Teachers union is ready to settle a contract

For the past week, parents and other residents of Marlboro have witnessed the very worst of what the collective bargaining "process" can produce.

As president of the Marlboro Township Education Association (MTEA), representing nearly 800 teachers and school staff, it pains me to see the inflammatory steps that the Marlboro Board of Education has taken to make a bad situation even worse.

The MTEA is now in its second year without a new contract. After face-to-face negotiations with the board, sessions with a state mediator, sessions with a state-appointed fact-finder, and the issuance of that fact-finder's report in August (which the MTEA accepted, even though it calls for sacrifices on our part), we are still without an agreement.

We are now about to enter the final phase of the process: superconciliation.

In the course of the last few days, board President Cynthia Green, her board, and district administrators have taken several provocative actions, which can only serve to escalate the current crisis.

They have openly advertised for $300-a-day substitutes, "should there be a work stoppage."

These substitutes would work four-hour days (instead of seven), making their pro-rated annual pay in excess of $100,000. And rather than teaching, they will be babysitting. Everyone knows that.

Then, they sent a letter to parents and Marlboro residents restating their version of the contract negotiations, while failing to mention that the fact-finder found no basis for their claim that MTEA members should pay more into our health benefits.

As a final insult, Marlboro Superintendent of Schools David Abbott sent a letter to MTEA members laying out the district's intentions if it is "confronted by a state of emergency created by the possibility of job actions, such as a strike by the MTEA …"

None of the board's actions is dedicated to settling this crisis. Each of them serves only one purpose: to raise the level of conflict between the MTEA and the board.

This dispute can only be settled at the bargaining table and we intend to stay as long as it takes on Nov. 9 to do that. But any talk by the board or administration of job actions is premature and irresponsible. Their sole focus should be on settling the contract on Nov. 9.

The law gives the super-conciliator the authority to order round-the-clock bargaining. The MTEA would welcome that, because up to now, neither the MTEA nor the fact-finder has been able to get the board to reach an agreement.

This is the time for leadership from the board, not escalation of an already serious situation. Much is at stake. We have an excellent school system in Marlboro. Our teachers are among the very best, which is why our test scores and student achievement levels are among the highest in New Jersey.

The board needs to sit down with the MTEA and the super-conciliator on Nov. 9 and put an end to a conflict that has grabbed too much of our attention for the past 22 months.

Diane Saks MTEA President

Marlboro