Voorheesville teachers frustrated with negotiations



VOORHEESVILLE — Teachers here packed the school-board meeting hall Monday night as the union president expressed their frustration with an unsettled contract.

The three-year contract expired on June 30, and negotiations have been ongoing since the spring of 2007.
Kathy Fiero, the president of the Voorheesville Teachers’ Association, which represents 115 teachers, told the board, "The VTA’s primary goal in these negotiations was to identify areas in our contract where we do not compare favorably to other Capital Region schools and to attempt to remedy those deficiencies. Given our teachers’ — and more importantly our students’ — performance, we believe this goal is reasonable."
She also said that, "to recruit and retain a fine staff of educational professionals," Voorheesville needs higher benefit and salary levels.

The current contract has a salary schedule with 28 steps along which teachers progress each year. A teacher with a bachelor’s degree on the first step earns $38,150 for 185 days a year; with a master’s degree, the step-one teacher earns $40,050. A teacher on the 28th step earns $78,590 with a bachelor’s degree and $80,490 with a master’s degree. There is added compensation for coaching, advising a club, or chairing a department.

Under the current contract, the district pays for 90 percent of individual health insurance on several different plans and 50 percent on dental insurance.

Both sides told The Enterprise that salary hikes had been agreed upon; while no one would name the current stumbling block, it seems likely it has to do with benefits.

C. James Coffin, the vice president of the school board and a member of the negotiating team, responded to Fiero’s comments. He ran Tuesday’s meeting in the absence of the board president, David Gibson, who was out of town on business, Coffin said.
"Negotiations typically do take time," Coffin told the crowd of over 130, stating that the major items "have been resolved."
"Only one or two things are left, that’s all," said Coffin. "That’s a helluva accomplishment...I think we’re inches away from resolution of the contract."
He went on, referring to the district’s lawyer and chief negotiator, Norma Meacham, "Our last exercise was to send a message through our hired gun...The response was unacceptable to us."
Addressing Fiero and the teachers, Coffin concluded, "Put your thinking caps on. Bring something back to us."

Laughter rippled across the hall as the four other school board members listened without comment.

Teachers’ view
"We’ve done all the thinking we can do," Fiero told The Enterprise afterwards. "We had most of an agreement wrapped up. They put in a term that would diminish the benefit," she said, declining to say what it was.
She did say, "It would result in tier-ing," meaning the benefit would apply to some teachers but not other, new hires.

Fiero said the teachers were unanimous in rejecting the offer.
"It’s really one item," said Robert Streifer, a French teacher on the negotiating team along with Fiero, Tim Mattison, Pam Christman, Tim Kelley, and Ken Young.
"The association has been extremely creative to come up with win-win solutions, which, one after the next, have been rejected," Streiffer told The Enterprise.
Fiero said the drawn-out negotiations have affected morale. She wore a big blue button to Tuesday’s meeting that said, "Working WITHOUT a contract."
"It’s difficult to work in an environment when you don’t feel respected as a professional," Fiero told The Enterprise. "The board is elected to represent the community. I’m wondering if it does."
Fiero said her association worked from a list of over a dozen schools used by the district as comparable and then did research on benefits and salaries at those schools. "We were second from the bottom on salary," she said. As a "data-driven district," when it comes to curriculum and student performance, Voorheesville should pay attention to this data, too, said Fiero.
Striefer took a printed card out of his wallet that itemized "VTA Talking Points" — three of them. The first is that teachers are paid in the bottom third of Capital Region schools while performing in the top 10, it says.
The second is that Voorheesville is losing highly-qualified candidates to better-paying districts. And the third is that teachers want a settlement that will "make us competitive with an average-paying school district in the Capital Region."

Fiero said that eight teachers have recently retired and the district did not get its first-choice candidates to replace them. She cited the example of a physics teacher from Massachusetts who thought the salary was not enough to offset the cost of living in the area.
Asked if the teachers would picket as they had in the past when negotiations weren’t fruitful, Fiero said, "We’re hoping not to. We hope the board will re-consider."

