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Father-son team to open Bear Creek Deli, which opens Saturday

Father-son team to open Bear Creek Deli opens Saturday

HANOVER TWP. &#8212; Attorneys are still hashing out detailed language for the contract between the Hanover Area School Board and the teacher union, but the basics are spelled out in the state Fact Finder Report both sides approved last month, and the district provided a copy of that report.The report was issued by state-appointed Fact Finder Walter Glogowski after a March 16 hearing at which both sides presented their proposals and arguments. The School Board had requested fact finding in hopes of jump-starting stalled negotiations which began in January 2013.According to the report, a key sticking point was health insurance coverage.Glogowski notes the district argued it could save about $700,000 by leaving the Northeast Pennsylvania School District Health Trust &#8212; a consortium of area districts set up in 1998 &#8212; and seeking insurance elsewhere. The agreement struck up an unusual deal.The board had proposed no pay increases for the first two years of the contract, 2013-15, other than the increases teachers were due through the &#8220;step/column&#8221; system that grants pay hikes for years served and college credits earned beyond a bachelor&#8217;s degree. Teachers at the top of the step/column scale would get $500 additional each year. The board proposed 2 percent raises the next three years of the contract.The union sought 3 percent raises each year.The compromise: Glogowski suggested, and both sides accepted, a plan that adopts the board&#8217;s proposal, but increases the pay hikes from 2 percent to 3 percent in the last two years if the union agrees to leave the trust.Glogowski is a former teacher and union leader, and current member of the Lake-Lehman School Board. He previously sat on the board of trustees that runs the Health Trust as a labor representative from Lake-Lehman, but Lake-Lehman withdrew from the trust last year.In his report, Glogowski explicitly refers to Lake-Lehman&#8217;s experience with the trust, recommending the Hanover Area Board &#8220;retain a benefit management company such as the one retained by the Dallas and Lake-Lehman School Districts.&#8221; Dallas withdrew from the trust in 2007, along with Pittston Area.&#8220;Based on my experience, the Lake-Lehman School District saved $1.2 million when they left the trust,&#8221; Glogowski wrote, plus several hundred thousand more by bargaining prescription coverage changes with the union.Both sides also agreed to Glogowski&#8217;s recommendation that insurance coverage be switched from a traditional plan to a Preferred Provider Organization plan that offers financial incentives to seek medical services within a network of doctors and hospitals.Both sides also accepted Glogowski&#8217;s recommendation that a teacher who leaves the district or is dismissed within three years of getting a tuition reimbursement for college courses be required to pay back some or all of the reimbursement. Leaving within 12 months requires a 100 percent payback, leaving between 13 and 24 months requires 75 percent, and leaving within 25 to 36 months requires 50 percent.

Fact Finder report provides details of teacher contract compromise at Hanover Area