Herricks School Board Petitions for State Mandate Relief

During their regular meeting this past Thursday at the , the Herricks Board of Education approved five topics for the mandate relief council, which will investigate solutions for unfunded mandates from the state.

The topics that will be sent to the mandate relief council, according to the district:

• Triborough contracts and step increases ­– when the contracts expire, the district would like to see step increases frozen. These increases will be maintained if there is no contract in place.
• Getting a minimum health insurance contribution for retirees and employees – The board would like to see employers cover “no more than 85 percent of a single healthcare premium or 75 percent of a healthcare premium for families or retirees.” The board suggests that this could be potentially put in place over a 3-year time frame.
• The board would like to see no more unfunded mandates. The members of the board are asking that the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act be passed.
• The board is also asking the mandate relief council look into “seat time flexibility in middle schools.”
• The board would like special education requirements to be reduced to the federal level and they would like to have a blue ribbon commission put together to look at New York’s special education programs.

Board vice president James Gounaris said that these are the “five most pressing things that encumber a school district.”

Gounaris also asked that a copy of this be sent to State since Martins sits on a mandate relief council in the State Senate.