Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Board of Education rejects state-appointed fact finder’s recommendations for a new teachers’ contract. The BOE’s rejection sends contract negotiations, at an impasse since July 2015, back to Square One.
While other readers are glad the BOE is taking a stand , “God forbid you don’t agree with the teachers’ demands. I hope the BOE takes a tough position. Agree that with the schools’ ratings sliding downwards and raises should be performance based. As for the healthcare plans – why would you think you are entitled to a better plan than the taxpayers who pay for yours? The teachers obviously do not care about the children or their profession as much as they care about the almighty dollar. They need to work a little harder and bring the school ratings up before any increases and either contribute more towards their medical insurance or agree to a less expensive plan. Yes, that means $25 co-pays and higher deductibles”
While BOE members have taken the heat say one reader , “The withering and abusive “behind the scenes” attacks on our elected BOE officials should be an embarrassment to all teachers. Why should teachers get better health benefits than the taxpayers who help subsidize them? Surely some of the things these teachers and the REA have pulled are cause for dismissals? Why not bring in some younger teachers who actually want to work with our kids and would be thrilled to teach here?”
Maybe the teachers need some remedial math lessons on how to calculate 2%.
Maybe they can talk to the taxpayers and find out what they pay for healthcare, and what their deductibles are.
Guess they will have a lot to think about over their ten weeks off.
This is an excellent article and very true. I believe Ican assist further on these factual comments above. The fact is the Fact Finder is calculating off of skewed numbers? What do I mean? The fact finder is using the increases in other towns and areas that are below Ridgewood’s already higher salaries. So the Fact Finder is wrong and the BOE refusal is 100% correct. You want 2.2,2.8, and 2.8 as others are getting when your already above these others? That is the real FACT here. This is a perfect example of making the union numbers work for the teachers. Thank you BOE. Please explain this to the idiot taxpayers supporting an absurd request. It took a lot for the BOE to reject this. No one is against the teachers, we have many good ones. However, as it has been said before it is time for teachers and their unions to begin to pay their fair share of what the public has been suffering through.Explain your $10-15 co-pay? The public paid those numbers 15-20 years ago. Wake up people
The teachers work 181 days and most of the senior teachers are six figure salaries, add their pensions and healthcare to $100,000 and what do they really get paid per year? $180,000 (base 100,000, healthcare 20,000, and pension 60,000). Thank you, for educating our children well. However, the unions (teachers, police, fire, civil servants) are driving the entire local, county, state and Federal contracts to unsustainability. We will collapse, thank you to the BOE for trying to slow this down by offering reasonable contracts.
OMG, maybe the teachers will have to actually enter the private sector and start working summers. The police and fireman all supplement their incomes with side jobs…are they reporting this cash? Are you reporting your tutoring cash? We know…
I heard union members repeatedly claim last night that the school district is great because of the teachers.
Really? How about we swap Ridgewood teachers with Newark ones for a year? Will it make an iota of difference to the performance of Newark school?
The answer is NO and guess what, teachers unions agree! When the unions target Newark schools for salary increases, they discount school performance by blaming it on the parents.
Ridgewood schools are whatever they are because parents do 90% of the heavy lifting. With the rare exception, teachers bring nothing special to the table other than their presence.
Thank you BOE and all those residents who supported them last night for standing up for Ridgewood taxpayers!
The teachers’ union malarkey last night was ridiculous. What planet are these people living on?
All three of the above are right on the money ! The signs around town should read, “Support Ridgewood Parents.”
