The head of the Holmdel Township Education Association said last week that members were blindsided by a letter from the Holmdel school district notifying all staff members that they would not be rehired for the next school year.
Denise King, HTEA president, said the decision by the Board of Education and Superintendent Barbara Duncan to notify all teachers, support staff, buildings and ground workers, secretaries and bus drivers that they are not being offered re-employment was a departure from the board and the union’s collective bargaining agreement in the past.
“In all the years that we’ve been here, our collective bargaining agreement says they [the board] have to notify us by April 30 of whether we are re-employed or not,” King said.
“But in all the years that I’ve been here, I have never received a letter that says ‘I’m not recommending you.’ On April 30 I get a letter normally that says ‘I am recommending you for rehire’ or ‘Congratulations, the board has renewed your contract for the 2010-11 school year.’ ”
After the district’s budget failed on April 20, Duncan issued a statement explaining that the district is required to notify staff prior to April 30 whether or not they will be re-employed for the upcoming school year.
In order to comply with the HTEA collective bargaining agreement, notifying all personnel of potential non-renewal is required, according to the district’s letter.
“That [April 30] letter was intended to let the teachers know we have to wait for the budget decision before we give them a formal notice,” said board President Ray Tai, in an interview. “Unfortunately, the union chose to interpret that letter as a pink slip to everyone. We are not handing out a pink slip to everyone.”
Board officials previously stated that 16 positions would be eliminated for a savings of approximately $700,000, including administrators, teachers and non-certified staff.
In a letter from the HTEA that was distributed at the May 6 Township Committee meeting, the teachers’ union argued that the notification of nonrenewal sent out by the board on April 30 was “unprecedented in this district,” describing the action as “stunning.”
Despite an 86.5 percent reduction in state aid and a defeated school budget, King said the Board of Education should know where reductions need to be made and whom they plan to re-hire.
“Basically what they said is that everyone was non-renewed,” King said. “That way, it gives them [the board] time to figure out what they want to do. As I said to them very clearly, you need teachers to teach first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade, math, science … whatever the subjects are that you know you are keeping.
“Those people should have received a letter on April 30 saying ‘You have been renewed.’ That’s how it’s always been done in the last 16 years that I’ve been here. I have people that have been here 40 years and they never received a letter like this.”
In response to the HTEA letter, Duncan posted a letter on the district website on May 7 explaining that Holmdel does not normally notify all staff of non-renewal, but this year’s budget reform called for different action.
“We prefer not to send such universal notices, recognizing the anxiety they cause, however, this year’s unique circumstances required a different approach so as to assure compliance with the teachers’ contract,” Duncan wrote.
According to the letter, three factors delayed the district’s hiring decisions, including state aid reductions, legislative changes, and negotiations with the HTEA.
The district previously stated that $396,303 was received in general fund state aid, an 86.5 percent reduction and a loss of $2,540,463.
The Holmdel Township Committee must certify a tax levy by May 19, and Duncan stated the district will “promptly make reappointments and send Rice [non-renewal] notices to those not being re-employed.”
Tai said the Board of Education and the HTEA are negotiating on an expired contract and have entered fact-finding, a legal mediation process.
“We’ve gone a long way to get where we are today, and we have to attribute it to the teachers, the parents, the administrators, the students and the community as a whole,” Tai said. “It’s really a team effort, and we should not demonize anyone — not the teachers, not the administrators, not the taxpayers — in this trying time.
“We need to find a way to balance our budget and retain our staff at the same time, but with the reduced state aid, the increased health insurance costs, expected additional cuts from a defeated budget and also the fact that personnel costs represents the majority of our budget, this will be possible only if the associations answer the governor’s call to share the pain and freeze their salaries for 2010-11.”
Duncan’s May 7 letter said that the union leadership failed to accept the governor’s proposed zero percent wage freeze. At the same time, King said the HTEA members did not receive a raise for the 2009-10 academic year, complicating the matter.
“What happens in negotiations when you don’t have a contract, your contract stays in place; however, you don’t move anywhere on the guide,” King said.
She explained that union contractual agreements were signed in 2005-06 and expired in July 2009.
“Your salary stays exactly what it was the year before. Nobody has received a raise currently if we don’t have a contract going for 2010-11. Again, no one has received a raise. However, if you settle, then you should get whatever that raise should have been.”
In previous years where the budget has failed, only non-tenured employees would receive notices of nonrenewal, according to King.
“Normally if the budget failed, they would just send all non-tenured people a letter saying, ‘At this time we cannot offer you re-employment’ and sometimes after they figure things out or people retire, some of those would get renewed,” King said.
The detailed budget information that was submitted to the Township Committee has been posted on the district website at http://www.holmdel.k12.nj.us.
“We will update the community there whenever we have new status,” Tai said.
In the meantime, many employees are worried that they are next on the chopping block.
“The morale is terrible. Everyone is nervous and upset,” King said. “Everybody is coming to work doing their job above and beyond, like they always do here. It’s not like anyone is doing anything like they haven’t done before for the kids, but they are concerned.”