The school board has approved a one-year contract with the Cranbury Education Association, but left a separate three-year deal to be addressed in April after the school board elections.
By:Josh Appelbaum
The school board has approved a one-year contract with the Cranbury Education Association, but left a separate three-year deal to be addressed in April after the school board elections.
The CEA ratified the terms of a four-year contract at a Jan. 6 special meeting. The deal includes a retroactive contract running from July 2004 to July 2005 with a 4 percent salary increase, and a three-year contract with 5 percent increases each year from July 2005 to July 2008.
Later that evening the school board met without the CEA and approved the one-year retroactive contract and decided to hold off on the three-year deal.
The school board and the Cranbury Education Association agreed in principle to the four-year deal Dec. 16.
Tom Stinson, president of the CEA, which represents 60 teachers and support staff, said Thursday he was unaware that the board had not ratified all four years of the proposal. He said he was under the impression it would.
Board of Education President Joan Rue said she believed the board was prohibited by state law from approving more than three years of a contract in a year.
However, Mike Yaple of the New Jersey School Boards Association said school boards do not have to enter into salary contracts for longer than three years, as per a 1995 state Supreme Court ruling. However, he said a school board could ratify a contract beyond three years if it chose to.
Mr. Yaple said it is common for school boards to structure the ratification the way Cranbury did.
He said a reorganized school board would have no obligation to ratify the three-year deal.
School board member Adam Hawes, who sat on the contract negotiations subcommittee, said the union and the school board had agreed to the structure of the deal, but said the mechanism by which the board would implement ratification had "evolved afterwards."
Ms. Rue said the board opted for the four-year plan to give the board and CEA breathing room between contract negotiations. A three-year deal retroactive to July 2004 would have expired in July 2007, with negotiations on a new plan beginning well before then.
"Because the negotiations were so extensive, it made sense to agree to this contract and (an additional) three-year contract so the entire proposal is for four years," Ms. Rue said. "It is good for the board and good for the CEA. We’ll have an opportunity to see how well the plan works."
Cranbury teachers and support staff had been working without a contract since their three-year deal expired July 1. The union and school board negotiated for about 10 months. Negotiations went to mediation in August.
Mr. Stinson said the union was generally happy with the proposal, except for a provision that requires teachers to contribute to medical plans.
The contract allows teachers to choose a point-of-service health-care plan with a $5 co-pay or from traditional plans offered by Horizon Blue Cross-Blue Shield with a deductible of between $200 and $800.
Under the terms of the contract, teachers will receive a 4 percent salary increase for the 2004-2005 school year and 5 percent increases in the three subsequent years. The new plan calls for an increase in the starting salary for new teachers with a bachelor’s degree from $34,567 to $40,000, according Mr. DeLucia.
Hourly rates for overtime and special projects will increase from $32 to $35 an hour, according to the contract.
Ms. Rue said a key component to keeping costs down was to change the way employees’ prescription drug plans function. Under the previous contract, several providers were used.
In addition, the district will provide as much as $50,000 for teachers to earn master’s degree credit at state colleges. Ms. Rue said she expects expenditures for tuition to be well below the $50,000 maximum.

