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SOUTH BRUNSWICK: Tentative agreement reached with teachers

By Ed Birch, Special Writer
   Schools Superintendent Gary P. McCartney said Monday that he is confident that the Board of Education and the South Brunswick Educational Association teachers union have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract.
   Dr. McCartney reported the potential agreement after the regularly scheduled board meeting ended Monday night.
   Neither Superintendent McCartney nor union officials would release any details about the negotiations, and this item did not appear on the meeting agenda.
   Attempts to reach SBEA President Christopher Hines were not successful.
   Teachers in the district have been working without a new contract since July 1. More than 200 union members attended three consecutive board meetings as a show of solidarity for the union during the negotiations.
   Both Mr. Hines and Board President Dr. Stephen Parker traded jabs at each other during those meetings, each accusing the other of stalling the negotiations.
   The tentative agreement must be ratified by the union’s more than 700 members before the board can approve it, according to officials.
   As a tentative agreement seems to have been reached with the teachers union, two other unions had new contracts approved by the board Monday night.
   The board unanimously approved a Memorandum of Agreement and Salary Guides for the South Brunswick Supervisors Association and the Administrators Association.
   The agreements cover the period from July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2015.
   According to the agreement, both groups will receive salary increases of 2.4 percent this year and 2.3 percent per year for each of the next two years.
   ”This has been an ongoing process since last summer,” Dr. Maribeth Edmunds, Principal at Monmouth Junction School, and president of the Administrators Association said. “The items and salary numbers in the agreement have taken us to a very fruitful conclusion.”
   Meanwhile, high school language arts teacher Thomas Decker, who represents the Supervisors Association, refused to provide any comments on the agreement and referred all questions to Dr. McCartney.