Somerset Hills Teachers Contract May Be Delayed Until End of Year

An informal agreement may have been reached last July but final approval of the pact may have to wait until December or January, school officials said this week.

Somerset Hills school board president Donna Coons said Wednesday that the association recently reviewed and returned the salary guide in the tentative pact, which replaces an agreement that expired at the end of the 2011 school year.

The school district's professionals must now review the guide, she said. Further delay may be caused by the annual New Jersey School Boards Association convention in November, she said at Wednesday's meeting of the regional Board of Education.

The school district and association signed a memorandum of agreement last July 25, Coons said. However, with delays, the final signatures may not go on the contract until December or January, she said.

Details of the settlement have not yet been released pending final ratification by SHEA and the school board, Superintendent of Schools Peter Miller said before the school year started.

The SHEA's bargaining agreement includes teachers, secretaries, maintenance employees, custodial and technology workers, and paraprofessionals, said Nancy Hunter, board business administrator.