TINTON FALLS — Mired in a contract negotiation with the Tinton Falls Board of Education, teachers in Tinton Falls invoked a state law and took Election Day off.
Peter Karavites, Tinton Falls School District Board of Education president, said the district was forced to cancel school on Nov. 3 after members of the Tinton Falls Education Association (TFEA) indicated they would not be working on Election Day.
“The superintendent got a bunch of letters from teachers saying they would not be coming in,” Karavites said. “They used the law that employees can take off on state holidays; they never took off ever before, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
According to a letter sent to parents by Superintendent John Russo, individual teachers alerted the district on Oct. 30 saying they were invoking a state law that allows them to elect to take Nov. 3 as a holiday.
“As a result, it is not feasible to open school and safely supervise and educate your children,” Russo said. “Please be aware that the Tinton Falls School District has been open on Election Day for many years without such action by the teaching staff.
“This is occurring at the same time that the Tinton Falls Education Association is negotiating contract terms with the Tinton Falls Board of Education.”
The Nov. 3 parent/teacher conferences were also rescheduled for Nov. 30.
Karavites said the negotiating tactic presented parents with an unnecessary inconvenience.
“The teachers did put a lot of parents out having to find day care, having to find who is driving,” Karavites said.
Negotiations between the district and the union are currently in mediation after an impasse was declared in 2013, shortly after the previous contract lapsed. At the heart of the argument between the two sides is how salary increases should be given to teachers based on their experience.
Karavites said the board has requested binding arbitration with the teachers union.
“At our last meeting we asked for binding arbitration; you never see a board ask for binding arbitration you only see the teachers ask,” he said.
Karavites said under the current system, teachers in the middle of the salary guide receive the largest increases, while teachers with more and less experience receive smaller annual raises.
However, he said the board’s proposal would split the raises virtually equally among all teachers with every teacher receiving about $6,000 in raises over a four-year span.
According to Karavites, the board’s proposal also includes 2.45 percent raises annually over the course of the contract.
“A lot of parents are starting to understand,” he said. “The number one thing people need to understand is we are under a 2 percent cap; that is not from us, that is from Trenton.
“The money doesn’t come out of the air, a board of ed has to worry about taxpayers, has to worry about children, and nowadays has to worry about teachers. We don’t want to fire teachers, we don’t want to reduce teachers, and we don’t want large classes.”
Karavites said the next step is to continue to work on reaching a contract agreement with the union.
“We are in the cycle of negotiations that the teachers put us in,” Karavites said. “After two meetings almost two years ago the teachers declared an impasse.”
Karavites said the board members thought they had an agreement with the union in 2014, but after eight months the union eventually rejected the proposal in June.
Since then the public divide between the two groups has widened, with each side publicly blaming the other for the lack of a new contract.
More than 50 members of the Tinton Falls Education Association (TFEA) crowded the cafeteria at the Mahala F. Atchison Elementary School during the Sept. 21 board meeting to express displeasure with the board over the lack of a new contract.
In an NJEA posting, the state organization criticized the board for not reaching a contract agreement.
“The TFEA, which represents 200 teachers, paraprofessionals, and secretaries, is beginning their third year without a new contract,” the letter states.
“Although a tentative agreement was reached by the negotiating teams last year, it was subject to ratification by the TFEA members and the Board of Education. The members of the association overwhelmingly rejected the deal because it once again meant Tinton Falls would lag behind other districts in the county and comparable districts in the state.”
The Tinton Falls Board of Education has also posted a letter regarding the negotiations on the district website refuting some of the points stated by the NJEA and TFEA.
“NJEA representative Kathryn Coulibaly incorrectly stated that our teachers are entering the third year without a contract,” the board letter states. “In fact this is a falsity and the NJEA knows better.
“There is a contract that is in effect and will continue to be in effect until a new contract is reached.”
Karavites said part of the complaints is over the district’s average salary, which he said is misleading because of the 25 retirements in recent years.
“If we did that math three years ago, the average would be high because we had an older teaching staff,” he said. “We have a younger teaching staff now.”