[Originally transmitted on Elwood Community Network on 4/16]
For those who have not gone to the District website today, you will find a link to the reply from the Board of Education to a revised offer from the teachers union, Elwood Teachers Alliance.
You will find that letter by going to the Home Page, http://www.elwood.k12.ny.us/, and following the first item under "Headlines", titled "Board of Education response to the Elwood Teachers Alliance offer New!"
It is obvious that the union continues to offer a financial concession but only, repeat, only if the District will agree to a contract extension plus a commitment to future increases.
You will find the BOE's financial analysis in the body of the letter referenced above. The verbal summary of the Board is found in the following three sentences:
"The request to extend your contract for two years, through June 2016, in light of diminishing state aid, and a looming tax cap with no specific guarantee of mandate relief, leaves us unable to extend a further financial commitment to your unit members. Simply put, we are unable to write you a check now without knowing if we will be able cover the expense. If we were to make such a commitment, the future increase of salary expense you proposed will put us above the tax cap and our only recourse would be to eliminate jobs and/or valuable programs."
I don't know how you react to this scenario, but to me the concept of sacrifice, which is what all of us are being asked to do, is just that. Sacrifice. It should not be a negotiation to get "x" benefit in the future by giving up "y" today.
The students are not going to get any carve-back, or future benefit, for what they have to give up in 2011/12 in terms of reductions in either programs or after-school activities.
The taxpayers are not going to get any carve-back, or future benefit, for what they are being asked to do in terms of significant tax increases for 2011/12.
The benefit to the teachers union is that they would be able to preserve the jobs of many of their colleagues, the younger teachers, the future of our schools and our society, providing that the more-senior teachers (since we are still faced with the last hired-first fired system imposed on us by Albany) simply give up a scheduled increase in 2011/12.
That's right, they are not being asked to take an actual CUT in salary; they are simply asked to not take a scheduled INCREASE in salary for 2011/12.
I remain hopeful that wiser, and calmer, and more compassionate minds and hearts among the teachers union's Executive Board will prevail.
But the clock is ticking ever more loudly, and time is flying by ever so swiftly.
Jerry Hannon
About Me
- Jerry Hannon
- After a thirty year career at Chase, serving as a Managing Director and Global Relationship Manager, I took early retirement in the summer of 2000, and that enabled me to become active in community, school district, and town activities. Since 2004, I have been a member of the Elwood School District's Citizens Finance/Budget Advisory Committee, and since 2005 I have been a member of its Audit Committee, and serve on three other committees of the district. During the 2006/07 school year I was President of the Elwood PTA Council, and I remain active in PTA activities. In the community I serve as EVP for Community Affairs of the Old Chester Hills Civic Association, and served the Town of Huntington as a member of its Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee. For thirty five years, I have been a Director of the NY Council of the Navy League, and currently am Chair of its Audit Committee. A Vietnam Veteran, I retired as a Commander in the US Navy Reserve, and previously commanded two Naval Security Group reserve units.