YONKERS TRIBUNE: Mayor Mike Spano to Lose $39 Million in State Funding to Yonkers Public Schools

YONKERS, NY — December 20, 2016 — Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano has played chicken for so long under the direction of others who run Yonkers City Hall in his name for so long, that the puppet masters have created a scenario where Mayor Mike Spano will be forced to blink. A few eggs will certainly crack over his self imposed tenuous position. After a full five years in office, the first two spent “straightening” things out by turning the independent Yonkers Public Schools into a Department of Education under his control, Mayor Mike Spano’s last three years to the present has denied the Yonkers Council of Administrators (YCA), the Yonkers Federation of Teachers (YFT), and CSEA Unit 9169 each a contract. In the past, Yonkers City Hall has asserted that they did not have the financial wherewithal to meet the demands of contracts that had or would soon lapse. To wit: drama, subterfuge, stall tactics, being dismissive of labor leaders, and waiting out the clock. The purpose has been and continues to be to dump the problem on the back of future administrations as the necessary funds to meet expiring contractual demands are instead used to meet the ever growing no-show patronage employment positions, and the  non-aggression pacts that manage the successful outcome of eventual political office holders through intimidation, retribution, or worse.

This while Mayor Mike Spano prepares to wait out his three last years of his second term as mayor should he not gain the necessary votes to succeed incumbent Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino in the 2017 November Election.

Perhaps Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano lost track of time. $39 million is at stake. The New York State funds would arrive in Yonkers from Albany for school curricula if the YFT would submit their New York State Teacher Certification Examinations™ by no later than December 29, 2016. But there is a fly in the ointment.

Teachers, represented by the YFT are not enamored by the certification examinations. Had the City of Yonkers (CoY) and the YFT sincerely engaged in contractual efforts the deadlines could have been met, even as soon as in the first week of December; today is December 20th.... 

http://www.yonkerstribune.com/2016/12/mayor-mike-spano-to-lose-39-million-in-state-funding-to-yonkers-public-schools-by-hezi-aris