Between A Cap And A Tough Place: Point Pleasant School Board, Teachers Remain At Odds Over Contract

Looking out over an audience full of people dressed in red Monday night, Point Pleasant Board of Education President Ricardo Ruiz told a resident that the school board is working to reach a contract settlement with the district’s teachers union.

“We have been at this since April 30,” Ruiz said in response to a statement from resident Tara MacGlashan, urging the board to settle contract negotiations.

“They don’t leave at 3 p.m. and that’s it,” MacGlashan said. “They take time away from their families for our kids. ... I hope you guys remember that at negotiations,” she said, as the room -- about half full, with teachers in red shirts and sweaters, wearing buttons that noted they are still working, but without a contract -- erupted with applause.

The previous three-year contract expired June 30, but its provisions remain in effect until a new agreement is reached.

“The board has worked very hard at hammering out a fair contract,” Ruiz said, but went on to say the percentage increases being sought by the union for a new three-year deal simply are not affordable for the district, which must stay under the 2 percent cap on budget increases put in place by the state as a provision of removing school budgets from needing voter approval. That cap, he said, makes it very difficult for the district.

“I know how hard times are,” said Mary Orrok, an English teacher at Point Pleasant High School. “It’s not greed motivating our request. My pay is $500 less per month than it was three years ago. I’m having trouble paying my bills.”

“Nobody feels you’re being greedy,” Superintendent Vincent Smith said in response to Orrok. “This is the worst part of education. The economic times we’re living under are very difficult.”

The mood at Board of Education meetings has been tense for months during the contract negotiations. Parents have spoken out at each board meeting, urging the board to settle. The situation became even more tense in September, when teachers union president Lorraine Griffin told the board the teachers were unwilling to supervise on a long-standing trip to Washington, D.C., for the eighth-graders because of the lack of an agreement. While the trip went off with out any problems at the end of October, it was clear last night the tension is rising.

The announcement of contract agreements with administrators and cafeteria workers -- and comments from Ruiz and board vice president Sean Hagan, thanking them for coming to an agreement, clearly irritated a number of members of the audience.

In response to MacGlashan’s statement, Ruiz laid out the details of the negotiations that have gone on between the board’s negotiating committee, which consists of Ruiz, Hagan and board member Susan Byington, since April 30.

“What we found was there was not a willingness to negotiate,” Ruiz said.

The board’s initial offer was 2.35 percent per year for three years, and the union countered with a request of 4.35 percent for teachers, 5.5 percent for bus drivers, 5 percent for classroom aides and 3 percent for secretaries -- numbers, Ruiz said, that the district simply cannot afford.

After a handful of meetings between April 30 and August, Ruiz said the board was caught off-guard when it received notification from the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission indictating the teachers union had requested mediation -- a step usually taken when there is an impasse in negotiations, he said. The board did not believe an impasse had been reached, he said.

In September, a mediation session was set for Dec. 4, Ruiz said. In the interim, the board asked the union to come back to the table. The board offered 2.5 percent for three years, and the union countered with a request for 3.35 the first year and 3.30 in the second and third years.

The most recent offer from the board is 2.8 percent for the first year, 2.7 for the second and 2.5 for the third, he said.

“We can’t go to 3 percent,” he said. ”It’s simply not affordable.”

Ruiz and Smith said the board’s most recent offer was well above what other districts in the county and state have given their teachers, but some in the audience commented that Point Pleasant’s teachers are among the lowest-paid in the county.

A quick search of DataUniverse records on the Asbury Park Press website -- which has salaries for the 2012-13 school year -- teachers’ salaries in the district are roughly comparable to the county’s other districts on the lower end of the experience scale. In Point Pleasant, Brick Township, Manchester, Barnegat and Berkeley townships, starting salaries were about $50,000 in each of those districts. But for teachers with more than 10 years of service in a particular district, the pay levels varied considerably.

“We are being asked to do more and more and more, and being paid less and less,” Orrok said, referring to increasing education mandates from the state. “It’s very disheartening.”

Smith tried to smooth things over, assuring the teachers that he and the school board are sensitive to the economic difficulties they are facing and agreed that the education climate is challenging with all the new mandates.

“I know I can spead for this board when I say we have the utmost respect for you and what you do for our students,” Smith said. “Give us time. I know it’s tough.”

Griffin, the union president, spoke briefly, saying only, “We want a fair contract that shows us you really do value us.”