It was said that there was a sad support of parents supporting the teachers at last night’s BOE meeting. The truth maybe that there were more parents that did not show up because they DON”T support the teachers. It is very intimidating to walk across a huge line of teachers, showing their solidarity in their red shirts. Very few parents want to confront the very teachers we see everyday who not only teach our kids but are neighbors and friends as well. We have been accused of being uneducated, not knowing the facts and being biased. Why would we want to get up and speak. Many take to the blog because it is anonymous because we are afraid to put a face to a voice in fear of the lashing we will get. To have a teacher(not teaching in this district) say that the private sector employee gets their cars, their parties, their expense accounts and their lunches out every clearly shows that they are not educated in how the real world works. This may have been the case years ago, but those days are long gone. It is statements like this that make the good parents of this town who care for their children afraid to speak. Why do teachers think they are superior to the rest of us? We all try hard. Nurses salaries are lower than a teacher’s. What if a nurses decided they didn’t like their salary and benefits, would it be okay for them to stop caring for you? I am very disheartened with the current situation. As parents we need to get the courage to speak up. Take this opportunity to write to the BOE. Show your support. If anyone read and understood the fact finder report they would understand the reason the BOE voted the way they did. It time we take a stand.
10.10 Answer is : Planet of other people’s money…
Hooray for the BOE! Time for teachers and unions to live in the real world. John at 9:59 am is right on the money. Unions always manage to place blame else where never on themselves.
“gravely train”….really…in an article criticizing teachers.
Ridgewood parents pay a lot of money for enrichment & Tutors
Please don’t let the teachers take credit for my children’s achievements. My kids are bright and I need to supplement their RPS education.
I’m grateful the BOE stood tough. We have all had enough. I’m also tired of teacher’s discounts at retail stores and educator’s discounts! Nurses, salesmen, administrative assistants, accountants do not earn as much as Ridgewood teachers and do not have summers off!
I don’t know where you all from. As a parent and retired teacher, I have never been in a better district with more deficated, excellent staff. The parents do o0% of the heavy lifting? Don’t know planet you are from! Wish all you could spend a week in any classroom in the district so you could then know what you are talki,g abouf!
Looks like a bunch of goons in the picture posted above. Our taxpayer dollars pay the salaries and benefits of these greedy teachers?
No contract, no future for REA demands. Replace all of the teachers in the pictures above, what are their names and which schools please? They need to be OUTED.
Teachers health plan cost us 30K a year per teacher.
Good news folks.
The teachers will continue to use our children as weapons in their war.
Remember. they LOVE your kids… until they can be used for monetary gain.
Do it fer da kidz
Once again gossip mongering and falsehoods, spewing derisive comments when only one side of the facts is considered.. Teachers have not engaged in any slow downs, job actions or given less then required by their contracts. They have stood as a unified force requesting a fair contract. No one has missed meetings, over extended their sick time or not given 100% to their students….to say otherwise is just being untruthful. Parents have become accustomed to all of the extras the teachers provide on their own time. Getting to school early, staying late, participating in extra curricular activities is not part of the contract…it should not be taken as a requirement. We teach our children to stand up for themselves, have a voice, speak out when they feel they are treated unjustly so why is it wrong for the teachers to do the same? Why is an orderly, legal gathering characterized as a bunch of greedy goons? Why should anyone respectfully expressing their opinion (which, for the obviously uneducated who don’t know, is a protected right under the constitution) be OUSTED (I assume this is what you meant 12:58)?
5;04, did you know that 31 teachers we’re out sick last Friday just at the High School? So everything you said is null and void. The biggest joke of your comment is that they have given 100% to their students. You could not be more wrong. You must not know what is going on? Please do not speak when you haven’t a clue
No, I want their names and schools OUTED on this blog. Then they should be ousted. Welcome to 2016 5:04, we don’t get “platinum” health benefits, we don’t “accumulate” sick leave year after year to be paid out at our final comp rate, and we don’t get annual wage increases, which are what drives lifetime pensions from an average TPAF retirement age of 62. That’s today’s reality that you and your union seem unable to comprehend. Who pays the 40% ACA excise tax on your annual family health benefit plan from 2020? Why don’t you lose unused sick leave like the rest of us (who don’t get summers off)? Why do you deserve 2.8% annual wage increases when the property tax cap (and Bergen inflation) are 2% or less? You and your union are over reaching and highjacking our students’ education in the process. We want teachers who love educating and are willing go the extra mile for our kids. That’s why Ridgewood had one of the top high schools in the entire country 15-20 years ago.
