Teacher contract talks in Columbia Borough School District are headed for fact-finding.

Negotiators for the teachers' union have asked the state Labor Relations Board to appoint a fact-finder to try to craft an agreement suitable to both sides.

The school board and teachers would have to vote on the proposal, which would be nonbinding.

"At this point, I think it would be best for both parties to have the recommendation of a mutual third party," said Nate Greenawalt of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, who has been negotiating for Columbia teachers.

Four other Lancaster County school districts are involved in teacher contract talks, and those negotiations are ongoing, said Kelby Waltman, another negotiator with the PSEA.

Waltman said formal or informal talks are scheduled for this month in Cocalico, Donegal, Elizabethtown and Eastern Lancaster County school districts.

Contracts in those districts, along with the Columbia pact, expired Tuesday. Until new agreements are approved, more than 1,000 teachers in the five districts will continue to work under the terms of their expired contracts.

Those agreements boosted teacher salaries by an average of 2.8 percent to 4.4 percent a year.

Greenawalt said negotiations in Columbia have been "amicable," but little progress was made during the last session on June 17.

Talks began last fall, he said, and both sides attempted to reach an "early bird" agreement in December. Since January, negotiators have been meeting monthly, he said.

"Both sides have been eager to reach a settlement, but we just haven't been able to find that middle ground yet," he said.

Still to be resolved are salary and health care issues and other details not related to economics, said Greenawalt, who declined to discuss specifics.

The economic downturn has not been a major factor in negotiations, he said.

"In Lancaster County, you don't see as big an impact from the economy as in other places," he said. "The economy has not been a roadblock in negotiations."

Cole Knighton, a school board member who serves on the district's negotiating team, disagreed.

"The economy has a lot to do with it," he said of negotiations. "Let's just leave it at that.

"Due to the fact we're going to fact-finding, the progress has not been good," he said, declining to comment further.

School board president Tom Strickler also would not comment on negotiations.

The Labor Relations Board in coming weeks will appoint a fact-finder who will have 40 days to consider proposals from both sides. The fact-finder will then recommend an agreement — a compromise or one of the two proposals.

The school board and teachers union then must vote on the recommendation. If they both approve it, it will serve as a template for a new contract.

If either side rejects the proposal, it must be released to the public for 10 days, and both sides must vote on it again.

The last county district to pursue fact-finding was Warwick, which last May approved a four-year teacher contract based on the fact-finder's recommendation.

That pact boosted teacher pay by an average of 4 percent a year.

Two other county districts have approved new contracts or extensions of contracts that expired Tuesday.

Lampeter-Strasburg approved a three-year contract that will boost salaries an average of 3.9 percent a year.

Manheim Township approved a five-year contract extension that will raise teacher pay by about 4 percent a year beginning in 2009-10.

Both contracts were negotiated last year, long before the recession took hold.

The fact-finder on the Columbia contract isn't likely to issue a recommendation before school resumes in September, Greenawalt said.

"Fact-finding does prolong things," he said. "In the meantime, I'm hoping we can knock some of the issues off the table.

"If this fails, we'll keep plugging away and go back to the (bargaining) table. Hopefully, we can reach some kind of settlement."

E-mail: bwallace@lnpnews.com