Herricks teachers, board still won’t talk

Richard Tedesco

The Herricks Teachers Association and the Herricks Board of Education continued last week to debate who should take the first step in initiating discussions to alter the existing teachers contract in a bid to avoid the elimination of teaching positions in the 2013-14 school budget.

In an address the board intended to “set the record straight,” Herricks Teachers Association President Jane Morales she Thursday she hoped the school board and Herricks Superintendent of Schools John Bierwirth would “approach us for what could be difficult but potentially very fruitful negotiations for all involved.”

But school board President Christine Turner said the onus was now on the teachers to bring a proposal to the board.

“If they have something to propose, let them go ahead,” Turner said.

The comments by Morales and Turner both mirrored previous statements calling for the other side to initiate discussions.

At one recent school board meeting, Gounaris said last year he and Turner had offered eight different options on a revised contract to the teachers negotiating committee while the teachers only offered one alternative. 

After Morales made her statement, Gounaris said it simply confirmed what he previously stated about the teachers’ holding to their single offer.

“That was their only offer. We could not encumber the district with a longer contract that would cost us more money than the savings they offered,” Gounaris said. 

In her statement, Morales said the teachers offered a reduction of 3 percent in negotiated salary increases over the final two years of its existing contract that would have saved the district $2.8 with individual teachers giving back $8,000 to $10,000 apiece. 

Morales said the teachers also sought a two-year contract extension with 1 percent increases in the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. The teachers contract stipulated 3 percent increases in the final two years of the existing contract, which ends in the 2013-14 school year.

“The HTA was willing to open up a negotiated contract in order to help the district’s finances. The HTA took just such an unprecedented step and made a good-faith effort to find a common ground. To characterize the negotiations in any other way is disingenuous,” Morales said.

Morales said the teachers offer was rejected because the board was unwilling to trade the salary reduction for the contract extension, and referred to a recent article in the New Hyde Park Herald Courier and Williston Times quoting Herricks Board of Educations President Christine Turner saying, “We weren’t willing to bend on another thing.”  

Turner’s complete statement in the article about the relationship between the board and the teachers was, “They weren’t willing to go on one thing. We weren’t willing to bend on another thing. We have another year on the contract. And then we’ll see what happens.”

In responding to Morales characterization of the teachers’ proposal, Turner said, “Obviously if it was such a good deal, we would have taken it.”

In that Feb. 15 story, Turner said a recent grievance filed by the teachers association over elementary school teachers’ wages lost due to cancellation of a parent conference day had sounded a “sour note.” The day was rescheduled for classroom instruction when the district calendar was amended to make up for days lost in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

The Herricks school board has eliminated 49 teaching positions in the district over the past two years and the proposed 2013-14 budget calls for eliminating 17 teaching positions at a savings of $2.1 million in salary and benefits. School officials said the district needs to cut $3.18 million to remain within the state-mandated tax cap in the 2013-14 school budget. The district currently has 348 teaching positions for the 3,900 students enrolled.  

Gounaris said the teachers offer last year “paled” in comparison to pay cuts the secretaries custodians, cleaners, bus drivers put on the table. He also noted that Bierwirth also accepted a pay freeze two years ago.

In remarks at a board meeting in early February, Gounaris said he thought many Herricks teachers were unaware of the eight offers the board made to the teachers association.

In her statement last Thursday, Morales said the teachers negotiating committee, made up of representatives from each district school and three teachers association officers had followed procedures outlined in their association’s constitution. She previously said the negotiating committee is restricted from discussing contract offers with association membership until the committee approves them.

“Do not think we are a divided union,” Morales said.

She said the membership had “overwhelmingly” approved the last contract, re-elected her as president last May “nearly unanimously” and “nearly unanimously approved an agreement added to the contract last year for the district’s implementation of the state-mandated Annual Professional Performance Review regulations.

She said the teachers association had worked for “countless hours” over the past two years to reach a compromise with the school board “because we care about the Herricks school community and our members.”

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