Warren Tech mediation ordered Thursday, October 18, 2007 • By COLIN MCEVOY • The Express-Times FRANKLIN TWP. | Warren Tech's school board president said Wednesday state mediators have ordered the board and the teachers association back into mediation over stalled contract negotiations. About two dozen teachers came to Wednesday's board meeting, where board President Harold Warne said the state mediator is "asserting his jurisdiction" and will be re-establishing talks between the two parties, likely next month. Warne also accused the Warren Tech Education Association of trying to pressure the board rather than communicate and said the association president was putting his own interests before that of the teachers. "It's unfortunate that the association has chosen to basically allow the wants of one individual to delay ratification of a contract," Warne said in a prepared statement. "It's also unfortunate that (it) has chosen to take its show on the road to intimidate or pressure the board into settling rather than engage in a dialogue that could actually settle the contract," he said. Edward Yarusinsky, WTEA president, said he had not yet been notified of a return to mediation. "The way things have been distorted all along, I have to hear it from the official people," Yarusinsky said. "As far as we're concerned, the contract negotiations are over." The association has been working under the terms of a contract that expired in June 2006. The association ratified a tentative agreement in May, which the board rejected in September. The contract proposal includes cost-of-living increases and also hikes based on experience but negotiations are hung up on an "off-guide" salary step that provides raises for those at the top step. The board claims it negotiated a freeze of all coach and extracurricular pay at 2005-06 levels for the new contract. WTEA argues two coaches, including Yarusinsky, who were at the top step, should receive a 4.25 percent increase each year of the contract. Warne said Yarusinsky, a cross country coach of 26 years, was serving his own interests. But Yarusinsky said the board was trying to make changes to the agreement "after the fact." "The board has not honored what they put down and signed," Yarusinsky said. "It is not with integrity, it is not with honesty, it is not justified." Freeholder Richard Gardner attended the meeting but said he was only an "observer." "I do not believe a body of politics should interfere with a process from the board of education and the WTEA," he said. Marc Metzger, the only audience member who spoke, said he had "no respect" for the actions of the board and called Warne's statement "crap." "If you want to resolve this, two people get in a room, sit down, hold hands until it's done," said Metzger, a parent whose children attend the school. "You don't need mediators, you're all adults here and if you're going to act like adults you can get this done in two hours." Reporter Colin McEvoy can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at cmcevoy@express-times.com.