The Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District Board of Education is attempting to save 20.5 teaching jobs.
On May 19 the board sent a letter to the Manalapan-Englishtown EducationAssociation (MEEA), which represents the district’s teachers, and made an offer that it says would save the jobs of employees who are scheduled to be laid off at the end of the current school year.
Manalapan-Englishtown Superintendent of Schools John J. Marciante Jr. explained that the members of the MEEA are due to divide an overall raise in their wages of $1.2 million during the 2010-11 school year.
The raises would be given depending on where a teacher is on the district’s salary guide (i.e., years worked and degrees attained).
In its proposal, the board is asking the MEEA for permission to use $700,000 of that overall salary increase to retain the 20.5 teachers who are scheduled to be laid off and for the MEEA to divide the remaining $500,000 in that $1.2 million salary increase pot for raises on a revised salary guide for the upcoming school year, Marciante said.
According to information provided by the superintendent, the following positions would be saved if the MEEA accepts the offer: nine elementary teachers, one-half kindergarten teacher, two teachers of academically talented students, five elementary school counselors, one physical education teacher at the Manalapan Englishtown Middle School, one cycle teacher at the Manalapan Englishtown Middle School and two child study team positions.
A telephone message left for MEEA President Ken Weber on May 20 was not returned.