Faculty members of the Syosset Central School District voted on January 20 to forego next year's raises due to them in their contracts.
Jeff Rozran, President of the Syosset Teachers' Association, said the move is to protect the quality of the District's programs and to protect jobs within the District.
"The District is facing extraordinary increases in expenses next year, all of which were completely impossible to predict when our contract was bargained, and all of them outside of the District’s control,” Rozran explained. “Our teachers, nurses, therapists and tutors recognized that the only way we could protect the excellence of our program and keep our brothers and sisters working was to participate in the solution.”
Rozran said that the issues brought to his association are not limited to just Syosset, they are issues happening across the country. He said some problems our country's education system faces is the difficult choice of making concessions or facing layoffs that not only increase unemployment, but also increase class sizes and decrease program offerings in the schools.
"The Syosset faculty is among the many on Long Island opting to accept a small sacrifice for many in order to protect a few colleagues and thousands of children," Rozran said.
Susan Parker, President of Syosset Council of PTA's, said that everyone was on the same page with the decision.
"We don't know what the bottom line is going to be [with the budget] but this allows us to hopefully not cut programs, not cut the sports and clubs," Parker said. "And it shows teachers are compromising and doing their part - from their point of view it saved jobs, from the parents it saves the programs."
The next monthly Board of Education meeting takes place Monday, Feb. 14, 8 p.m. at , and the revised date for the Budget Meeting takes place Monday, March 21 at 8 p.m. also at South Woods.
