Wednesday, April 24, 2013
If ratified, deal could end a bitter three-year contract fight.
The Board of Education and the Hopatcong Education Association unit that represents teacher aides, custodians and support staff reached an agreement in principal on a new contract, board member Richard Lavery said Monday. According to Lavery, the potential pact was reached Monday afternoon and could ended a bitter three-year contract fight. In February the board accepted the findings of the state mediator brought in to settle the contract. In December, the negotiations led to public accusations of board disrespect for the aides. Contracts for teachers in the same union took effect in September but a dispute over language regarding new health benefits led to pickets lines at board meetings and student complaints that letters of …
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Hopatcong school district, education association agree to health care terms.
The teacher contract dispute between the school board and the Hopatcong Education Association that has been holding up college recommendation letters has come to an end. The sides resolved the dispute over contract language about health care contributions last week when both sides signed "a letter of understanding," Superintendent Dr. Charles Maranzano said Tuesday. "We agreed to recognize the current state law as the valid language governing state health benefits," he said. He said the master contract will be finalized Wednesday when Board President Cliff Lundin and HEA President Susan Hill sign the contract on behalf of their negotiating committeees. "That brings us to close this chapter," Maranzano said. The teachers will also be …
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Negotiations continue as students unable to get letters of recommendation from teachers.
The school board and Hopatcong Education Association may resolve the ongoing dispute over the contract language about health care contributions in the next few weeks. District Superintendent Dr. Charles Maranzano said both the board and HEA negotiation teams met after last week's board meeting and discussed the dispute that has been holding up the contract raises for this school year. "I think we're much closer to resolving it than we were prior to the summer," he said. "There was some language exchanged for consideration to resolve the issue." Maranzano said both sides said they want to try to end the dispute without spending money on lawyers and having to go to hearings for the unfair labor practices. Both sides filed unfair labor …
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Job action means letters of recommendation are not written, students claim.
Students demanded Monday night that the school board and the Hopatcong Education Association must find a way to end the ongoing contract dispute because it is affecting students’ ability to get signed letters of recommendations from teachers. The two sides have each filed unfair labor charges against the other in the dispute over contract language about health care contributions that is holding up scheduled raises for support staff and teachers aides. The teachers, in the job action, have been declining to work extra unpaid hours, and students said they have been unable to get teachers to write letters of recommendation to send to colleges. Rick Lavery, a student liaison to the school board, said the teachers’ actions are causing students…
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
BOE says health care contribution language in contract needs resolved; union says new state law makes language unnecessary.
The Hopatcong Board of Education is withholding the 1.95 percent raises due members of the Hopatcong Education Association over an impasse about health care contribution language in the new contract. The raises were scheduled to take effect with the opening of the new school year. In response, the union filed an unfair labor practice charge against the board with the New Jersey Public Employees Relations Commission. A contract agreement was reached on Jan. 20 and was signed by both parties that day, said John Ropars, union representative for the Hopatcong teachers. The 3-year contract was ratified by the union in March. The new impasse was announced Tuesday in an email message sent by Superintendent Charles Maranzano to teachers. “As of …
The "Original" Hopatcong Mom
3:25 pm on Thursday, April 25, 2013
I know AIDS is the actual disease but they way they (the board) says "Aides" it might as well be the same.....it's an outdated term which is why schools advertise for paraprofessionals....it's a rESPect thing, but the board knows nothing about that word! This how article is fabricated to make our board look like angels....the rates are wrong, the potential raise amounts were wrong, their job … more ›