Parents: Still Time to Negotiate Teacher Give-Back

At the end of a long budget season, parents in the district are still questioning why the school board and the teacher association have not been able to reach any compromise related to teacher salaries.

At the June 8 board of education meeting, Katonah Elementary School parent Mark Dembo challenged the board to explain why they hadn't made a greater attempt to bargain with the union.

"I know that many of these issues can't be dealt with by June 15, and I will support the budget. But the first job of a union is to preserve its members. Many other districts have gotten givebacks and I want to understand the silence. What are we doing about moving forward?" he asked.

School Board President Mike Gordon provided a brief overview of the district efforts and the union's reponses to date, including the board's request in January that the teachers accept a pay freeze for the 2010-11 school year, and the recent overture from the union that quickly ended when the board would not accept their request for confidentiality.

"They wanted non-transparency, but we represent all of you and could not agree to it," he said.

The proposal, which was not reviewed by the board, would have cut cost of living increases from 3.5 percent to 1.75 percent in 2010-11. For the 2011-12 and 2012-13 school years, the union proposed a 2 percent increase. The offer also changed the health insurance contributions from a percentage plan, currently set at 11 percent, to a flat fee schedule, and extended their contract through June 2013.

Jason Waxler of Katonah was another parent who sought answers to questions that weren't being addressed in public. He recently submitted a freedom of information request to obtain copies of the proposals exchanged between the board of education and the teachers association from January through May of this year.

"It was frustrating to sit in the meetings and not hear from the teachers," Waxler told Patch. "When you average all of the increases—step, lane, cost of living—the average seems to be 6 percent, and some get up to nine percent. This isn't happening in other sectors, and this issue is not going away," he said.

Here's a brief summary of information included in the documents, posted with this article:

• In January, the board of education requests a pay freeze for the 2010-11 school year.  The request is for a temporary freeze  in exchange for saving 25-30 positions. See documents 1 and 2 for a copy of the board resolution and letter requesting a freeze.
• Supporting documents from the board to the union include a teacher benefits summary, three-year administrative cost savings and taxpayer demographics. See document 3.
• Documents 4, 5 and 7 establish the ground rules for re-negotiation, which commenced in March.
• The union's initial offer reduced the the teacher pay increase from 3.5 percent to 2 percent in 2010-11 and in 2012-13, providing a savings of approximately $600,000. It also proposed changing health insurance contributions from a percentage—currently 11 percent—to a flat-fee plan. See Document 6.
• The board's counter-offer cites "aspects of the offer that would present cost challenges the district cannot meet," and instead offers a 1.75 percent increase for all teachers except for those confirming retirement before 2013, who would receive a 3.5 percent increase. The board's offer did not include any changes to health contributions but guaranteed using the savings toward restoring teaching positions to the budget. See Document 8.
• The "Association Representative Group" of the union rejects the board's counter offer, and a joint press statement is released. See Documents 9 and 10.

Teacher union president Sandra Grebinar told Patch that she was unable to discuss previous negotiations due to confidentiality agreements but their most recent offer would have saved the district $800,000 in salary and health care costs. They could not agree to negotiate in public, she said, because it would have put the union at an unfair disadvantage.

"[The transparency] that the board wanted is just not standard negotiating procedure. It would have involved too many parties and it's not what good contracts are based on. We came to the table three times, and at this time, we hope all voters support quality education in our district and vote yes for the budget," said Grebinar.

At this point, chances seem slim of any further negotiations between the board and the union taking place prior to the vote on the board's revised budget, in which approximately 23 teaching positions are being cut.

But Gordon remained optimistic Tuesday night.

"I don't begrudge them for trying. We we remain hopeful that they might do something for the district."