The Freehold Regional High School District Board of Education has approved a new contract with the Freehold Regional EducationAssociation (FREA), which represents teachers in the district’s six high schools.
Aone-year contract with the union will run from July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009, and a three-year deal with the union will run from July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2012, according to information provided by the FRHSD.
According to the district, there will be a 4.52 percent increase in the teachers’ salary line for the first three years of the deal and a 4 percent increase in the teachers’ salary line in the fourth and final year of the agreement.
Business Administrator Sean Boyce said, “Our budget allows this settlement while continuing to maintain the fiscal responsibility that makes the FRHSD one of the lowest spending districts in New Jersey.”
Although there will be an increase in the total amount of money budgeted for teacher salaries in each year that the agreement is in place, all teachers will not receive the same percentage increase during the course of the contract period. An individual teacher’s percentage increase is based on the salary guide which is determined by district administrators and FREA officers every three years.
Some FREA members will receive a larger percentage increase and some union members will receive a smaller percentage increase on an annual basis. The amount of the increase is determined by the employee’s years of service in the district and their place on the salary guide.
According to Boyce, “Although the bargaining agreement will have an impact on the district, it is not absolute. There are many variables such as the number of staff positions, the turnover and new programs.
“The contract determines how much people get paid once hired. For instance, if we decided to hire an additional staff member (at the bottom of the salary guide), and a teacher at the top of the salary guide retired, the increase would amount to less.
“There are a number of variables that drive the appropriation in that line item of the budget. It’s a spending plan. The budget is built to accommodate the increase with limitations of the 4 percent cap on the tax levy, which the district meets, that is imposed by the state. It is a needs based budget. The salary lines adopted and passed are based on anticipated cost of staffing need to support the planned program and services.”
Boyce said the salary guide is a fair allocation of total dollars. He said the district’s administrators work with the FREA to develop structurally sound salary guides.
In the 2008-09 school year, the starting salary for a teacher in the FRHSD who holds a bachelor’s degree will be $49,000. Under the terms of this contract the lowest salary for a teacher with a bachelor’s degree, who has gained tenure, will be $51,975.
The top current teacher’s salary is $93,550. That salary line is allocated to a tenured teacher who holds a master’s degree plus 30 credits.
Under the terms of the ratified contract, all newly hired staff members will be required to enroll in a base health plan with a premium cost 7 percent less than the traditional health plan offered by the district, according to a press release from the FRHSD.
Superintendent of Schools James Wasser said, “This is a fair and equitable contract where both sides had to compromise. The increase, which is below the county average, is appropriate because our teacher salaries tend to be lower than those at other districts in the area. We need to bring the scale in line with local districts in order to keep top quality teachers from leaving Freehold Regional.”
FREA members have also ratified the agreement.