The Board of Education is committed to settling the contract with the Ridgewood Education Association (REA). To this end, the full Board will meet with the state-appointed super conciliator on July 20 at 5 p.m. at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place.
The REA negotiating team will also be present that evening. The Board is unanimously steadfast in its desire to resolve the on-going impasse with the REA and is prepared to stay as long as needed to finalize the settlement and reach agreement on a successor contract to the one that expired on June 30, 2015. The Board fervently hopes that the 2016-17 school year will start with a new contract and put an end to the difficulties that this impasse has caused. When the Board’s negotiating team first met with the super conciliator on June 27, the team presented a threeyear contract proposal that included a salary increase for each of the three years of 1.1%, 2.8% and 2.8%, with additional one-time payments for the highest paid teachers to defray part of the increased costs for their healthcare premiums. The average salaries for Ridgewood’s teachers are currently near the top when compared to salaries in other Bergen County school districts. Our starting salaries for teachers are at the top. If the REA were to accept the Board’s proposal, our teachers would continue to maintain that comparative advantage. The Board’s proposal includes a change to the health benefit plan from NJ Direct 10 to NJ Direct 15. Both plans offer the same provider network. With NJ Direct 15 there would be a nominal increase in copays for primary care doctors and specialists. The copay would increase from $10 to $15. A change in the health insurance plan would lower premium costs for both the district and the staff. The Board’s proposal would fairly compensate our teachers and secretaries for the excellent work they do. To date, in every negotiation session the Board’s team has delineated the economic impact of the proposals discussed.
The team has been forthright in its discussions with the REA, the mediator, the fact-finder, and the super conciliator that the cost of the contract must be affordable and aligned with the district’s financial realities, which include a two percent limit on tax increases. The Board remains hopeful that a settlement can be reached that addresses the needs articulated by our teachers and secretaries but does not set the stage for drastic cuts to staff and programs nor jeopardize the district’s financial future.
REA statement :
“Once again tonight the BOE has refused to accept the report from the impartial State Appointed Fact Finder. In fact the Board has not improved its position since February, and tonight presented nothing new to the REA negotiating team.The BOE continues in its position that it cannot afford the Fact Finder report. The impartial Fact Finder examined the Board’s books when he made his recommendation. Despite the BOE’s false statements, the report shows it has the resources to fund the recommended settlement. If the BOE cuts programs, it will not be because of the REA. Instead the Board is using scare tactics and the threat of cutting programs as an attempt to scapegoat the REA. This is no time for divisiveness; instead it is time for compromise. But as long as the Board remains set in their discredited “cost neutral” position, until it is willing to truly negotiate, this impasse will not end.
This meeting was the last chance of a settlement before September. Its failure to negotiate tonight means that teachers and secretaries will return to work beginning their second year under an expired contract. In addition, the Ridgewood Administrators Association (RAA) contract has also expired. The recalcitrance of the Board now means that in addition to teachers and secretaries, every principal, assistant principal, and supervisor will also begin September under an expired contract. This should not be acceptable in Ridgewood.
The Board needs to stop posturing and begin the work of negotiating in good faith to settle this contract. The BOE obviously, as stated in its email to the school community, is NOT “prepared to stay as long as needed to finalize the settlement and reach an agreement on a successor contract”.
The median HOUSEHOLD incomes in Ridgewood are $138,000… teachers work for 10 months a year with tenure in many cases, so if you annualize teacher pay for 12 months work, they get paid paid the same as an entire household at the median in Ridgewood, i.e. $118,000 for 10 months = $136,000 for 12 months, with the added safety of tenured job security. Add in:
1) taxpayer subsidized $28,000 annual family “platinum” health benefit plan, which is much better than the average private sector employer plan (equivalent to “bronze”), and has much lower premiums, $5-10 co-pays, and covers up to 96% of all billable costs; as well as,
2) defined benefit pension plans for life which TPAF members contribute less than 7.5% of their annual wages towards (still!) and start drawing at an average age of 62 in NJ which can be worth over $2 million if the retiree lives to average US lifespan; and,
3) sick leave which gets carried over year after year instead of the “use it or lose it” sick leave offered by private sector employers
It becomes very clear that teachers have a MUCH better deal than the median Ridgewood household, which pays much higher health plan co-pays and deductibles for less health benefit coverage (on average, private sector plans only cover 84% of medical expenses), loses unused sick leave that cannot be carried over, runs the risk of job loss, and contributes up to 16% of their annual wages towards defined contribution pension plans, i.e. 401(k) plans. Combined teacher benefits are already too high even for well qualified, experienced, certified, professionals… which, by the way, is not what we got from the REA in the 2015/16 academic year. We got petulant, greedy, bad faith, so-called professionals who let our kids and schools down in a multitude of ways, from recommendation letters, to after school programs and activities, to community outreach. Notice the lack of signs supporting teachers in Ridgewood; we’ve had enough.
