LACEY – Negotiations on a new teaching contract have reached a standstill. Board of Education members and the teachers union will be meeting with a third party to break that impasse.
In cases where negotiations show no sign of moving further toward completion, an impasse is declared with the state and further arbitration is ordered. A state arbitrator has been assigned to deliberate between the two parties on March 21.
School District Business Administrator Patrick DeGeorge noted the Board was in the process of negotiating the contract and working through the mediation process.
He told The Southern Ocean Times that in a letter dated January 28, “the NJEA, on behalf of the LTEA, filed a Notice of Impasse with the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC), citing ‘salary and sixth period compensation’ as the facts giving rise to the impasse.”
“PERC has since assigned a mediator who is attempting to coordinate a date to meet with the parties. Any compensation provided – whether to elementary, middle, or high school teachers is a result of the collective negotiations agreement,” DeGeorge added.
LTEA President Mike Ryan told The Southern Ocean Times, “we do have an upcoming mediation date set for March 21. We look forward to meeting with the Board of Education and the mediator to reach a fair settlement for our members.”
Ryan added, “the Lacey Township Education Association represents approximately 580 dedicated members that have worked diligently to ensure that the students of the Lacey Township schools get the very best educational experience possible.”
“Needless to say, we were disappointed to hear what was presented at the Lacey Township Board of Education meeting on February 17 with regards to the LTEA’s current situation of working under an expired contract during these unprecedented times,” he added.
“When the two parties began negotiations, we agreed to specific ground rules. Those ground rules contain language that prevent both parties from speaking publicly about what goes on at the table. Ground rules which our association has honored,” he said.
“After meeting face to face with the Board 12 times and receiving no financial proposal during any of those meetings, we felt it was time that we filed for mediation. After having negotiated for approximately 27 hours and still speaking about the same topics, the only way we felt the two parties would reach a resolution was to file for impasse,” he said.
Details about negotiations are not to be made public, however, the public is talking about it online and some Board members expressed displeasure over what they have been reading.
Board member Donna McAvoy, who serves on the Board’s negotiations committee, said “I think social media is out of control, saying the Board of Education doesn’t want to negotiate and has shut down negotiations. I was at every single negotiation meeting.
“I know we are under ground rules that we do not talk about the specifics but it is so disheartening to open up Facebook and read what the Board of Education is doing,” she said. “The Board of Education cares about our staff and we want a fair contract.”
McAvoy said, “this is why we are at an impasse. Two different sides could not agree. Two sides collectively agreed to go to impasse. We respect our teachers; we want a fair contract.”
She prefaced that such a contract had to be for “all teachers, not just a certain group. Every teacher, every staff member. We are looking at fiscal responsibility and a fair contract for all.”
Board President Frank Palino confirmed, “we are at an impasse at this point. I am the chair of the negotiation committee and during our last (negotiations) meeting we presented our sticking point was a six-period stipend.”
Palino explained, “a six-period stipend, middle school and high school teachers get $4,500 a year to teach 22 extra minutes. Our elementary school teachers do not get that and we want that fixed. We have no problem paying for time in front of the students. We just don’t want to be paying extra money for time not in front of the students.”
Palino added, “we’re not asking for them to extend the day. We’re asking for fair work for fair wages. That is a sticking point that the LTEA does not want to hear about. At that point they felt there was an impasse and they wanted a percentage. I told them they are not getting a percentage for raises until we clear up the six-period stipend.”
“Whatever union officials are telling the membership, we didn’t offer them zero, we just said we aren’t offering them anything until we fix the six-period stipend. The representatives of the LTEA don’t want to fix the six-period stipend,” Palino said.
He added, “they want to continue getting $4,500 more to teach 22 to 25 extra minutes a day. I don’t think it’s fair to the taxpayer. That money costs us over $800,000 a year going to these teachers.”
“We actually offered them to go to a separate pay scale to those teachers to filter it out. The response was we can’t do that because it would make our union go against each other because of separate pay. It is not the school board that is doing this. The exact words from the LTEA were, we feel we are at an impasse and that is where we landed. We aren’t the ones who walked away from the table, they were,” Palino added.