5:04 – teachers have not engaged in job actions? Not threats? Then please explain the goon sign picture on the REA FB page that reads “NO CONTRACT, NO EXCELLENCE.” What is that supposed to mean? That teachers cant perform well unless the BOE caves to their demands?
Good point 10:40, the sign in the picture above also clearly says “No contract equals no future for Ridgewood”… what does that imply?
Can anyone post the names and schools of the teachers in the picture above?
5:04 – Almost all of your employers work in the private sector WITHOUT contracts. And giving our best is the DEFAULT expectation, no a freebie as you teachers seem to assume for your jobs.
@12:58. Simmer down. One of those teachers is my daughters and she is an axcellent teacher who has not been excessively absent but has been present in every sense of the word. They can do as they please in their free time.
They have said they feel teachers are what has made this school system great, so it is not difficult to infer no contract = loss of teacher = no future. Now whether they can find an equal job with that kind of pay remains to be seen.
8:40 – “no contract = loss of teacher ….Now whether they can find an equal job with that kind of pay remains to be seen”
Does not compute. If they have nothing else that will pay even close, why would they quite their present job? Or is that an empty threat?
And try hollering for more money outside you bosses house in your ‘free time’ in a non-union job and see how that works out.
I’m still deciphering through the information on this issue but keep leaning towards the board’s side. $102,000,000 is enough, and I think we should be working to bring that number down, not up. $30,000 per teacher for healthcare..what? That’s enough. The teachers keep saying they need more but when I look up numbers, Ridgewood is about $10,000 more per average than surrounding towns (Fairlawn, Glen Rock, Wyckoff). Why do they feel their job, in this town, deserves more than surrounding towns? Getting a teacher position in this town is coveted because of the clientele and already highly compensated packages. When asked why they deserve more, responses such as “excellence schools require excellent teachers who deserve more money.” But really, why? Is it more difficult to teach in an excellent school system than a mediocre school system? What is the evidence that it’s only the teachers that equal excellent results. Doesn’t parent involvement, economic stability and environment account for some of these excellent results? What is the compromise from the teachers, I haven’t heard of anything? If we lose teachers because they don’t like the new contract, wouldnt competent, good teachers line up to fill those spots?
If a teacher or union rep could answer any of these questions, please do! I’m open to shift my support but need answers. By the way, the tactics used at the Halloween parade, taking away clubs, etc. is driving my support to the board, not teachers.
8:40, you are completely out of touch with the reality faced by private sector employees
There are schools that will pay close, just a matter of whether there are openings. In a non Union job you have far more upside for high performance and most people have no problem informing their bosses of their market value when they are high performing.
type a comment
8.40. Simmer down mother cub defending her daughter is admirable but avoids the issue that taxpayers (owners ) have said enough is enough.
Is that clear enough to the deniers here.there is a limit to everything..its a market..let teachers check the market and leave if they can do better..many standing in wings for these valuable positions…
1:48 – “There are schools that will pay close,”
Absurd argument because those schools are being peddled the same BS by the same unions.
Newark potentially pays more. I would pay money to watch a Ridgewood teacher survive one week in a Newark high school.
As far as “high performance” in private sector goes, it has to be TANGIBLE – like profits earned, clients booked, sales made etc. “School district is excellent because of teachers” type of arguments will not even pass the sniff test.
Private sector comp is based on a very simple premise – what is your next bid? For almost all the teachers here, the answer is – not even 25% of what they make now, if they can get a job in the first place that is.
I think that the majority of our teachers are excellent, but why has Ridgewood consistently gone down in both national and state rankings? When we moved here in 1971, Ridgewood was ranked in the highest part of the nation and in the top few in the state. Now we struggle to be in the top quarter of the state. And when we moved here from an inner city school, we were told that all our children would have to skip a grade because they were too far advanced over the students in the comparable grades at our local school.
And, if the teachers are not neglecting their duties, why did a fifth grade field trip lack any teachers accompanying them? What did their teachers do today when they had no students?
