Herricks gets head start on job cuts

Timothy Meyer

With negotiations with teachers at an impasse, the Herricks Board of Education voted Thursday, May 5 to eliminate 25 positions under a proposed 2011-12 budget that calls for the elimination of 65 positions including 35 teaching positions.

The board recently approved a proposed $98.9 million budget for 2011-12 million budget for the 2011-2012 school year, representing a 2.55 percent increase over the current $96.5 million budget. The tax levy required for the budget is 3.78.

As part of the budget cuts, the district does not plan to replace the current English Lead Chair Victor Jaccarino, who said he will be retiring at the end of the school year. Due to budget constraints there is also no plan in place to fill the vacant lead math chair position, board officials said.

Science Chair Karen Hughes has been filling in as the mathematics chair for the last year, and will continue to pull double duty for the next school year school as well, according to assistant Superintendent of Schools Deirdre Hayes.

Jim Gounaris, who is running for a position on the school board, asked the board why there are no plans for a replacement English chairperson.

“I don’t think the district should be without an English chairperson,” Gounaris said.

“In order to up someone into that position, [English chair] one administrator would have to go,” Bierwirth said. “That’s the reality of budget cuts.”

Bierwirth said that the problem with hiring a new person to take over the position would require adding to the budget.

He said that the teachers are already aware they will have to be stepping up to take over more responsibilities.

“I have to give credit to the teachers,” Bierwirth said. “When they saw the challenges, they understood what they had to do.”

In further developments the director of facilities and operations Jim Brown presented to the board a preliminary report on the conditions of the fire hydrants at the Herricks High School, from D&B Engineers and Architects, P.C.

According to Brown, when multiple fire hydrants were tested at the same time, a proper flow rate and pressure was not maintained from the hydrants.

“After seeing there was a problem with the hydrants’ flow rate, we decided to hire an engineering firm to do an assessment and help study the problem,” Brown said. “One possible reason for the lack of water pressure may be that the incoming pipes are simply not big enough.”

One solution may involve the replacing of a pipe coming into the school from Hamilton drive, but the district and engineering firm are still in discussion with the water company.

After a full study has been finished and recommendations have been submitted, the district will take in bids from engineering firms to fix the problem, according to Bierwirth.

Since this is seen as an emergency repair, Bierwirth said the funds will be taken from the unallocated fund reserve and do not need to be included in the budget.

“This is distressing to find out, but we need to go through with it,” Bierwirth said.

The Herricks School Board approved revised contracts for three employee bargaining units 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.Those changes will save the district $234,000, according to Helen Costigan, the district’s assistant superintendent of business.

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, according to Bierwirth.

Earlier in March, the board unanimously rejected a proposed revision of the teachers contract, included $750,000 in HTA givebacks and an estimated $350,000 in savings from retirement incentives. The primary source of savings the HTA proposed was a reduction in the 2.75 percent salary increase during then 2011-12 school year to 1.5 percent.

Turner said the proposal was contingent on the board guaranteeing all HTA jobs and extending the existing teachers’ contract by one year beyond 2013-14 with a 2.25 percent increase in addition to “step” increases mandated by state law.

Board president Christine Turner called the proposal “too little, too late.”

Bierwirth said the school board remains at a “stalemate” with the teachers.

“We have no discussions going on. I still have hope, but there are no meetings scheduled,” said Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth.

In the race for seats on the school board, incumbent board president Christine Turner is running unopposed on a ticket with Jonai Singh, co-president of the Herricks Council of PTAs. Singh is running against Gounaris for the seat currently held by Williston Park Mayor Paul Ehrbar, who chose to not run due to conflicts with his mayoral duties.

Ehrbar encouraged Singh to run and endorsed her, saying she would be an “independent voice” for the school district.

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