Board’s view

Asked if the board would re-consider, Coffin told The Enterprise that it is now up to the teachers to come back with an offer. "We’re waiting to hear," he said. "The teachers simply can’t have everything they want."
He went on about the new contract, "Quite frankly, we made significant improvements to the bottom and middle of the salary schedule, recognizing that we need to compete and maintain our qualified staff... Everybody agrees on salary."
The item that derailed negotiations "has nothing to do with program," said Coffin. "What they want has nothing to do with the improvement of the educational program, nothing whatsoever to do with teaching or learning. We said, ‘You can’t have it precisely the way you want it.’ We offered a modification and they said, ‘No.’ We said, ‘Give us something to work with.’
"It’s damn foolishness to expect we’ll give away taxpayer money," said Coffin who is on the district’s negotiation team along with fellow school-board members Kevin Kroencke and Timothy Blow. "When we negotiate a contract, we have to look at how that sets us up for the future," said Coffin.
Referring to recent statements by the governor and state legislators about capping taxes, since New York homeowners are the most heavily taxed in the country, Coffin said, "It’s getting considerable play downtown. If it happens, it could have a tremendous impact on the district’s ability to maintain programs...It’s our responsibility to move forward with caution, building in flexibility to our financial plan to preserve program."
Asked if the school board is fairly representing the community, Coffin said, "Absolutely. That’s what it’s all about. It’s our responsibility to deal with the financial side of the district. It’s our obligation to reject things that are out of step with the community...We’re the watchdogs of the treasury."
Coffin said of the school districts that Voorheesville has compared itself to, "We’re running with the big dogs." He went on, alluding to Voorheesville’s lack of a large commercial tax base, "Other districts have a greater financial ability than we do. We try to find the middle road."
Coffin praised "the willingness of taxpayers in the district to support a strong program." He concluded, "It’s our responsibility to say no when you’re just pouring money away." Referring to New York State United Teachers, the union with which the VTA is affiliated, Coffin said, "NYSUT doesn’t like to hear the word, ‘no.’"

Superintendent’s view
Superintendent Linda Langevin said that, in the current contract, while step one is "on the low end" compared to other schools, the top steps are equal to other districts, making Voorheesville competitive in the job market.

She said that the schools the district compared itself to were: Albany, Ballston Spa, Berne-Knox-Westerlo, Bethlehem, Burnt Hills, Capital Region BOCES, Cobleskill-Richmondville, Duanesburg, East Greenbush, Green Island, Guilderland, Middleburg, Mohonasen, Niskayuna, Ravena, South Colonie, Saratoga, Schoharie, Scotia-Glenville, Sharon Springs, and Shenendohowa.
Asked if it is hard for Voorheesville to attract and retain high-quality staff, Langevin said, "No. We’ve already addressed that in the new contract." She said salary changes had been agreed to. "We do have a high-quality staff," added Langevin.
She said the physics teacher from Massachusetts, to whom Fiero referred, wanted to start near the top step. "I’m limited in what I can offer," said Langevin. "He wanted Boston wages. We did get an excellent physics teacher," she said.
"There is competition," Langevin said of hiring teachers in the Capital Region. But, she went on, "The candidates I’ve recommended to the board have been highly qualified."
Responding to the "talking point" that highly-qualified candidates are being lost to other schools, Langevin said, "Once we settle, I think that will take care of itself."
She also said, "We are a small school and we have to balance the expectations with capacity and cost-effectiveness...The parents and the community support us well. We’re always mindful of balancing the budget. That’s close to our heart. We’re doing the best we can."
The agreement, she said, will be "a fair one."
Asked if there was room for compromise on what Langevin called the "one item left," which she, too, declined to name, Langevin said, "I do feel hopeful it will be solved."
About whether the board members are representing the community in negotiations, Langevin said, "I really think the community has trust in the board, as they should."
Asked if she thought the teachers’ morale was suffering with the drawn-out negotiations, Langevin said, "I know these teachers work very hard. Their hearts are there for the children. Although they may be personally impacted, they’re not changing their performance in a way that would have a negative impact. They have a lot of integrity and care for the children."