We have enormous respect for the job Herricks teachers do on behalf of the children of this community. We also respect the fact that the teachers have an existing contract which they are under no obligation to re-open. We had, however, hoped that they would be willing to do so given the serious economic challenges facing the community and the school district.
The two proposals we received from the teachers were unacceptable. The first involved savings of $1 million in 2011-12 but would have cost $4 million in job security provisions in 2011-12 and left intact raises of 4.8 percent in both 2012-13 and 2013-14. The second dropped the job security requirement but retained the raises in 2012-13 and 2013-14 and extended the contract through 2014-15 at a level which we found unacceptable. We do not believe in either mortgaging our future or maintaining jobs we cannot afford in order to obtain a one year concession.
The proposals made on behalf of the teachers called for substantially smaller concessions in 2011-12 than those made by our secretaries, custodians, aides and monitors for the same year and provided for much higher raises for teachers in 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 than the secretaries, custodians, aides and monitors agreed to. While we cannot require the teachers to open their contract, we will not agree to any deal on terms such as these. We are far apart and there are no talks scheduled at this point.
The Members of The Herricks Board of Education
