WH Teachers Near Contract Settlement

After working two years without a contract, West Hempstead teachers may soon finalize an agreement with the school district.

The West Hempstead Board of Education and the West Hempstead Education Association (WHEA) reached a tentative settlement over the teachers' contracts earlier this week. According to the school district, both groups accepted the recommendations presented recently by the Fact Finder who had been assigned to the case in late 2010.

Under the settlement, which involves a contract for the time period of July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2013, the teachers would be denied retroactive pay and additional money for the school years of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011.  (The Union had originally presented a proposal to the Fact Finder that called for salary increases of 1 percent plus step increment for 2009-2010 and 2010-2011.)

If this contract is signed, the teachers would also forego annual "step" increases and additional pay associated with the acquisition of college or in-service credits. However, the settlement does entitle them to raises of about 2 percent for the 2011-2012 school year and 1.75 percent for 2012-2013.

The Fact Finder's report stated that "this settlement is more modest than has been reached with a teachers’ unit in Nassau County in quite some time," but explained that "the District’s financial situation mandates greater moderation than has been seen in the past."

Another issue that had the union and the district at odds was over the new annual professional performance review (APPR) legislation, referring to section 3012-c of the Education Law enacted by the New York State Legislature. This mandates a new timeline regarding the evaluation of teachers and requires that any collective bargaining agreement entered into after July 1, 2010 comply with the provisions presented in this section.

The main concern that the district and the teachers both have is in regards to a provision that requires that an appeals procedure be established through negotiations that would permit teachers and principals to 'challenge the substance of the annual professional review.'

The district's stance on the issue is that the law obligates the teachers union to abide by these requirements. Plus, in order to conserve its resources, the district also wants the union to agree to limiting appeals to teachers who have received a "developing" or "ineffective" rating.

Meanwhile, the teachers say its premature to agree to any specific language on this this matter now, while both the Commissioner of Education and a task force are still working on fleshing out regulations to address the new law.

"In the Union’s view, there is a lack of clarity about many aspects of this legislation," the Fact Finder wrote. "The Union stresses that the new regulations will, for the first time, require that teachers’ evaluations be based on the performance of their students. It also has an expedited disciplinary process for teachers alleged to be incompetent. For these reasons, the Union argues that it is not fair and prudent for it to make any final commitments regarding APPR."

While admitting that he sees the merit of both sides, the Fact Finder stated that "the Union is being appropriately cautious about making a long term commitment considering that it does not know the full parameters of the APPR process." His recommendation is that once the Commissioner of Education issues final regulations on the APPR process, the parties should reopen negotiations on this issue.

Regarding professional development requirements for teachers. The Fact Finder suggested that no changes be made to the current policy in his case, stating, "If the union is concerned about the quality of offerings and the fact that some of the courses do not meet its teachers’ needs, it may raise the issue with the district administration for discussion and input."

The complete Fact Finders report can be found here. 

In order for the settlement to be finalized, a Memorandum of Agreement still needs to be ratified by the entire WHEA membership and approved by the Board of Education. It is anticipated that the WHEA membership will meet to consider possible ratification shortly and that the school board will consider approval at its May 10 meeting.

Stay tuned for more updates regarding this story.