HILLSBOROUGH – The Hillsborough Township Public Schools Board of Education and the Hillsborough Education Association (HEA) have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract that will begin following the end of the 2021-22 academic year and run through the end of the 2024-25 school year.
Hillsborough Township Public Schools Director of Human Resources Michael Callahan announced in a joint statement with HEA President Henry Goodhue that the two sides agreed to a new deal after several hours of talks on Dec. 2.
“We are pleased the agreement was reached in a timely manner prior to the expiration of the current contract through a collaborative approach,” Callahan said. “The Board of Education and the Hillsborough Education Association look forward to continuing work to ensure the best for our students, staff and community.”
When reached to speak about the agreement, Goodhue said it is “news in itself” that the two sides have a preliminary agreement in place with six months to go before the current agreement ends.
“It’s good to have an agreement in place before June,” Goodhue said. “Some school districts don’t have settlements in place this early. We have one in place both sides can work with.”
The conversations between the school board’s representatives and the union’s representatives went more smoothly this time around after the two sides had problems agreeing on the terms of the current contract that is in place and will expire on June 30, 2022.
The sides could not agree on a new deal by the time the previous contract expired in June 2019. The HEA members worked under the terms of the expired contract until the current contract was agreed to in December 2019.
The new agreement awaits ratification by the school board and the union. Because the agreement has not been ratified, the specific terms of the agreement are not available at this time.