Ridgewood Teachers Union Will Rally Tuesday Before Negotiating Session

RIDGEWOOD, N.J. — The school district's teachers union will rally Tuesday afternoon, — the first day of school — before another negotiating session in light of the 19-month-old labor dispute with the Board of the Education.

The rally will be at 4 p.m. at the at the Education Center.

The rally comes as REA President Michael Yannone said in a Record article recently that the Board of Education, "doesn't care about the quality of education in Ridgewood," because they don't have kids in the district."

Yannone said in the article that holding a strike is something the union's 547 members, "would have to discuss," as a way of getting a new contract for the first time in more than 430 days.

Salaries and health insurance continue to be two points of contention between the two sides.

Under the previous contact, teachers' salaries ranged from about $56,000 to $116,000.

Tim Huntley, a state-appointed super conciliator, reported in May that a new three-year contract should contain annual raises of 2.2 to 2.8 percent.

The employee health insurance contribution rate should remain flat and the insurance plan should remain the same — a proposal the board rejected.

Huntley's recommendations would cost the district $4.4 million over the state-mandated 2 percent budget increase cap during the three-year contract, including $2.6 million in cuts. Such a proposal would require firing administrators, cutting athletic programs, and reducing how much the district spent on textbooks, professional development, and technology.

Negotiations have been going on since early 2015 — five months before the last contract expired on June 30 of that year.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com

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