Riverhead Central School District faces two daunting tasks this winter/spring . The first is development of a budget proposal that stays within the state cap and simultaneously meets the educational needs of our student population. This first task can be considered short-term, that is, it is repeated every year, with some long term impacts. The second task is the start and finish of collective bargaining negotiations with the district’s faculty union , the Riverhead Central Faculty Association [RCFA]. This latter charge is by far the more difficult and has far many more long-term outcomes and impacts than the annual budget recommendation.
To begin with, negotiations normally take place under the cover of a media blackout. This means the public has no access to what positions both parties, management and labor, have taken or what proposals have been exchanged until such time as the negotiations have been concluded and the agreement ratified and signed. We, the public, are never privy to the bargaining in good faith behaviors of either management [the Board of Education and Central Administration] or labor [RCFA]. Work is conducted in the dark and behind closed doors- sort of like growing mushrooms.
And if both sides cannot come to agreement in the time period prior to June 30, 2012 what happens? Nothing much- faculty wear black arm bands and RCFA t-shirts to school every Friday; faculty set up informational picket lines outside school grounds prior to the start of the workday; young students are subjected to all the misinformation and venom of the faculty who attempt to influence the negotiations process by using children; accusations fly back and forth about who is not doing what; faculty works to rule like factory workers and not the professionals they tout themselves to be; and the list goes on an on. A process called fact-finding may ensue. The public sector arbitration decision known as the Triborough Law comes into play- faculty enjoy all benefits and privileges negotiated in the expired contract until such time as the new contract [agreement] comes into existence. There is nothing to compel RCFA to conclude negotiations as all salary and benefits remain the same. Nothing changes for staff, everything changes for the children.
And now consider who is in charge of the Board of Education: Ann Cotton-Degrasse, a former faculty member in the district, a former union representative, and the former president of the faculty union. On several occasions in the past two years, she has asked us to "trust her,” to believe she is working for the best outcomes for the children and the district. If trust is what Ms. Cotton-Degrasse desires then she needs to earn it — she must recuse herself from all elements of negotiations between the district and RCFA. She must not be present during executive work sessions discussing the District’s proposals for the new contract ; she must have no knowledge what-so-ever about these most important deliberations. The 6 remaining Board members must be steadfast in a communications blackout on this matter with her. And why? Well to begin with, she is not just cordial with the RCFA President, she socializes on a regular basis with this individual and other RCFA representatives. The perception that she may share the work products of the District and the Board with these individuals is so strong that it smells like an angry skunk. In order to assure District residents that she is actually working on their behalf and not the special interests of the RCFA, she has no recourse except to step aside on this matter. It is the right thing to do right for our children, right for the District and right for the taxpayers.
And as Ms. Cotton- DeGrasse steps aside, the board needs to examine the harm done by allowing former employees to seek Board seats. While the voices of educators and other school staff should not be eliminated or disallowed, the Board must provide other venues, not policy-making, for such expression. It is time to enact a resolution that prohibits former District employees, regardless of their prior employment capacity from seeking a seat on the Board of Education. The prejudice and bias, the need to protect an ever growing educational bureaucracy over the need to maximize educational opportunities for our children, needs to end once and for all. Only in this way can our great school District move ahead and achieve all it can be.
So for the children, please step aside during negotiations Ms. Cotton-Degrasse. Please give our children a chance.
Angela DeVito, a Jamesport resident, is a former member of the Riverhead Board of Education, which she served as president prior to the election of the current president, Ann Cotten-DeGrasse.