With their contract expiring, CSEA employees ask Riverhead school board for pay raise

Riverhead Central School District’s non-instructional employees, whose union employment agreement expires in June, rallied at Tuesday’s school board meeting to ask for more pay and to underscore to trustees their importance to the district’s operations.

More than 40 employees gathered in the Riverhead High School auditorium to support representatives of the union, who made the case to the school board that they should receive a raise in pay to reflect their loyalty to, and work for, the school district.

“Our members are a vital part of the day-to-day, to make sure school runs smoothly for all,” said Sonya Johnson, the unit president of the school district’s Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA). “Behind me are the very dedicated employees of the district here to represent their departments, which entails approximately 375 plus essential workers. They have been with me throughout and stand today to reflect what is happening on the ground.”

Employees are bargaining for increased wages and the implementation of a step rate-compensation structure, which would provide incremental pay raises over time, Johnson said in an interview. Currently, a newly hired employee could be paid the same as someone who has been a district employee for 10 years in the same position, Johnson said.

The unit — which represents custodians, groundskeepers, clerks, assistants, cafeteria workers, transportation workers, and others — has had four meetings with district officials and will be meeting again on Thursday, Johnson said.

The last contract with the district’s CSEA bargaining unit resulted in yearly increases of 2% to hourly wages. The only pay differential based on seniority in the current contract is for employees who were hired before Sept. 1, 2010, who are paid a higher level than those hired after that date. 

Linda Donagher, a technical support aide, said that in the last few years the job she and her colleagues do has changed. Every student now has an electronic device, Donagher said, and district employees have to continuously adapt to a changing technology.

“My technical support aide and computer lab aides colleagues are constantly asked to take on more new technology and responsibilities, and they do so with enthusiasm and a very positive attitude, most of the time,” Donagher said. “Most of our technical support aides are stuck in a salary that has no path to advancement.” 

Richard Lindor, a bus driver, said the district’s transportation department is the “lifeline of the district.”  

“Day in and day out we take on the responsibility of providing clean, efficient, but, most importantly, safe transportation to all the students of the district,” Lindor said. “Our days are long, most of us waking up between 3:30-4 a.m…. every day to be at work by 5:15-5:30 [a.m.] every morning to get on our buses and do what we do best.”

The drivers “love the kids of the district,” Lindor said, and put their own worries aside to make sure students are greeted with a smile. But Lindor said he and his colleagues are worried about rising costs — from healthcare to basic groceries — and are “forced to work multiple jobs and have multiple streams of income just to survive.” 

“Many of us have been teased with ads of job openings of other districts and bus companies paying their drivers over $30 an hour and monitors anywhere from $18 to $20 an hour,” Lindor said. “Despite all the temptation out there, our loyalty is to the children of this great district whom we love oh so much, and it would be hard for us to turn our backs on them.”

Lindor and more than 30 other transportation workers came to a school board meeting last May to ask for pay raises to deal with the rising cost of living. 

Lisa Douglas-Aubé, the administrative assistant to the district athletics director and a clerical worker in the district for 22 years, said when she started in her current position she had three part-time assistants working with her. Now, she is the only clerical worker in her department, she said.

“We are a Division One school. My counterparts in other school districts have multiple secretaries as well as other support staff hired for the athletic director,” Douglas-Aubé said. “I assist my director with 72 athletic teams that span over three seasons in high school and middle school, as well as assisting him with any other needs or requirements to help what PE departments require.”

Indira Abrahamsen, a senior office assistant for the district’s guidance department, said that she and many of the union’s members are “perpetually living on the fiscal cliff,” echoing language used by district officials to describe the loss of coronavirus grant funding next school year.

“I find myself counting down to payday every other week trying to figure out how I’m going to make it to the next paycheck,” Abrahamsen said. “We are in the midst of contract negotiations and our board of education needs to know the realities that we’re living before negotiations continue.” 

“Most of us are not just employees here. We are taxpayers. We are parents and we are struggling,” she said. “All we are asking for is a fair contract and fair raises so we can continue to support not only ourselves, but our families.”

The union members’ statements came during the meeting where the school board adopted the budget for the 2024-25 school year. Colin Palmer, the school board’s president, declined to comment on the employees’ statement, other than acknowledging the district is in ongoing negotiations with the union.