By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
The Princeton Board of Education and the roughly 370-member teachers union failed to make any headway in contract talks last week after the latest round of negotiations ended in less than an hour.
The two sides continue to be at stalemate, having been unable to reach a new three-year contract. Teachers have been working under the terms of their old deal that expired at the end of June. The two sides are due to meet again Oct.22.
The core issues have remained unchanged, salaries and benefits. The school district is offering raises of slightly under 2 percent for each year of the contract. Leadership of the Princeton Regional Education Association is looking for givebacks on health care. The union contends the board has dug in its heels and did not make the union a counter offer last week.
In particular, the union said the school has said teachers would need to accept fewer health benefits to cover the cost of any raise of more than the proposed 1.8-percent-increase.
"The Board refused to put a counter proposal on the table. The Board has now refused to move for two consecutive meetings, despite significant movement by the association. There is no evidence that the extraordinary attendance and comments at the public meeting last week had any impact, other than to increase the Board’s obstinance," said union president Joanne Ryan and chief negotiator John Baxter in a statement Thursday.But in a statement issued Friday, board members Patrick Sullivan, Molly Chrein and Andrea Spalla — the three members of the board negotiating team — said the union demands would have negative impacts on the classroom by leading to layoffs and larger class sizes.
"The problem with the PREA’s demands is that they are simply unaffordable. The PREA’s current proposal for salary increases and health care givebacks is far in excess of the maximum tax raise we could ask taxpayers to pay by law under the 2 percent cap on tax increases. As fiduciaries for the children and for this community, we cannot pay what they are asking us to give," the statement read in part."Simply asking taxpayers, or the district, to pay more jeopardizes the quality of the education we provide to our children," the statement continued. "If we gave more than a reasonable amount to PREA, we know that programs and teachers would need to be cut. Our children’s class sizes would increase. Our duty as Board members is to our children and our taxpayers, and is to sustain the high quality of our schools, which we all value."
A state-appointed mediator is due to meet with them on Nov. 20 in an attempt to break the impasse the union and school board find themselves.
By law, teachers are not allowed to go on strike. But they are not required to write college letters of recommendation either. So far, the union has not said whether teachers would refrain from writing those letters, a move that likely would upset members of the community with children attending Princeton High School.
