By: The Reporter

A last-ditch effort on Labor Day to prevent Souderton Area School District teachers from striking before the official start of school today has failed.

After six hours of contract negotiations between the Souderton Area School Board and the Souderton Area Education Association both parties remained far enough apart on salaries that the state mediator decided to end negotiations, according to a statement the district released Monday night through publicist Leeza Raffel.

Official from both parties later confirmed there will be no school today; classes will not resume until further notice.

Instead, the school district's more than 500 teachers are expected to march in picket lines starting at 7 a.m.

Bill Lukridge, union president, said the district's offer - salary increases of 2.5 percent per year over three years - was hardly different from the contract it presented the teachers in January.

"We would still be the lowest paid teachers in Montgomery County," Lukridge said shortly after negotiations ended.

He said he didn't want to talk about specific details of the union's proposed salary increases, only that "we attempted to make a settlement that was fair and equitable."

"This is a school district with $10 million in reserve funds beyond what's required by law," Lukridge said. "But the school district wants to keep us at the bottom with their salary propos

al. Our members cannot accept that.

"Teachers deserve to be paid according to their worth."

Jeffrey Sultanik, district solicitor and chief negotiator for the school board, said the teacher's union made salary demands with increases of 5.98 percent, 9.4 percent, 7.14 percent and 6.9 percent in each year of a four-year contract.

Sultanik said the increments amounted to about a 32.8 percent increase in payroll over four years, or an average of 8.2 percent per year for each year of the contact.

"I know of no teachers union that would walk out on their jobs and hurt children with an 8.2 percent salary increase on the table," Sultanik said. "I'm appalled they're going on strike."

Sultanik said the strike could "go the distance" over the next three and a half weeks. That's roughly the time, he said, when the teachers would be required to return to the classroom in compliance with Pennsylvania Act 88.

If a settlement is not reached three and a half weeks after the start of a strike, both sides would enter into non-binding arbitration, Sultanik said.

Lukrdige said he was disappointed a settlement couldn't be reached.

"When all we asked the board to do was bring us up to what the average teacher earns in Montgomery County," he said. "We only asked to be average even though our students are above average in their PSSA scores."

Sultanik said the state mediator will be working with both parties individually over the days ahead. No new talks have been scheduled.

According to a strike contingency plan released Aug. 28, school and district offices will be open on their regular schedule during the strike.

Child care for children in kindergarten through seventh grade is being provided by the Indian Valley YMCA located at West Broad, Franconia, and Oak Ridge Elementary school for grades kindergarten through fifth.

Grades sixth and seventh child care will be held at the Indian Valley YMCA building. For more information contact the Indian Valley YMCA at (215) 723-3569.

Sports and extra-curricular activities will continue on a case-by-case basis. Decisions will be reported via the district's Web site, SATV-Channel 28, and the hotline. Information will also be available by calling the high school athletic office (215) 723-7630.