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Ninety-seven percent of union voters approved the job action Aug. 21, just five days before UCS teachers reported back to school for in-services and professional development. The Utica Education Association said its members could participate in a number of different actions if a new contract is not ratified.

“Right now teachers are usually filled with excitement about the start of a new school year. But because of the lack of a fair and equitable settlement, that excitement has been replaced with disappointment,” said David Kenewell, UEA president and a district teacher for more than 39 years. “We’ve enjoyed labor peace for so long. We’re disappointed that we could not present a tentative agreement to our membership today and that we have to return to work without a contract.”

A job action, Kenewell said, could involve a number of different options that UEA members would employee in order to express their frustration and dissatisfaction.

“A job action could be anything from wearing a T-shirt to class or getting our members to attend a Board of Education meeting,” said Kenewell. “There’s a continuum and a host of possibilities up to job stoppage.”

Kenewell, however, said teachers have not authorized leaving the classrooms, and have been instructed to report to schools for in-service training and the first day of classes as bargaining continues.

“We’re not talking about no contract, no work,” said UEA Executive Director Curt Lange in a press release. “But if we are attacked, we will fight back with the tools we have in our arsenal.”

UCS Superintendent Christine Johns said the district had nine different unions with contracts that expire in 2008. Johns said the district has been bargaining with union officials since April and has ratified contracts with four of the nine unions, including the approval of a new transportation union contract ratified at the Board of Education’s Aug. 25 meeting.

“We have thus far settled four of our nine contracts and we continue to negotiate in good face with the others,” said Johns, who added that she had not yet seen the communication from the UEA.

Kenewell said UEA members have met with district officials 17 times since April, but that the district continues to make health insurance a key issue. Kenewell said not only are teachers’ insurance costs 5 percent lower than they were two years ago, but the district’s $48 million fund balance, filed with the state for the 2006-07 school year, contradicts claims of financial hardship on the district.

“If we were really in a financial crisis, Utica teachers would be there for the district and community as we’ve always been. But this district is not in financial crisis,” Kenewell said. “Other unions have accepted a contract, but they do not accept it for us. We will accept a contract on our own terms.”

Kenewell stressed again, however, that a work stoppage has not been approved and teachers will be waiting for students Sept. 2.

“Utica’s teachers will have classrooms ready for the start of the school year,” he said. “We’ll be ready to do what we do best and that is to educate our children.”