By Dan Sokil
Staff writer

The last best offers have been up for 10 days and comments from the public have been collected, but the contract dispute between the Souderton Area Education Association and the district's school board lingers.

"The public comment period did end already, as of Friday it ended, and my guess is that a resolution is still months away," said school district negotiator Jeffrey Sultanik.

Both the SAEA and the school board posted their last best contract offers for public comment at the end of September, but the two parties' dispute has gone quiet since the non-binding arbitration process began on Oct. 5.

"Right now we're just waiting for the arbitrators' reports. We've heard no news, and have nothing to report of any consequence," said SAEA head Bill Lukridge.

That arbitration panel is headed by neutral arbitrator Rochelle Kaplan. Each side has a representative on the three person panel: Donald Atkiss for the SAEA and Mark Fitzgerald for the school district.

"We are not going to be giving any updates as to the progress of the negotiations, at the direction of the neutral arbitrator," said Sultanik.

But while disputes remain between the two parties on teacher salaries, health care benefits, and length of the work day and year, the public will get a chance to speak out again eventually.

"Right now, they're going to tally up these public comments, and see what happens from there," said Lukridge.

"Once the arbitration panel's report comes in, that gets posted and there'll be another 10 days of public comment time then," he said.

Those comments would address the recommendations of the arbitration panel, which both parties will be required by state law to vote on whether to accept.

If either the school board or the teachers union votes against accepting those recommendations, a second strike could occur in early 2009, but neither side is thinking that far ahead yet.

"Right now we're just teaching school, and waiting for that arbitrator's report to come in," Lukridge said.