WATCH: 'Back To School Night' Protest Continues In West Orange, NJ

WEST ORANGE, NJ — Can a "Back to School Night" be complete without the teachers? West Orange parents and guardians are about to find out if educators and support staff continue their boycott of the district’s annual Back To School efforts.

On Tuesday, West Orange Education Association (WOEA) President Mark Maniscalco told Patch that union leaders expect that the district’s tenured teachers will continue to “choose not to volunteer their time outside of contractual hours” for West Orange Back To School Nights, which continue until Sept. 29.

• See related article: West Orange Teachers Boycott Back To School Night

The WOEA – which represents the district’s teachers, paraprofessionals, administrative assistants, computer technicians and security officers – says that its members’ decision to boycott the much-anticipated annual event is a reaction to deteriorating working conditions and a bargaining impasse.

Citing reasons such as a “finger-pointing” mentality among administrators, a lack of hiring from within and stagnating contract negotiations that have left employees on the job without a work agreement for more than a year, WOEA members recently issued a joint statement explaining their boycott of the event, which is voluntary for teachers.

The statement can be seen in its entirety here.

“As public employees, we do not have many forceful ways to raise awareness of the situations and to bring matters to something of a head,” the statement reads. “We cannot strike and cannot engage in serious job actions without either disrupting the educational process — which we will never do — or putting jobs at risk. We certainly will not be discussing this struggle with your students, as that would place them unfairly in an adult problem… What we can do is not volunteer.”

WOEA members voiced their frustration during a Monday protest during the kickoff of the district’s Back To School Night series at Kelly Elementary that saw as many as 400 participants at its peak, organizers estimated.

BOARD OF EDUCATION RESPONSE

West Orange Board of Education members sent Patch a statement in opposition to many of the union's allegations, calling the WOEA’s claim that the board has failed to hire from within “completely inaccurate.”

BOE members claimed in a joint statement that they have been engaged in negotiations with the WOEA for a collective negotiations agreement since May of 2015 and have reached tentative agreements on several issues.

"While the board was interested in continuing face-to-face negotiations, the Association declared impasse on May 26, 2016. Therefore, a mediator was appointed by the Public Employment Relations Commission, with whom we met on Tuesday, Sept. 6, and presented the most recent contract proposal to the association to which the association has not responded."

BOE members stated that they remain hopeful that the parties will negotiate in good faith.

"The West Orange Board of Education strongly encourages the members of the association to contact their leadership for specific details on negotiations to date and the recent contract proposal from the board,” its members told Patch.

Read the BOE’s full statement here.

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