With contract negotiations between the Sag Harbor School District teachers union and School Board at an impasse, the teachers are planning to march through the village’s Main Street business district later this month to draw attention to their cause.
At its meeting Tuesday night, the Sag Harbor Village Board told representatives of the Teachers Association of Sag Harbor that it could hold a gathering on Long Wharf and then march up the village’s Main Street and continue on to the front lawn of the Pierson School on Division Street.
The “informational picket walk” will take place on Monday, October 19, at 4:30 p.m. Eileen Kochanasz, president of the TASH, said that the event will start with a brief kickoff speech on the Long Wharf and that the teachers will be looking to educate the public about the stalled contract negotiations with the district.
Some Village Board members expressed concerns about the march, but approved the gathering permit unanimously.
“I just don’t think it’s a good idea,” Trustee Tiffany Scarlatto said. “We are the ones who will take the flak for this, from the store owners.”
Ms. Kochanasz said that teachers would be speaking personally to store owners along Main Street prior to the march.
Contract negotiations have been stalled for more than a year. The main sticking point has been over salary increases. Teachers have demanded 3.9-percent annual increases over five years, irrespective of additional longevity increases. The district has demanded that the annual step increases be included in the annual salary raises and has offered a 2.5-percent base salary hike for each of three years.
The district has thus far refused to enter into binding arbitration. In August, an independent fact finder largely sided with the teachers, though the district noted that he was given only a few days to review the contracts and that he did not address some of the main issues regarding it.
Sag Harbor teachers have been working without a contract since June 2008.
on Oct 14, 2009