By Mike Schnitzel
The teachers were there to protest the district¹s decision to break off joint negotiations among the four school districts and the Valley Stream Teachers Association. The high school district wants to hold separate negotiations with VSTA instead of the joint talks involving all the districts that have been the traditional mode of negotiations for decades.
³What we want them to know is that these are the people we represent and these are the people they will have to negotiate with,² said VSTA President Richard Herrmann, summing up the message the hundreds of teachers wanted to convey to the board. ³The district is wasting everyone¹s time and money, because either way they¹ll have to negotiate with us.²
On April 5, the Public Employee Relations Board ruled that VSTA¹s charge that the high school district had violated the Taylor Law, which covers most public employees in the state, including teachers, would be deferred to arbitration. ³We didn¹t feel that this case belonged in front of PERB,² said Richard Zuckerman, the counsel for the high school district during negotiations. ³There was no violation of the Taylor Law on the part of the high school.²
Herrmann said that VSTA had expected the case to wind up in arbitration, where a decision will be made on whether the school district has violated its contract with VSTA. ³We¹ll see how the arbitration goes, and that could solve the whole issue,² Herrmann said. ³If it doesn¹t, we¹ll have to go back to PERB.²
VSTA initially filed suit against the district after the school board decided to negotiate separately from the elementary district boards at a meeting last August. The board unanimously reaffirmed that decision in January. ³We¹re not out to union-bust,² said board President Anthony Iadevaio. ³We want to focus on issues that pertain to the high school, and we feel we can have the same quality negotiations we¹ve had in the past negotiating with [VSTA] one on one.²
Iadevaio added that the school board would abide by whatever was decided in arbitration. An arbitration hearing has been scheduled for May 2.
The school districts¹ current contract with VSTA expires on June 30.
Tax levy to drop nearly 3 percent
The state budget that was approved two weeks ago leaves the Valley Stream Central High School District with $2 million more in state aid than initially proposed. At Tuesday¹s meeting, the high school board voted 5-3 to use the funds to help offset the tax levy.
The district¹s $92 million proposed budget initially called for a 5.98 percent increase in the tax levy. With the additional state aid, the tax levy increase will drop to 3.08 percent.
The tax rate will not be determined until the Board of Assessors gives the district the proportional breakdown of the village¹s four classes of property on May 1.
Three of the board members suggested using $1.4 million of the additional $2 million to offset the tax levy, and put $600,000 in the capital reserve fund. Trustee Paul DePace said that the reserve fund money could be used to hire an architect to examine the Central automotive shop building and determine what work would be necessary to permanently secure the foundation of the building.
Iadevaio said he was disappointed that the board did not discuss using that money for the auto program. ³I had made a commitment to the public,² Iadevaio said. ³Unfortunately, I did not have a majority of the board with me. They were concerned about the tax burden on the public this year.²
The board voted at its February meeting to withhold funding for the automotive program at Central in the proposed school budget, with questions about the stability of the auto shop building heightening the board¹s concern about the viability of the program.
³The program will run until 2009, and hopefully we can revisit this again down the road,² Iadevaio said. ³To me personally, this is not a dead issue.²
Comments about this story? Mschnitzel@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 265.
