School Contract Fact Finder Named

Prof. Keith Groty of the Michigan State University School of Labor and Industrial Relations has been appointed to serve as fact finder for contract negotiations between the Board of Education I and the Ann Arbor Education Association. The appointment was announced today after the board returned the second list of fact finders submitted by the Michigan Employment Relations Commission (MERC). The first list of candidates was rejected by the AAEA and both the board and the AAEA were given a Friday deadline to make a selection from the second list. Prof. Groty has been directed by MERC to schedule fact finding hearings as soon as possible. The board and the AAEA filed last month for non-binding fact finding on the issues of salary, surance benefits and class size. Failure to reach a contract settlement resulted in a three-day teacher strike at the opening of school. The board's last salary proposal was to provide $782,667 above the base salary cost for 1970-71. Their last proposal for insurance fringe benefits was $81,624 as part of a total fringe package of $138,004. The board's last position for class size was to maintain the present pupil teacher ratio at the level in the 1970-71 master agreement. The total cost of the Association's last salary proposal is $1,002,390 above the base salary cost for 1970-71. The total cost for the insurance fringe benefit proposal was $213,000, and the association's position as of Sept. 7, was to maintain the class sizes settled at the levels of the 1970-71 master agreement.