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Letter to the Editor: Colin Kaepernick fails to appreciate veterans’ sacrifice; boycott his games

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County and city cooperating to find funding for Division Street bridge

DALLAS TWP. &#8212; Parents and students in Dallas School District got a reprieve from the looming teacher strike. Dallas Education Association president Michael Cherinka sent out a public notice Thursday evening that the strike date has been moved from Sept. 28 to Oct. 25.&#8220;The association and district (have) made some progress during the past few meetings,&#8221; Cherinka said in an email. &#8220;Accordingly, the association has agreed to reschedule the Sept. 28th strike date to allow us more time to attempt to reach an agreement.&#8221;The teachers have been working under terms of a contract that expired at the end of August last year, meaning that, by state law, negotiations started early in 2015. But both sides conceded scant progress had been made as the start of the school year loomed, and agreed to negotiate Aug. 29 and 30, the last two days before the first day of classes.Those talks did not go well, and the union voted to strike Sept. 28. Both union lead negotiator John Holland and District Solicitor Vito DeLuca agreed the two sides had made scant progress on even the simplest issues, but disagreed on the reason.Holland said there was little reason to negotiate bigger issues like salary and health insurance costs when &#8220;we can&#8217;t even get agreement on the softball issues.&#8221; DeLuca said the union needed to make concessions on salary and health insurance premium sharing because the district can&#8217;t afford projected escalations in both, and that other issues were secondary.At the time, the two sides scheduled five negotiation sessions before the strike &#8212; Sept. 8, 13, 19, 22 and 26. Holland noted the strike would be contingent on progress in those sessions.&#8220;The teachers don&#8217;t want to strike,&#8221; he insisted.Cherinka sent out his notice Thursday evening, the date of the next to last negotiation session before the planned strike. In the notice, he also said four more negotiation sessions have been set prior to the new Oct. 25 strike date.Along with the already-planned Sept. 26 meeting, the two sides are scheduled to sit down together on Sept. 28 and Oct. 3, 17 and 24.By state law, teachers can strike two times in one school year. The first strike must end in time to complete 180 school days by June 15. The second strike must end in time to complete 180 days by June 30.Both sides must submit to non-binding arbitration following a first strike, providing their &#8220;final best offers&#8221; to a third party, who proposes a resolution. If either side rejects the proposal, a second strike becomes a legal option.<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Mark Guydishmguydish@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish</shirttailMeta></div>

Citing progress in talks, Dallas teachers delay strike to Oct. 25