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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | September 9, 2013 02:54 PM |
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| From: | Representative Fred Keller |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Proposed Legislation: Notice Required Prior to School Board Vote on Collective Bargaining Agreement |
| In the near future, I plan to re-introduce legislation that, if enacted, will amend the Public School Code of 1949 to require school boards to provide two weeks’ notice prior to voting upon any proposed collective bargaining agreement. The School Code does not require school boards to provide detailed public notice prior to entering into a collective bargaining agreement, even though employee salaries and benefits represent the lion’s share of education spending for Pennsylvania school districts. To help ensure that taxpayers are informed of how their hard-earned tax dollars will be used, my proposal will mandate that school boards provide two weeks’ notice before voting upon any proposed collective bargaining agreement. Specifically, the notice must: (1) Be posted on the school district’s Internet website beginning at least two weeks prior to the public meeting at which the school board will vote upon the proposed collective bargaining agreement, and continuing at least until the conclusion of the public meeting; (2) Be published at least once in a newspaper of general circulation in the school district at least two weeks prior to the public meeting at which the school board will vote upon the proposed collective bargaining agreement; and (3) Include both a statement of the terms of the proposed contract, and an estimate of the costs to the school district associated with the proposed collective bargaining agreement. The proposed legislation will be very similar to the bill for which I circulated a co-sponsorship memorandum on August 13, 2013. However, my bill has been revised to incorporate Chairman Ron Miller’s suggestion that the proposed notice requirements not apply to Section 1125-A(k) of the School Code (under which an arbitrator’s determination is final and binding, unless the employer or the employee union rejects the determination within 10 days). By requiring school districts to provide public notice of the terms and costs of proposed collective bargaining agreements, my legislation will help to provide needed transparency to taxpayers and community members. |
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| View Attachment | ||
Introduced as HB1741