The Herricks School Board approved revised contracts for three employee bargaining units at its March 24 meeting, but school officials said that talks had broken down with district teachers.
“We have no discussions going on. I still have hope, but there are no meetings scheduled,” said Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth.
Bierwirth said the school board is at a “stalemate” with the teachers.
A story in the April 1 edition of the New Hyde Park Herald Courier and Williston Times incorrectly reported that an agreement with teachers had been reached.
At its March 24 meeting, the board approved a three-year extension of contracts for teachers aides and school monitors; secretaries, nurses and clerical staff, and custodians at 2.06 percent per year through 2015. The agreement calls for concessions from the groups, including six-months delay of a 1.6 percent salary increase in each of the three years.
Helen Costigan, the district’s assistant superintendent of business, said the changes will save the district $234,000.
Debbie Imperatore, president of the Denton Avenue PTA, said she personally objected to the idea of a three-year extension as a short-sighted solution to an issue needing a longer view.
“We don’t have a crystal ball. It seems to me that this is not a good year. This is a band aid,” Imperatore said. “You as a board have to get – excuse me for saying this – ‘cojones’.”
“I don’t understand why these days, things being what they are, that we would strike a three-year deal,” said Jim Gounaris, a community activist who announced his candidacy for the board several days after the meeting. “We all wanted zeros. We get that. But where are you going with this?”
Residents said they were concerned that district teachers might also be offered a three-year extension – something board members said would not happen.
Craig Lagnese, president of the Herricks Teachers’ Association, said he was pleased that the HTA, which represents all five employee bargaining units, reached an agreement with three units – aides and monitors, secretaries and custodians – and didn’t rule out the possibility of the board and teachers and teaching assistants reaching an agreement.
“We feel that if the board came back with something to consider we would look at it,” Lagnese said.
In a release, Lagnese said the teachers had proposed “comprehensive retirement incentives” similar to what other school districts had offered.
“Those districts were able to begin in earnest, budget processes that allowed attrition savings to be factored in, and lower their overall budget numbers early on,” Lagnese said in the statement. “Few, if any programs and staff were eliminated in those districts.”
Lagnese said the combined savings of the teachers’ proposal, including salary concessions, was more than $1 million.
In statement issued by Bierwirth to correct inaccuracies in the New Hyde Park Herald Courier and the Williston Times story, Bierwrith said the board found the teachers’ offer “completely unacceptable.”
“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,” Bierwirth said in the statement.
“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,” Bierwirth continued. “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.”
Bierwirth said the proposal from the three other staff group – custodians, secretaries, and aides/monitors – was “remarkably responsible.”
He said the three units 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,” Bierwirth said.
The negotiations with teachers are taking place as the district struggles with a decrease in state aid and rising costs for employee benefits.
The board approved a proposed $99 million budget for the 2011-2012 school year at the meeting, representing a 2.55 percent increase over the current $96.5 million budget. The tax levy required for the budget was originally set at 3.95 percent earlier in the day, but was later lowered to 3.78 percent based on the restoration of $141,000 in state aid under the state budget, according to Bierwirth. Under the revised state aid number, the district will receive $1.2 million less in 2011-2012 than in the current school year.
The budget also calls for the elimination of 62 positions districtwide among all the employee groups with teachers making up 35 of the positions.
The April 1 story in the New Hyde Park and the Williston Times incorrectly reported that the budget called for the elimination of a total of 35 positions.
“This is a very sad day, especially for the board of education,” said Herricks School Board president Christine Turner in introducing the proposed budget. “So no matter what we decide at the end of this evening, we’re looking at cuts.”
The school board based its budget on a 2 percent base increase it had instructed Bierwirth to draft. It restored approximately $1 million in cuts to that 2 percent formula, including a music teaching position and a Gemini teaching position among 5.4 teaching positions, four computer tech positions, $175,000 for athletics (originally reduced by $250,000) and $90,000 for clubs.
“We’re going to have to cut back on the programs,” Bierwirth said at the most recent budget hearing.
The open secondary math chair will be left unfilled, according to Bierwirth, who said he was aware of one other possible retirement. If 10 teachers accepted the retirement incentive, Bierwirth said there would be a “rough ballpark” net savings of $315,000.
“It’s not a huge savings, but it’s significant,” he said.
The school district is projected to save $53,000 next year from a voluntary modification of the Herricks Association of Administrative Supervisors contract, with that figure to be slightly higher in the succeeding two years, Bierwirth has said.
In response to one residents’ question about a prospective fee of $40 or $50 for each student going out for an athletics team, Bierwirth said the school board would likely have fees collected through the Herricks Athletic Boosters.
“We’re working on the legality of it,” he said.
