By Matthew Sockol
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – Teacher assistants who are employed by the Freehold Township K-8 School District will remain district employees, according to an announcement made by the Board of Education.
At the board’s May 10 meeting, administrators announced that a tentative agreement has been reached between the board’s Negotiations Committee and the Freehold Township Education Association (FTEA) that will ensure the teacher assistants remain employees of the district.
The board’s announcement followed public support the teacher assistants received from residents at an April 26 meeting amid concerns their positions would be outsourced to the Monmouth Ocean Educational Services Commission (MOESC), an education services organization.
According to the board, the specific terms of the pending agreement with the FTEA are still being reviewed and finalized. The May 10 agenda listed pending or anticipated contract negotiations with the FTEA as a matter that would be discussed in executive (closed) session.
When completed, the agreement is expected to be valid until 2019.
There are 127 teacher assistants employed by the district during the 2015-16 school year, according to Business Administrator Robert DeVita. Due to financial constraints, the 2016-17 budget calls for a reduction by eight to 119 teacher assistants. The salary range for the teacher assistants, per the current contract with the FTEA, is $24,914 to $31,314.
Responsibilities of the special education teacher assistant position, according to a job description provided by the district, include providing supplementary support to assist the needs of students with disabilities, and reinforcing personal, social, behavioral and academic goals. The teacher assistants also help with the use of adaptive equipment or devices, eating, dressing, personal care and bathroom use.
After the announcement was made, resident Kerry Vendittoli, who has a son with special needs, asked if the issue of outsourcing the teacher assistants would be revisited. Vendittoli’s concern related to board members who considered hiring teacher assistants through the MOESC for the 2015-16 school year. That outsourcing did not occur.
Vendittoli is the co-president of the Parent Advisory Council for Excellence, an organization for parents and guardians whose children have special needs.
Mike DeLuca, who has a son with special needs, commended the board and the FTEA for reaching an agreement, but he also wanted to know if the agreement would last until 2019.
Board President Christopher Marion said the board and the FTEA need to ratify the tentative agreement, but he said he is confident that will occur because both sides reached an agreement and acted in good faith.
The board’s attorney, Michael Gross, said it may take several weeks to ratify the agreement.
“I am relieved,” Vendittoli said afterward. “I am very thankful the board and the union were able to reach a tentative agreement that would ensure our teacher assistants are not outsourced, that the education, safety and well being of our students is not compromised and that the jobs of 127 women and men who, in my experience, have been some of the most dedicated, selfless and caring people you could ever hope to have in your child’s life, are no longer in jeopardy.
“My hope is that this agreement, which we still do not know the details of, is fair to both sides and if so, that it is approved and signed as soon as possible. We then have three years to work with the board to find other areas of the budget that could be reduced that do not directly impact any of our students and makes certain we are all not back here again fighting the same fight three years from now,” she said.