Thursday, May 24, 2012
Board ratifies deal, two days after union does same
- SCHOOLS
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Thursday, May 24, 2012
After nearly two years, Mahwah teachers have a new contract. The Board of Education ratified the deal with the Mahwah Education Association on Wednesday night, two days after the MEA put their own stamp of approval on the contract. The three-year contract runs through the 2013-2014 school year. It calls for 2.5 percent salary increases in from 2011 through 2013 and a 2 percent salary increase in the final year. The MEA declared an official “impasse” in negotiations in February 2010, and the two sides went through a mediated negotiation process with state officials from the Public Employment Relations Commission. A tentative contract was reached earlier this month. Many front lawns throughout the township have displayed “Support Our Schools…
Friday, May 4, 2012
Negotiations that have been going on since 2010 may soon be over
Next month, Mahwah teachers would have hit the two-year mark of working under an expired contract. After a professionally-mediated fact finding meeting between the Mahwah Board of Education and the Mahwah Education Association Wednesday, school officials say teachers may have a new contract before that happens. “There has been a tentative settlement between the MBOE and the MEA,” Board President Tricia Shada told Patch Thursday. “Details will be made public after both parties have ratified the contract.” MEA President Laura Beattie confirmed that the two sides reached a “tentative settlement” Wednesday night. She too said she could not give any more specific details about the contract yet. After a two-year negotiation process that touched …
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Negotiations at a standstill, teachers and board will not meet face-to-face
After a few face-to-face negotiation meetings to settle on a contract for Mahwah teachers, the district’s teachers and board of education are going back to mediated meetings. The Mahwah Education Association released a statement Monday saying a disagreement over how teachers spend two after-school meetings a month has caused the stall in negotiations. At board of education meetings over the past two weeks, members of the board’s negotiating committee said they want the school’s administration to set the agenda for all four after-school meetings teachers are required to attend every month. Members of the MEA say they wish to keep the current system, whereby administration schedules only two of the meetings. Meaghan Monahan, Chair of …
Thursday, March 1, 2012
A contentious board meeting Wednesday night revealed what the main disagreements are in ongoing negotiations
About 75 teachers from the Mahwah Education Association confronted Board of Education members Wednesday night, asking why what seemed like progress in contract negotiations at the end of last year has yet to produce an agreement between the district’s administration and its teachers union. Teachers in the district have been working under an expired contract since June of 2010. According to representatives from the MEA and the board, there are only a few sticking points of negotiations left to agree on before a new contract can be reached. The main dispute is over meeting time, or “how we use the time that is not spent with the children,” Regina Guth, Second Vice President of the MEA and Ramapo Ridge teacher. “That’s a negotiable item and …
Friday, December 16, 2011
Both sides say progress was made, job actions will be suspended
After a face-to-face meeting between the negotiations committees of the Mahwah Board of Education and the Mahwah Education Association teachers union, a tentative contract deal was not reached, Board President Tricia Shada said Friday morning. “[We] made a great deal of progress. Both sides left on friendly terms,” Shada said. This was the first face-to-face meeting between the two groups since 2010, when the MEA declared an impasse in negotiations. At the close of negotiations Thursday night, the two sides agreed to another meeting in January, Shada said. She said details of the contract negotiations will likely be finalized at that meeting. According to MEA President Laura Beattie, the union also left the meeting feeling optimistic. “[B]…
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Job action has had teachers not offering after school or lunch extra help to students for three weeks; face-to-face negotiation session set for Thursday night
Nearly 200 members of the Mahwah Education Association teachers union gathered at Wednesday night’s Board of Education meeting wearing red shirts and pins, holding signs and addressing the Board about an ongoing contract negotiation process that has been at an impasse since March of 2010. According to an update from Board member Chuck Saldarini, the board and union postponed a mediated fact-finding session that was scheduled for Thursday, “in favor of a face-to-face meeting.” The in-person meeting, which will be the first between teachers and the board since the MEA declared an impasse last year, will happen Thursday night. Both members of the board and of the MEA expressed a desire to settle the ongoing debate. “We want a contract,” Board…
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
MEA says it will have a lot of representation at Wednesday meeting
The members of the Mahwah Education Association have been collecting non-perishable food items to donate to the Center for Food Action. According to MEA President Laura Beattie, teachers attending the Mahwah Board of Education meeting scheduled for Wednesday night at 7 p.m. will be collecting food from residents who can stop by to drop it off, she said. The teachers are planning on dropping the donation off at the CFA headquarters on Ridge Road Thursday, she said. “Given the time of year, and the fact that we have so many members attending Wednesday night’s meeting, we thought it would be a perfect time to give back to the community,” she said. “As an association, we are dedicated not only to the students of the district, but to the entire…
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Board said "impasse" negotiations are slowed down by mediators
The Mahwah Education Association has filed a complaint about the negotiation practices of the township’s Board of Education, according to a special report given at the Board’s Wednesday night meeting. Last week, the MEA filed an “Unfair Labor Practice” charge against the Board with the Public Employment Relations Commission, Board First Vice President Chuck Saldarini, the head of the Board’s negotiation committee, said. The complaint deals with information the MEA requested from the board that the union says it did not receive. “We requested information in order to prepare for the fact-finding session that is set for this December,” MEA President Laura Beattie said. “The relief we are seeking from PERC would be that the board would have to…
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Date set for fact-finding session
The Board of Education is “not necessarily any closer” to settling year-and-a-half long impasse with the Mahwah School District’s teachers, Board Vice President Chuck Saldarini said at Wednesday night’s meeting. A committee from the board met with a Mahwah Education Association Committee this week to discuss ongoing contract negotiations. Though the Tuesday meeting was originally supposed to be the first fact-finding session of the negotiation process, that was postponed at the union’s request, he said. According to a previous NorthJersey.com report, the fact-finding session should result in a representative from the state making a recommendation on the contract after reviewing facts from both sides. This week’s meeting was changed to a …
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2:24 pm on Thursday, May 24, 2012
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