Deadlock Continues In Contract Talks Between Parsippany School Board, Educators

PARSIPPANY, NJ — The deadlock continues in contract negotiations between the Parsippany-Troy Hills Board of Education and the educator's union.

The Parsippany Troy-Hills Education Association (PTHEA) 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 spoke publicly about the situation Friday, saying it has negotiated in good faith.

The board also claimed union leadership engaged in behaviors that weren't "supportive of students or parents" by exerting "constant pressure" on school officials to remain fully remote last school year. Read the board's full statement here.

"Even earlier this month, the PTHEA Leadership requested that the district send students home at lunch and run an early dismissal schedule for an indeterminate period," the board said in a two-page statement. "None of this behavior is supportive of students or parents and fails to recognize what all health officials and educators have indicated, children need to be in school.”

PTHEA President Joseph Kyle responded that the board's statement resorted to "outright distortions and exaggerations."

The board's negotiations team met with the union and a state-appointed mediator for the second time Jan. 24. But they didn't come to an agreement on contract negotiations, according to the board.

The school board 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," the board's statement said. "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."

But staffing shortages have impacted schools across New Jersey and the nation, union leadership said in a Jan. 20 letter to the editor.

"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.

Parsippany's school board listed several examples in which "teachers have received both respect and consideration for the job they do," including the following:

• continuing to pay stipends for co-curricular, extracurricular and athletic responsibilities during the March 2020 shutdown.
• in September 2020, permitting teachers to leave school to pick up their own children, visit the doctor, attend to family or address other pandemic-related issues that arise without needing to use sick, personal or family-illness time.
• the board approved in November 2020 that teachers be permitted to leave school midday and teach from home or conduct tutorial sessions during afternoons.
• not requiring use of sick or personal days during quarantine periods during the 2020-21 school year.
• maintaining a virtual Friday for K-8 classes through Nov. 30, 2020 and for high schools through May 7.

But Kyle remained unmoved by the statement.

"Although one side sometimes resorts to outright distortions and exaggerations in some struggles in the business world, it is very disturbing to see the Parsippany Board of Education take such a step," the union president told Patch via email. "Since our profession is the education of children, we must lead first by example, and the Board's message teaches our students all the wrong lessons about ethical and good faith bargaining."

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