School district has negotiated six-year contract with teachers union

The Riverhead Board of Education is set to vote on a six-year contract with the teachers union at its meeting Tuesday afternoon.

The new agreement provides for salary increases totaling 3.5% over the six-year contract period, with no increases in the first two years, increases of .75% in years three and four and 1% increases in years five and six.

The agreement also “rescales” the salary schedule that determines what an individual employee earns based on a combination of years of service and educational attainment.

Under the current schedule the salaries of teachers increase relatively quickly in the first 10 or 12 years of employment, but then they plateau, said Riverhead Central Faculty Association president Gregory Wallace.

Employees in tier six of the New York State Retirement System — the most recent hires — are required to work until age 62 before they are eligible for retirement, Wallace said. Teachers’ salaries don’t increase in steps 25 through 30. Delaying retirement to age 62 means teachers would be working longer without a step increase at the end of their careers. Percentage increases are nominal in the post-tax cap era, so teachers could conceivably work a full decade without any real pay increase, Wallace said.

Re-engineering the schedule, as per the new agreement, “smooths it out” by redistributing some funds from lower steps to higher steps, without increasing the total expenditure, Wallace said. In fact, in the coming fiscal year, the school district will save $300,000 with the new schedule in place, Wallace said.

The new contract provides increases in five of the six years in stipends payable for coaching and co-curricular activities such as clubs. There will be a 0% increase in year one, a 1.25% increase in years two and three and 1.5% increases in years four, five and six. Teachers’ compensation for working as coaches and advisors in the final year of the current contract range from $933 for some clubs to $8,591 for certain head varsity coaches.

The union agreed to have its members paying a larger percentage of their health insurance premiums. Under the current contract, which expires June 30, teachers hired before June 30, 1996 contribute 10% of their health insurance premium cost. Under the new contract, teachers hired before June 30, 1996 will pay 12% in year one or 5h3 contract, 14% in year two, 16% in year three, 18%in year four and 20% in years five and beyond. Teachers hired on or after July 1, 1996 already contribute 20% of their health insurance premium cost.

The district’s annual contribution to the member benefit trust fund, for costs associated with certain insurance coverage — including life insurance, dental insurance, and long-term disability insurance — will increase from $1,200 per full-time equivalent employee in the current year to $1,300 in year one of the new contract, $1,375 in year two, $1,450 in year three, $1,525 in year four, $1,550 in year five and $1,575 in year six. A provision in the current contract that calls for the district’s contribution to increase to $1,608 per FTE upon the expiration of the current contract (June 30 of this year) is deleted by the new agreement.

The new agreement also deletes the district’s responsibility to contribute $150 per FTE to a flexible benefit plan.

A provision requiring the district to pay a 9% differential to guidance counselors has been removed in the new agreement.

A second memorandum of agreement with RCFA is on the tomorrow’s agenda also. It would extend an Oct. 7, 2019 retirement incentive agreement for the period of June 4 through June 20.

“I feel pretty good with it. I think we’ve put the district in a safe financial spot for the first two years of its term, with zero increases,” school board president Greg Meyer said. “And that’s especially important right now, having to deal with the fiscal impacts of the COVID crisis,” he said.

“It was important to us to have no increases the first couple of years. It gives us a little more elbow room with everything up in the air since the pandemic,” Meyer said.

Meyer said he believes a majority of the board will support the deal.

The terms of the new agreement “make sense for the district,” said Meyer, a 12-year member of the board. He chose not to seek election to a fifth three-year term and will step down June 30.

The board has been negotiating the terms of the new teachers union contract for months, Meyer said. The memorandum of agreement with the union is dated May 29, a few days after the board’s last regular meeting. It was posted on the district website this morning, with the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting.

The district is in the midst of a ground-breaking election. Gov. Cuomo canceled school votes statewide due to the coronavirus pandemic and ordered that all school elections take place by absentee ballot. The governor mandated every school district in the state to mail absentee ballots to every registered voter, along with a pre-addressed, postage-paid return envelope. The governor’s executive order required ballots to be received by the school districts by close of business June 9, but on June 7 Cuomo announced the deadline for receipt of mailed ballots would be extended to June 16.

The school board has appointed 24 inspectors of election, plus two co-chairpersons, for the vote count, which will begin at 5:01 p.m. tomorrow in the high school gym and continue until 9 p.m. or until all the ballots are counted. If the count cannot be completed tomorrow night, it will resume at 9 a.m. on Wednesday and continue until completed.