In its first action of the evening at its April 2 meeting, the North Syracuse Central School District Board of Education meeting accepted a contract from the teachers’ union that held the district’s teachers to a wage freeze for the next three years. The board approved the contract unanimously after a brief executive session at Monday’s meeting Board President V. Pat Carbone praised the union for recognizing the district’s financial situation. “You came to the plate not just this year, but over next three years,” he said. “I think that’s wonderful.” The contract runs through June 30, 2015.
“Thank you very, very much,” Carbone said to the union.
Carbone also chastised those in the community who said teachers like those in the North Syracuse district didn’t deserve the benefits and salaries they received. “To understand the plight of education and the plight of our students and the plight of our district, when I’m out and about in the community, when people see me, if they know me and they know I’m on the board, they say, how’s that going?” Carbone said. “They say, ‘These district employees, these state employees, they work 186 days a year. You need to cut their benefits.’ I tell them to go spend a day in those employees’ shoes. Do something more than hand out cupcakes for an hour. You’ll see how much work goes into those jobs.” He pointed then to the sacrifices being made by the teachers in the North Syracuse Central School District, not just this year, but for the next three years. “In a time when everybody says, ‘Teachers are getting this, that and the other thing, and why should they?’ and all that, this is why,” Carbone said. “They deserve every stinking penny.”