New Jersey School Boards Association

news release

New Jersey School Boards Association, 413 West State Street, P.O. Box 909, Trenton, NJ 08605-0909

Telephone: (609) 278-5202 ● Fax: (609) 695-0413 ● Web site: www.njsba.org/PI

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:    Frank Belluscio (fbelluscio@njsba.org)
                    Mike Yaple (myaple@njsba.org)
                    (609) 278-5202

Contract Negotiations Continue in 112 School Districts

Instructional time, insurance costs, teacher recruitment among topics
Continuing negotiations should not affect school opening

TRENTON, August 20, 2003—With the first day of school rapidly approaching, 112 New Jersey school districts remain in contract negotiations, the New Jersey School Boards Association reported today. However, the status of contract negotiations should not affect the opening of school.

“It is not unusual for more than 100 districts to be in the middle of negotiations when the school year begins; students and parents should not worry about the opening of school,” said Edwina M. Lee, executive director of NJSBA. “Traditionally, we see a large number of contract settlements in the fall. Until a new agreement is reached, teachers are covered by the old contract, with its guarantees of salary, health benefits and other protections. In reality, public school teachers never work without a contract.”

This year, 176 of the state’s 593 operating school districts returned to the bargaining table to negotiate new teacher contracts. Of those, 112 (or 64%) remain in negotiations. Last year, 114 districts were still negotiating contracts at the start of the school year. The average salary increase for contracts covering the 2003-04 school year is 4.63%, up from last year’s average of 4.48%, according to NJSBA data, but still far below settlement rates of a decade ago. In 1992-93, for example, teacher raises averaged 7.15%.

Negotiations trends Issues at the bargaining table this year include controlling the cost of fringe benefits, lengthening the school day and year, and restructuring salary guides to attract new teachers.

Salary structure: “New Jersey does not have an across-the-board teacher shortage by any means,” noted NJSBA’s Lee. “But some school districts do have aging teaching staffs and are addressing their future recruitment needs at the bargaining table.” For example, school boards are negotiating with unions over distribution of pay raises, to make entry-level salaries more competitive.
In addition, boards are frequently seeking authority to give school officials discretion over where to place newly hired staff on the salary guide. This strategy can benefit efforts to recruit math, science, foreign language and special education teachers—positions that some school districts have found difficult to fill.
Longer school day and year: An analysis of new contracts for 2003-04 shows that 38% call for increases in the length of the school day or school year—with the additional time going toward student instruction and/or teacher training. This marks continuation of a trend that began in the late 1990s in response to district desires to meet new state academic standards and requirements for teacher professional development, according to NJSBA.
Cost control: “Fringe benefits, especially health insurance, are the fastest growing area of compensation, and school boards must act in the public’s interest to control these costs,” explained Lee. This year, school districts are facing health insurance premium increases of more than 20%, according to NJSBA.
“Many boards are seeking ways to reign in benefit costs, while maintaining adequate coverage for employees,” said Lee. According to NJSBA analysis, 42% of 2003-04 contracts contain new provisions to control fringe benefit costs. Examples include incentives to participate in managed care; establishment of “tiered benefits” (for example, placing new employees in managed care programs while giving existing employees the option to remain in the "traditional" plan); higher deductibles; employee contributions to the basic medical plan; increasing the number of hours that part-time staff members must work to be eligible for benefits; and higher prescription co-payments.

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The New Jersey School Boards Association is a federation of more than 600 local boards of education. Established more than 85 years ago, NJSBA represents the education and related health and safety interests of New Jersey's 1.3 million public school students and advocates the positions of the state's local school districts. The Association also provides inservice training and technical assistance to the state's 4,800 local board of education members. School board members, who serve without compensation, are the largest group of elected and appointed public officials in the state.

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