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Mostly Cloudy Valley Stream teachers ratify new contract
Four-year deal includes one-year salary freeze
It’s a year late, but Valley Stream teachers have ratified a new four-year contract. The deal for the Valley Stream Teachers Association runs retroactively from July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2014.
“This is a fair contract for both sides,” said District 24 Superintendent Dr. Edward Fale, who coordinated negotiations for the four schools chiefs. “Everyone is aware of the economic climate and the strain of high property taxes.”
Teachers will receive a retroactive 1.25 percent increase for this school year, and another 1.25 percent raise in September. But they will not receive their next longevity-based step increment until next February. In 2012-13, the third year of the contract, there will be no raises.
The final year of the contract again calls for a 1.25 percent increase in salaries in September, with a step increment in February 2014. By the end of the contract, teachers will be one step behind the normal schedule of salary increases.
The contract applies to teachers in all four Valley Stream school districts. Larry Trogel, chairman of the joint boards negotiating committee, said that the discussion during the negotiations focused on salaries. “It was pretty much a money issue,” Trogel said. “I think we got to a number everyone could live with. We worked a long time on it.”
Richard Hermann, president of the teachers association, said that previous contracts have had raises in the 3 percent range, and decades ago the increases were as high as 7 or 8 percent. “This is the lowest I’ve ever seen in Valley Stream,” Hermann said, adding that this is also the first time there has been a freeze on salaries for at least one year.
According to Hermann, the contract was ratified by teachers by “a comfortable margin” at the union vote on June 14. “Given the current economic climate,” he said, “the new contract seems to be reasonable because it is in line with other settlements reached over the past year throughout Long Island. Ours is a little bit better than some and a little bit worse than others. Teachers understood that when they voted to ratify it.”
