BUFFALO, N.Y. — On Friday morning, Buffalo Public Schools teachers headed back to school to set up their classrooms for the start of the school year.
However, before reporting to work, teachers at schools across the district picketed as they continue to demand new contracts.
The Buffalo Teachers Federation is asking for better pay, benefits, and teaching conditions.
Contract negotiations have been going on since 2019.
Recently, the school district and BTF agreed to use a factfinder to come to a resolution, but that will not happen until October.
BTF President Phil Rumore says right now teachers are angry.
"Every school in the city is a demonstration like this, demonstrating their anger at the board for delaying negotiations,insulting offers they made to the teachers. And the district says its gonna cost billions of dollars, but what we did is take the average of big school districts so this is what it is. And if it costs billions of dollars, that just shows how far behind buffalo teachers are than all the other school districts," Rumore said.
Rumore says the teachers union is planning to sit down with the school board before meeting with the factfinder to see if they can start negotiations.