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Date: Nov. 7, 1997
Last week the Massapequa Board of Education outlined their current proposal for ending the three-year-long contract dispute with the Massapequa Federation of Teachers.
The proposal, made public by MSD Attorney Greg Guercio at their Aug. 30 meeting, proposes a five-year set of salary increases which surpass the recommendations outlined in the fact finders report. However, the proposal has been on the table for the past month and the MFT has yet to issue a counter-proposal or to accept or reject the boards proposal.
“For about a month now the board has had a new salary proposal on the table,” said Guercio. “That salary proposal calls for increases above the fact finders recommendation.”
The offer made by the board calls for a set of salary increases of 2.5, 2.75, 3.0, 3.25 and 3.5 for a five-year time frame. The fact-finder, appointed by the state of New York, recommended a salary increase of 2.5 percent for the first three years and 2.85 percent for the last two years of a five year contract.
But, the increases would also be compounded onto the automatic salary increases set in the teachers step schedule. Under this system, teachers in the district are given automatic increases in their rate of pay for the first fifteen years of their employment and increases in five-year increments afterwards.
For example, a teacher with 10 years employment in the district and a master’s degree plus 30 credits is automatically entitled to a $13,997 increase in salary over a five year period, with or without a contract settlement. Under the fact finders salary increase recommendation, which was originally accepted by the board and rejected by the teachers union, this teacher would, over a five-year period, receive an additional $9,248 increase in salary. The combined total salary would rise, over five years, from $52,467 per year to $ 75,712 per year.
The new proposal, put forth by the board of education, would add an additional $10,564 to a teachers salary. The average increase would, added with the automatic increases of the step schedule, amount to an average raise of 9.37 percent per year or 40.06 percent over five years.
School Board President Robert Thompson, in his own opinion, said "I see the children as the first priority. It is ahead of my obligation to the taxpayers and far ahead of my obligations to satisfy our employee demands, which in many cases totally ignore the needs of our children."
“The proposal is offered in exchange for an item that the board is asking for if the MFT will accept a settlement above the fact finders report,” said Guercio.
One of the stipulations in the board's current proposal, in exchange for an increase in salary above the fact finders recommendation, is for an additional day of classroom instruction starting in 1998-99 and a second additional day of instruction to begin in 1999-2000. Also the district is asking for the teachers to contribute to 30 hours of staff development on an annual basis.
“The fact that they indicated a willingness to spend more money is good, but the fact that they are asking for more time isn’t going to make a settlement happen,” argued Don Nobile, vice-president of the MFT. Nobile said that the additional hours would amount to a total of six days of uncompensated time.
“We wouldn’t have a problem with additional instruction time provided that there is compensation for it,” said Richard Goldman, a Massapequa High school teacher.
Guercio announced that the board would be willing to keep the transfer clause and the preference sheet clause in the contract. Preference sheets give the teachers the right to retain a certain number of classes taught the year before. The transfer clause limits the district’s ability to move teachers from one building to another or from differing grade levels. The MFT contends that transfer clauses and preference sheets protect teachers from administrative abuses.
“Unfortunately, because of years of a very poor relationship with some administrators who have been very vindictive” is why Goldman said that the transfer clause and preference sheet system has become a major point of contention between the MFT and the board of education.
The board of education, which originally proposed eliminating the clauses, now says that the clauses may remain intact but be subject to major revisions. Guercio contended that the board’s proposal would change the system while leaving the structure of it intact.
“We are willing to change the language but not to the extent that the district is proposing,” Nobile noted.
“The structure remains the same but everything else changes,” countered Goldman, who ran unsuccessfully last year for MFT president. “In other words, if I let you take my car, will you promise not to give me a parking ticket.”
Nobile added that the MFT is now willing to accept a compromise in the health insurance premium that district employees would have to pay. The MFT has in the past stated that no contribution would be given in a new contact while the district was asking for a ten percent contribution. “The union is willing to meet the district midway on the medical,” said Nobile.
