VOORHEESVILLE — Bus drivers, custodians, clerks, secretaries, cafeteria workers, and all other employees of the school district who are not teachers or business-office staff will receive a 4.25 percent raise next school year and then another 4.75 percent raise in salary for 2007-08.

The worker’s union, United Employees of Voorheesville, and the district administration issued a memorandum of agreement after only five negotiation meetings. The three year contract, running from July, 2003 to June 30, 2006, has been extended for two additional years, with no adjustment beyond the new attached salary schedule representative of the agreed-upon raises.
The negotiations were "very positive," Chris Allard, the UEV president, told The Enterprise this week. She is a bus driver for the district. This year, the whole process was a "very pleasant experience," she said.
Allard had sent out a questionnaire to all her members, 103 people, and they agreed overwhelmingly that the approach to take this year was to "not to open up our contract"just go for the money," Allard said.

And the raises she secured as their negotiator were fair, she said.
"I thought it was the best we were going to get," she added. She had rejected the district’s initial offer, Allard said.

In 2006-07, the starting salary for a bus driver will be $12.20 an hour; food-service helper, $9.88 an hour; typist, $11.54; teacher’s aid, $10.96; teaching assistant, $12.74; and a custodian, $10.13.

The last-tiered step, or the highest workers in these positions can be paid next year is: $15.21 for a bus driver; $12.32 for a food service helper; $14.38 for a typist; $13.66 for a teacher’s aid; $15,87 for a teaching assistant; and $12.62 for a custodian.

Negotiations

The school board, on Monday night after an executive session, unanimously approved the memorandum of agreement . The UEV also voted on the memorandum on Thursday and approved the agreement with a 68-to-4 vote.
This was Allard’s first time negotiating with the new superintendent, Linda Langevin, and she publicly made a statement at the school board meeting expressing that it was a "pleasure" to negotiate with Langevin.
"She was very receptive to everything," Allard later told to The Enterprise. Most of the negotiations were one-on-one sessions with herself and Langevin, Allard said. The school’s negotiator, Andy Nolte, and the UEV’s New York State United Teachers’ representative each attended at least one meeting.

NYSUT is the largest union in the state and is a federation of more than 900 local unions, representing school employees and other education and health professionals, including college faculty.

Nolte, Langevin, and Assistant Superintendent for Business Sarita Winchell were the only people sitting on the district’s side of the negotiation table, Langevin told The Enterprise on Tuesday. The two school board members assigned to negotiations are only brought in when there is a change in the contract language being discussed, Langevin said, such as a change in insurance or health benefits.

However, Langevin said, she kept the board members apprised of what was going on, and told them the UEV was only interested in getting raises, which the board supported.
These raises do two things, board member James Coffin said. They "bring everybody up a little higher" and makes the positions at Voorheesville more competitive to secure employees for needed jobs, he said. Coffin is the board vice president and one of the board members who would be involved in contract negotiations.

He said the board was comfortable not dealing with the nuts and bolts of the UEV contract his year, because there are a number of major employment issues on the horizon and the board members first need to get their heads together and map out a plan.
"It’s just a matter of timing," Coffin said. The board was consumed this year with other things, including legal problems and transitioning to a new superintendent. There is just so much that can be done in one year, Coffin said. Employment issues are a heavy duty, he said.

During budget sessions, it was suggested employees contribute more to health insurance and drug plans. The board first needs to do the research and understand the issues, Coffin said this week.
"There are changes on the horizon for employment," Coffin said in both the private and public sectors, and the board wasn’t going to act prematurely, he said.

Allard said she’s glad the contract negotiations are over for now and secure for another two years, plus the UEV is happy that the teachers’ union will now be the forerunner in setting the precedent for employment benefits.

The UEV contract was the first to stipulate workers had to pay 10 percent of their health-insurance, Allard said.

Langevin said she’ll be talking to the teachers at the end of next year.
There are 103 members of the UEV and only two people who could do not belong to the union; they still have to pay the dues, even if they don’t want to be a member and gain a right to vote, Allard said. It’s a "closed shop," she said, which was something worked in a couple contracts ago. Workers who don’t want to join the union have an agency fee deducted directly from their paychecks by the school district.

In arguing for raises, Allard said, she used other small school-district rates for comparison, including Berne-Knox-Westerlo, Shalmont, and Duanesburg. Allard does not compare workers’ salaries to North Colonie, Guilderland, Bethlehem, or any other large district, she said.

The UEV is a unique bargaining unit, Allard said, because it covers many interest groups; her union has to address concerns of teaching assistants and mechanics at the same time. Some years, the union pushes for large raises for particular positions because of demand, or spots that have been difficult to fill.
"This time I felt, ‘Let’s get some money in for everybody,’" Allard said. In the next round of negotiations, two years from now, Allard said, she plans to send out a survey again — this time asking members to write down the concerns they have, to have them addressed, when the contract will be re-worked.