Teachers and district battle over contract

It has been five years since the last contract between the Lawrence School District and the Lawrence Teachers Association (LTA) expired.

What is keeping the district and the LTA that represents 278 members, including librarians, speech therapists and social workers, from settling a new contract?
It depends on which side you ask. The LTA said the district wants concessions, some of which the union could agree to, but not without a wage offer, according to Lori Skonberg, the bargaining unit’s president.

Members of the LTA took to picketing outside the Broadway Campus building on May 17-19, where both the Lawrence Elementary School and Lawrence Middle School are housed.

“This is year five of working under an expired contract,” Skonberg said. “It speaks volumes about how the LTA is perceived by the district. The district and the community are two different entities. The community was unaware of our contract status — hence the need for community awareness.”

Since 2011, the district and LTA have had what Superintendent Gary Schall called “formal and informal” discussions. “About two years ago, the parties agreed that we were at an impasse in negotiations, meaning neither side reasonably expected further negotiations to be fruitful without assistance from a third party,” Schall said.

The third party is the Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) that requires the parties involved to proceed through a process that includes mediation, where a mediator is appointed by PERB to help facilitate a settlement. The LTA and district met three times in the year. Schall thought progress was being made until March of last year.

The LTA mailed a letter to all parents of students in grades three through eight about the state’s Common Core tests addresses that were improperly obtained using; a possible violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

Skonberg read an apology at the August 2015 Board of Education meeting. “On behalf of the Association, I apologize to the Board and to the parents of our students for using district resources to send out the letters,” she said. “Please know that this was done without malice and will not be done in the future.”
Both parties viewed the action differently. The Board of Education saw it as a not bargaining in good faith. The LTA considered it a ploy by the district to extend negotiations. “They are unrelated issues and in no way does it relieve the district of its obligation to bargain,” Skonberg said.

Mediation talks collapsed and the parties have proceeded to the fact-finding phase. Both sides will present their demands and justifications to a fact-finder appointed by PERB. All PERB recommendations are non-binding.

The district claims it has reached agreements with several other unions during the past five years. The LTA asserts that the district has failed to reach agreements with four out five other bargaining units since 2011, and said the only union with a new contract is the head custodian, who number four members.

“I can tell that this is not simply a matter of dollars and cents,” Schall said. “The LTA remains one of the higher paid instructional units on Long Island, and LTA salaries remain the district’s largest expenditure.”

Raises ranging from 2.25 to 2.75 percent were part of the expired contract. The current median teacher salary in Lawrence is $114,396, based on figures found on seethroughny.org. In neighboring Lynbrook and East Rockaway districts, the median salaries are $103,453 and $113,473, respectively.

In response to Schall’s claim regarding LTA salaries, Skonberg said: “This is not the case and if it was, it is simply another reason to not bargain.”