South Huntington District, Teachers Battle Over Givebacks

As the deadline for finalizing the 2011-12 budget nears, South Huntington teachers have offered to give back money to save several academic programs but the calendar and the strings attached are apparently fatal flaws.

South Huntington Teachers Association president Dennis Callahan presented the district with an offer for a $2,300 pre-tax payment by each of his members toward health costs, worth about $1.2 million, which would have to be used to keep the ninth-period schedule in place and save 18.2 teaching positions.

Over the last several weeks as the board held public hearings to discuss the budget, dozens of students and parents had pleaded with the board to keep the extra period of class, saying it was essential to giving students time for more electives and advanced classes. The popular extra slot of classes has meant students have been able to earn far more credits than needed for graduation but also allowed them explore subjects they might not have otherwise had time to try.

At the last hearing April 6, board member Melanie Vassallo had warned Callahan that she would vote against a budget that included just such an arrangement that preserved jobs but wasn’t sufficient to protect other programs or lower the proposed tax rate increase.

And school superintendent Thomas C. Shea said Friday that the offer was too little, too late, noting that the school board is scheduled to adopt its final budget on April 13, followed by one more hearing and then the public vote May 17.  

“If teachers were really concerned about saving programs this dialogue would started March 1, not April 1,” Shea said.

“The proposal Mr. Callahan brought to the table is a thinly veiled attempt to save union jobs at taxpayer expense. He has known for the better part of a month where the BOE stood in what they were seeking. Quite frankly this offer is much too little and a little too late,” Shea said.

But Callahan disagreed. “The teachers are willing to do something but the district has not given me the courtesy of responding,” he said. “At this point, that's the only thing on the table. I think $2,300 per person is rather substantial.

“Teachers are offering to pay,” he said. “It costs the district nothing. We would have paid for all academics program (that would be cut), completely at teachers’ expense. That's more than generous. They haven’t communicated personally…. But I’m assuming they're not going to accept that gift.”

The giveback comes with strings that Shea opposes, among them, according to documents submitted to the district, requirements that  in 2011-2012, “all union members be employed in the same capacity as the 2010-2011 school year.”

 “That means that should enrollment decline or we need one less teacher, we won’t be able to adjust,” Shea said.

The union also wants fewer hours spent on professional development requirements, which includes a mix of meetings beyond regular school hours.  Callahan said that the training was a waste of time.  “I could not fill up the five fingers on one hand with how many my district development sessions have been worth while,” he said. “Everything communicated could be done through a memo.”

But Shea argued that with changes in standards required by state and federal rules,  the training is essential. “If you’re working for a private company, you don’t want the main IT guy to not know the newest information about security or networking,” he said, adding that a certain number of hours are required by state law.

And, Shea said, the conditions also mean teachers would be getting paid for 32 to 48 hours that they actually wouldn’t work.

“It's disappointing,” Callahan said.  “The teachers as a community have tried to save programs and the school board is not interested.

“I'm not going to try to pretend there is no a correlation between jobs and programs.  But…we fund it fully. We should be applauded for that.”

 As to the next step, “We fight it out on Wednesday,” he said. 

The dispute with the union comes against the preparation of what is widely considered to be the toughest budget in years, with increasing costs combined with severe cuts in aid and an outcry against large property tax increases.

State aid this year was initially cut by 8.45 percent, or $2,277,848 for the coming budget. When the state budget was approved last week, about $560,000 was restored to the South Huntington school budget, meaning, Shea said, that the tax increase would be set in the upper 5 percent range.  He said he would recommend to the board that the all of the restored money to used to control the tax rate increase.