By Doug Miller
For all the red, the membership insisted that it needed more green. In what has become a bi-weekly routine, more than 100 teachers attended Tuesday's Board of Education meeting to demand a favorable settlement of their contract negotiations. The teachers have been working under the terms of an expired contract since July 1, 2004.
The meeting began on a confrontational note, with Board of Education President Roy Lester recounting how he and fellow board Trustee Franklin Alvarado tried to bring a board-approved settlement offer to a negotiation meeting and were denied admittance by the union. "They were held at the door," said Trustee Steve Weitz. "You have to give us the opportunity to work with the union."
The union's president, Frank Volpe, called that an unfair characterization of what happened. "The board had its designated negotiators at the session, who were authorized to negotiate," Volpe said Tuesday night. "We were told two board members wanted to come in and listen in on negotiations, not offer a settlement."
While the terms under negotiation are tightly held, an independent arbiter's report in December revealed just how far apart the sides are. According to the report, the school district is asking for a one-year wage freeze, a second-year increase smaller than the Nassau County average of 3.33 percent, and a third-year increase in line with the county average for 2006-07 of 3.49 percent. The teachers are seeking increases of 5.5 percent the first year, 6 percent the second year and 6.5 percent the third year.
In December, the state labor board's hand-picked arbiter sided with the teachers, but his decision was non-binding and was unanimously rejected by the board. Next up, the board and union have agreed to go before what is called a super-conciliator, whose decision will also be non-binding.
The board maintains that it is backed by the public on this issue. Last year the board appointed a citizens' budget advisory committee to help steer the formation of the year's spending plan, which voters ultimately accepted. Among the committee's top recommendations were a two-year wage freeze for the teachers' union and a doubling of the size of the contributions teachers make to their health benefits, which lag far behind what their peers in other districts pay.
In addition to the scores of teachers present Tuesday night, several residents spoke out on the negotiations, nearly all of them in support of the union. Kathleen Nadal, a West Walnut Street resident who described herself as financially set for life thanks to the Long Beach schools, said she had that success because previous boards of education had been more generous. "I had these opportunities because people before me said yes to the teachers," she said to the board. "Settle this contract quickly and fairly or I may be in your seat next time."
Next year's school budget, if past trends are any indication, will easily surpass the $100 million mark for the first time. The district's voters, from East Atlantic Beach to Point Lookout, have passed the budget each of the last six years, although margins have slimmed in the past two years.
Since 2003, voters in Oceanside, Baldwin, Lawrence and West Hempstead have rejected at least one budget, and the Lawrence district, which includes Atlantic Beach, seems to have its budgets rejected annually, in part due to the unusually high percentage of the population that sends its children to private religious schools.
Literature handed out by the union suggested that the teachers were the only union in town not being treated fairly, pointing to recent contract settlements for the Long Beach police, which included a 20.5 percent raise over five years; the city's paid firefighters, who won a 22.25 percent increase over six years; and lifeguards, who got a 16 percent raise over five years.
"It is important for the Long Beach Classroom Teachers' Association's leadership to remember that we are unique on our small barrier island, and what the rest of the Nassau can or cannot afford isn't really germane to our residents," said Lester. "On this little strip of land we have more than 15 percent of our residents who are retired or living on a fixed income. Every day we read in the paper about people moving off Long Island because they no longer can pay the property taxes. Taxes have become a quality-of-life issue. It is necessary to address 'fairness' to these people too."
'Fairly healthy'
The district's auditor, Alan Yu of Coughlin, Foundotos, Cullen and Danowski, awarded the district a perfect rating for the 2004-05 school year, but warned that about $1 million of its $3.3 million fund balance is due to a one-shot revenue that resulted from negotiations between Legislator Denise Ford and Nassau County, which was well behind in payments in lieu of taxes it owed the district over several years.
"I would call the district fairly healthy," Yu said in his formal report to the board, which was unanimously (and no doubt gratefully) accepted. "The district's fund balance of 1.7 percent is within the state guidelines, although slightly less than the 2 percent maximum... While the district is healthy, you need to know it may not repeat itself, since you won't have this one-shot revenue again."
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