Back in the mid-2000s, in public and in the news media, Joseph P. Burke, then superintendent of the Springfield public schools, and Timothy T. Collins, president of the local teachers' union, often seemed to be at odds with each other. Out of the public eye, however, the two men had begun meeting regularly. When Burke left the district, the work…

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the typical terms and conditions of employment in 2012-2013 negotiated agreements in Pennsylvania school districts, and to determine if there was a relationship between enrollment size and 5 selected terms and conditions of employment: base salary; highest salary; teacher contribution for one…

This article describes the benefits one gets when big schools roll out highly effective eProcurement systems--strategic improvements and savings. eProcurement systems are hot again in higher education, driven by unrelenting cost containment demands, along with industry shifts that have consolidated choices and brought top products to the…

This report is designed to assist school administrators and school boards to prepare for negotiating issues relating to class size. It includes a brief summary of the research on class size, adapted from ERS's report Class Size: A Summary of Research. Viewpoints of both school management leaders and teacher organization leaders on negotiating the…

This paper contains an analysis of case law as it relates to the scope of bargainable issues and its possible impact on public two-year postsecondary institutions in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania's Public Employee Relations Act defines three categories of collective bargaining issues: (1) mandatory subjects of negotiation, (2) permissive issues of…

Presented in this document is the collective bargaining agreement between the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties, Pennsylvania Association for Higher Education and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for the period from November 2, 1971 through August 31, 1974. Contained in the articles of the agreement are sections…

The first known analysis of a substantial number of arbitration awards in higher education is presented in an effort to determine whether arbitrators have confined their awards within the contract limitations. All of the arbitration awards generated by the four-year colleges of the State University of New York as well as the awards of the…

The relationship between faculty bargaining and the loss of institutional autonomy is explored by examining the collective bargaining experience of the Pennsylvania State College and University system. The study is chronological, tracing the theme through three stages: (1) the governance of the state system before collective bargaining (1960-71);…

This study examines the effect in Pennsylvania of the increasing use of consultants in public-sector collective bargaining on the bargaining process itself. Following a detailed review of research on both the positive and negative aspects of consultant use in collective bargaining, this paper describes the study's major hypotheses, its school…

Few laws enacted by the Pennsylvania General Assembly have been more profoundly felt than Act 195 of 1970, which granted teachers and other public employees the right to bargain and to strike. In July 1992, after years of disruptive teacher strikes, a school strike reform bill was passed in the form of Act 88. This resource book presents a…

This collection of collective bargaining agreements contains one- to three-year contracts for four two-year institutions in Pennsylvania. The agreements are between the Board of Trustees of Reading Area Community College and the Federation of Reading Area Community College, Local 3137, American Federation of Teachers bargaining unit; between…