Pittsburgh Public Schools Responds To Imminent Teachers Strike

PITTSBURGH, PA - Pittsburgh Public Schools superintendent Anthony Hamlet expressed disappointment over teachers’ plans to walk off the job Friday as the district struck a confrontational rather than conciliatory attitude to Monday’s strike notification.

District officials said the strike is being prompted by a single issue: the union’s resistance to give principals the authority to assign teacher schedules, as the district contends is done in most other school districts. The district also asked the teachers’ union to submit its final best offer, something it will have to file with an arbitrator anyway if teachers stay off the job for the maximum amount of time permitted under state law.

“We recognize the very significant disruption that a strike represents for our families, our district, and most importantly, our students,” Hamlet said in a statement. “It is particularly disappointing, in light of the many long hours of negotiations and concessions that have been made in the months that we’ve been at the bargaining table, that such a disruption could happen, especially since we have come so far.”

A strike of about 3,000 district teachers and paraprofessionals, slated to begin March 2, would be the district’s first in more than 40 years and impact about 24,000 students.

Pennsylvania mandates 180 days of instruction for students between July 1 and June 15 each school year. If a strike puts that calendar in jeopardy, the state Department of Education could get a court order to force teachers back to work.

As the end result of a strike likely would be final arbitration, district solicitor Ira Weiss said, “We’re simply asking for the union to go through this process now, rather than later, to minimize disruption to children and families.”

The union had no immediate reaction to the district’s request.

Pittsburgh Public Schools principals do not have the final say over teacher class schedules and teaching assignments. The district contends that principals require the management tool if student performance is to improve.

Principal assignment is a management prerogative that is consistent across school districts affiliated with both the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, according to Michael Casserly, executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools, the country’s primary coalition of large urban public school districts.

“In a survey we conducted, Pittsburgh’s outdated practice was an outlier," Casserly said. This is not about individual rights. It’s not about collective bargaining or union prerogatives. It’s about ensuring each student is being taught with the most effective teacher, which is exactly what the public should expect."

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