Rockville Centre school district to present spending plan that stays within tax-levy cap and maintains all programs and staffing levels

Members of the bargaining unit representing Rockville Centre teachers and teaching assistants, the largest of seven bargaining units in the school district, voted on Tuesday to ratify a memorandum of agreement for a new four-year contract. The Board of Education is expected to vote on whether to approve the memorandum of agreement at its next meeting on April 3.

“I am thankful for the overwhelming support of our schools that the teachers and teaching assistants have shown in ratifying this contract,” said Board of Education President Liz Dion. “This contract protects jobs for several years and allows us to continue to provide the excellent level of education our community expects.”

Superintendent of schools Dr. William Johnson also reacted to the news with praise for the teaching professionals who are making it possible to keep the district’s programs, class size, extracurricular activities including sports and staffing levels intact, while meeting the spirit and letter of the state’s new 2 percent tax levy cap legislation. “The district administration and Teachers’ Association have come together in negotiating changes to their bargaining agreement that will allow the district to put forth a budget for the 2012/2013 school year without any cuts to programs or services,” Johnson said in a written statement. “Throughout our discussions, we talked about maintaining the integrity of our school system, doing our best to have no reduction in services or programs and, in fact, keeping our students in the forefront to make sure that the quality of their education is the same this year and into the future. Ratification by the membership of the Teachers’ Association shows the support we have from our instructional staff in keeping our programs and staff intact and keeping the quality of education for all students as the number one priority.”

In a written statement, Teachers’ Association President Viri Petterson said,

“The Rockville Centre Teachers’ Association realizes the current economic climate has severely impacted families across the United States, including our community. We worked proactively to ensure that our district maintains the level of educational integrity for which we have always strived, and, arrived at a smart and fair agreement for all stakeholders — one that results in significant taxpayer savings, addresses the tax cap, keeps class size intact and saves our members’ jobs. Our motto is ‘We Care,’ and moving forward in this vein does show that indeed we do care about our students and residents.”

At the last board meeting, Johnson announced that the Office Staff Association, which represents clerical workers in the district, had also ratified a new four-year contract.