Board OKs deal hiking teachers' pay Great Meadows contract includes benefits concessions. Wednesday, August 30, 2006 • BY LYNN OLANOFF • The Express-Times INDEPENDENCE TWP. | The Great Meadows Regional School Board approved a new teachers contract Monday that includes pay raises averaging about 4.3 percent over the next four years. The contract also requires that teachers pay a deductible for dental work and increases their limits for catastrophic health care. The benefits changes will save the district $52,000, district officials said. The district pays about $2 million toward health benefits, about 12 percent of the $17 million budget. Six board members voted yes on the contract, with Susan Cullen and William Vonder Haar voting against it. Member Bernie O'Hara abstained on the vote because his brother is a teacher in the district, Superintendent Jason Bing said. The district's 88 teachers will consider the contract next week, likely Sept. 7, said John Skodocek, lead negotiator for the teachers union. The prior contract had expired in June 2005. He said it is likely the teachers will approve the new agreement, making it official. It would provide 4.1, 4.3, 4.4 and 4.5 percent annual raises to the district's teachers over four years. "We're very happy with the numbers. We're in (line) with what the county averages are. That's all we asked for all along," Skodocek said. "It's considerably higher than what they offered us in June that we turned down." That offer was for a three-year contract that included annual pay increases of slightly more than 4 percent. Both Skodocek and board President Bob Jones said the new offer is more in line with raises in the Hackettstown School District, where officials in April approved a three-year contract with annual raises of 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 percent. Salary increases were the main sticking point in the contract negotiations, board members and teachers have said. The health benefit concessions were agreed to previously and well accepted by the teachers, Skodocek said. "We realized that the board was in a pickle in terms of keeping up with health insurance increases," he said. Jones and Bing said they are glad the district can move on from contract negotiations, a contentious issue for the district this year. Teachers restricted after-school activities and picketed before and after school to show solidarity. They also boycotted an in-service day planned for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Vonder Haar, who criticized the teachers' actions and said teachers should contribute to their benefits, said he voted against the contract because "I didn't think it was in the best interest of the students." He declined to elaborate since the teachers have yet to vote on the contract. Reporter Lynn Olanoff can be reached at 908-475-8044 or by e-mail at lolanoff@express-times.com. © 2006 The Express-Times. Used with permission.