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Penn Manor approves four-year contract with teachers

  Penn Manor school board and the Penn Manor Education Association have reached an agreement on a new four-year teachers’ contract that will run from July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2026. 

   The contract was approved Monday, November 15, by the school board and the general membership of the education association.

    The four-year pact will increase teacher salaries by an average of 3.2 percent each year. The increases are partially offset by health care concessions and a more robust wellness incentive program aimed at reducing ongoing health-related expenses.

   School board president Herk Rintz thanked the teachers’ union representatives and district administration for bargaining in good faith. The new contract is truly a compromise, he said, because neither side got everything they wanted in negotiations.

   “The agreement is fair for teachers, fair for the school district and fair for Penn Manor taxpayers,” Rintz said.

   Mary Kay Fair, president of the Penn Manor Education Association, praised the district negotiating team for “engaging in professional, ethical and compassionate bargaining with the association.”

   “Our goal entering into these negotiations was to achieve an agreement which acknowledges the hard work our members have been engaged in over the past two years, and are continuing to do so, in the face of so many challenges,” Fair said. “We feel we achieved our goal with this agreement.”

   Penn Manor superintendent Mike Leichliter also praised the process that led to the contract.

   “Penn Manor has a long history of strong relationships between teachers, administrators and the school board. I am pleased with the outcome of this negotiations and look forward to focusing our collective attention on improving instruction for the students of Penn Manor,” he said.