New Contract With Teachers Approved by School Board

A new three-year contract with the Lawrence Township teachers’ union that is retroactive to July 1 of last year was formally approved by the Lawrence Township Board of Education during last night’s (Monday, March 12) monthly school board meeting.

The board’s action follows a vote that was held Friday during which the contract was ratified by an overwhelming majority – 93 percent – of the Lawrence Township Education Association, the bargaining unit that represents about 500 teachers, teaching assistants, secretaries, custodians, maintenance personnel and cleaners who work in the township’s public schools.

The terms of the new contract include raises of 2.3 percent for union members in the first year, 2.25 percent in the second year and 2.15 percent in the final year. Among other things, the contract also lowers the starting salaries for new hires, freezes the stipends staff receive for performing “extra duty” like coaching athletic teams, and increases the number of years an employee must work before becoming eligible for an annual longevity bonus.

The contract was hammered out by representatives of the district and the union before a state-appointed mediator during a that began about 5 p.m. on Jan. 26 and lasted until about 3:30 the following morning.  

 “We’ve just finished our long process of negotiations. It was handled with civility and professionalism. We feel we have reached a fair and equitable settlement which was supported by 93 percent of our members – 453 to 34,” Barbara Levine, LTEA co-president, said during last night’s meeting as she advised school board members of the contract’s ratification by union members. “Just wanted to let you know, as much as we may enjoy spending time with you and pulling all-nighters, we’re looking forward to not doing this again for another three years.”

“Speaking personally, I share your feeling about the equity and fairness and civility of the process. And I’m glad that your members approved,” Laura Waters, school board president, said in response to Levine.

In providing details about the new contract, Waters noted that in the year preceding the new contract (July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011) members of the LTEA agreed to a wage freeze, as did the two other, smaller unions representing district employees – the principals and supervisors association and Lawrence Administrative Business and Technical Association.

“That just shows their character and their depth of commitment to our kids,” Waters said of that voluntary wage freeze.

She also pointed out that the new contract is the first agreement the district has negotiated since the state’s new 2 percent tax levy increase cap took effect, and also that influencing negotiations were the that require all public employees in the state to pay “substantially more” toward their pensions and health benefit premiums. While those increased employee contributions save the district money, they amount to pay cuts for staff, she conceded.

“We shared with the [LTEA] the desire to come to an agreement that was, most of all, balanced in the sense of weighing the needs of the taxpayers and the desire to be fair to teachers and what our kids really needed. In the end I think we were all very focused on what we needed to do to continue providing an excellent education to our kids, what direction we needed to go, and what changes needed to happen in order to support that shared mission,” Waters said.

“We met a number of times and as happens, I think, in half the districts in New Jersey at this point, we felt the need to go to a state mediator, and we were lucky enough to get a great state mediator,” she continued. “It was a long night but I think we came out in a place where we respect the circumstances of people who are tired of paying taxes and at the same time support our professional staff.”

While the new contract does provide salary raises of 2.3, 2.25 and 2.15 percent over the course of its three years, it also freezes at current levels, for all three years, the “extra duty pay” stipends that staff members receive for extra-curricular activities like coaching athletic teams and moderating clubs. Historically, according to Waters, stipend amounts are raised at the same percentage as the annual salary increase.

The extra fee that is paid to staff members who work during the summer months is also traditionally increased at the same percentage as the annual salary increase, but under the new contract summer pay will increase only 2 percent during each of the contract’s three years, Waters said.

Starting salaries for new staff (hired from this point forward) have been reduced by the new contract. For example, Waters said, a new teacher with a bachelor’s degree will now begin his or her career in Lawrence Township at $50,460. Under the old contract, he or she would have started out at $51,460.

Changes for non-teaching staff are more dramatic, with the starting annual salary for custodians, maintenance personnel and cleaners going from $47,587 under the old contract to $40,000 under the new contract. The starting pay for “Group 1” secretaries is now $37,000 (down from $39,773), while “Group 2” secretaries now start at $34,000 (down from $36,157).

Waters also noted that as part of the negotiation process, the union agreed to increase – from 15 to 20 – the number of years that an employee must work before becoming eligible for an annual longevity bonus.

The new contract also includes a number of other minor “tweaks,” such as shortening the hours of summer school, she said.

The new contract was unanimously approved by the six school board members who were present at Monday's meeting. Board Vice President Leon Kaplan and members Thomas Patrick and Jo Ann Groeger were absent.

“I would like to commend both teams,” veteran school board member Michael Brindle said. “Having sat on the other side of the table for [past] negotiations I know what’s involved and it’s brutal. And I congratulate their team and I congratulate our team. I know 3:30 [a.m.] is a long time; I’ve been there, done that. [But] sometimes the best deals come out at 3:30 a.m.”

“I think we did right by the taxpayers and right by the association,” Waters said in closing.