School board irks tech staffers Mass mailing accuses association president of breaking rank. Tuesday, February 26, 2008 • By Sara K. Satullo • The Express-Times FRANKLIN TWP. | The Warren Tech Education Association claims that a school board letter to its individual members outlining the contract impasse is a scare tactic that includes a personal attack. "This board of education seems to have no reluctance at all to misstate facts," New Jersey Education Association field representative John Ropars said Monday. "I think they are trying to divide the union, and it's disreputable." After a review by the board and labor attorney, the school board voted Wednesday to distribute the letter to the association members. "Hopefully they will have their negotiators consider what they are doing to their own membership," school board President Harold Warne said Monday. The board has crossed the tenets of negotiation behavior, Ropars said. "You don't lie and you don't make the attacks personal," he said. "This is a scare tactic pure and simple." The letter accuses association President Ed Yarusinsky of bargaining for himself and not the union. "It's totally untrue. I have never done that in the past, and I haven't done that now," said Yarusinsky, a social studies teacher. "Our membership knows that, and they are very supportive." Negotiations have been stalled over pay raises for two longtime coaches, including Yarusinsky. The board claims that it negotiated a freeze of stipend pay at 2005-06 levels, which the association denies. The board's letter notes over two years of the old contract Yarusinsky saw a 33 percent and a 50 percent increase in his extracurricular pay. He doesn't deny the pay increases. The increases were negotiated under the last contract based on the time commitment to be the SkillsUSA adviser, which that negotiation team found valid, said Yarusinsky, a 30-year district employee. "What they have printed about me is very disturbing," he said. "It is untrue, whether it's misinformation or not, I think it's directed at me personally and it upsets me greatly." Ropars and Yarusinsky also take issue with the letter stating that if employees leave the district or retire without signing a new contract, they lose out on back pay estimated at $4,299. "That $4,299 would not be factored into your retirement, thereby; affecting your pension for the rest of your life!" the letter states. Ropars said many court cases support the rights of employees who leave districts during negotiations to receive back pay. "Any teacher is entitled to the difference of what they earned and what the earning should have been," Ropars said. "For the district to say these things it's unconscionable." Teacher Walt Menegus has had it with the board. He thinks the letter is a scare tactic that deserves an ethics review, he said. "I devoted my life there," he said. "I love it but I feel this board isn't doing us any justice." Reporter Sara K. Satullo can be reached at 908-475-2174 or by e-mail at ssatullo@express-times.com.