The Pleasant Valley Education Association convinced the school district to come to the table for a second meeting this week.

With the Feb. 28 strike date looming, the parties had just one meeting scheduled for Friday. Now, they will meet on Thursday as well.

“The district agreed to meet this Thursday at 4 p.m. in addition to our scheduled meeting on Friday. We have cleared our schedules, and we are willing to meet anytime to reach an agreement,” said Drew Dymond, the president of the PVEA.

Superintendent James Konrad said the late afternoon meeting on Thursday is the earliest that the school board could meet with them, because both the teachers and many school board members have full-time jobs.

“There have only been 49 work days since the new board and superintendent were appointed,” Konrad said.

Konrad began his position as superintendent in December, and two of the school board’s Finance Committee members, Michael Galler and Diane Serfass, were newly elected officials in November and assigned to the committee in December.

Dymond doesn’t view it the same way.

“We have been negotiating for over a year,” he said.

The PVEA began negotiating in January 2021 with the school board.

The board’s current proposal provides salary increases in 3 out of the 4 years of the contract.

The district proposal also asks the association to pay some additional cost shares for health care and prescription drug costs.

Dymond said, “We are hoping significant progress will be made this week toward achieving a fair and competitive contract.”

Similarly, Konrad said, “We are working diligently to come to an agreement.”

Konrad thinks entering a fact-finding process would be the best option instead of a strike.

“We have offered the option to begin fact-finding, which would help all parties to see the financial challenges of the district and possibly delay the potential for a strike, while the financial facts are presented and discussed,” he said.

The fact-finding process is where a neutral third party reviews the proposals and makes a recommendation. It is a nonbinding arbitration, so neither party is forced to agree to the recommendation.

It also means that the teachers keep working through the school year, nothing changes, the status quo remains.

The teachers are working under the terms of the contract that expired last June 30.

Dominic Roberti, an eleventh-grade student at Pleasant Valley High School, said in a recent interview, “I feel that by bringing in a nonbinding arbitration, the board is trying to waste time. In my opinion, I think that they do not have full intentions of avoiding a strike whatsoever.”

Roberti and about 20 of his classmates have been attending the school board meetings and sharing their views on the possible strike.

“The students’ education should be the number one priority of the district and the board. Therefore, the teachers should be high on the list of importance to the board. In my opinion, it’s clear that neither the teachers, nor the students are a top priority,” he said.

The school year dragging out into June bothers Roberti, but it isn’t his greatest concern.

“I’m more concerned about how a strike will affect our learning process and environment. For example, Keystone testing and AP exams will have declines in their proficiency due to the lack of education,” he said.

Roberti is also concerned about the atmosphere in the school if this does move to nonbinding arbitration. He’s concerned about the quality of their education.

“If the teachers don’t get anywhere in the negotiation process with the board, our school environment will be the one to suffer, and that’s not how it should be,” he said. “At the end of the day, whatever happens will affect us the most.”