Tentative Agreement Reached By Mt Laurel Educators, School Board

MOUNT LAUREL, NJ — The Mount Laurel Township Board of Education and the Mount Laurel Township Education Association have reached a tentative contract agreement, the Mount Laurel Township superintendent told Patch.

"Both parties have reached an agreement and are in the final approval process now," George J. Rafferty, the superintendent said in an interview. "Once the final approvals are complete,
information about the settlement can be available after May 10."

Doug Bozarth, Mount Laurel Education Association President and a math and social studies teacher within the district, declined to comment on the tip Patch received earlier this week that a tentative agreement had been reached.

How Did School District, School Board, Educators Association, Reach This Point?

Previously, Bozarth and Mount Laurel School District School Board President Danielle Stuffo had hinted that salaries were the reason a previous contract offered to Mount Laurel educators was rejected.

"You may have heard a claim from the Mount Laurel Education Association or people communicating on its behalf that the Board rejected terms for a tentative agreement with teachers and school staff. The claim is false." Stuffo had said at a March 22 school board meeting that Patch attended and reported on.

Stuffo's comments are "misleading," Bozarth had said at the time in response.

The school board "decided when we met in March that they were not going to accept the salary guide that we created .... even though it addressed many of the issues that they had,"
he said in an interview immediately after the March 22 school board meeting.

"When we got to the table, they told us that they had agreed to have different dollar amounts," Bozarth also said on March 22. The association's request to have time to review the new salary guides prior to a meeting with the school board was denied, and thus the association refused to accept them, he continued.

Members of the Mount Laurel Education Association have been working for about 10 months without a contract.

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