Freeport district to lay off 20 more teachers

The Freeport School District will lay off 20 more teachers and cut student programs because the teachers union rejected a delayed pay raise, school officials said Saturday.

The 600-member Freeport Teachers Association rejected the proposal Friday, 54 percent to 46 percent.

Teachers were asked to defer for one year two-thirds of the 1.5 percent salary increase guaranteed for 2012-13 in their collective bargaining agreement. Union members, who are in the last year of a four-year contract, would have also deferred a step increase for a year.

In return, the district would have allowed teachers to work one less snow day and parent-teacher conference, and notch 12 fewer training hours. The last day of school would have been cut to a half-day.

The deferments would have saved the cash-strapped district $1.63 million -- a figure that will now be found through steep cuts next school year, said District Superintendent Kishore Kuncham.

The 6,700-student district is considering reducing its full-day kindergarten to a half-day; increasing class size, and cutting some sports and enrichment programs, he said. At least 20 teachers will also be laid off based on seniority, Kuncham said.

"The impact will be devastating both in the short-term and the long-term," he said.

Freeport Teachers Association president Stuart Napear said his members were concerned that the deferments "were only going to be a temporary solution."

Last month, the district eliminated 26 positions, including 14 teachers, and cut summer school classes.

The vote was also clouded by confusion over whether district administrators would take a salary freeze as well, Napear said. Kuncham said all district administrative staff agreed to freeze their wages next year.

The deferments, Napear said, would have cost his members nearly $3,000 next year. "They have bills to pay as well," he said.

The union previously rejected a one-year salary freeze for 2012-13, but agreed in each of the last two years to defer raises and step increases for six months, Napear said.

"We are very disappointed in the outcome," said School Board president Debra McQuillan. "Our community has a reasonable expectation that students get the programs and services they need."