Teachers Demand Contract, Picket BOE Office
Mediator meets with union, board of education Thursday.
Photos
More than a hundred Montville Township Education Association (MTEA) members dressed in red lined the property of the board of education office Thursday in a demonstration urging board members to settle their contract.
MTEA Officer Anne Simon said the members were at the office, on River Road, to "greet" the state-appointed mediator who was scheduled to meet with board members and union representatives Thursday evening.
"What's happening today is we're here to greet the mediator since, unfortunately, we haven't been able to reach an agreement with the board," she said.
Simon said the members, who include teachers, secretaries, custodians and more, have been working under an expired contract for one year.
"We're hoping that our support and our presence here let's the mediator know that we are supporting our negotiating team," Simon said.
While the mediator was scheduled to meet with both parties, Simon said she was not sure whether a decision would be reached Thursday.
"We would like this settled as quickly and as fairly as possible," she said.
Montville Township Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Paul Fried was not immediately available for comment.
Montville Patch will have updates on this story.
Bob Dudek
7:01 pm on Thursday, July 19, 2012
The RED shirts are a nice touch.
Wish I could have been there to show support, but I had a job to attend to.
V
7:56 pm on Thursday, July 19, 2012
The red flags would be more appropriate. Nothing like a golden hammer-and-sickle on red to show those taxpaying capitalist pigs.
Nate
8:59 am on Friday, July 20, 2012
I support Montville teachers. My entire educational career took place in the Montville Township Public School System. I got into my first choice college and was bettered educationally and intrapersonally along the way. Renew their contract and give our teachers the respect they have earned and deserve.
Elizabeth
9:21 am on Saturday, July 21, 2012
nate, unless you know what they want you can support them without supporting their contract desires. do you pay taxes in montville or do your
parents?
Cynthia
10:48 am on Saturday, July 21, 2012
Nate, what a nice comment!! And I would expect there are many other people that are graduates of our schools that feel the same way! I would like to think that there are many people in our community that feel that we DO have many quality teachers who, in effect, help students in our town get to wherever they want to go! That's part of what makes this a great community to live in and we all have to not be tainted by the seemingly constant negativity we can see on local blogs. Kudos to you for being positive!
However, It seems what you are hearing is that people who pay the taxes feel they are paying a lot and since the school budget is such a big part of the towns, it is a natural for them to be 'upset'. Of course, our governors constant rants are calculated to turn the public against public workers, especially teachers. What is lost in his and their comments is that the teachers need to be respected to.
Let's respect them but also be fair to our taxpayers. Things are pretty bad in the NJ economy still so that has to balance your comments.
Elizabeth
11:38 am on Saturday, July 21, 2012
Cynthia, great comments. I agree. Remember Fennes? Because he has permanent tenure lobbied by the NJEA and it's membership, our bd of ed couldn't get rid of him. if tenure was taken away, the public would support its teachers since it would be based on merit not the 3 year and 1 day a person worked. good teachers don't need tenure. the ones that are ineffective or abusive to kids do. why the hell would the njea want to keep tenure....i thought they were only concerned with the students.
Jamie
9:47 am on Friday, July 20, 2012
It's comforting to know that whatever salary any of these teachers make, it's earned over a 10 month period. This gives them time to engage in recreational activities such as picketing what are essentially, the taxpayers.
Mike Fried
10:22 am on Friday, July 20, 2012
Get rid of the superintendent he is sucking up all the teachers salary and other adminstrators as well. Then the teachers and everybody else will get their contracts. But only give contracts to teachers that actually teach.
Pete Sesnick
1:11 pm on Friday, July 20, 2012
An objective observer might conclude that, in Montville, there are two broad groups of teachers: One group too ignorant or too naïve to understand the connection between their pretty red shirts and the world wide, red-shirted Communist movement that has committed and continues to commit atrocities in the cause of its failed social and economic policies, and another group that fully grasps the symbolism and believes in and supports failed Marxist ideology. In either case, it begs the question: From which group would you prefer your children’s teachers come?
To be fair, there’s probably a third group of unknown size, disgusted with their union’s politics and tactics including the confiscation of a portion of their earnings for political purposes with which they disagree, reluctant to speak out because of intimidation or fear of retribution by their “peers.”
And yes, there’s probably a forth group of the ever present apathetic that doesn’t really care what politics its union practices or what tactics it employs as long as they get their annual salary increases and their benefits.
Pity the poor children, the property taxpayers, and the future of our Country.
Ernie
4:29 pm on Friday, July 20, 2012
Teachers are Communists?
Bob Dudek
7:14 pm on Friday, July 20, 2012
Image is everything.
My high school teacher told me that.
Jamie
6:04 am on Saturday, July 21, 2012
Maybe someone from the pay/benefits increase side could explain the significance of the red shirts en masse... Perhaps now the parents could now make a case for school uniforms & save a lot of $'s on the trendy fashions :D
Elizabeth
9:18 am on Saturday, July 21, 2012
What is with the red shirts? Why are the negotiations needing a mediator? Our board of ed is fair, the teachers, secretaries and the rest must be asking for something that they shouldn't. Keep strong board of ed, even though we don't know what is going on I'm sure it's not in the best interests of the taxpayers.
V
8:01 pm on Saturday, July 21, 2012
Elizabeth, mediation is mandated by NJ statute when collective bargain agreement negotiations fail. Mediators are usually friendly to the union; that's why NJEA lobbied for that law.
Personally, I will gladly support the teachers' struggle - the next day after their union stops bankrolling Democrats.
Dan Grant
12:22 pm on Monday, July 23, 2012
Max Before Christie started his war on Teachers the NEA endorsed 26 Republicans including Tony Bucco and Alex Decroce so it is not just a "Democratic thing". That was when we had reasonable Republicans that valued education. Infact the Morris NEA has a long history of supporting Republican legislators, I am sure much to their disappointment now. I support Teachers in general and of course Montville Township Teachers but what drives the fact that the Board of Education seems to be always overdue with contract negotiations. What are the demands they don't want to meet? What are the contract conditions that brought this to a mediator? bTW other than a couple of paranoids what difference does the color of their shirts make.