Moon Teachers, School District Reach Accord on Final Contract

Moon Area teachers have approved a four-year contract with the , bringing an end to a yearlong contract impasse between the parties.

, a high school biology teacher and representative for the Moon Area Education Association, said the contract passed "overwhelmingly, but not unanimously."

Firmstone said union members will increase the amount of their contributions to health care premiums and have switched from a PPO to an HMO. The new agreement also calls for a wage freeze in the first year of the contract but percentage wage increases in the remaining years of the contract. 

The teachers union has withdrawn an unfair labor charge it pursued earlier this year against the district with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. District administrators, meanwhile, have canceled the planned of four district teachers. 

Firmstone said the union made "significant concessions" in the new contract.

"This is an agreement that left the district in a very good financial state for the next four years," Firmstone said. "Programs for students should not have to be cut and teachers shouldn't have to be furloughed under this contract."

Teachers trickled into the Moon Area Middle School for the vote just before 6 tonight, many of them clutching copies of the agreement distributed to them Monday.

Last night, the Moon Area School Board the contract in a 7-2 vote along with the district's yearly budget. 

Union and district officials have not stated why the agreement was reached at this time. 

Nearly 300 district union members, including school nurses and counselors, have been working under the terms of a contract that expired June 30, 2010. Teachers and district officials have been at over issues that included the length of teacher workdays and employee health care contributions. 

The dispute led to a 13-day teachers strike in November. Following the strike, both parties took part in two sessions, that failed to secure a contract. 

Firmstone said the school year has been a difficult one for faculty members. 

"Just with the stress and the uncertainty," he said. "On a personal level, I'm fully committed to this district. I live here, my kids go here and I just happen to be a union leader. But we've left the district in a good financial state."