HARRISBURG -- Penn-Trafford School District students missed out on Christmas break because they had to make up for 12 school days lost to a teacher strike in the fall.

		Graphic: Teachers strikes: Pennsylvania, 1992 - 2005

Eight other school districts in Pennsylvania, and 32,751 students, also faced strikes this school year.

Senate Minority Leader Robert Mellow, D-Lackawanna, wants to ensure continuity for students and fair contracts for teachers and school districts. That's why he wants to revamp the process for contract negotiations.

Mr. Mellow's plan would outlaw strikes by any school workers, set a timeline for contract negotiations and allow the county court's president judge to arbitrate contracts if the school board and teachers union reach an impasse. The judge would be required to accept one side's final best offer in its entirety.

Neither school boards nor unions like the proposal.

The state's largest teachers unions say employees have a fundamental right to withhold labor and that strikes are sometimes necessary to secure fair contracts.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association, meanwhile, complains that Mr. Mellow's plan would reduce boards' control over contracts but not their responsibility to fund them.

"We have before us a proposal that would allow a third party to make a decision that has a drastic effect on a school district's budget, and, consequently, the taxpayers in a school district," said Timothy M. Allwein, the association's assistant executive director for governmental and member relations.

In any case, he said, an arbiter should be allowed to mandate a compromise or to combine elements of each side's last offers.

"Whole-package arbitration will result in a resolution satisfactory to one party only," he said. "This runs contrary to the peace and outcomes generally acceptable to all parties."

Mr. Mellow says the threat of whole-package arbitration gives both parties an incentive to bargain in good faith.

"The possibility that the other side's proposal will be chosen is a powerful impetus to reach a consensus," he said.

Strikes and prolonged contract disputes are unfair to children and to taxpayers, he said.

In his legislative district, Old Forge teachers went on strike four times after their contract expired two years ago.

"I have too often witnessed the damaging effect these lengthy strikes have caused," he said. "They have torn communities apart."

They cause disruptions to students and cancellation of extracurricular activities, he said.

In 2004, there were 12 school strikes in Pennsylvania, more than in all other states combined, according to the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.

Twenty-four other states ban school strikes.

Michael Mahon, superintendent of Lackawanna County's Abington Heights schools, which settled a contract last year after three years of hostility, explained strikes' potential damage.

Students are left without constructive activities, parents must find and pay for child care, seniors' college recommendations aren't sent on time and grievances are filed.

Mr. Mellow's legislation would ensure that doesn't happen, he said.

Teachers in 57 districts are working without contracts and could potentially strike this year, he said.

It's unlikely they will, say opponents of the Mellow legislation. School strikes have been declining since the 1970s, when there were an average of 67 annually in Pennsylvania.

"The vast majority of public school teachers understand that strikes are to be considered a last resort," said Pat Halpin-Murphy, government relations director for the American Federation of Teachers Pennsylvania branch. "It is important that they retain the right to invoke that last resort should it be necessary to secure a fair and equitable contract."

School officials, though, say teachers, unlike other kinds of workers, don't suffer the economic consequences of strikes because missed days must be made up to comply with the state requirement for 180 days of school.

Union leaders, meanwhile, say current law is effective in preventing strikes because it sets forth a process for nonbinding arbitration and limits the duration of work stoppages.

Mr. Mellow says it isn't enough.

"The elimination of strikes is crucial," he said.

Under Mr. Mellow's plan, if a union and school board don't reach an agreement by April 30 of a contract expiration year, each side would designate one person to serve on an arbitration panel. Those two panelists would choose a third member. Each side would be required to submit its last-best offer to the panel by June 5. The panel would have until June 30 to deliberate and choose one of the offers. If the panel failed to choose, a Common Pleas judge would have to rule by Aug. 10.

No vote has been scheduled on the proposal.