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Teachers’ Union Goes On Strike At Merion’s Barrack Hebrew Academy
By - Staff Report
This week, the Philadelphia Federation of Jewish Agencies high school known as Barrack Hebrew Academy, formerly Akiba Hebrew Academy, coped with an unprecedented teacher’s strike.
The school recently incurred great expense in its move to a new campus in Bryn Mawr, leaving the Merion school grounds at Old Lancaster Road and Highland Avenue, which had housed the school since the early 1950’s.
Sources in the Barrack Hebrew Academy school teachers’ union assert the cause of the strike is the school’s withdrawal of its contribution to the teacher’s pension fund.
The school’s negotiators with the teachers union have offered to contribute to the teacher’s pension fund a sum equal to 3 percent of a teacher’s salary, which represents a cut of more than 50 percent. The school’s contribution to the pension fund had been 7 percent until now.
One of the retired teachers who has been frequenting the picket lines of the teachers at the school told The Bulletin that “In my own case I would be in very bad financial shape had the Board not contributed to my retirement fund. Many of my colleagues have been as devoted to the school as I have been. Since most of them do no have Ph.D.s, their salaries were lower than mine, and, thus, they will receive proportionately less than I did when I annuitized my pension. Indeed, those who are not married to well-off spouses may have an old age of genteel poverty.”
In addition, some of the school’s teachers complain that too much funds are being invested in administration, and not enough in the teachers.
A press release issued by the school said that “The impasse is strictly due to the fact that the Association’s demands far exceed our ability to fund them” as a reason for the school’s reduction of its participation in the teacher’s pension fund. Ariele Klausner, the chair of the school board, told The Bulletin, "We are offering to make a matching contribution of 3 percent of their base salary, whereas in the past we were able to make a matching contribution of up to 7 percent of their base salary".
The change in the name of the school from “Akiba” to “Barrack” Hebrew Academy emanated from a $5 million donation offer from Mr. Leonard Barrack, the head of the Federation of Jewish Agencies in Philadelphia. The school is now named for Jack Barrack, Leonard's brother, an Akiba graduate who was killed in a airplane crash in 1961.
The stipulation of the Barrack donation is that $3 million be given up front to the school, mostly for scholarships, with $2 million set aside as a memorial fund to be given only after the passing of Mr. Barrack.
Sources in the teachers union say that they had an understanding that 10 percent of those funds would be allocated for teachers’ salaries and pension funds.
The Bulletin asked the board of the school as to whether Mr. Barrack would consider freeing up the $2 million now in escrow, in order to help the school cope with its current financial crisis.
The school declined to respond.
The school recently incurred great expense in its move to a new campus in Bryn Mawr, leaving the Merion school grounds at Old Lancaster Road and Highland Avenue, which had housed the school since the early 1950’s.
Sources in the Barrack Hebrew Academy school teachers’ union assert the cause of the strike is the school’s withdrawal of its contribution to the teacher’s pension fund.
The school’s negotiators with the teachers union have offered to contribute to the teacher’s pension fund a sum equal to 3 percent of a teacher’s salary, which represents a cut of more than 50 percent. The school’s contribution to the pension fund had been 7 percent until now.
One of the retired teachers who has been frequenting the picket lines of the teachers at the school told The Bulletin that “In my own case I would be in very bad financial shape had the Board not contributed to my retirement fund. Many of my colleagues have been as devoted to the school as I have been. Since most of them do no have Ph.D.s, their salaries were lower than mine, and, thus, they will receive proportionately less than I did when I annuitized my pension. Indeed, those who are not married to well-off spouses may have an old age of genteel poverty.”
In addition, some of the school’s teachers complain that too much funds are being invested in administration, and not enough in the teachers.
A press release issued by the school said that “The impasse is strictly due to the fact that the Association’s demands far exceed our ability to fund them” as a reason for the school’s reduction of its participation in the teacher’s pension fund. Ariele Klausner, the chair of the school board, told The Bulletin, "We are offering to make a matching contribution of 3 percent of their base salary, whereas in the past we were able to make a matching contribution of up to 7 percent of their base salary".
The change in the name of the school from “Akiba” to “Barrack” Hebrew Academy emanated from a $5 million donation offer from Mr. Leonard Barrack, the head of the Federation of Jewish Agencies in Philadelphia. The school is now named for Jack Barrack, Leonard's brother, an Akiba graduate who was killed in a airplane crash in 1961.
The stipulation of the Barrack donation is that $3 million be given up front to the school, mostly for scholarships, with $2 million set aside as a memorial fund to be given only after the passing of Mr. Barrack.
Sources in the teachers union say that they had an understanding that 10 percent of those funds would be allocated for teachers’ salaries and pension funds.
The Bulletin asked the board of the school as to whether Mr. Barrack would consider freeing up the $2 million now in escrow, in order to help the school cope with its current financial crisis.
The school declined to respond.
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