Northern Burlington County Regional Board of Education and Teachers Administration finalize contract agreement.
By: Eve Collins
MANSFIELD The Northern Burlington County Regional Board of Education on Monday ratified the contract agreement reached with its teachers.
The action followed ratification March 1 by the Northern Burlington County Regional Teachers Administration, according to union President Alex DeVicaris. Most of the 179-member union turned out to vote, he said. Only two members voted against it.
The union’s previous three-year contract expired June 30 and its members, including teachers, nurses, librarians and counselors, had been working under the terms of the old contract.
The new contract is retroactive to June 30. Superintendent James Sarruda said salary adjustments are being worked on and are anticipated in the district’s budget.
"We’re all pleased that the issues have been resolved," Dr. Sarruda said. "I saw that both sides were willing to compromise. I think we all would rather have had it go by quickly and easily, but we are not living in a time when economical issues resolved are resolved that way."
The district serves students in grades seven through 12 from Chesterfield, Mansfield, North Hanover and Springfield.
The educators said during negotiations that they had been asked to accept a salary increase that is below the county average, and have been offered substandard health benefits packages.
"We were happy to finally reach an agreement," Mr. DeVicaris said Tuesday. "We have established a framework to achieve parity with teachers in other districts."
At a Feb. 3 meeting, talks between members of the Northern Burlington County Regional Teacher Association and the school board broke down, with a $5 raise in prescription drug co-pay and production of salary guides at issue.
The board offered a 15.6 percent pay increase 5.2 percent for each year of the three-year contract, which the union agreed to in the end. The proposal raises the average teacher salary to $58,096, district officials have said.
Union members and district officials worked together over the next few days to come to an agreement after the February meeting. Mr. DeVicaris said the teachers also agreed to take the $5 increase in co-pay.
The starting salary for a teacher at Northern is now $39,134. They will now pay $15 for name-brand drugs and $10 for generic.
The teachers and staff members also established a salary guide, a pay scale that public employees advance along each year. Northern teachers have not had a scale in 20 years, as most districts do, Mr. DeVicaris said.
Before the agreement was reached, the educators protested the stalemate with officials, taking to picketing outside the schools in the mornings and during events, and wearing matching blue shirts to represent the union.
Most recently, the educators stopped working with students before and after school, working only within the contract hours of 7:30 a.m. to 2:35 p.m., an action that officials said only hurt the students.