I support our BOE 100% and feel the REA and their Unions are out of touch with reality, meaning the real world. We must stop kicking the can and giving in to unsustainable contracts. My family of 6 pays $20,000 to $30,000 per year for health care, each of us has a $3,000 deductible, and we get to pay $45 co-pays, up from $30 last year. No raises for the last 3 years, so no additional money to go toward paying these Obamacare increases. Healthcare on a whole is flawed now beyond comprehension. We all must suffer including the teachers, police, and all civil servants suckling off the teat of their Unions.To all teachers, teach us how you can pay your fair share and not push it off to the taxpayers. Same for all civil servants nationwide. Paid unused sick time and vacation needs to go away for all. What happened to getting approval to possible carrying over 5 days like everyone else gets? Stop the sweetheart deals for retiring police chiefs, toll takers, etc. Enough is enough. I support our BOE for their understanding and urge them not to settle. Why is this country siding with a loud mouth Trump? Because we do need real change. Not Obama change which is just change left in your pocket.
FYI OP – I am a federal employee hired after 1985. You may not know that the federal government overhauled their benefits in 1985. PLEASE do not lump up with state and local civil service employees. Here’s why . . .
I am DO NOT take unused sick time with me when I retire (it goes bye bye).
I am NOT allowed to accrue more than 240 hours of vacation time (it’s use or lose by December 31 every year).
I had/have not maternity leave (you can use sick time but no more than 240 hours (6 weeks))
I do NOT have one of those sweet federal pensions (they stopped that in 1985). I have a 401(k) and SSI.
I pay a nice chunk of my BC/BS medical premiums with substantial co-pays and co-insurance.
I haven’t seen a “raise” in years. My Cost of Living Adjustments is a follows with inflation in parenthesis. As you can see, I am going backwards. Factor in skyrocketing medical premiums and I’m broke but happy to have a job.
2010 – 2% (1.6)
2011 – 0% (3.2)
2012 – 0% (2.1)
2013 – 0% (1.5)
2014 – 1% (1.6)
2015 – 1% (0.1)
2016 – 1.3% (1.4)
Hopefully the BOE will not cave. Agree with the above post no more sweetheart deals. As for the head of the teachers union maybe he needs to step in to the real world.
Time for real change, the kind we don’t get in Trenton. Couldn’t agree more.
Hope the BoE stays strong under the withering and vicious REA attacks – I support the BoE. The REA and their full-time NJEA lawyers and lobbyists behind the curtains are not negotiating in good faith.
Fire them all then start the rebuilding
It’s time for all REA employees to downgrade from platinum to bronze level health benefit plans like the rest of us. $5-$10 co-pays and low deductibles put an unfair burden on everyone else. If these employees want the platinum coverage then they can pay for the difference out if their own pockets instead of burdening all of us. That’s only fair.
If we are going to reel in the pension system, that is one thing.
Now we need to start paying teachers a real salary. New teachers are looking at a career with no potential. 55k to start and where do they go from there.
We expect a lot from our teachers but we refuse to pay them.
3:11, what happened to the trade-off of a lower salary today for a pension tomorrow? Private sector employees no longer get defined brnefig pensions or health benefits in retirement. You can’t have your cake and eat it, too. Time to understand the reality private sector taxpayers are facing. If you don’t like teachers’ pay in Ridgewood, then look elsewhere.
Teachers’ hefty salaries are driving up taxes, and they only work 9 or 10 months a year! It’s time we put things in perspective and pay them for what they do — babysit!
We can get that for less than minimum wage.
That’s right. Let’s give them $3.00 an hour and only the hours they worked; not any of that silly planning time, or any time they spend before or after school. That would be $19.50 a day (7:45 to 3:00 PM with 45 min. off for lunch and plan– that equals 6 1/2 hours).Each parent should pay $19.50 a day for these teachers to baby-sit their children. Now how many students do they teach in a day…maybe 30? So that’s $19.50 x 30 = $585.00 a day.
However, remember they only work 180 days a year!!! I am not going to pay them for any vacations.
That’s $585 X 180= $105,300 per year. (Hold on! My calculator needs new batteries).
What about those special education teachers and the ones with Master’s degrees? Well, we could pay them minimum wage ($7.75), and just to be fair, round it off to $8.00 an hour. That would be $8 X 6 1/2 hours X 30 children X 180 days = $280,800 per year.
Wait a minute — there’s something wrong here! There sure is!
The average teacher’s salary is $75,000. $75,000/180 days = $416./per day/30 students=$13.80/6.5 hours = $2.13 per hour per student — a very inexpensive baby-sitter and they even EDUCATE your kids!) WHAT A DEAL!!!!
Of course 6:42, you’ve conveniently ignored the $26,000 annual family health benefit with $5-10 co-pays and low deductibles, and a lifetime defined benefit pension worth up to $3.5mn in retirement according to divorcee settlers I’ve seen. Private sector workers pay for those benefits by contributing to defined contribution 401(k) and IRA plans, while teachers still contribute less than 7.5% of their wages for the pension and less than 30% of the health benefit premium. If you don’t like the deal then find a better one. There are lots of young, hungry teachers out of Teacher’s College ready to work in your place.
Only an ignorant person would think that teachers babysit.
There was a time when teacher salaries and pensions were a trade-off. Now some want to take the pensions and not increase the salaries.
Sadly the board of Ed will cave into the teachers as they always do. Be prepared for higher taxes..
Let the strike and the fire them. As another writer said there are lots of young teachers who would love to work in the Ridgewood School System for half the pay the tenured teachers receive. What they may lack in experience will be made up for with enthusiasm and energy.