Wednesday, January 16, 2013
With a new contract in hand, Ridgewood teachers will be participating in the charity basketball game after taking 2012 off.
With the devisive teacher contract battle a thing of the past, village educators will be strapping on the high tops for the annual Harlem Wizards charity basketball game this January. Ridgewood teachers in 2012 refused to play in the game to demonstrate their displeasure in not having reached an agreement on a new deal. In their place, administrators and parents squared off against the Globetrotter-esque basketball troupe. A new three-year agreement between the Ridgewood Education Association (REA) and school board was lettered and signed in October. The compounded salary across the length of the contract works out to an annual 2.3 percent raise. Teachers made concessions in health benefit costs. "Several" teachers have volunteered to play…
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Teachers receiving compounded 2.3 percent salary raise through 2014-2015 school year, paying more into health care benefits.
Teachers can smile widely in classrooms across Ridgewood schools on Thursday. After a two-year contract struggle, the Ridgewood school board on Thursday morning voted unanimously to agree to a new three-year deal with members of the Ridgewood Education Association (REA). “We feel the overall cost of these settlements appropriately balances the need to fairly compensate our excellent staff with our ongoing obligation to the community to be fiscally responsible," board president Sheila Brogan said in a written statement. “The Board is pleased that the parties were able to reach these new agreements and that we have achieved a fair and reasonable settlement.” According to the terms of the deal, which runs through June 30, 2015, teachers will …
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
With the union ratifying a new three-year deal on Wednesday, the school board will be meeting Thursday morning at a special public meeting to vote on a new contract.
After an acrimonious two-year negotiation period, it appears the school board and its teachers might have finally come to an agreement on a new three-year deal. Ridgewood Education Association (REA) chief negotiator Laura Grasso in an e-mail to reporters said the union members ratified the terms of a new three-year deal Wednesday. The contract moves to a vote by the Ridgewood Board of Education Thursday at 9 a.m., school board president Sheila Brogan told Patch. Both parties agreed to a memorandum of acceptance on the parameters of a new deal in September but final action slowed due to delays on new salary guides. The school board accepted the guides at its Monday meeting. The details of the contract have not yet been made available. The …
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Agreement between union and school board could be finalized as early as Sept. 10.
After a long and acrimonious battle, Ridgewood teachers may have a new contract deal hammered out in early September, according to multiple sources. The school board's negotiating committee, consisting of board president Sheila Brogan and member Michele Lenhard, has reached a memorandum of agreement with the chief contract negotiators of the Ridgewood Education Association (REA), both sides acknowledged Wednesday. "We are currently finalizing the details of the salary guides," Laura Grasso, chief negotiator for the REA told Patch. "Once these are finished the Association will ratify the contract." The vote – expected to pass, multiple sources said – could happen in the next week. "If we can get it done this week, we possibly may ratify …
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Letter came before Hutton was a board member; in a speech at the Ed. Center, the former board trustee questioned the motives of the union.
Now that he's no longer on the board, Bob Hutton says he doesn't have to be nice. On Monday night, the former nine-year trustee and teacher contract negotiator laid heavy criticism onto the Ridgewood Education Association (REA), saying the union's quest for better compensation is what matters most, not the students. Hutton, who lost to Jim Morgan for a one-year term last week, also dropped something of a bombshell at the Education Center, saying his family has received what he believed to be a "threatening" letter from a "ranking" REA member back in 2002, before he joined the board. According to Hutton, in summer of 2002 his eldest son Doug (a college freshman) wrote a Letter to the Editor of The Ridgewood News questioning the REA's …
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Ridgewood teachers trimming back on 'extra time' due to 18 months of stalled negotiations, salary freeze
[Editor's note: This report was last updated at 4:36 p.m. Wednesday to reflect comments from a parent who says her children have been caught in the crossfire.] It's no secret there's acrimony between the Ridgewood school board and its largest group of employers – teachers and guidance counselors. Both sides acknowledge the lack of a settled contract can be a distraction; little progress apparently has been made since negotiations began 18 months ago. Educators were budgeted a zero percent increase this current budget year with increased givebacks in health benefits. It's the only way to make the budget work, officials said. In a conversation with Patch at the Monday night protest, G.W. guidance counselor Michael Mullin said although …
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Hundreds of Ridgewood Education Association members protested at the Ridgewood school board meeting Monday night.
The lack of a new contract for teachers reached a boiling point Monday night, with hundreds of Ridgewood Education Association (REA) members staging a protest on claims the school board has been "disrespectful" and is not negotiating in good faith. The tension has been building for months, and teachers have employed subtle and not-so-subtle demonstrations of their upset during the course of the school year. They've held off on walking into the buildings until contractually mandated, and also forgoed the annual Wizards charity basketball game. Monday's message cloaked in a shield of maroon red "REA" shirts was the clearest message yet – there's certainly a sizable gap between both parties in the age of 'the new normal'. "There has been a …
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12:13 am on Thursday, January 17, 2013
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