A third of school districts will be starting out the year without a contract in place
By John Mooney, August 17 in Education
Against the backdrop of New Jersey’s battles over union rights and collective bargaining, tensions are playing out in local teacher contract talks, too.
More than a third — or nearly 210 at last count — of the state’s school districts will be starting the year without contracts, according to the school boards association in its annual labor update to be released today.
And of those that have settled, salary increases are getting tighter. The latest are averaging 2 percent, a full point less than all the contracts now in place, the association said.
The number of outstanding contracts is higher than usual for this time of year. Typically, about 150 districts are still in talks when schools open. And more than a third of ongoing negotiations have declared a formal impasse, which means calling in a state mediator, the association said.
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