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Schools had 3 teachers listed on the Department of Educations list of teachers in the $100,000 per year club.
The three Ridgewood teachers all make $116,173 annually. They are:
DEBELLA, MARGARET SCHAEFER
SCHAEFER, RICHARD MCNAMEE
MCNAMEE, HAROLD NELSON
The Department of Education releases this annual list of teachers and their salaries. The list of educators making joining the $100,000 club has grown . Over a decade ago the list barely had any teachers on it now has grown to more than 5,000.That’s only a tiny fraction of the more than 90,000 people who teach in public and charter schools in this state. The highest earners come from all different schools and not just the so-called “wealthy” districts that routinely rank highly on national and state lists for best schools.
BOE Meets on July 18 at 5 p.m.
Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a Regular Public Meeting on Monday, July 18, 2016 at 5:00 p.m.The meeting will be held in the Board Room at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place. The public is invited to attend the meeting or view it live via the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us using the “Live BOE Meeting” tab on the district website, or on Fios tv channel 33 or Optimum 77.
Click here to view the agenda for the July 18, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.
Click here to view the 2016-2017 Budget presented at the May 2, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.
Click here to view the Full Day Kindergarten Recommendation presented to the Board at their March 7, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.
Taxes are too high, why are we paying $102mn a year for schools that aren’t living up to their reputation? The teachers are a huge part of the problem here, and their “bad faith” negotiations are only making things worse. Why do they deserve better health care benefits, i.e. lower co-pays, than the taxpayers subsidizing their plans?
These teachers have lost so much credibility in our community through their actions/inactions, words, and greed. They’re riding the reputation of excellence despite not being excellent themslves – time for new educators who actually want to work with our students and help them.
This commentator is aware of a long-tenured RHS teacher in an important academic subject (won’t get any more specific than that) that was on full mail-it-in mode all year, for no good reason. Near the end of the year, it got even worse. The teacher’s students suffered needlessly, particularly grade-wise. Like, all of them. We need new blood. Teacher misbehavior in light of this contract dispute has gotten out of hand in terms of its spitefulness. Ridgewood residents and taxpayers should not allow themselves to forget this…
it’s even worse than that. The teachers recruit our own kids to fight their proxy war through indoctrination. I read a recent article in the paper about the various ‘Teachers of the Year’ nominated by students. One of Ridgewood’s teachers was complaining how anti-teacher it was in his school instead of being thankful for the nomination. He can always go to another district if he doesn’t like his six-figure 10 month job.
Ridgewood teachers are some of the highest paid in the entire State. We all want raises and better health care from our employers but most of us are just happy to have a job now. In fact if anyone I know behaved the way these protesting teachers have been they would be fired. The teachers don’t seem to understand that things are not great for a lot of people since the recession and recovery has been slow. Those who enjoy the security of tenure, and automatic raises can’t seem to grasp what is going on for so many of us struggling to pay our taxes. Hold the line BOE. Teachers unhappy with their jobs in our school system should look elsewhere. We don’t need malcontents in our classrooms and there are a lot of people who would be very happy to have their jobs..
RIDGEWOOD — A state-appointed super conciliator will try this month to settle a labor dispute between the Board of Education and the district teachers’ union that’s left teachers working without a contract for more than a year.
There have been a number of disagreements throughout the 18 months of negotiations. But arguments over salaries, proposed changes to the union’s insurance plan and how much Ridgewood Education Association members must contribute to their health-insurance premiums have created deep rifts that two previous state mediators were unable to patch.
