Cautious Optimism on Teacher Contract - Time is Sticking Point

by Judy Silberstein

(January 24, 2008) Until this month, most of the negotiating between the Mamaroneck School District and the Mamaroneck Teachers’ Association for a new contract has occurred behind closed doors. On January 10, however, the Mamaroneck School Board mailed a lengthy letter to the community explaining its point of view on a number of questions: why are contract talks taking so long, what are the sticking points, what is the district hoping to achieve? In response, the MTA took to the airwaves – sharing their dismay at the district’s letter and giving their side of the issues in an interview on LMC-TV’s News Show.

Some of the discord appeared to be over, well, appearances. Parents may well be asking who is responsible for the process taking longer than usual – and neither side wants to be seen as intransigent.

The district letter said it offered a series of possible days for contract negotiation during the summer, “which the MTA declined to accept due to their own schedule restrictions,” while the MTA said it had offered other dates, which were unworkable due to the busy schedule of the district’s lawyer.

The district letter places partial blame for the slowness on last spring’s budget defeat, and, to a lesser extent, change in personnel. They mention also the length and complexity of the 74- page contract (suggesting there are elements they would like to remove to allow for greater flexibility), while Anne Borsellino, the MTA president said on LMC that compared to other districts, Mamaroneck’s contract is “like a pamphlet” (indicating the teachers are not interested in giving up elements negotiated in past years). The district also took pains to explain that the teachers are not working “without a contract” since the terms of the old contract continue and teachers have received salary increases for additional years of service and extra educational credits earned.

While the district said it was looking for a “a fair settlement that provides excellent working conditions with competitive salaries and benefits on a par with our neighboring districts,” it was also ”cognizant of the concerns we heard expressed by our taxpayers last spring about the level of the budget.“ In response, Ms. Borsellino noted that central administrators received a 5.5% increase and other benefits this summer, without the productivity “give backs” always asked of teachers. John Esposito, a member of the MTA negotiating team and its prior president, suggested that the budget defeat was due to the inclusion of additional administrators (a plan ultimately dropped).

Nevertheless, money issues appeared to be more negotiable for the teachers. Linda Sherwood, the MTA's chief negotiator, indicated a willingness on the part of teachers to consider the costs of health insurance premiums, for example.

Time on Task

The bigger issue for teachers- and perhaps for the district - is time, particularly how time would be controlled in the future.

Under what it wanted to achieve in the negotiations, the district mentioned items that would “impact the quality of education” and listed use of employee time during the workday (for additional grade level, building and district-wide meetings) and as part of the school calendar (number of instructional days, half days and Wednesday early dismissals).

This paragraph got the MTA’s attention, and they responded at the Tuesday, January 15 Mamaroneck School Board meeting with an orange flier entitled “It’s about time…” The flier refers to the increasing demand on what teachers need to do during their non-teaching periods, such as communicating with parents and preparing for special education conferences. They favored “worthwhile professional-development,” but would rather have more instructional time. They referred to non-instructional meetings as often unproductive, unplanned or unfocussed. During the LMC-TV show, Ms. Sherwood said Mamaroneck teachers already have the longest day and the third longest year in Westchester, something they agreed to in the past in exchange for not having to pay for health benefits.

The time issue was described as “crucial.”

“Quite possibly, this will be the single issue that ultimately causes us to declare impasse,” said the MTA flier. “Our teachers will fight to maintain control.”

Next Steps

This week’s meetings were postponed due to the death of Ms. Borsellino’s father, but a lengthy session is scheduled for Wednesday, January 30.

A glimpse at where negotiations are heading was provided in a comment from one MTA negotiator to the Gazette on Thursday, January 24.

“We are cautiously optimistic about certain things and concerned about others,” said Mr. Esposito. “We seem to be moving closer on salary and benefit packages, but there are sticking points on time and duties to which teachers are assigned,” he confirmed. “Working with kids – there’s no problem –but cleaning up after chaos in the cafeteria or hallway supervision are out of the question.”

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