Shoreham-Wading River School District Superintendent Steven Cohen, left, and school board president Bill McGrath. (Credit: Jennifer Gustavson)
The union representing Shoreham-Wading River School District’s administrators received a four-year contract extension at last month’s school board meeting, granting the faculty members three percent raises this year, followed by smaller raises over the next two years before no increase in the contract’s final year.
In addition, eligibility for retirement incentives for union members was reduced from 12 to 10 years.
According to the terms of the deal, which was OK’d at the district’s Oct. 21 meeting, raises this year don’t apply to administrators hired for the 2014-2015 school year. For the 2015-2016, and 2016-2017 school years, members of the union will receive a 1.5 percent raise.
“I think that the district and the administrators’ association came together to settle a contract so that our schools could move forward and the kids could benefit from everything,” said union president Linda Anthony, principal of Prodell Middle School. “And it was positive that it was settled early in the year.”
The union has 11 members: principals at each of the district’s four buildings, assistant principals at the middle school and high school, and directors of athletics, technology, special education, humanities, and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).
The contract comes after the previous deal held by the union expired at the end of June this year. That deal had lasted three years, held salaries flat in its final year, and upped employee contributions to healthcare from 15 to 20 percent for new members, and 15 to 17.5 percent for existing members.
Board of Education President Bill McGrath said that partly due to those previous contributions, he was happy to sign the new deal.
“Basically, we were pleased with it from the point of view that we value these members and they’ve already increased their healthcare contribution,” he said. “And we’re trying to be as fiscally prudent as we can in light of everything the state government is doing with public education.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated on Monday, Nov. 3, with comment from Linda Anthony, president of the administrators’ union.