two months after the board's reorganization. “Such a delay is fatal to the district’s lame- duck argument,” he wrote.
First Published: October 15, 2014, 5:33 p.m.
Updated: October 16, 2014, 3:19 a.m.