Chartiers Valley, transportation union joust over contract negotiations

Chartiers Valley School District administration last week issued a statement regarding its negotiations with its transportation employees after, they say, the Pennsylvania State Education Association spread misinformation about it.

“The district does not wish to conduct negotiations in the public arena,” reads the statement from Superintendent Daniel Castagna. “Unfortunately, the level of misinformation being spread by the PSEA regional representatives has forced the district to issue a truthful response.

“The district has a responsibility to our community to ensure that accurate information is available when misinformation threatens to undermine the negotiation process. The district has a responsibility to also investigate how other districts can bus the same amount of students, or more, for millions of dollars less.”

Chartiers Valley and its transportation union have been in contract negotiations since Jan. 2024, and the contract expired June 30, 2024. In November, the school board voted to solicit bids to outsource its school bus transportation services but did not make a final decision either way.

Castagna’s statement said that, on June 5, district officials, local union and PSEA regional representatives had productive negotiations and planned to reconvene on June 23, but PSEA canceled the session days before and offered no alternative dates. They still have not confirmed availability or proposed alternative dates, the statement said.

“To be clear, the district and union remain in negotiations,” Castagna’s statement said. “One possible outcome is to outsource the transportation responsibilities to an outside vendor. While negotiations are not yet in a place where the board can consider formal proposals, the facts being distributed publicly are incorrect.”

If outsourcing occurs, all current bus drivers would be retained, and no one would lose their job, the statement said. All drivers would also maintain their current wage rates.

Reached Friday, PSEA regional advocacy coordinator Annie Briscoe said that, if the district subcontracts, transportation employees are no longer district employees and wouldn’t be eligible for future benefits from the Public School Employees’ Retirement System. She balked at the guarantee that an outside company would hire workers and honor their current wage scale and current benefits.

The current proposal indicates the district would get $3.4 million from the sale of the buses. It also anticipates savings by eliminating future expenses from vehicle leases and maintenance.

The current proposal also is projected to save Chartiers Valley $500,000 annually from the current transportation costs. That savings would likely increase if reimbursement rates from the state increase as anticipated.

Chartiers Valley transports 3,518 students daily at a cost of about $5.3 million, the statement said. Other districts, such as Moon Area and West Jefferson Hills, bus about the same or more students and spend millions less, it said.

“The district remains committed to good-faith negotiations and is prepared to resume discussions immediately upon confirmation of the union’s availability,” the statement said. “The district has consistently bargained in good faith.”

The June 23 bargaining date didn’t occur because, during the June 5 meeting, the district was not able to answer many of the questions the union had, Briscoe said.

She said the union is still waiting to receive the requested information. Briscoe also said Chartiers Valley transports 31% more students than the county’s average.

“The fact is that the district put a call out for bids for transportation services — a public decision made by the school board in a public meeting,” Briscoe said. “And the district has not disclosed what those bids were.

“The information the union has put out is not confidential bargaining information as the district claims, but rather it’s information that the public is entitled to, as the board acted publicly to request bids from these outside companies.”

Briscoe claims the seven-year projections from the companies that submitted bids, AJ Meyers and First Student, come out higher than in-house costs in 2032.

“The best choice for everyone – the district, the workers and the community — is to continue bargaining, reach a fair contract and leave this subcontracting threat far behind us,” Briscoe said.