Commissioner Addresses Diploma Mill Issue

Model Superintendent Contract Near Completion

NJSBA Reminds Districts of Student Registration Restrictions

NJSIAA Proposed Realignment

Negotiations 2008: Local Boards Control Costs

Important Negotiations Reminder to Business Administrators

Pre-registration Deadlines Approaching for Workshop Programs

NJSBA At Your Service

Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Delegate Assembly

NJSBA Executive Committee Meeting

NSBA Back to School Call-In Day

Calendar

Click here for a pdf version of this issue of School Board Notes

Across the state, many districts are still in negotiations with teachers’ associations.

School business administrators and other personnel who are responsible for district salaries and payroll should take note:

If your district is currently in negotiations over a collective bargaining agreement with your teachers’ association, and the parties have not yet reached an agreement, and if the expired teachers contract was of three-years duration, then the district is prohibited from advancing teachers a step on the salary guide until a new agreement is in place. This prohibition is pursuant to the Neptune Township N.J. Supreme Court decision (Bd. of Educ. v. Neptune Twp. Educ. Ass’n, 144 N.J.16, 1996).

Based on this court decision and subsequent case-law, this means, until a new agreement is in place and ratified:

• Teaching staff members may not be advanced a step on the expired guide or paid their increments;
  
  
• Teaching staff members may not be moved to an advanced column on the guide (e.g., BA+30, MA, or MA+30);
  
  
• Teaching staff members may not be given increased longevity amounts for which they would otherwise be eligible;
  
  
• Support staff members who are covered by the same collective bargaining agreement as teachers may also not receive increments, horizontal advancement, or increases in longevity, until a new agreement is reached.

In other words, these staff members must be maintained at the salary they were being paid as of June 30 when the contract expired. 

This holding only applies to expired three-year contracts; it does not apply to expired one-year or two-year agreements. It also does not apply to support staff members who have a negotiated agreement separate from the teachers.