The Herricks Board of Education said it is drawing up a detailed labor agreement with the teachers’ union after reaching a tentative settlement.
At a meeting last Thursday, board members urged parents to keep an “eye on the prize.”
“At our last board meeting, I was pleased to report that the district and the Herricks Teachers’ Association had achieved tentative settlement on Sept. 11 of the transfer of a successor labor agreement to the expired 2018 labor contract,” school board President Juleigh Chin said. “We are actively engaged in the important process of preparation of a detailed memorandum of agreement that we expect to complete in short order.”
Chin said that the details of the agreement will be released upon the ratification of a new contract.
Superintendent Fino Celano said “nothing has changed” since the announcement at a Sept. 12 board meeting that both parties have reached a tentative settlement, but the process takes time to complete.
Celano said both parties are working on a 12-page document that they must agree on. He said that the memorandum should be done “very soon.”
Trustees James Gounaris and Chin asked concerned parents at the meeting to keep an “eye on the prize.”
The Herricks Teachers’ Association did not respond to requests for comment.
After the memorandum, the union must vote on the new contract, Celano said. Gounaris said that the contract negotiations should be resolved by late October or early November.
The Herricks faculty has been operating without a new labor contract since June 2018.
Chin said that the board will begin to discuss changing the hours of the Herricks High School track, which will include not allowing outsiders to use the track during school hours.
“This is a public school. This is not public property,” Chin said.
