No Contract Agreement Reached Between Teachers, School District

PREA President Joanne Ryan has confirmed that no agreement was reached in the latest contract mediation. 

Statement from Joanne Ryan: "At 5am Friday morning, while waiting to hear from the Board of Education,  our team was stunned to learn from the mediator that the session was over. It's hard to feel valued and respected when the BOE team felt it was appropriate to end the negotiations session and leave the building without letting us know they were calling it quits. Needless to say, it was a disappointing end to a marathon session.

More than 100 Princeton teachers rallied on Thursday afternoon to express frustration over an expired contract and cheer on its negotiation team as it entered the third and possible final mediation session with the school district.

Bundled up for the cold weather, teachers held up signs to express their frustration over prolonged contract negotiations that now involve a state mediator. 

"Princeton teachers want to settle now," read one sign. "First class teachers, second class deal," read another.

One woman's sign read, "How come teachers are the only PRS employees who have to do this to get a raise?"

Princeton Regional Education Association president Joanne Ryan has said issues in a new teachers' contract are disputes over salary and benefits.  

Yet there is hope that an agreement may soon be reached. 

"Superintendent (Judy Wilson) told me that she is hopeful, but more than that, she said she is confident that we with have a contract tonight," John Baxter, a member of the PREA negotiating team, told a cheering crowd on Thursday. 

One of three things can come from the latest negotiations, said teacher Martha Friend; the two sides can move towards making a deal, they can make enough progress so that the mediator suggests another meeting to finalize a deal or things don't go well. 

Previous mediation sessions haven't shown progress, but Ryan said she's an optimist. 

"I hope we've made our point, we're frustrated," she said. "It's not just our negotiating team speaking for ourselves, we're representing all the teachers in the district."

The school district recently signed contracts with both its support staff and administrators. Support staff agreed to a 2 percent increase this year and administrators signed a three-year contract with pay increases of 1.98 percent, 2.25 percent and 2.25 percent, beginning this year.

"We're out here for a fair contract four teachers and to show that teachers care about kids above and beyond," said an educator who declined to be identified. "The board needs to know that, but they don't demonstrate it by their actions so far."

Despite 12 months of contract negotiations and two recent mediation sessions, no agreement has been reached between the school district and its teachers’ union.

Teachers have been working with an expired contract since June 30 and say they are frustrated by what they see as stonewalling by the Board of Education.

School district officials say times have changed and faced with high unemployment and lower property tax caps, they are under increasing pressure to be diligent stewards of taxpayer dollars.