One year ago, 45 members of the Auburn Teachers Association were denied salary advancement for completing graduate coursework at accredited institutions that had been preapproved by their district.
“At some point after they already signed off on all the paperwork, the district decided the courses weren’t ‘rigorous’ enough and they weren’t going to pay our members the amount they were owed in our contract,” explained Auburn TA President Justin Herrling. “Members receive reimbursement and a salary adjustment. It’s approximately $337 for every three credits and some teachers could have taken 10 courses for 30 credits.”
The decision was a slap in the face. Herrling and his First Vice President Joseph DeCarlo, who is also the grievance officer, immediately began working with their NYSUT LRS, Heather Clemens, to fight the board’s decision and file individual grievances for the 39 of their 45 impacted members who chose to participate. The other six decided not to because they were untenured at the time.
“I have not experienced this magnitude of so many grievances bundled together and, to the best of my understanding, I believe this is the greatest sized grievance for the ATA in our history,” DeCarlo said.
Together, Herrling, DeCarlo and Clemens worked to help each member go to their principals and submit their stage one grievances, which were denied. They then filed for stage two grievances, were once again denied, and then they had to go back and file stage three paperwork.
“Keeping everything organized and correct was the hardest part of all this because everyone took different classes at different times with different dollar and credit amounts,” Herrling said.
DeCarlo added, “We did not want these grievances to be lost over a technicality, so we really had to make sure that we crossed our t’s and dotted our i’s, and we had all our ducks in a row. The devil is in the details, and they were hoping by making this so difficult at each stage that they would get us to make a mistake. That didn’t happen.”
After being denied at all three stages, Herrling said their only option left was to file for arbitration, which they attended on June 18, 2026, nearly eight months after they started this process.
“Heather presented an outstanding, cut-and-dried case based on the fact that the district made a promise to its educators and then decided to go back on that promise,” said Herrling.
Ultimately, the arbitrator ruled that the district violated the collective bargaining agreement and ordered the district to compensate the 39 ATA members for all submitted graduate hours and follow the contract language moving forward.
“Our members are extremely happy and appreciative because they felt that they were wronged,” Herrling said. “They were patient throughout the process and we tried to keep them as informed as possible every step of the way. Joe was a huge help especially communicating with our members. And seeing Heather in action in an arbitration setting was eye-opening to how much work [LRSs] put in on our behalf.”
DeCarlo agreed. “A union is about many hands make light work, and this really took great teamwork.”