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ROBBINSVILLE: Union, BOE resume talks

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
   ROBBINSVILLE — Despite signs of protest in the school parking lots where teachers have covered their cars with slogans about their expired contracts, there also were signs of movement Monday in the 18-month labor impasse.
   ”The Board of Education’s negotiation team and members of the WTEA’s negotiation team have resumed discussions and are pleased to report that significant progress has been made,” the board said in a one-sentence statement Monday night.
   The Washington Township Education Association, which represents 350 Robbinsville School District teachers, secretaries, support staff, maintenance workers and bus drivers, has been working without a contract since June 2011.
   Schools Superintendent Steve Mayer said the union and school board negotiating teams met and “enough progress was made that both parties now need to meet with their full membership as a next step.”
   Five weeks ago, the union’s negotiating team rejected a state-appointed fact-finder’s recommendations because the proposal omitted retroactive raises for 2011. The school board previously had voted in favor of the fact-finder’s proposal, which called for phased-in raises between June 2012 and June 2013 that average out to 2 percent annually and a 2.5 percent raise for 2013-14.
   The union negotiating team’s rejection of the recommendations Dec. 3, however, sent the impasse to the next stage of the collective bargaining process known as super-conciliation. At the Jan. 3 Board of Education meeting, Vice President Carol Boyne, a member of the BOE negotiating team, reported the state had not yet appointed the “super-conciliator,” and no negotiations were scheduled.
   Dr. Mayer said the talks held Monday between the WTEA and school board negotiating teams did not involve a super-conciliator or any other type of state mediator appointed by the Public Employment Relations Commission.
   Mike Johnson, the president of the WTEA, was unavailable for comment on Monday and Tuesday before The Messenger-Press went to print.
   Last month, however, Mr. Johnson said it was unfair to expect WTEA members to accept a zero percent pay increase for 2011 when salaries of most members rank at the bottom or near the bottom of all Mercer County school districts.
   The fact finder’s report said the average Mercer County teacher’s salary in 2010-11 was $69,985 while the average Robbinsville salary was $59,399. Secretaries also earned comparatively low salaries, but the district’s bus drivers, whose mean hourly wage is $27 an hour, are the highest paid in Mercer County.
   Frustration over the contract impasse has been evident inside and outside the school buildings since teachers and other unionized staff returned from winter break. Many cars, particularly those at Pond Road Middle School, sport signs with slogans such as “Robbinsville Teachers Are the Lowest Paid in Mercer County” and “Robbinsville: Great Schools and Kids. No Contract.”
   Students have reported, and administrators have confirmed, that many teachers are wearing maroon shirts to school Wednesdays that read “Great Schools Great Teachers” in a show of union solidarity. Many also are only working to the letter of the current expired contract by not staying later than designated work hours, for example, forcing high school clubs to stop meeting precisely at 2:35 p.m. (Sports practices are unaffected as teachers are paid stipends for coaching jobs).
   One RHS senior who contacted The Messenger-Press, but asked that his name not be published for fear of retaliation from his teachers, said the T-shirt Wednesdays and placards in car windows made him and others uncomfortable.
   ”I understand free speech and all, I get that, but it seems out of place and kind of unprofessional,” the student said.
   Dr. Mayer declined to comment about the vehicle signs and T-shirts.