Slater Calls For Reopening Teachers Contract, Salary Freeze

Fresh off his election victory, Board of Education member-elect Mitch Slater reiterated one of his key campaign themes, a reexamination of the newly ratified teachers' contract, along with calling for a salary freeze.

During an interview at Tuesday night's BOE election night party, Slater said that while he is happy the school budget passed he believes there is a need to continue to look at the teachers contract, which was passed on March 9 and has served as a source of contention in the community. The three year contract calls for a 3.9-percent salary increase and increased health care co-pays and give backs from teachers.

"I think the reality of the economy and the differences in the private sector, lead me to believe this is the time for associations to stand up and accept a wage freeze," Slater said.

Slater, the top vote getter who unseated BOE member Richard Solomon, said that while he is happy the budget passed he still wants the reexamination of the contract and salary freeze to occur. The budget passed over the objections of Gov. Chris Christie who called for districts where teachers did not accept salary freezes to vote down the spending plans. Across the state, 54-percent of school budgets failed on Tuesday in what has been the most contentious school election in recent state memory. The election occurred a month after Christie proposed massive state education aid cuts and entered into a public war with the New Jersey Education Association. Christie has said he would restore a small percentage of state aid to districts that accept salary freezes.

The Westfield Education Association, the local NJEA affiliate, has said multiple times that they will not accept a salary freeze. WEA President Kim Schumacher said that in districts where salary freezes were accepted layoffs from the state aid cuts were not prevented. In Westfield 31 layoffs are proposed. Schumacher also noted that a salary freeze would have a negative impact on the pension benefits for teachers, particularly those close to retirement age. During a March 30 address to the Board of Education, Schumacher noted that recently passed state legislation, proposed by Christie, calling for public employees to pay 1.5-percent of their health costs, leaves a salary freeze off the table. She noted that the WEA would likely not have accepted the health care plan negotiated with the BOE if the new state law was passed.

During a town hall meeting on the budget last week, BOE Business Administrator Bob Berman said in respones to a resident's question that a salary freeze could offset 20 layoffs due to the saved money.

Slater said that while he understands Schumacher's arguments, he believes the Westfield community would like to see changes to the contract and a potential salary freeze. He noted that he could see changes offsetting layoffs and resisted the pension argument, citing the situation in the private sector.

"Talk to the people in the private sector who don't have pensions," Slater said.

During public meetings on the budget over the past month, multiple residents expressed dissatisfaction with the pay raise. BOE officials, lead by Solomon said the raise would not equal 3.9-percent for every teacher in the district, with the higher raises going to teachers with less seniority based on the salary guide. In addition, Solomon said the BOE fiscal analysis of the contract showed a net increase of .8-percent for the school district when the health care plan was added the equation.

Solomon has noted that his outspoken support of the contract likely contributed to his defeat in the highest turnout school election in Westfield history.

Tuesday night, Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan said the discussions between the school administration and Schumacher would continue regarding school finances. These conversations have occurred on a regular basis since Christie announced the education cuts on March 16.

Slater, who has received some of the most votes cast for a BOE candidate in town history, noted that he plans on studying more of the issues related to the contract and the teacher benefit plans. He said that he has not seen all of the information available to board members and would be interested in seeing some of the other information as part of the discussion process.

At the same time, Slater noted that the statewide climate lends itself to his arguments.

"There are plenty of other districts where associations are accepting wage freezes," he said.