New Cherry Hill Teacher Contract Adds 30 Minutes to School Day

A new contract with the Cherry Hill Education Association (CHEA) will add 30 minutes of instructional time to the school day at Cherry Hill middle and high schools, school district officials announced Friday.

The two-year contract, which was ratified by CHEA Thursday night and will go to the school board for final approval in a special meeting Monday, was tentatively agreed to last month, and came out of several months of negotiations following the expiration of the old contract this summer.

“Enhancing opportunities for instruction was the key priority for both negotiating teams in this contract settlement,” said Superintendent Maureen Reusche.

The contract also allows for average annual salary increase for teachers of 3.36 percent in 2012-13 and 2.93 percent in 2013-14, but also comes with changes in the district's prescription insurance carrier and a shift to the state employee health benefits plan, which school officials said reduces the annual budget hit to 2.9 percent and 2.61 percent, respectively, and the net two-year impact to 2.76 percent, which comes in at about 0.3 percent higher than the average settlement in Camden County this year, and is somewhat lower than the previous contract's raises, which averaged 2.97 percent.

The additional time in the school day was crucial to continuing to improve the district's academic standing, Reusche said, with the extra time equating to an increase of 14 days over the course of the year.

“The additional time provides increased opportunities for student learning to ultimately impact student achievement,” she said. “This agreement is just one more indication of the professionalism of our teachers and their commitment to student success.”

Teachers at the elementary schools will also see an additional 30 minutes tacked on to their day, but those will be used for Professional Learning Community (PLC) meetings, Reusche said, but because those meetings currently take place during the school day, it effectively increases the amount of classroom time.

“The model that Cherry Hill has adopted for PLCs engages teachers in the analysis of student achievement data and the examination of instructional practices contributing to achievement gains,” Reusche said.

School board President Seth Klukoff credited the CHEA for negotiating in good faith from the beginning of contract talks, and praised the work of the school board's negotiating team of Steve Robbins, Colleen Horiates, and Eric Goodwin.

“We view this contract negotiation as mutually successful,” Klukoff said, “and we view the additional 30 minutes as another significant step in enhancing the quality of education for our students.”

The contract is retroactive to July 1 of this year and runs through June 2014. School officials indicated they'll post an update on the school website Monday with answers to various frequently asked questions about the contract.