Montclair Board of Education Approves New Teachers Contract

The Montclair Board of Education approved a new contract with its teachers Monday night, ending a contentious negotiation process that included verbal sparring, raucous meetings, and a refusal from teachers to stay after hours at school until a new deal was finalized.

The new, three-year contract takes effect immediately and expires on June 30, 2015.

Terms of the new contract, arrived at with the help of a mediator, were not immediately disclosed.

Prior to the breakdown of negotiations this winter, the Montclair Education Association sought salary increase of 3 percent in 2012-13, 2.9 percent in 2013-14, and 2.8 percent in 2014-15, the last year of the deal. The Board of Education countered by offering three years of 2.6 percent salary increases.

The board also noted that the salary increases needed to be balanced out by union concessions, though it's unclear if cuts were made and to where, though health care and insurance benefits were targeted as an option.

Though the union indicated then that it was flexible in terms of raises, one position it was reluctant to move away from was the restoration of aides' benefits. The benefits had been cut in June, 2011 to save money, despite the Montclair School District sporting a large budget surplus that year and the year prior.

According to MEA Spokeswoman Beth Albert, paraprofessionals are now eligible to receive health benefits under the new contract.

The MEA ratified the new deal through membership vote earlier this month.

"We are pleased that the process of negotiations is completed with an agreement that MEA Membership endorsed through ratification, MEA President Gayl Shepard said in a release.