Official said the union is ready to return to the bargaining table.
The Central York teachers' union and school board both rejected a fact-finder's report aimed at finding common ground as the parties work to negotiate a new teachers' contract.
The contract expires June 30, according to the report from the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. It says the parties met multiple times and reached tentative agreements on a few issues. The union initiated the fact-finding process.
Fact finder Timothy Brown issued a report with recommendations on several outstanding contract issues, from curriculum writing and changes in the work year to salary and health care benefits.
Both parties rejected the report, according to a news release from the labor board.
District officials declined to comment.
Shelly Eaton, president of the Central York Education Association, said that she was disappointed both sides were unable to accept the report.
"I want to move on and get to business," she said.
Eaton said the union's main reason for rejecting the report involved proposed changes for health care. She said they were too drastic and "way out of line with other York County School Districts."
According to the report, the teachers are currently offered a choice of a traditional indemnity plan or a PPO, and employees pay a 9 percent contribution to their health insurance.
The district proposed to eliminate the indemnity plan, increase the employee contribution
to 10 percent, and make changes including that employees pay a greater share of coverage for spouses, the report says.
The union proposed eliminating the indemnity plan conditioned on some changes in the PPO prescription plan and opposed other changes. The union said the 9 percent premium is at the top end of what other teachers around the county pay and that no other York County district has spousal exclusions.
The fact-finder suggested eliminating the indemnity plan, keeping the premium share at 9 percent, and increasing employees' share of coverage for spouses covered by another employer's health plan -- though not as much as the district had proposed.
The report said that potential increases in insurance costs warrant "a joint effort to address a shared challenge" to reduce those costs.
Salary was among other items addressed. The district had proposed a salary freeze in the first year, followed by increases equal to 75 percent of the Act 1 tax index the next two years -- increases projected to be about 1.65 percent and 1.73 percent.
The association proposed yearly increases of about 3 percent each of the three years. The fact-finder proposed only step increases the first year, followed by step increases plus 1 percent the next year, and step increases plus 2 percent the next year.
Eaton said the union is ready to return to the bargaining table with the district.
"They're open to conversations, which is good," she said.
