Another Attempt Tuesday to Settle Teachers' Contract

Following two previous sessions with a state mediator that failed to result in a new teachers' contract to update a pact expired last June, a state fact-finder and both sides are set to meet Tuesday for another try at a settlement.

Negotiators for the school district and 700-member Bernards Township Education Association are set to meet with the state fact-finder Tuesday at 10 a.m., according to Susan Carlsson, school board president and one of the district's negotiators. Both sides are in disagreement over terms of a three-year contract that would be retroactive to last July 1, she said.

The fact-finder is different from the mediator in that he or she would issue a written recommendation if the both sides again fail to reach an agreement after continued negotiations, Carlsson said.

However, neither side would be bound to accept the fact-finder's recommendations, Carlsson said. Starting late last year, a state-appointed mediator met with the BTEA and school negotiators twice, she said. Both meetings lasted for several hours, she said.

In the meantime, teachers have been working under the terms of a contract expired last June 30. However, in effect, their salaries have been reduced by 1.5 percent this year because the state now requires all teachers to contribute that amount to their health benefits.

The contract disagreement has come down to issues of salary and benefits, especially in light of the 1.5 percent salary payment toward benefits, Carlsson said.

She said the issue comes down to "money." The school budget for 2011-12, requiring a $74-million contribution from taxpayers that was up 2 percent from the previous year, was approved on April 27 with the terms of the pending contract still unknown.

Dozens of teachers attended last Monday's Board of Education meeting in a show of support, with a brief reminder about teachers' contributions to the quality of education in the district.

Carlsson said the sticking point in contract talks have not been about working conditions.

Carlsson said on Sunday night that teachers have continued to provide before- and afterschool help for students, to write college recommendations and in all ways to go beyond the basic requirements of their jobs. She said she also understands a point made by Denise Graff, co-president of the BTEA, that teachers are handling classes that have been creeping up in size. 

She said the both sides have continued to conduct civil negotiations even as the months without an agreement have stretched through most of the current school year.

The contract  expired last June 30 was a three-year pact that had awarded teachers 4.5 percent raises during each of those years, she said. However, the net annual raises awarded during that contract actually was 4 percent—standard for that time period—since that contract included concessions in tuition reimbursement and acceptance of a cheaper health benefits package, Carlsson said.

The BTEA includes other school support staff as well as teachers in the township's six schools.