By ANTHONY BOTTAN
After the Central High School District Board of Education ratified the contract at its Oct. 7 work session, the deal became official. It is retroactive to July 1, 2007, and runs through June 30, 2010.
The three elementary school boards, as well as the teachers' union, ratified the deal in September.
Under the new agreement, teachers will be required to spend more time with students. Every faculty member in all four districts must now be available for extra help after school, once a week, for no less than 35 minutes. According to the school districts' attorney, Richard Zuckerman, teachers in the high school district will have to provide either one 35-minute block of extra help, or two 30-minute blocks. "It varies depending on how long the school day is," Zuckerman said. "But it will be no less than 35 minutes at every level."
The other major negotiating point in the contract was the issue of professional development. Zuckerman said that starting next year, all teachers in the four school districts will have to attend five mandatory after-school meetings. Probationary teachers, he added, will have to come in for four additional sessions on top of that.
At the high school level, Zuckerman said, teachers will be required to participate in up to 20 additional periods per year for professional development or building duties. Teachers may be asked to use up to 10 of those periods for group instruction - for example, to prepare a group of students for Regents exams. "We have agreed to dedicating more time to the students, during and after school," Zuckerman said. "This will help teachers become better educators and will make them more available to students who need their assistance."
Patrick Naglieri, VSTA's vice president and negotiations chairman, said he thinks the new contract is fair. "I think both sides should be satisfied with the outcome," Naglieri said. "The purpose of the negotiations was to educate each other on our concerns. We believe it is fair to teachers, but it is the kids who come out the big winner."
Teachers will receive a 3 1/2 percent raise for each of the three years of the contract. Last year's raise will be paid retroactively.
Naglieri said he thinks the negotiations dragged on because the teachers' union did not get to the bargaining table as fast as it should have. The Central High School District initially wanted to negotiate separately from the other districts, he said, and that held up the process. "We don't understand why they wanted out," Naglieri said. "I think an error in judgment was made. It held up the process, and we could only imagine it cost taxpayers thousands, and it did not achieve anything."
District 30 was the first to approve the new contract, on Sept. 22, followed by District 13 the next day and District 24 two days later.
Naglieri added that working under a new contract, rather than an expiring one, alleviates the stress on teachers. "Working under an expiring contract creates unnecessary angst," he said. "People are uncertain about their salary and working conditions. That lack of certainty creates a problem."
Ken Cummings, co-chair of the board negotiating committee, said he was pleased that the contract was finalized and that the pressing issues in the deal were resolved quickly. "This is going to help students get better results," Cummings said. "We need to give them as many opportunities as we can, and this helps toward that goal."
Andrew Hackmack contributed to this story. Comments about it? ABottan@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 246.
