Schools
Board of Education Finally Approves Teachers Contract and Extended School Day
Teachers relieved negotiations are over
After long negotiations and delays caused by snow-related meeting cancellations, the Board of Education finally voted to ratify a new contract with the Holmdel Township Educators Association February 2.
Loud applause filled the library at the Willam R. Satz School in Holmdel after the unanimous vote. Both board members and a half dozen union members joined in.
"Obviously we had to accommodate the district's budgetary needs, but teachers are happy to have this over so that we can get back to the business of teaching, not worrying and teaching," said HTEA President Denise King.
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The Memorandum of Agreement includes a pay raise for teachers and a ten-minute extended school day beginning in September 2011. The teachers had been working without a contact or pay increases since June 30, 2009, said King.
Under the MOA, members of the HTEA will receive a retroactive 3.5 percent pay increase for the 2009-10 school year, a 2.9 percent increase beginning in the middle of the 2010-11 school year, a zero percent increase in the 2011-12 school year, and a 2 percent increase in the 2012-13 school year.
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The HTEA agreed to the ten-minute extended workday devoted to academics in the upper grades, and character education in the elementary schools.
"We wouldn't have a 'number one' system if our teachers didn't devote a lot of extra time anyway," King said.
"Time doesn't necessarily mean better education," she said. "But our highly qualified teachers, who are always continuing with their studies, is what provides the highest level of education here."
