Union rejects fact-finders report

Manville school district and the its teachers union are

scheduled to go to a step rarely encountered in contract negotiations in New Jersey: conciliation.
By:Eric Schwarz
   The step is necessary since the union has twice rejected a
29-page fact-finding report urging the board to offer salary increases
during a four-year contract which would be retroactive to last July 1. The
conciliation makes use of a state mediator as a go-between for both
sides.
   The board has accepted the report, calling for salary
increases of 3.8 percent to 4.1 percent yearly increases over the course of
the contract.
   State-appointed fact-finder Jeffrey Tener submitted a
report to both sides on March 5 with eight recommendations to settle the
contract dispute between the Board of Education and the 153-member
union.
   The board accepted it March 13, and received a memo March
16 that the union would reject the report, said Dorothy Bradley, chairwoman
of the board’s negotiating team.
   The board and union met March 23 to discuss the report and
still were not able to come to an agreement, Ms. Bradley said.
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   The union president, Kathy Kovach, responded with
an MEA statement sent by fax Wednesday afternoon.
   The MEA members rejected the fact-finding report by a
114-6 vote on Monday, she said.
   "The (board’s) story remains the same," Ms. Kovach said in
her statement. "’I want you to give more, but I want to give you less.’"
   The contract is up for discussion during a closed session
of the board after a public hearing tonight, Thursday, on the 2001-02
budget. The budget hearing is set for 7 p.m. in the Alexander Batcho
Intermediate School library.
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   Ms. Bradley said the board is discussing the meaning of
going to conciliation, in which a representative of the state Public
Employment Relations Commission would help the two sides continue
mediation.
   Mr. Tener also was appointed by PERC.
   "We expect that the process will continue in some manner
sooner rather than later," Ms. Bradley said.
   Andrew Zangara, the former negotiations chairman who
resigned from the board Feb. 13, had said in November that only about once a
year or less in New Jersey do school districts and unions disagree after the
formal fact-finding process.
   About 30 school districts in the state are still
negotiating contracts that expired June 30, 2000, said Mike Yaple, spokesman
for the New Jersey School Boards Association.
   That number is down from 117 at the start of the school
year, and 186 in July, right after the contracts expired.
   The board released details of Mr. Tener’s report on
Tuesday, two weeks after it accepted the report and urged the union to
follow.
   Mr. Tener recommended the following:
   A four-year contract, through June 30, 2004.
   Salary increases of 3.8 percent, retroactive to July 1,
2000; and 4.1 percent in the following three school years.
   The board had offered 3.75 percent per year in the second
two years, and reportedly no increase for 2000-01, based on the fact that
the union was not working the extra hours the board wanted this school year.
The union reportedly had sought 6-7 percent increases per year.
   The board said the average teacher salary in Manville was
$44,554 in 1999-2000, and by the end of the four years increase by more than
$7,500.
   By that time, the average Manville teacher salary will be
about equal to the current average statewide teacher salary of $51,859, Ms.
Kovach said.
   The union response on Wednesday also said school districts
in Somerset County are reporting an average increase of 4.23 percent this
year, and 4.48 percent statewide.
   However, Mr. Yaple said the School Boards Association
reports an average raise of 4.01 percent this year.
   Ms. Kovach in December had told The Manville News that the
concessions the board was seeking would "cost" union members an average of
$15,000 apiece per year. Included in the cost figure is the value of the
extra time the employees would be required to work.
   ( An increase in the school work day, to not more than 7
hours, 10 minutes, instead of the current six hours 15 minutes to six hours
30 minutes.
   ( A 40-minute lunch period in which teachers do not have
to do "duty" (watch over students).
   ( An average of 200 minutes or more per week of
preparation time for teachers.
   The union, however, takes exception to this proposal
because in the elementary schools, the 200 minutes could be split up
unevenly between days, such as 100 minutes on Monday and 100 minutes on
Friday and no time in the middle of the week.
   ( Various conditions to be met before teachers in the
middle school and high school will be assigned to teach an extra (sixth)
period per day, with those teaching the extra time to receive a yearly
stipend of $3,500.
   But in elementary grades, teachers would not be given any
extra money for teaching additional periods, Ms. Kovach said.
   (A change in medical benefits to require deductibles and
co-payments for hospital stays and other services, for all union members.
Some employees had been exempt from those charges.
   ( A change in title to "instructional assistants," from
"aides."
   According to a written statement, the board accepted Mr.
Tener’s report "because the fact-finder recommended a meaningful increase in
the instructional day."
   The new contract would bring Manville’s instructional time
up to the state average, the board said. Under the old contract, which is
also in effect this school year, Manville students receive 90 fewer hours of
instructional time than the state average.
   "Our students are way short of the state average" in
instructional time, Ms. Bradley said. "How can you surpass and get to
excellence if you can’t even get to average?"
   The issues Manville is negotiating are not uncommon,
according to figures from the state school boards association.
   In 45 percent of the teacher contracts approved at the
start of the school year, the districts sought a longer school day or longer
year or a scheduling change to accommodate more instructional time, Mr.
Yaple said.
   Another 45 percent of the approved contracts in some way
controlled fringe benefits, "typically health care costs," Mr. Yaple
said.
   Some of the contracts, as Manville’s would, ask for both
changes, Mr. Yaple said, so the two numbers cannot be added together to
total 90 percent.