9:46… please don’t bring judgement to someone you know nothing about. 31 teachers absent at RHS might be the case but that not only includes sick days, but professional development responsibilities, class trips (yes, as long as the trips return during contracted school hours teachers are chaperoning) and other approved leaves. This is not over extending sick time! Teachers have fulfilled curriculum requirements, state mandated evaluations, technology training, parent-teacher meetings, professional development seminars and everything else required by their contracts in addition to daily teaching assignments with the students. Can you expand on this “The biggest joke of your comment is that they have given 100% to their students. You could not be more wrong”.
Ridgewood schools were excellent…. 15 years ago. What happened?
8:56 – “Can you expand on this “The biggest joke of your comment is that they have given 100% to their students.”
Working to ‘contract’ – a contract that apparently does not include written college referrals despite getting 6 digit salaries, platinum healthcare benefits and retirement benefits worth millions of dollars – is NOT called giving 100% to students.
It is called shirking work. You forget that most of us work in the private sector and do our best on our jobs. We do avoid things directly related to our job under the guise of ‘contracts.’
But how would you know – that is what unions do.
John, Apparently you disagree with the terms of the current teacher contract but that does not mean anyone is shirking their responsibilities. You want teachers to go above and beyond their job descriptions but don’t want them to be fairly compensated for doing so. You are 100% correct; writing college recommendations, coming in before school begins and staying after it ends for the day, attending functions outside of school hours, chaperoning after hour or overnight trips, and volunteering for extra curricular activities are not part of the contract details but have been provided due to the professionalism of the teachers. They now find themselves struggling to make ends meet and need to pursue addl sources of income. The time for the extras just isn’t there anymore!
Struggling to make ends meet? Are you serious? Add in the $30K annual family health benefit subsidized by taxpayers, accumulated sick leave, and the $60-70K lifetime defined benefit pension you hardly contribute any of your salary towards, and you’re more than meeting ends meet. Maybe cut out the caviar and champagne you seem to be enjoying after skipping out on the kids at 3:15pm sharp.
11:43, just because the teachers work for a school board with a “tradition of excellence” does not mean they are excellent. Shirking out on non-contractual extra work in a misguided union driven attempt to steal more money from taxpayers will not help you build upon that tradition either; you teachers are living in fantasy land.
All taxpayers should also understand that the potential increase of 2.2, 2.8 and 2.8 is not the only increase teachers get. They also get an automatic salary jump for each year they work. Each ‘step’ on their guide brings them a raise (significant) regardless of the percentage increases. So at the end of the day, their increases are more in the 8-12% range, some even higher – check it out if you don’t believe me. This is the quiet little secret that the teachers unions NEVER discusses publicly because they don’t want you to know about it.
@11:43, teachers are paid for the extras at high school, running clubs etc. so if they will no longer perform those responsibilities it is more about making a political point vs.doing something extra
Lucy… Where did you get your erroneous information? The potential % increase is not on each teachers individual salary but applied across the guide. Depending on where they stand on the guide some teachers may see a larger increase than others, some may remain flat and even others take a cut. Suggesting 8-12% increases is ludicrous. You should really check your facts before making such egregious comments!
Teachers should ALL take pay cuts after their disgusting and greedy behavior in the 2015/16 academic year. The REA is not negotiating in good faith. They are trying to steal money from taxpayers and any wage growth over inflation is egregious and must be rejected. Anything above 2% combined annual wage + step wage growth is dreaming on top of the already highest median teachers’ salaries in Bergen County for 10 months work a year. $25 doctor’s visit co-pays and $25 drug prescription co-pays would also be nice, as well as “use it or lose it” sick leave and defined contribution pension plans for all new employees. Time to accept these terms REA/NJEA, we’re sick of your abuse. Support Ridgewood taxpayers, support the BOE, and support our students!
@12:28
I know that the percentage is spread across the guide. If a 0% increase was agreed to, teachers salaries would still jump because of the step increase. When you include step increase with percentage increase, the average increases fall into the 8-12% range – do the math. What I should have included was that the 8-12% is across the 3 years. Take the old guide, and compare to 3 steps higher on the new guide. You’ll see that I am correct.