Board Votes Unanimously To Seal Teacher Deal

After almost three years of negotiations, and two superintendents, the Ramsey Board of Education and the Ramsey Teacher Association came to agreement on the teacher contracts during Thursday's school board meeting.

Board members and several Ramsey residents thanked Interim Superintendent Bruce De Young for helping to bring both sides closer to a deal over the summer.

During a presentation at the high school auditorium Thursday night, the details were outlined and questions from the public were answered before the board voted unanimously to approve the agreement.

“We are not going to the negotiating table to win or lose, to wane or complain, we are going to the negotiating table to make our common problems into common solutions,” said Claudia Monteith, board member and chairperson of the negotiating committee as she read from her 2010 remarks.    

Under the terms of the new one-year contract, teachers will keep the 4.35 percent aggregate salary increase they received in 2010-2011. Since the money has already been dispersed, this one-year contract will have no effect on the school budget or property taxes going forward.

Also part of the agreement, teachers will retain a wage freeze for the 2011-2012 school year, but receive a one-time $800 stipend. They will receive a two percent raise for 2012-2013.

An additional 2.6 percent will go towards teacher salary guides to enable the district to stay within the state’s two percent budgetary cap.

“This will allow us to modify the salary guides in ways that will prevent us from having issues in the future,” said School Board President Tony Gasparovich. “We want to make sure fiscally we have a salary guide structure to work with.”

Teachers and non-union district personnel will also give up their costly traditional health insurance plan, and switch over to the New Jersey School Employees' Health Benefits Program.

The change, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2013, is expected to save the district approximately $1.2 million in insurance premiums annually.

But, the savings will not be as great as originally anticipated because the state announced increases in their insurance premiums after the teacher negotiations were finalized. Nevertheless, the board views the savings as a compromise for both sides, members said.

“Despite the fact that our savings are going to be less, this is still the way forward for our district,” said board member Richard Multi. "We had to get off the traditional plan." 

"The cost may very well have increased at a higher rate for school employees health benefits plan because the traditional plan offers a wider range of benefits," Multi added. "And with the costs of healthcare escalating, insurance companies are going to charge more for that wider range of benefits.”    

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