By John Mooney
The state-run Newark school district’s historic 2012 contract with Newark teachers – including five-figure performance bonuses for some teachers — has become as prime talking point for Gov. Chris Christie as he seeks the Republican presidential nomination.
But three years later after the signing of that accord, Newark’s labor relations are hardly idyllic as the state’s largest district enters the next school year — the teachers union hasn’t even begun negotiations to replace the expired pact, while Newark’s principals and supervisors are entering their sixth year without a new contract.
[…]The prime question now is whether Cerf can get the same kind of deal with Newark teachers after three years of often-acrimonious relations between his predecessor, Cami Anderson, and the Newark Teachers Union.
When it was negotiated in 2012, only 60 percent of union members actually voted on the teacher contract. There have been deep divisions since then over procedures for teacher evaluations and oversight. One of the latest disputes has involved the district’s practice of withholding pay for teachers gaining advanced degrees unless they come from select institutions.
John Abeigon, the newly elected president of the NTU, said there are so many grievances pending before state arbitrators that it would not be worth starting new talks at this point, at least not on the contested provisions.
“The last contract expired on June 30th, and I haven’t even heard (new talks) mentioned,” he said yesterday. “There is no urgency on my part.”
Abeigon said if the last contract were voted on again today, it probably wouldn’t pass.
“I don’t think we’d even bring it forward under the circumstances,” he said.
The new union president, who succeeds longtime president Joe DelGrosso, who died last month, said he hopes to meet with Cerf in the coming week to settle some lingering disputes pertaining to teacher evaluations.
“That will be very important, whether he’ll continue (Anderson’s) policies or he’ll instead be his own man,” Abeigon said.
When contract talks do start, Abeigon did not rule out performance bonuses or evaluations being tied to incremental raises, as long as the raises could be recovered after an improved evaluation.
“We’d do a performance piece, but it would need a lot stricter provisions and not just by the superintendent’s authority,” Abeigon said.
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