Schools

Board of Education Votes Down Teachers' Contract Memorandum

The two sides have been negotiating for months.

After many months of negotiations, the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Board of Education defeated the proposed teachers' contract Monday night.

Board President Trip Whitehouse and members Amy Winkler, Karen Kulikowski and Rob O'Connor all voted against the memorandum, while David Gorbunoff, Donald Parisi, Nancy Bauer and Betty Anne Woerner voted for it. The latter three were required to vote yes after signing off on the proposal as members of the negotiations committee.

Some of the main factors of the proposal included a 3.9 percent increase for union salaries in 2009-2010 and a 3.5 percent increase for 2010-2011; all employees contributing $250 toward their health care premium; the elimination of the Etna HMO health care option; additional lunchtime supervision; and a reduction of daytime teacher conferences to three days from four.

The negotiations team reached this agreement with the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Education Association in late February. But, after board members spent all weekend trying to quickly adjust the district's budget to accommodate Gov. Chris Christie state aid cut that left the schools with a $3.4 million deficit, some said they could no longer support the union's proposal.

"I can't in good conscious vote for this," O'Connor said. "I may as well be the one passing out the pink slips."

The teachers have been working under the terms of their old contract since it expired last June 30, and both sides acknowledged Monday night that the agreements reached on the proposal were a big step forward in the work of both parties. But during a presentation of the tentative budget Monday, Business Administrator Anthony Del Sordi announced that those state aid cuts have essentially left the district spreading the burden in three ways — a third goes to the taxpayers, a third toward reducing operational costs and a third toward staff reductions. The tentative budget as presented Monday totaled $80,958,048, with $74,967,662 being paid by taxpayers. Aside from a $1 million increase to taxpayers, the board proposed about $2.3 million in reductions, including two administrative positions ($145,000), four district staff ($244,136) and four secretarial roles ($185,000). In addition, summer/other salary would be cut by $147,300; contracted services by $187,500; maintenance repairs by $25,000; supplies by $29,000; equipment by $45,000; construction by $50,000, and other salaries and benefits by $1,253,713. The district must determine where to cut that last $1.2 million Del Sordi said, noting that nothing definite has been decided regarding additional layoffs just yet. Still, he noted that that $1.2 million is the equivalent of 25 teachers losing their jobs.

Speaking before the vote, SPFEA President Dominick Giordano said: "We're not looking for anything significant other than not to lose everything we've all worked so hard for. Going back to bargaining this, at this point, will not offset any of the losses to the board. It will only postpone savings. What's in place now is something real that should not be disregarded. This would erode two years of hard work by the association and the board. Don't punish the teachers and secretaries for a problem we didn't create."

Still, many parents and community members reacted strongly to the notion that the district might lose teachers, with some pleading for the board to vote against the teachers' contract if it meant possibly saving positions. Several hundred people, including many teachers, attended the meeting.

Parisi noted that all the board was voting on Monday budget-wise was a tentative budget that set the tax cap levy. That will be submitted to the county superintendent Tuesday morning, but between now and June, the details of how the district works with that money within the tax cap is flexible.

The board and union will now have to go back to the negotiating table, Del Sordi said, noting that it's possible changes in the negotiations may help deal with that $1.2 million that needs to be cut. In addition to the teachers' contracts, negotiations are also currently underway with the unions for principals, supervisors and custodial maintenance staff.


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