I like the idea of a referendum on the teachers contract, so long as it’s binding. We had great teachers and administrators who built up the reputation of Ridgewood schools. The current bunch? Meh. They seem to care more about their health benefits than our kids. If you witnessed their behavior this past school year you’d agree they’ve done nothing to carry on the “tradition of excellence”. More like “riding on the coat-tails of the reputation built by the predecessors.” They are trying to bully us with the backing of NJEA lawyers and lobbyists. We need to support our BOE and students, if only they elicited the same grassroots support that the we’ve seen opposing the most recent garage proposal and Valley!
Readers say……..Not sure why the teachers seem to confuse a “tradition of excellence” with they, themselves, being excellent? The decline in our schools suggests they are, in fact, not continuing with the tradition… And health benefits and above property tax wage increases seem to be taken for granted. Offer them a diminished contract and if they don’t like it, they are fee to seek employment with another school board or in the private sector. If the grass is greener, walk!
Are we all aware of the actions the teachers are taking. They are so unprofessional and demonstrate a total lack of excellence and just no passion at all for the kids. They wait outside te high school as a group until the last minute required for school start, they lock the classroom doors during down time as not to be bothered to help a kid who may need it. They will not attend a single function, award presentation, and in many cases do not offer to help write a recommendation letter or even some guidance. Teachers that do offer to support anything outside what is in the contract are threatened and hassled by other teachers.
These are not good people, they do not care about the kids, and they are taking advantage of this town who values eduction. No one is getting 3% raised a year, everyone is paying more for healthcare, and very few only work 180 days a year.
Fire a few, I will take the job, after 40 years in corporate companies I could,use the relaxed job
If the teachers do not like the way they are being treated by the RW BOE then they can leave and go to another district (i hear patterson has openings)
…but wait… they’d have to give up the nice working environment, the great pay and benefits, the safe environment, the interesting and dedicated students and parents and much, much more. But most importantly, they’d have to give up tenure— the guarantee of employment — where they have the OPTION of working hard or hardly working at all and still get the same pay as their peers with no risk of getting fired.
.
.The RW teachers KNOW what a great deal they have and are just greedy and have no real conviction of their stated beliefs – otherwise they would leave this “horrible” situation and get a “better” job elsewhere where they are “appreciated” and “paid what they deserve”.
.
DO IT FER DA KIDZ… WE LOVE YER KIDZ…
Ridgewood NJ, One had to read a summary of the ‘Fact finder’s’ recommendation (link below) to figure out how utterly insane it is!
• Salary increases of:
• 2.2% for July 1, 2015 to June 30, 2016 (retroactive)
• 2.8% for July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017
• 2.8% for July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018
• No change in the current healthcare insurance plan.
• No change in employee contributions to healthcare insurance premiums.
• The highest paid teachers and secretaries receive additional payments.
RETROACTIVE salary increases? NO change in health insurance Cadillac plan? I definitely want some of whatever the teachers are ingesting.
BOE Meets on June 28 at 5 p.m.: Please note change of date, time.
June 27,2016
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood Nj, The Ridgewood Board of Education will hold a Regular Public Meeting on Tuesday, June 28, 2016 at 5 p.m. The meeting will be held in the Board Room at the Education Center, 49 Cottage Place. The public is invited to attend the meeting or view it live via the district website at www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us using the “Live BOE Meeting” tab on the district website, or on Fios tv channel 33 or Optimum 77.
Click here to view the agenda for the June 28, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.
Click here to view the 2016-2017 Budget presented at the May 2, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.
Click here to view the Full Day Kindergarten Recommendation presented to the Board at their March 7, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.
BOE-REA Negotiations
Click here to view the powerpoint presentation regarding the Fact Finder’s report and recommendations, presented at the June 6, 2016 Regular Public Meeting.Clickhere to view the presentation by Ms. Brogan and Mr. Morgan.
In accordance with New Jersey P.L. 2003, c. 126, the Board has made the May 16th Fact-finding Report and Recommendations public and has posted it to the District’s website. At the June 6th Board of Education Public Meeting, the Board will discuss the report and the recommendations. The Board will accept or reject the Fact-finder’s recommendations at that time. Click here to read the Fact Finders Report and Recommendations dated May 16, 2016.
