Schools
Dolan Announces School Administrators Agree to $55K in Give Backs
Money comes out of contract and tuition accounts.
Facing parent questions about the proposed Board of Education budget, Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan announced this morning that school district administrators have agreed to give back $55,000 in costs during a new round of negotiations.
Dolan said the costs were negotiated in recent weeks with the union representing principals, assistant principals and department supervisors, along with school district executives. The district negotiated a give back from the administrative union of $45,000 from the amount budgeted for tuition reimbursement and conference fees. In dealing with the central office staffers, including assistant schools superintendents and the human resources director, Dolan said $10,000 was given back to the district out of the contracts with those executives. Dolan did not indicate the exact costs received in the contracts with the central office staffers.
The announcement came during Dolan's morning presentation to parents regarding the proposed school budget. The moderately attended session at Edison Intermediate School focused mainly on details of the spending plan and discussion on the recently ratified teachers contract, which includes a 3.9-percent annual raise.
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Dolan reiterated earlier announcements that she and Board of Education members have been having continued talks with the unions representing school district staffers. including the Westfield Education Association. She said a meeting occurred on Tuesday with WEA officials regarding the school budget. The conversations have been occurring with unions on a regular basis since Gov. Chris Christie's March 16 announcement that he was planning deep cuts to state aid to local school districts, including a $4.22 million cut to Westfield's school aid. The teachers contract was ratified a week before the governor's announcement.
Dolan said she did not have anything to announce regarding the on-going conversations with the WEA, signaling the administrative announcement was the only change to contracts and employee compensation since the governor's announcement. Christie has urged residents to vote down local budgets that do not include pay freezes for teachers, a notion that Dolan shot down Tuesday night, saying that Christie did not understand Westfield's school budget and the health care give back recently negotiated with teachers in the new contract.
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WEA President Kim Schumacher has said at public board meetings that she and her association are not interested in a salary freeze given the increased health care payback now mandated under a state law championed by Christie.
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