Shamong teachers, as well as the administrators and non-affiliated staff, will be entering the school year with a contract.
At the July and August board of education meetings, the board approved three-year contracts with the Shamong Township Education Association and the Shamong Township Administrators’ Association, as well as set the salaries for individuals identified as non-affiliated staff.
“We were able to work between the board and the association for a very positive result. Everybody was on the same page of doing the best we could so we could have contracts for the start of the school year. It was all very positive, and we are very happy about that,” lead STEA negotiator Pat Durelli said.
Negotiations began in January with negotiation teams of board members and STEA members. Durelli said things were done pretty quickly, as they came to an agreement in May, however they had to wait to get approval.
For the previous contract, mediation was required, and the teachers ended up working without a contract for a year. However, Durelli said this time it seemed like both parties wanted to come to an agreement quickly and worked cooperatively to reach an agreement before the start of the new school year.
For the new contract, there is a 3.25 percent increase to the money paid toward staff, allowing for raises for each step in the guide.
There were health insurance changes as well, increasing copays from $10 to $15, but the board offered to pay for long-term disability insurance for full-time employees.
“The board came up with the idea (of the disability insurance), which is nice because that extra money will go into the teachers’ pockets,” Durelli said.
In the salary guide, a teacher entering the district with a bachelor’s degree makes just more than $50,000. On the higher end of the bachelor’s scale, which includes multiple years of experience, a teacher can make about $84,500. A teacher toward the top end of the master’s scale would make about $88,500.
Durelli said she’d like one of the main goals for STEA with the next contract negotiation to be to get people at the top of the guide a better increase, as this contract does not give them much of an increase. Durelli feels this contract is very good and positive for most of the people under the STEA, but the people at the top deserve more.
“It was very difficult to give people at the top of the guide a good raise. We did the best we could, and next time we’ll have to address some of the things we couldn’t take care of this time,” Durelli said.
The STAA contract is similar to the STEA contract, as it received the changes made to health benefits, including the long-term disability for full-time employees, according to Superintendent Christine Vespe. The only difference is the STAA has a 2.75 percent increase over the next three years.
The contracts will run through June 30, 2019.
