Newark Schools Try To Attract New Teachers With $62K Starting Salary

NEWARK, NJ — Nationwide teacher shortages during the “Great Resignation” have also affected Newark’s public schools. But administrators and the local teachers union think they have a game-changer to help get educators back in classrooms: a $62,000 starting salary.

On Thursday, the Newark Board of Education announced that they have reached an agreement with the Newark Teachers Union (NTU) on an addendum to their work contract, which will raise the district’s new teacher starting salary to $62,000 per year.

According to the school board, the re-opener will also increase the salaries of all teachers who currently earn less than the new teacher salary, also to $62,000, and retention of all other teachers is addressed with increases of $1,000 over the next two years.

In addition, Newark’s new hires in critical areas (mathematics, science, special education, bilingual education, and English as a second language) are eligible for a $4,000 signing bonus, and all district employees are eligible for a $1,000 bonus for referral of a new teacher that is successfully “on-boarded.”

The board offered more details about the need for the move in a joint statement:

“In order to recruit new teachers and retain veteran teachers, the Newark Board of Education needed to be competitive with other school districts. Some districts’ labor agreements expired during the pandemic, so their teachers’ salaries have been raised as part of the process of reaching their next labor agreements. Other districts re-opened negotiations mid-contract during the pandemic to raise teachers’ salaries as an incentive for recruitment and retention. Because the current agreement between the Newark Board of Education and its teachers’ union, the NTU, runs through the 2023-24 school year, immediate action was required.”

“We have to continue to find creative ways to attract stellar teachers,” Board President Dawn Haynes said.

“This recent development with the reopener is just one more example of doing just that,” Haynes said.

“The importance of this agreement cannot be overstated,” NTU President John Abeigon said. “I want to thank our negotiations team and the district for demonstrating leadership and foresight.”

Superintendent Roger León said that while teacher shortages across the nation have been exacerbated by the global pandemic, administrators in Newark are leveraging multiple strategies to “attract and retain great teachers.”

“These new salaries will attract fresh talent and at the same time foster retention by increasing the salaries of experienced teachers,” León added.

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The salary bump is the second big announcement from the district on teacher retention in as many months.

In mid-April, the Newark Board of Education said the district is poised to take advantage of new state legislation that allows it to hire retired teachers. Dozens of retired educators have since expressed interest in teaching again, administrators said. Read More: Newark Schools Will Hire Retired Teachers, Make New Pathway For Others

For more information on how to become a teacher with the Newark Public Schools, visit www.teachnewark.com.

‘A CRISIS IN PUBLIC EDUCATION’

The Newark Teachers Union also released a statement about the new starting salary and contract addendum.

According to the union:

“The current crisis in public education is twofold. Teachers are leaving the profession, and there are a lack of qualified teachers to fill those positions. While it took some time for it to impact education, what economists and employment experts are calling ‘the Great Resignation’ has indeed done so. Fortunately, for now, in Newark this has been limited to classroom teachers whose numbers are leaving Newark at a startling rate compared to other education workers and support staff.”

The union continued:

“The Newark Board of Education proposed a solution for recruitment and retention directed solely at attracting classroom teachers and keeping them. In the initial proposal the district focused their efforts on new hires, moving the starting salary to $62,000, and making steps 2-8 equal to that. The Newark Board of Education and Newark Teachers Union Negotiations Committee developed new teacher salary guides for the school years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. These new guides extend the retention strategy the district proposed for steps 1-8 and provide new increases on EVERY step. These new guides reflect a $500 increase each year in addition to the already contractual increases, for a total raise of $1,000 over the two years.”

“This addendum to our current contract was approved by the NTU and NBOE negotiations teams respectively and subsequently submitted to President Abeigon, who in turn sought and secured approval by the NTU executive board in a special session,” the union continued.

Spokespeople concluded:

“The importance of this agreement cannot be overstated. This is a great first step in attracting new hires, retaining recently hired and recently tenured staff, and rewarding those who have remained throughout Newark’s most challenging decade. Equally important is the impact this will have on all staff salary guides in our future negotiations set to begin in January 2023. Concurrent with this addendum, the NTU Evaluation Framework Committee is drafting a document to be shared with the superintendent with specific recommendations for workload reduction for all titles. It is our sincere hope that these two measures will radically shift school culture and restore the sense of community that was once the hallmark of the Newark Board of Education.”

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