Colleagues,
On your summer agenda, I hope, is to relax and enjoy a well-deserved break. On RTA’s agenda for this summer is to negotiate a multi-year successor contract, to oversee a faithful implementation of the payroll Memorandum of Agreement, to advocate for full restoration of the positions and student services lost due to the budget cuts, and to conclude our analysis of the District’s budget for the next school year.
The preliminary indication is that the District is misrepresenting its finances. As you can see in an article in yesterday’s edition of The Rochester Beacon <https://rochesterbeacon.com/2026/06/25/a-budgets-bitter-aftertaste/>, they have an unprecedented reserve of more than $312 million, about 85% of which is unencumbered, but nonetheless claim to have a multi-million dollar deficit. All this, we suspect, is intended to lower our expectations in the current bargaining for a new contract and to justify the District’s hurtful and unnecessary cuts to vital services for our most vulnerable students.
When you return in September, we hope that by then we will have already reached a Tentative Agreement for a successor contract. And, in response to the inquiries about when teachers will get the $2,500 Retention Incentive that we negotiated last July in the one-year extension of our current contract, that incentive will be paid in a separate check on or before September 30, 2026. To be eligible for the Retention Incentive, RTA Teacher Bargaining Unit members must have been employed by the RCSD on June 1, 2026 and must remain active in the RCSD through September 15, 2026. Current teachers who retire this year (after June 26, 2026), however, will also receive the incentive payment.
Finally, while many payroll and Oracle related issues remain unresolved, some new issues continue to arise – even as recently as in today’s paychecks. Let us know if you are among those adversely affected so that we can address it immediately. You can also stop by at our special “drop-in session” on payroll related issues this Monday, June 29, at any time between 10am and 2pm, for individualized assistance. That session will be held at the RTA offices (30 N. Union Street, Suite 301).
And as always, please contact us if you have any questions or if you need our assistance. Wishing you a good and restful summer recess. See you in September.
Adam Urbanski, RTA President