Letter: K-L Union Responds to Forward Together KLSD

(The Katonah Lewisboro District Teachers Association, the district's teachers' union, has submitted a response letter to Forward Together KLSD, which has circulated an online petition calling for resolution of contract negotiations. Below is a copy of the reply letter)

To Forward Together KLSD:

We appreciate your support of teachers and recognition that the new state mandates around testing, curriculum and teacher assessment have combined to make our jobs more stressful.

But, your attempt to reach out to the rank and file membership of the KLDTA in an effort to “make sure (the leadership is) representing you in a way that is positive, collaborative and professional — and that they are actively working on solutions” is presumptuous and insulting to the teachers of the district who have elected the leaders of the KLDTA to serve as their voice.

Your plea to the membership, published in the Ledger suggests that you believe the leadership of the KLDTA has acted as an impediment to progress. The source of your information, whether it is one person or many, is wrong. Although we could give you many examples, here are some of the most recent.

A bit of history…Twenty years ago, the KLDTA worked with the district to make the switch to a self-funded health plan, reducing costs to the district by almost $3 million in the first year alone. In that time, the insurance industry has changed and self-funded plans have become more expensive than the alternatives.

As a result, the leadership of the KLDTA along with members of our association worked with Mike Jumper, Margaret Taylor and other members of the district office for almost two years to find a less expensive but comparable plan to POMCO. That the switch took two years to achieve has nothing to do with stalling or foot dragging by either side. It is because identifying, researching and selecting a health care provider is a massive undertaking and of such significance, for all parties, that it cannot be rushed.

The recent agreement regarding the switch from POMCO to NYSHIP health insurance promises to produce a potential savings of more than $2 million in the next year alone. This agreement was negotiated by the KLDTA and the district, in good faith and behind closed doors. It too shows that we are, as always, working for the benefit of all stakeholders in the district.

What your petition and presentation suggest is that you do not know, or fail to understand that the KLDTA leadership is working every day with Mike Jumper, Alice Cronin, Scott Persampieri, Dr. Kreutzer and building administrators in every school in the district on a myriad of issues that grow out of the contract, state and federal mandates, etc. We do not always agree on every issue, but we are always working together to move forward.

In fact, your organization grew out of the KLDTA’s collaborative efforts. At the behest of the district, the KLDTA, KLSSA and KLAAS sat down with Scott Persampieri, in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and the snowstorm that followed, to rework the calendar and preserve class days. Contrary to reports, and despite vacation plans teachers had made with their own families, the KLDTA was the first association to sign off on the plan to give up the two days of February break. Your group was formed by some parents who protested that plan, developed and approved by Scott Persampieri and all three associations. It was the Board of Education, with Mr Lipton leading the charge, that undid that collaborative effort. Many of you rejoiced at that outcome, however that decision may now cost the district $17,500.00 for each day lost in state aid to our district.

Please remember this as contract negotiations continue. It is our belief that many well intentioned individuals in the community cannot know what they do not know. That is, they think they know how schools work, how negotiations work, what the issues are and what goes on behind the scenes to make all sides come together in agreement. Based on your petition and the statements members of your organization have made in the Ledger and elsewhere, it is clear that you have an outsider’s understanding of negotiations.

The formal negotiation process is not ongoing. It begins at times stipulated by the contract and concludes when both sides have reached an agreement. As a former Board of Education member, Ms Hundt should know, more so than anyone in your organization, that the four annual meetings that were established by the most recent MOA, cannot be used to negotiate contracts. For either the Association or the Board to try to use those meetings to negotiate new language would violate both the spirit and the letter of the contract.

All three associations are working hard to negotiate new contracts in a timely manner. Keep in mind that normally, the associations’ contracts expire on different years, meaning the district can give its full attention to one group each year. 2013 has produced a “perfect storm” with all three contracts due to expire on the same day. Although the Board of Education made it its top goal to “successfully negotiate contracts with the ... (KLSSA), …(KLDTA) and ...(KLAAS) by June 30, 2013” that does not mean that that date is an endpoint fixed in stone.

Keep in mind too that while each association has its own negotiating team, the district’s negotiators remain essentially the same. They cannot be meeting with three groups at once. Given that the last KLSSA contract alone took almost 6 years to settle, the prospect of negotiating and settling all three contracts over the course of 6 months time seems unlikely. Again, this is not because the KLDTA or any of the other associations is “refusing to negotiate” or “not negotiating in good faith” but that under normal circumstances, the negotiation process is complex and time consuming. This time around it will be even more demanding.

The public is not privy to most of this process. That is by design. It is codified by labor law and by district policy. All sides are bound to confidentiality. Your request to intervene, though seemingly well intentioned, is unwarranted and would be counterproductive and illegal. Our reluctance to stand with you to support your message of collaboration should not be interpreted as a renunciation of cooperation, but as a good faith effort to uphold the laws surrounding negotiations.

Further, to ask teachers to “get informed about the perilous financial situation of KLSD and so many other districts in New York State” supposes that we live outside and somehow apart from your world. Keep in mind, many of our teachers and several members of the KLDTA executive board live and pay taxes in this district. Beyond that, the overwhelming majority of our members are New Yorkers. We live, like you, in districts that find themselves in “perilous financial situations.” As parents and taxpayers we face the same issues you are facing. Please do not insult us by assuming we need to educate ourselves about our economy.

And, as you plead for teachers to give back their pay and benefits, please do not presume that you are the only people who “have not seen raises or bonuses in recent years (if not suffered loss of income or jobs) and must contribute more and more to our own rising costs of healthcare and retirement as our employers have faced declining revenue.” Do you really believe that the economy only affects this community and that somehow, the employees of this district are immune? Many of our teachers have spouses and partners who find themselves in the same sad predicament. Again, you cannot not know what you do not know.

You are correct to note that “none of us are to blame for the current financial reality.” Unfortunately, you do not seem to realize that the KLDTA leadership and its members are as anxious as you to find workable solutions.

Respectfully submitted,
Executive Board
Katonah Lewisboro District Teachers Association