Carrying colorful signs adorned with a character from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” the 15 teachers and counselors shivering in a Homestead parking lot Thursday morning weren’t part of your normal picket line.

The group wasn’t striking, nor was it seeking raises and better benefits. Instead, the members of the first cyber charter school union in the nation were looking for some face time with the board of the Pennsylvania Learners Online school, or PALO.

“We can’t get anything solved if they won’t talk to us,” said Carol Mintus, an English teacher for the school and president of the union. “It’s disheartening and frustrating.”

More than one-fourth of the PALO Education Association’s 58 members picketed for 50 minutes in the parking lot of the Allegheny Intermediate Unit, which provides administrative services to the school. The picketers passed out flyers to employees reporting to work while several Port Authority buses stopped outside the lot, honking their support. Picketers chanted “We know you’re able to come to the table” as cars pulled into the parking lot.

No one on the PALO board could be reached for comment. Sarah McCluan, spokeswoman for the intermediate unit, confirmed the board canceled one meeting with the union because of difficulties in getting staff together to attend.

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