Freeze Resistance Starting to Thaw?

In a previous blog entry we noted that the Pennsylvania School Boards Association is keeping a running tally of the school districts that have negotiated wage freezes for personnel in light of the 2011-12 budget and the changes to education funding.

At the time (early April) 38 districts across the state had enacted some type of pay freeze: involving administration, teachers, and staff either in stand-alone fashion (meaning the freeze applied only to administrators, for instance) or in a combination (administrators and teachers, teachers and staff, etc.). Only two districts in the five-county Pittsburgh region (Counties of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Washington, and Westmoreland) had enacted a freeze in some form.

The tally has now grown to 107 districts, one-fifth of all in the state. Here is how the distributions breaks down:

District-wide (teachers, administration, and staff)-24 (22%), none in the region
Administrators and teachers-13 (12%), none in region
Administrators and staff-14 (13%), districts of Belle Vernon (Westmoreland) and Cornell (Allegheny) listed here
Teachers-4 (4%), Bentworth (Washington) is one
Administrators-52 (49%), five in the region with Northgate (Allegheny), Seneca Valley and Slippery Rock (Butler), Kiski and Ligonier Valley (Westmoreland).

Four other districts, none in the region, have approved wage freezes for a year other than the upcoming fiscal year.