ALLENTOWN — The Allentown teachers union will start paying the union president’s salary and benefits, a move that comes on the heels of a lawsuit seeking to end the school district’s long-held practice of releasing the union president from teaching while remaining on the payroll.
According to a memorandum of understanding that was unanimously passed at Thursday’s school board meeting, the teachers union has agreed to reimburse the district for union President Debbie Tretter’s salary and benefits. For more than 25 years, the union president has been relieved of teaching while receiving salary and benefits through the district.
Former Allentown School Board member Scott Armstrong, who filed the lawsuit, called the memorandum a “step in the right direction.” But the memorandum does not settle the lawsuit, which seeks more than $1.3 million in reimbursement from the union.
Starting with the 2016-17 school year, the union will pay Tretter’s $84,507 salary, plus her health insurance and retirement benefits. This will be the practice in future years, Superintendent Thomas Parker said.
The union is reimbursing the district under the Public School Employee Retirement Code, which states “the employee organization shall fully reimburse the employer for such salary, wages, pension and retirement contributions.”
In a statement, Tretter, who has served as union president since 2009, said she was grateful the district and school board are allowing her to continue the tradition of being relieved from teaching to serve as union president.
“ASD has wanted the full-time release position to exist because it actually saves the district money,” she said. “Without release time, the amount of time required by ASD and [The Allentown Education Association] to do this work would mean daily disruption of a classroom and meetings held into the night.”
Armstrong and former Allentown taxpayer Steven Ramos filed a lawsuit in 2016 against the union and the school district to end the practice of relieving the union president from classroom duties.
The lawsuit, filed with the help of the public interest law firm Fairness Center, referred to Tretter as a “ghost teacher.” The lawsuit, which has been booted to Lehigh County Court, wants the union to reimburse the district for salary, benefits and pension credits, which it says exceeds $1.3 million.
Armstrong took issue Monday with the district still paying Tretter’s salary, even if the union is reimbursing the district.
“What must follow is for the board to state clearly and the union to accept that people who work for the union be paid by the union,” Armstrong said in an email. “The school district is responsible only to those who provide a direct service to the district.”
Karin Sweigart, deputy general counsel for the Fairness Center, said “the fight is not over.”
“While this is a major victory, the practice of ghost teaching, even if reimbursed, still violates the constitutional prohibition against providing public resources to a private organization without a public purpose,” Sweigart said. “Teachers should be paid to teach, and unions should be paying the salary and benefits of their own employees directly just like every other private organization.”
The board approved the memorandum of understanding with very little public discussion on Thursday. Only School Director Robert E. Smith Jr. spoke before the vote and acknowledged the lawsuit filed.
“This is just a shame this happened and I do apologize to [Tretter and former President Melvin Riddick],” he said.
The Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, which was named as an original defendant along with the union and district, last year removed six years of Tretter’s retirement credit and eight years of Riddick’s, who preceded Tretter as president.
Tretter and Riddick appealed, but the appeal was denied.
Under the memorandum of understanding, Tretter will receive retirement credit because the district will submit contributions for her and then be reimbursed by the union.
The union will make the reimbursements two times a year — once in January and once in June.
In Allentown, the largest school district in the Lehigh Valley with more than 1,000 teachers and about 17,000 students, the practice of the union president working full time for the union began in 1990 under the teachers contract. The newest teachers contract, passed last year, calls for Tretter to remain on the district’s payroll while not teaching because of her union responsibilities.
In the Bethlehem Area School District, the second-largest Lehigh Valley district, the teachers union president splits time as a teacher and union president. But other large Pennsylvania districts, such as Philadelphia, allow union presidents to be relieved from teaching.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, previously said it supported Tretter being released from teaching duties. It said in large districts, such as Allentown, the union president is often relieved of classroom responsibilities.
The Fairness Center filed similar lawsuits in Reading and Philadelphia.
THE DETAILS
The issue: The Allentown teachers union president has been relieved of teaching duties since 1990 and the salary has been paid by the district.
What’s new: The union president will still be relieved of teaching duties, but the union will reimburse the district for the president’s salary and benefits.
Why: The Public School Employee Retirement Code states “the employee organization shall fully reimburse the employer for such salary, wages, pension and retirement contributions.”
The move comes on the heels of a lawsuit seeking to end the long-held practice of allowing the union president to remain on district payroll while not teaching. The lawsuit is in Lehigh County Court.
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