Mediation next step for Northport schools, teachers

The Northport teachers union and the Northport-East Northport School Board are to enter mediation next month for a 2014-2015 contract.

The two sides will meet for talks on Dec. 8, despite the union’s earlier projections that nothing would happen before January, the union reported on a post to its website. The United Teachers of Northport and New York State United Teachers said they pushed the district for the earlier date.

The Public Employment Relations Board has appointed Jay Siegel as the mediator, according to the teachers union.

Union officials said they planned to be more aggressive in this year’s negotiations after news broke that the district had overestimated spending by about $34 million over a period of five years. The pattern of over-budgeting and underspending angered teachers, who declared an impasse Oct. 16.

Union president Antoinette Blanck has said leaders of the 5,693-student district should have been transparent with voters and union members about the budgeting tactics and about how tax money has been used in recent years.

Teachers have not disclosed what they are seeking in a new contract. Under the contract that expired in June, salaries ranged from $49,559 to $126,610.

Mediation typically lasts three to five sessions. If those efforts don’t resolve the conflict, the next step would be fact finding, which would bring in a third party to create recommendations intended to resolve the dispute. Fact finding is a less-binding approach than arbitration, which would lock both sides into the terms set by an arbitrator.