Contract talks between the Ossining School District and the Ossining Teachers

Association are headed for mediation early in December after both sides agreed they need outside help to reach a deal.

Terry Bartok, president of the teachers union, said that the two groups aren’t making progress in negotiations.

“We are unable to come to terms with the district, and they can’t come to agreement with us, so we’ve reached an impasse and will now contact a mediator,” she said.
Attorneys from the school district and the union have agreed on Professor Robert Simnelkjaer as mediator and expect to sit down with him early next month to try and come to a new deal.
The teachers’ three-year contract expired June 30 and the staff have been working without a deal since then.

John Gross, managing partner with the law firm Ingerman Smith, is representing the Ossining School District in the talks.

“The reason we’re going to impasse is very simple,” Gross said. “The country’s in the middle of a major financial crisis and the board is very concerned for the taxpayers. We’re facing the potential of a mid-year unexpected cut in state aid and the predictions are next year where there will be a $12 billion state deficit and state aid will be devastated – that’s the problem.
“We have to come up with a settlement that embraces those problematic years and produces a fair increase for the teachers but is fair to the taxpayers as well,” Gross added.

Bartok said she couldn’t go into specific issues, but noted that one of the topics is how much school time will continue to be set aside for planning during the school day that reduces work time spent teaching in the classroom.

“We have had planning time now for a number of years and we don’t want to open that part of the contract,” Bartok said. “We’re being asked to do things we don’t feel comfortable doing, but I’m not going to answer whether or not [the district] wants to cut that back.”

Other issues being negotiated include salaries and health benefits. In general, cost of living increases usually reach 3 to 4 percent annually. “We’re being extremely reasonable we understand these very serious economic times,” Bartok said. “We feel that we’re being offered something that is so unreasonably far below the cost of living that we couldn’t function with it. I won’t get specific at all but I will tell you it is far below the cost of living,” she said.
The length of a new contract is also one of the issues being discussed.

Last month, Peekskill teachers and the city’s board of education reached a new two-year contract that provides a raise of 3.1 percent and a total of 3.9 percent in the second year. The two sides negotiated for several months before coming to an agreement.

There are 385 teachers in the Ossining Teachers Association, Bartok said. The district has reached contract settlements with the other unions in the district, she said.

All school districts are facing large cutbacks in state aid under austerity budget cuts proposed last week by Gov. David Paterson. The negotiations for a new deal are being conducted in an atmosphere that could see layoffs come next year if aid levels continue to fall.

“I’ve been in this district for more than 30 years and there have been good economic times and very difficult economic times,” Bartok said. “In the 1980s, there were a large number of teachers and staff that were laid off because of economic issues and under-population. I really don’t know at this point. I’ll guess we’ll all have to find out what Gov. Paterson gets approved by the legislature.”

Gross said that part of the board’s goal in the negotiations is to prepare for the tough times ahead in a difficult economic climate.

“Back in 1989, there was a mid-year cut in state aid that was pretty dramatic. Districts that had insufficient unallocated reserves had to do a fair amount of layoffs in reverse order of seniority by tenure,” he said.

Bartok expects a new deal will be done before school opens next fall.
“I am so hoping that the contract is resolved before the end of the school year. I have a lot of faith in our country and faith in this school district,” she said.