Unresolved Teacher Contracts

(1/20/12 update: Teachers reached a tentative agreement with the Princeton Regional Schools on Thurday night. Union members are set to meet next Wednesday and then take a vote on it later in the week.  The tentative agreement also has to be ratified by the Board of Education.  The next open Board Meeting is next Tuesday, Jan. 24.)

Princeton public school students say they feel little impact from the contract standoff between their teachers and the Regional School Board, despite recent “work to contract” protests, and a year-long impasse in negotiations.  “It was unclear what the protest was about and whether or not there was a protest at all. So, maybe it caught the school board's attention, but it didn't catch mine,” said one high school junior.

PRS teachers are still working on the terms of a contract that expired last July.  On January 5 representatives from Princeton Regional Education Association (PREA) met with representatives from the Princeton Regional Schools Board of Education and a mediator in an attempt to finally settle. Negotiations with the mediator began at 4:30 pm and lasted until 5:10 the following morning.

John Baxter, a history teacher at Princeton High and a member of the PREA negotiations team, said, “There was a fair amount of back and forth and concessions were made by PREA, and at 4:30 in the morning, we were still meeting. The issues that were on the table at that point were taken back to the Board [Negotiations] team and that’s where it ended. We were waiting to hear back from the Board’s team and that’s where we still are.”

School administration and board officials have yet to grant our request for comment on this issue.

Officially, contracts still have not been settled. As of last month, representatives on the PREA Negotiations team believed that if no agreement was reached at the negotiations session on January 5, the negotiations would move to the fact-finding phase, and eventually, would go to an arbitrator.

Baxter said, “Nothing has happened in terms of moving from mediation to fact finding but I think it’s fair to say that mediations have taken us pretty close to as far as [they are] going to take us.  It’s possible that the mediator would come back but that wasn’t discussed. We have nothing scheduled at all: face-to-face, fact finding, meditation, we’re at a little bit of a holding pattern, from our perspective, while we’re waiting to hear back from the Board’s team.”

The points of contention are compensation and health benefits. Both the PREA and the Board of Education agreed in December 2010 that the discussions would be limited to these two issues, hoping to speed up the negotiations process.

The session with the mediator was preceded by a “work to contract” protest, which was staged by the teachers and lasted roughly eight days. Teachers, doing only as much as their contracts required, did not enter the school building till 7:50 and left at 3:00. The protest was accompanied by picketing outside various school properties after the school day.

Baxter commented, “[The protest] was [meant] to express dissatisfaction, to the fact that we don’t have a contract at this point, to bring community attention to that fact… It was certainly not intended to disrupt teacher student learning.”

For the most part, students seem to agree that the protest did not have much of an impact on student body. Sophie DiSanto, a senior, said, “I saw that teachers were getting in late and leaving early, but other than that I don’t even know much about it.”

Junior Byrne Fahey agreed that the protest did not figure prominently into the school day. Fahey said, “I tend to come a few minutes late in the morning, so I didn't see the teachers standing outside too many times... I think the protest may have accomplished something, but definitely could have been improved. It was unclear what the protest was about and whether or not there was a protest at all. So, maybe it caught the school board's attention, but it didn't catch mine.”

As for what might occur in response to the failure to settle, there are a number of possibilities. According to Baxter, a continuation of the work-to-contract protest or a strike is a possibility. However, he added, “Right now we’re not, as far as I know, making any decision on that until we have heard back from the Board.”

On whether or not the work-to-contract protest was successful, Baxter said, “It’s hard to say. Only time will tell.”