Full ratification by both sides not likely for three more weeks
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
School employees don’t have a contract yet.
While the pact was generally arrived at two weeks ago, the Hillsborough Education Association and the school administration are exchanging salary guides for the seven groups of employees before both sides take a final ratification vote.
The HEA ran the proposed salary guides, which assign a salary based on years of experience and service, by the N.J. Education Association, said Daynon Blevins, president of the HEA.
Once they had been returned, Mr. Blevins said he sent them to Superintendent Jorden Schiff, who was going to have the N.J. School Boards Association review them.
Mr. Blevins said he promised his members that he would give them a full week after all information has been received before seeking a ratification vote. That hadn’t been done by Monday, so it was unlikely the Board of Education could vote on the pact until after its meeting next Monday, Nov. 18.
The next scheduled board meeting is Monday, Dec. 9.
While a tentative agreement had percent salary increases for each of the three years of the contract, Mr. Blevins said, how the money would be appropriated on the scale of experience and education was unresolved.
There are seven groups for which guidelines must be developed, he said. They are teachers, instructional assistants, lunch aides, custodian and maintenance workers and 10- and 12-month clerical assistants.
In total, there are more than 1,000 members of the HEA, with 685 to 700 being teachers, he said.
Stipends for club advisors and coaches would also be determined in the contract.
The contract would be retroactive to July 1, so HEA members would receive a lump sum for the salary increase accumulated in the last five months.