School board, teachers
fail to reach agreement
By Josh Davidson
Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN — With the first day of the 2002-03 school year less than one month away, the township’s teachers will be on the job when school opens despite not having reached a contract agreement with the Board of Education.
Middletown Township Education Association President Diane Swaim said union members will work the 2002-03 school year, despite the lack of a contract with the Board of Education.
"We would be working for a second year without a contract," Swaim said. "The contract that was in effect in 2000 and 2001 would remain in effect, status quo."
With a contract yet to be put in place, the association indicated its teachers do not plan to work the extra 20 minutes a new one would ask for. The extra 20 minutes, under the proposed contract, applies to high school teachers, said N. Britt Raynor, board negotiations committee chairman.
"There’s no contract in place," Swaim said. "Nothing can be changed according to law until the contract is ratified."
Teachers will work under the terms of the previous contract since no new contract is in place, but the board wants to settle the contract issue, Raynor said.
Raynor said he is hoping union members will vote to accept mediator Ronald J. Riccio’s report before school begins.
"Our hope is that things will be resolved by the start of the school year, and if not, [we hope] Diane Swaim will immediately ask the rank and file if they will approve it," he said.
The board unanimously accepted the recommendation for the salary guide at its July 23 regular meeting, but the union did not approve Riccio’s report.
Riccio delivered the report to both sides days prior to the July 23 board meeting.
A seven-day MTEA strike in December led to 228 teachers and support staff being jailed for refusing to obey Superior Court Judge Clarkson Fisher Jr.’s return-to-work order. Fisher appointed Riccio after the strike.
Attorneys from both sides have talked about the contract since the report was rejected, Raynor said.
"The 20 minutes, in my personal opinion, is not a big deal," Raynor said. "The priority is to get a contract signed."
The board is working out what to do about the 20 minutes, Raynor said.
"As far as I’m concerned, if there’s no signed contract, they don’t have to work it," he said.
"To devote attention anywhere else is not serving the school community as best as we should," he added.
Riccio approached the board about modifying the report rejected by the association, said Swaim.
The board had set up an executive meeting, but board attorney Malachi Kenney had already chosen to not share the report with the board, Swaim said.
"Today I am enclosing a copy of the modified salary guides presented by Ronald Riccio to me and our UniServ representative on July 29, 2002," Swaim states in an Aug. 12 letter to community members. "The association officers and I have approved these modifications, and we are prepared to recommend them for ratification if the board agrees to do the same."
The modifications do not distribute the agreed-upon 4, 4.3, 4.4 and 4.6 percent settlement figures according to the association’s salary guides, but they do ameliorate the detrimental effects of Riccio’s earlier recommendation on veteran staff members, it states.
"If the board approves the modified Riccio guides and provides us with the missing documents that conform with our understanding of the agreements we made, we will prepare complete settlement information packets for all members for Sept. 3 and hold a ratification vote on Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2002," the letter states.
"I can’t see why Diane Swaim doesn’t want to move forward," Raynor said. "I’d hate to see this go back to the judge."
At issue is control of the union’s salary guide.
The board wants to ensure higher salaries for newer teachers, while the association want to maintain total control of its member salary guide.
"The Board of Education wants to lure teachers to Middletown by pumping up the salaries of the beginning teachers with money taken from the salaries of their veteran teachers. Those veterans are the very same teachers who were maligned, abused and ultimately jailed at the behest of the Board of Education for daring to demand a fair contract," Swaim said in a July 29 letter .
"Middletown’s reputation has been seriously hurt by the spectacle of the Board of Education demanding that teachers go to jail. The whole world was watching," Swaim said.
The board gives young teachers unfair benefits and veterans unfair burdens, Swaim said.
The association isn’t concentrating on a raise; they are concentrating on how much above and below its salary guide’s figures would amount to, Swaim said.