School will begin Sept. 6 in Springfield
By Stephanie Prokop, Staff Writer
SPRINGFIELD As the 2007-08 school year begins, Springfield is one of four school districts in the county where teachers will be working with expired contracts.
Walt Keiss, the interim superintendent for Springfield, said the contract, which expired in June 30, is still in negotiation and is currently in the fact-finder stage.
”It’s a process and it will work itself out,” he said.
According to the New Jersey School Boards Association, 208 of New Jersey’s 593 operating school districts have returned to the bargaining table to negotiate new teacher contracts. Of those, nearly 59 percent remain in negotiations, a figure that is not uncommon at this time of year.
The Web site stated that contract negotiations do not affect the opening of school, which is slated to begin Sept. 6.
Stacey Byrne, a first-grade teacher at Springfield Elementary School and the president of the Springfield Township Education Association, confirmed that the contract ran out June 30, and that teachers have not settled on a new three-year contract.
Ms. Byrne also acknowledged that the school board and the teachers have entered the fact-finding stage, in which an employee from the Public Employment Relations Commission’s Dispute Resolution Panel comes in an listens to both the teachers and the school board’s sides, and looks at statistics from other adjacent districts. That representative would then make a recommendation to the school board and teachers for a new contract.
Ms. Byrne said she does not know how long the fact-finding stage will go on, but hopes that the board and the teachers will reach an agreement soon.
”Certainly we would like to see a negotiation agreement reached sooner than later,” said Ms. Byrne, “With the opening of school coming we are looking forward to a new school year,” she added.
Issues that are currently in dispute include health-care benefits, salary, and time issues, said Ms. Byrne. She declined to elaborate on details of the negotiations.
The average salary increase for contracts covering the 2007-2008 school year is 4.60 percent, slightly less than the average increase of 4.65 percent last year, according to the NJSBA site.
Superintendent Helena Sullivan is currently on personal leave.

