Parsippany Educators To Rally Amid Contract Dispute With Scool Board

PARSIPPANY, NJ — Parsippany's teachers are taking to the streets. The Parsippany-Troy Hills Education Association will hold a rally Thursday amid its contract dispute with the district's school board.

The rally will run from 6-6:15 p.m. Thursday at the Dr. Frank A. Calabria Education Center (292 Parsippany Rd.), where the Parsippany-Troy Hills Board of Education meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m.

"Stand up, march and show the Board that we are unified and must be treated like professionals," said the educator's association, a union for Parsippany school staff.

The union and school board have remained in deadlock amid contract negotiations. The educator's association broke its silence Jan. 20 about its struggles to negotiate a new contract with the school board as they continue working under a contract agreement that expired last summer.

The board's negotiations team and union representatives met with a state-appointed mediator for the second time Jan. 24, but both sides failed to reach an agreement.

The school board claims it has negotiated in good faith. But the educator's association has argued that staffing shortages have affected schools across the nation, and changes are needed to prevent them in Parsippany schools.

"If we are going to continue to have the best public schools in the nation, we must offer competitive salaries and benefits to attract and retain the best educators," union leadership wrote in a letter to the editor.

The school board says it proposed salary increases of 3 percent for the 2020-21 school year, 3.1 percent for 2021-22 and 3.1 percent for the 2022-23 school year. But the PTHEA countered with a proposal of a 3.56 percent increase for each of the three school years, according to the board.

"The district is required to adhere to a 2% tax levy increase which funds all of our educational programming," said a Jan. 28 statement from the board. "The BOE should not have to find itself in a position where cuts to staffing and programs are the only option - this is not good for students or staff."

Read more: Parsippany School Board, Union Disputes Resume In Contract Talks

But educator's association President Joseph Kyle said that the board's statement resorted to "outright distortions and exaggerations."

"Since our profession is the education of children, we must lead first by example," Kyle told Patch, "and the Board's message teaches our students all the wrong lessons about ethical and good faith bargaining."

Read to school board meeting agenda here.

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