Schools

Springs BOE, CSEA Reach Agreement

Two years of negotiations come to a close.

The Springs School Board and the Civil Service Employees Association have reached an agreement after two years of negotiations.

The board of education voted unanimously to approve the memorandum of agreement with the CSEA at its monthly meeting on Monday. The new five-year collective bargaining agreement will run through June 20, 2015 and applies to all teaching assistants, teacher aids, and nurses who work for the school district.

According to a joint statement from the district on Tuesday, the agreement includes a longer work day, an increase in health insurance contribution to 12 percent of premium effective July 2, 2014 for all members of the bargaining unit who opt in, and a salary increase of 1.5 percent each year for the first four years of the agreement followed by a salary increase of 1.75 percent for the fifth year.

Find out what's happening in East Hamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Kathee Burke Gonzalez, the president of the school board, said that the CSEA leaders and the administration have worked hard to come up with an agreement by "balancing the contributions of our dedicated staff with the economic pressures facing our taxpayers." She called the agreement "fair and just."

Jeanie Gload and Patricia Grande, president and vice president of the CSEA, said they were proud of the way the members acted professionally through the negotiations. They said it was a unanimous decision to accept the agreement.

Find out what's happening in East Hamptonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

According to the statement, the district's legal counsel has to incorporate the memorandum of agreement into the final written contract.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here