This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

District Legal Counsel Talks Teacher Contracts, Negotiations

BOE organizes information session for residents to learn more about district legalities.

Tensions flared at Tuesday's presentation as Bayport-Blue Point School District’s legal counsel discussed negotiations in teacher and administrative contracts at the high school auditorium.

Board of Education President James March organized the presentation in response to questions raised about the process by which teachers are contracted and how much they earn.

“There were numerous budget hearings where people raised questions about negotiations and contracts,” March said.

Find out what's happening in Sayville-Bayportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Man behind the district’s legal curtain, John Gross from Ingerman Smith, LLP, began by explaining the step system and laws behind teacher and administrative contracts.

Gross outlined the harsh realities in the economy and how it would affect state aid and schools. He said the state is also pressuring municipalities including school districts to use reserves. Gross said the law forbids the use of all reserve funds and it is actually a misdemeanor.

Find out what's happening in Sayville-Bayportwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“The governor’s solution is to deplete all reserves,” he said. “I’d like to speak to someone on his legal team. It’s a misdemeanor for schools and it’s not permitted.”

Gross talked about ways to save and cut spending instead of funneling money out of the reserves. Two of the most common ways are delaying salary increase and delaying increments. He said two districts on Long Island have already gone so far as to take a hard freeze: One was Middle Country Central School District. This means teachers gave up their increment and there was no across the board salary increase.

The presentation soon turned into an open forum comprised of complaints toward Gross and the board on their language, which some audience members said was "ambiguously misleading," when discussing salary increases on the budget. Residents voiced concerns that there was a definite lack of clarity on the percent increase in salaries on the budget.

One resident gave the suggestion of listing the end result or the total increase instead of the budget just listing percent increases for increments and salary. This will help ordinary people understand the outcome, the resident said.

For example, if a teacher gets a zero percent increase in salary, some people think that means they won’t be getting a raise. However, if the budget lists teachers getting a percent increase in increments then it does mean they are getting a raise.

However, Gross said teachers agreed not to take a 2.77 percent increase of increment if the budget passes, meaning the district will save $542,730 next year.

Instead, teachers will remain on the same increment they were on last year.  increments will be delayed over the course of three years.  Teachers will receive a 2 percent raise in Febuary of 2012. Because the raise is only for half the school year, it will only cost the district 1 percent. This pattern will be continued for three years and will save the district a total of $1.8 million.

Gross pointed out that compared to similar districts in Nassau and Suffolk, Bayport- Blue Point actually pays their teachers less across the board for BA and MA levels. Only in Elwood-John Glenn do teachers in this district make more during the first few steps.

He also showed graphic evidence that there was a significant drop in base salaries since the last contract.

Gross said although people may not agree with the way the monies are distributed, the reason why he agreed to do the presentation was to inform the public.

“Boards are trying to be more aggressive involving the public by doing these presentations,” Gross said.

To see the presentation, click here to be directed to the Board of Education's archive.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?