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Chester County, PA | May 21, 2013 Election |
PirocchiOASB-FairShareBy Dominic J. PirocchiCandidate for School Director At Large; Oxford Area School District; Republican Party | |
This information is provided by the candidate |
Appeared in the April 17, 2013 Chester County Press. I had the date of the meeting wrong in that article and have corrected it here to October 19, 2009.My name is Dominic J Pirocchi and I currently sit on the Oxford Area School Board. I am writing in response to Steve Vogel's opinion piece in the April 3rd edition of the Chester County Press "Fair Share is a Joke." Mr Vogel, in it you stated that all the school directors of Oxford and Avon Grove should be replaced. This disappointed me as like you I agree that fair share should be eliminated from Oxford's teacher's contract. In Oxford's case you failed to do your research as the two school board members that are running for re-election, Steve Gaspar and I did not have the opportunity to have a voice in the current contract. The current teacher's contract was approved on October 19, 2009 (corrected). This was an early bird deal as the then existing contract would have expired June 30, 2010. If the date hadn't been extended then the school directors elected in November of 2009, of which I was one, would have had the opportunity to weigh in on the negotiations. The school board members attending the October 19, 2009 (corrected) meeting were: Chauncey W. Boyd, Jr., President; Alison L. Needles, Vice President; Richard J. Nelson, Treasurer; Jason T. Brady; Sharon L. Grasty; Kurt J. Haegele; Catherine L. McKeever and Howard S. Robinson with Michael Alexander being absent. The contract was approved 7-1 with only Mr. Haegele opposed to it. Therefore, the only school directors currently on the OASB that voted in favor of this contract are Jason Brady and Howard Robinson. Both won their bids for re-election back in 2011 and are not up for re-election until 2015. You may remember that when Judge Farmer swore in Jason Brady it was his first time swearing in a director to be chosen by lottery draw. I can not speak for Mr. Gaspar, but I myself agree with you that fair share is an unfair practice for our teachers. In my opinion fair share violates our teachers' "Freedom of Association" guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. Rather than relying on fair share the union should be focused on customer satisfaction where the teachers are the union's customers. If the union provides exemplary services then teachers would be lining up to pay their dues for those services. On a similar issue I believe we should hold the contract negotiations in public for everyone to witness. Often directors are informed that this is personnel issue and therefore legal to be conducted in private. I will argue that the exception for personnel to the sunshine laws are to protect individuals. Collective bargaining is for a group as a whole and there are no individual names that need to be protected; therefore, negotiations should be open to public. In fact, some other States actually require this. In addition, once an agreement had been reached then it should be go through the same process as a policy with first, second, and third readings giving the public ample chances to comment on it prior to the school board voting on it. I respect your writing and even followed a regular column you use to write in the opinion section back in the day. I am up for re-election this year and filed only as a Republican in Region II and at-large. I supported at-large elections for OASD. This would have given every resident the chance to cast a vote for every school board member, a practice common in over sixty percent of Pennsylvania's other school districts. I believe that this would give voters greater choices when voting for school board members. This year only six people ran for four seats. With at-large, that would have given all OASD voters a greater choice in casting ballots for candidates they like. Local representatives of both the Republicans and Democratic parties fought this at our meetings, in the press, and in court. Why? Ask your elected representatives. In Region I there is only a registered Democrat running, cross-filed as running for both the Republican and Democrat candidate. Voters in Region I have no choice this election. For the rest of the positions there are only registered Republicans running, with all except myself cross-filed on both the Republican and Democrat ballots. I only registered as a Republican for both Region II and at-large. I have to win in the primaries as a Republican to give a choice to all voters in the general election as my registered Republican opponents are unopposed on the Democrat ballot. If you are a registered Republican in OASD please consider me as your candidate for Oxford Area School District. Dominic J. Pirocchi Oxford Area School Board |
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