(After the Katonah-Lewisboro school board approved a series of changes to the teachers' union's existing contract on Thursday, board President Mark Liption offered his remarks. A copy of his statement is below)
Tonight we are pleased to have taken action on the Memorandum of Agreement that was ratified by our teachers union earlier today. The memorandum is an addendum to our current contract, which expires on June 30th. Additional negotiations are ongoing, and key issues of compensation, benefits and work rules are yet to be resolved.
This agreement contains an early retirement incentive, which is estimated to save the district about $32,500 in the first year for each employee who accepts it, with additional saving to both cash outlay and OPEB in the years to come. Additionally, the MOA calls for replacement of the current health care plan with a premium based, New York State plan, which is a more cost-effective solution. Our projections show that this new plan could save the district millions of dollars per year once fully implemented with significant saving to be realized in the budget just passed on Tuesday. This action may help reduce the pace of our layoffs and will help lower our costs per student and bring them into line with other districts.
As I mentioned at the start, our negotiation with the teachers is ongoing, as is that of our other collective bargaining units. As such, we see this approval as a great first step, one that offers both tangible contractual improvements as well as meaningful progress towards evolving our collective thinking to one of financial sustainability. While that evolution may occur, the details of executing on that promise can still take many months to accomplish. I would like to thank the teachers for approving this change and of course, we are grateful for the community's patience during these negotiations.
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