The months-long dispute between the Souderton Area Education Association and that district's school board will continue to, and possibly through, Monday's Labor Day holiday.

Monday is now the next big day in the process leading to a potential strike, now that teachers union head Bill Lukridge has notified Souderton Area School District's superintendent, Charles Amuso, that a strike vote Thursday was successful.

"On Thursday, the SAEA took a strike vote, and the vote on that was 448 to 17 in favor of a strike," Lukridge said,

"so last evening (Thursday) I delivered to Dr. Amuso a notice giving them 48 hours-plus notice that we would be on strike as of Tuesday, Sept. 2, at 7 a.m."

The school district released a strike contingency plan on Friday describing procedures for child care and other alternative arrangements that would happen in the event of a strike.

That contingency plan can be found online at www.Soudertonsd.org.

"I am optimistic that we'll be able to come to an agreement, that the two sides' negotiation teams can come to an agreement on Monday, and that we'll start school on Tuesday," Amuso said.

That final negotiation session is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Monday, and both sides are hopeful they will make enough progress to call off the strike.

"We remain hopeful that the teachers union will get a reality check between now and Monday, and that they will hopefully reframe their salary proposal to something that is reflective of the ability of the taxpayers in the Souderton Area School District to pay," said Jeff Sultanik, a member of the negotiating team speaking Friday on behalf of the school board.

Sultanik also described the proposals currently "on the bargaining table" in the negotiations between the school board and the SAEA.

"On the issue of salaries, the union has a five-year salary proposal on the bargaining table. In year one they are requesting a 7.1 percent increase, in year two a 10.43 percent increase, year three 8.05 percent, year four 7.71 percent and in year five a 7.15 percent, and it represents an increase in payroll from $33,707,992 to $49,716,900 in 2012-2013," Sultanik said.

"The board's proposal averages a 2.04 percent increase per year for each of five years. The maximum salary under the board's proposal in 2012-13 will be $93,689, with a starting salary of $39,607, or at least that amount," he said.

Those numbers he compared to the union's proposal, which he said would start teacher salaries at $46,499 per year, topping out at $108,137 per year in 2012-13.

Health-care benefits may still be a sticking point too.

"The union is proposing improvements in our current self-insurance health-care program that will cost taxpayers about 3 percent per year of an increase, in an environment where individuals are typically giving up health benefits concessions," Sultanik said.

The school board's proposal, he said, would increase out-of-pocket deductibles to $500 annually for individual coverage, $1,500 for family coverage on one category of a plan and on a higher level plan to $250 and $750 deductions.

"I've been negotiating labor contracts for the past 30 years, and I have never seen a union go out on strike with these kinds of percentage increases on the bargaining table," Sultanik said, "so I am really at a loss to understand the teachers union's position.

"Either they're being completely unreasonable in terms of their settlement demands, or they don't even realize what salary proposals they have on the table," he said.

"Hopefully it's the latter, but it remains to be seen whether or not the teachers union will recognize that their proposals are completely out of the realm of any type of reasonable contract settlements in the area," he said.

Lukridge did not mention specific numbers Friday, but expressed hope that the two sides can make some progress Monday.

"We still have a lot of issues to work out: we still have salary to work out, we still have medical, we still have a lot of working conditions that still haven't been ironed out, so I'm anticipating a long session," he said.

"The SAEA is just hoping that we can hammer out an agreement on Monday so that we can avert a strike on Tuesday," Lukridge said.

Souderton Area School District teachers gathered outside three schools and the Harleysville YMCA Monday evening handing out information to parents regarding their union's position on the current negotiations with the school board.

The Souderton Area Education Association, the union that represents the teachers, also announced they are holding a 'parent / community information session' at Advent Lutheran Church in Harleysville at 7pm Tuesday evening. The meeting is open to the general public.

On Monday, union members handed out pamphlets to parents outside West Broad, Franconia and Oak Ridge Elementary Schools as parents arrived to arrange day care plans for their children in the event of a teacher's strike next week.

Click here to see a press release from the teacher's union regarding their positions.

By: David Hare

In June, both the Souderton Area School Board and the Souderton Area Education Association vowed not to argue in the press while they negotiate contracts to avert a teachers' strike.

Not much has changed.

William Lukridge, strike leader and SAEA president, acknowledged the two parties are still in negotiations, but he remained vague on their progress. As head of the union Lukridge speaks for the district's more than 500 teachers.

"We're still bargaining over the main issues," he said Wednesday.

The main issues or demands of the teachers include better pay, better health care and improved working conditions.

"Progress has been made in some areas. We could use some progress in other areas," Lukridge said.

Superintendent Charles Amuso and school board president Bernard Currie could not

be reached for comment.

At a school board meeting in June, Currie, reading from a prepared statement, said the board's objective was to develop contracts "which reflect our accountability to the teachers, students and especially the community of taxpayers who pay for the salaries and benefits."

On Wednesday, Lukridge said both parties remain hopeful a contract agreement can be reached by the start of the school year next month.

"Based on the agreement I have with the school district, that's all I can say right now," Lukridge said.