Teachers without pacts in 4 districts
posted by Loki on Oct.6.2008 at 11:49 am
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October 5, 2008
BY ANDREA ALEXANDER, HEATHER HADDON AND KAREN KELLER
The Record
Months of negotiations are continuing over new teachers’ contracts in Pequannock, West Paterson, Passaic and Paterson. Contracts in Pequannock and West Paterson are moving closer to resolution, union representatives said.
But in Passaic, teachers have been protesting at back-to-school events and a state mediator has been summoned. And in Paterson, a state mediator did little good, and the impasse is likely to continue well into the winter.
Statewide, about 100 districts are negotiating new contracts — about a fifth of all districts, according to the New Jersey School Boards Association. Contract settlements across the state have averaged 4.6 percent salary increases this year, similar to previous years, said Michael Yaple, a spokesman for the association.
Of the districts in negotiation, nearly two-thirds are in collective bargaining, in which the union is working on a contract directly with the school board and administrators. The other third — 37 districts, including Paterson, Passaic and West Paterson — are in tough negotiations and are using, or have used, state mediators.
Richard E. Loccke, a New Jersey Education Association representative for Passaic County, said the starting salary for a teacher in West Paterson is $40,150; it’s $41,500 in Pequannock and in Paterson $46,665. In Passaic it’s $45,999.
Following is an update of talks in the individual districts:
PEQUANNOCK
Teachers and other unionized staff in the K-12 district have been working without a contract since June 30, 2007. After meeting with a state mediator, the teachers and school board reached a tentative contract agreement in June. Since then, the two sides have been finalizing contract details before ratifying votes by the union and school board.
The proposed settlement with the Pequannock Township Education Association also covers support staff including librarians, nurses, guidance counselors, department chairmen, secretaries, custodians, bus drivers and other positions — affecting some 300 employees in total.
School officials have said the tentative agreement is similar to a previous proposal. The board had offered a 5 percent raise for the first year of the contract, above the then-state average of 4.6 percent. But support staff is subject to different raises than those given to teachers.
At the other end of the scale from the $41,500 starting salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree, a teacher working in the district for 31 years who has a master’s degree plus 60 credits earns $94,255 under the prior pact.
WEST PATERSON
After seven meetings with the Board of Education, the West Paterson Education Association is set for its first mediation session Oct. 17, said Sandi Lazzara, its president. The four-year contract expired in June.
Lazzara wouldn’t discuss the details of the negotiations, but said “I’m very optimistic — we get closer and closer every time we meet.”
Lazzara estimated the association has spent $60,000 in legal fees on negotiating and settling 16 grievances union members have concerning district efforts to privatize custodians and move teachers to different schools.
PASSAIC
A state mediator is due to help the two parties reach an agreement, said Robin Holcomb, union president. The contract for the 1,600-member Education Association of Passaic ended Aug. 31, 2007. Negotiations on a new contract did not start until June because the district was in talks with two other unions — representing secretaries and custodians — regarding contracts that expired prior to the teachers’ contract, Holcomb said. The teachers’ union represents all teachers, teachers’ aides, computer technicians and other workers.
During seven meetings, little was put on the table by either side, said Holcomb and Alex Ybarra, the board member heading the school board’s negotiating team.
The board wants teachers to work two extra days per school year, and for elementary school teachers to leave at 3:10 p.m. instead of 3 p.m., to avoid potentially hitting children with their cars as they depart, Ybarra said. There have been two close calls this fall, he said.
“It’s horrible,” Ybarra said. “We’re trying to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the children and they won’t even consider it.”
Holcomb said teachers already leave 10 minutes later than students, who get out at 2:50 p.m. In the summer, the union agreed to leave 10 minutes later on half-days because of the safety issue.
“We did not disagree there was a safety issue,” she said. “[If] they asked for it at 1 p.m. [on half-days] they must feel 10 minutes is enough.” She hadn’t heard of near-accidents, she said.
PATERSON
A state mediator was brought in but didn’t help resolve the conflicts. The district’s three-year contract expired in June. Union and district representatives have met 18 times since.
“From our prospective, there’s been no progress whatsoever,” said Pete Tirri, president of the Paterson Education Association.
The parties are now in fact-finding, in which the union collects financial records from other settlements.
Paterson has refused to grant any salary hike for teachers, said Tirri. The sessions have nearly exclusively focused on salaries, he said.
“We weren’t able to get them to talk about anything else,” he said.
Paterson board and district officials, as well as the state-appointed fiscal monitor for the district, declined to comment.
The district is proposing more workdays and contributions to employee health benefits.
E-mail: haddon@northjersey.com or kellerk@northjersey.com