Phila. school commission cancels teachers contracts

In an impromptu School Reform Commission meeting on Monday morning , the SRC voted to cancel the contract between the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and the School District of Philadelphia .

The unanimous vote to revoke the teachers’ contract after 21 months of slow negotiations came during a meeting with only one day’s notice and enraged the teachers’ union and its supporters .

At Monday’s meeting, the SRC approved changes to health benefits in the teachers’ union contract so that “urgently needed funds” — about $43.8 million — could be reallocated to schools over the course of this year, according to the School District of Philadelphia’s press release .

The district said it doesn’t plan to cut current employees’ wages. However, the proposed benefit plan would require employees to contribute to their health plans in amounts based on their salary .

“The fiscal stability created by these benefit changes will lessen the dire circumstances facing our teachers and students every day,” Philadelphia Schools Superintendent William Hite said in the press release. “We cannot further reduce central office and school budgets and continue to function.”

State Representative James Roebuck (D-Phila.) called the actions of the SRC “an outrage.”

“The SRC, which Governor [Tom] Corbett controls, needs to look to Governor Corbett and the Republican-majority legislature for the hundreds of millions of state dollars that were cut beginning in 2011 — not squeeze Philadelphia teachers who are already paid less than their suburban counterparts,” Roebuck said in a statement.

PFT President Jerry Jordan called the vote “shameful” in a statement. “Why else would they promote the SRC meeting with a barely legible newspaper advertisement rather than their standard practice of putting it on the District’s web site?” he said .

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