That is how the real world works! The taxpayers are irritated because our district is one of the highest paying in the entire state and the quality of education is lagging – what happened to the Tradition of Excellence? The entire system of education needs to be revisited. Tenure should be abolished although nepotism will still cause problems just as it does in the private sector. Angry masses, as you refer to the taxpayers, simply want value for their tax dollars and are tired of demands by public servants for better benefits and salary increases than what is acceptable in the real world. I am starting to believe educators live in a protective bubble. You chose the teaching profession, hopefully out of a love of learning and children knowing that you could earn a decent living but not get rich. If money was your main motivation you should have considered a different path. Nurses, para-professionals, retail managers with the same level of education do not earn as much as teachers and do not enjoy the generous benefits including time off and generous pensions. Don’t tell me those professions don’t work as hard as you. You are not as special as you think.
BOE has not made an offer.. on the contrary;
The Ridgewood Board of Education has refused to meet with the new state appointed Super Conciliator assigned to mediate the contract impasse.
The REA and BOE were recently assigned a state appointed Super Conciliator. This past Tuesday he offered three available dates of June 21, June 23, and June 27. The REA quickly informed the Super Conciliator and the BOE that they would make themselves available all three dates.
On Thursday, the BOE’s attorney sent an email to the Super Conciliator requesting dates after July 6 due an upcoming meeting of the SEHBP Commission where 2017 premium rate increases will be discussed. They also “heard” that the elimination of Direct 10 is an anticipated topic of discussion for the same meeting. They feel that both issues are key to resolving the current impasse.
#1. The commission doesn’t have the ability to eliminate a plan. That is done by the SEHBP design team which is not meeting until the Fall. Is it the Board’s intention to keep delaying negotiating until after the start of the new school year?
#2. Rates discussed will be recommendations and probably will not be adopted until another meeting later in the summer or closer to the Fall. Those are the rates which would be implemented on January 1, 2017.
REMINDER: The Fact Finder’s report had no change in healthcare plan and took into consideration the BOE’s projected premium increases which they budgeted at 10%. The Fact Finder’s report proved they could keep status quo health plan and settle this contract while balancing their budget under the 2% cap – without any additional increase in taxes. This upcoming meeting has no bearing on the Fact Finder’s recommendations which is the basis of the next round of mediation
#4. Delaying the process creates concern for finding availability of dates from the Super Conciliator that will work when trying to coordinate vacation and summer work schedules.
The BOE informed the public at their last meeting that they were willing to meet anytime with the REA to work towards settling this contract. Apparently that simply was not true. There is now an opportunity to meet with the new state appointed mediator as early as next week. Their refusal to meet is further indication of their lack of desire to settle a contract.
I agree with the above. System has to be changed. No more using the last few years of highest earnings to determine pension payout – should be average of working years. No more pensions for part timers. If taxes are raised any more, anyone who is able to move will even if they wanted to stay. No more platinum health care unless the workers pay more for it if they choose. Don’t get me started on teachers … most believe they are a special class of worker and have the hardest jobs in the world. No, not an easy job but I am not seeing the dedication in the profession that I remember seeing in teachers I had as a child. I stand with our BOE and draw the line for providing benefits better than the private sector offers.
Just got an update from my financial advisor saying my wife and I need to save $366,000 for health care insurance in retirement because Medicare will only cover 51% of total costs after 65. Long-term care costs can run up to $1,680 A WEEK. And 45% of retirees are expected to pay more than 20% of their income on health care by 2040. Yet teachers, cops and firefighters just expect taxpayers to subsidize their “platinum” health benefits year after year, including those who take “special” early retirements as early as their 40s. It’s sickening, and we can’t afford to be paying for better health plan benefits for public sector workers than we get ourselves. Christie and the Ridgewoid BOE are fighting for taxpayers – we must support them against the lies and misinformation being spread by the REA and the full-time Union lawyers and lobbyists behind them from the NJEA. Support our students, support Ridgewood taxpayers, and support the BOE
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