Administrators in the Mineola School District have agreed to a new five-year contract with the Mineola Board of Education that will pay them salary increases of 6.34 percent over the course of the agreement.
Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler revealed the terms of the new pact, which is retroactive to the 2011-12 school year, before the Mineola Board of Education voted to unanimously approved the agreement at last Thursday night’s board meeting.
“It’s a good contract for the community and I recommend we approve it,” Nagler said before the vote.
The contract provides for no salary increases to district administrators over the first two years of the contract, which includes the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years. In the third year of the contract – for the 2013-14 fiscal year – administrators will receive a .75 percent increase with increases of .5 percent in the final two years of the pact, he said.
Nagler said administrators would also receive state-mandated step increases of approximately 1.5 percent during the five-year deal.
Under terms of the new contract, newly hired administrators eliminates will not be able to “cash out” sick days not taken upon retirement – as previously hired administrators can. District administrators had been operating without a contract for the past two years.
Nagler said the district had also realized a savings in administrative costs from the elimination of principals at the former Cross Street School and the Willis Avenue School.
“I want to congratulate both sides and I absolutely applaud it,” said school board Trustee Artie Barnett.
Board President Will Hornberger also endorsed the pact, saying, “We can only make progress by working together.”
On another fiscal front, Nagler said district administrators are filing paperwork with the state Dormitory Authority to obtain a $150,000 grant the district had already expected to receive two years ago for new science labs built in the high school.
“It’s back in the hopper. They want us to rewrite the paperwork,” Nagler said.
The grant was originally secured through former state Sen. Craig Johnson, but was among approximately $10 million in grants either rescinded or left in limbo by the state Democrats in the majority in the state Senate after Johnson lost his seat to Republican Jack Martins in the 2010 election.
Nagler said he’s also awaiting word on a $213,000 efficiency grant the district was notified it had won last month.
In a presentation reviewing minor modifications in auditing practices based on suggestions from the district’s outside auditor, Jack Waters, assistant superintendent for business and finance, said there was a $19,000 balance remaining in the current budget for the library in the middle school.
“Sounds like the sound system to me,” said Nagler, alluding to a discussion earlier in the meeting about the need to upgrade the sound equipment in the middle school auditorium.
In other developments:
• Based on an increase of 16.25 percent for the teacher retirement system, Waters said under the state-mandated tax cap the school district would be allowed a maximum 2.41 percent increase in the school district tax levy for 2013-14. Nagler noted that all neighboring school districts except one are above 3 percent on their allowable tax levy increases for the next fiscal year.
• The board voted to approve a 2013-14 school district calendar with classes to start on Sept. 3 and end on June 26. The calendar calls 182 days for classroom instruction and two teacher conference days with three days in April and May designated as weather contingency days.
“This is the tale of two years,” Nagler said. “Last year we had to start early because we couldn’t fit everything in. Next year we have more flexibility.”
• Nagler reported work on the new library wing at the Meadow Drive School is proceeding “at a good rate” with concrete footings recently poured. He said the project in on target for completion in late June.
