Teachers, Board Settle In Ocean
By DON STINE
Contract negotiations between the Ocean Township Education Association and the Board of Education have been settled under a memorandum of agreement reached between the two sides.
The last contract expired in June 2007 and education association members have been working under the old contract ever since.
School board member Michael Beson, who headed the contract negotiating committee, said the board is satisfied with the agreement.
All sides came together and worked out an agreement thats best for our teachers and the taxpayers, he said.
I think everybody came out a winner – the board, the teachers and the residents, said William Wishart, president of the 585-member association.
Wishart said the association approved all of the language in the memorandum of agreement on June 24 except for the salary guides, which will be voted on in September.
Under the terms of the agreement employees hired since 2001 will continue to pay 10 percent of the premium for health insurance but no longer pay 10 percent toward their prescription and dental coverage.
The 10 percent co-pay was on of the major sticking points in the contract negotiations because the association wanted it eliminated.
Under the agreement, the highest amount an employee will pay for the family health plan now is less than $1,300 a year, down from $1,700 a year since they no longer have the co-pay for dental and prescriptions.
Both sides also agreed to switch from Blue Cross/Blue Shield to the state health plan which will result in $500,000 in savings to the district.
The agreement calls for a 4.5 percent increase in overall school salaries for the 2007-2008 school year, to be paid retroactively.
The agreement calls for another 4.25 percent increase for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years. For the 2010-2011 school year the salary increase will be 4 percent.
The new contract will expire in 2011.
School Business Administrator Kenneth Jannarone said one of the long-term goals of the contract was to eventually get salary increases within the 4 percent state-imposed limit on budget increases.
We are a little above that now but it will be at cap in the third year of the contract, he said.
Jannarone also said the district will have some short-term savings by switching to the state health plan, which helps offset any increases.
The 10 percent contribution toward the health care premium is a long-term cost containment measure. In the end everyone made concessions and came together, he said
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