Since last spring the members of the Herricks Board of Education have been clear in the desire to re-open contracts with Herricks staff. While board members fully recognize that bargaining units are under no obligation to re-open contracts, the board had hoped that staff would recognize the extraordinary financial challenges facing both the community and the district.
Board members have been equally clear in discussions with bargaining units that they would not agree to any deals which involved token savings or which produced short term savings at the cost of greater financial burdens in the future.
Accordingly, the Board found completely unacceptable a March 7 proposal from the teachers which included potential savings of $1 million in 2011-12, but would have required the board to add back into the 2011-12 budget under consideration over $4 million in jobs and left intact salary and step increases of 4.8 percent in 2012-13 and 4.8 percent in 2013-14. A subsequent proposal made by the teachers on March 17 was equally unacceptable. Since the proposal made by the Board at the same time was unacceptable to the teachers, we have been at an impasse since then.
In light of this and the very public discussion at the March 24 board meeting, we were astounded and appalled to read the headlines and articles in the April 1 New Hyde Park Herald Courier and The Williston Times announcing that the board had reached a new agreement with the Herricks teachers. This is an important and sensitive issue for both the Herricks community and the teachers that requires reporting which is both accurate and fair. These articles were neither.
What the board did consider and approve that night was proposals from three other staff groups – custodians, secretaries, and aides/monitors.
What they proposed was a deal which we found to be remarkably responsible. They proposed giving up half of the salary and step increase they were entitled to in 2011-12 under the last year of an existing contract producing savings for the 2011-12 budget of $234,000 and accepting salary increases of 0.8 percent and step for those who are eligible, for the three years after that.
This deal is, in fact, better than the board could have achieved financially if the existing contract had been left in place and the board had signed no new agreement for three years.
The door to an agreement with the teachers is still open, but there is no agreement at this time and we will not agree to one which does not produce significant savings.
