Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Teachers express frustration at how union has been portrayed in contract negotiations.
Teachers at Monday's South Orange - Maplewood Board of Education (BOE) expressed anger and frustration at statements a board member made last month regarding the status of teacher contract negotiations. "The BOE spoke about me and my colleagues with disdain and reproach," Tuscan fifth grade teacher Ana Reyes said. "What is behind such anti-union animus?" she asked. The current teachers' contract is set to expire on June 30. At last month's BOE meeting, Sandra Karriem, chairwoman of the BOE negotiating task force, said the South Orange Maplewood Education Association (SOMEA) teachers' union was "unwilling" to negotiate further and had filed a declaration of impasse with the state. The two groups are currently in mediation. Referring to …
Monday, May 13, 2013
Update at Monday night's BOE meeting reveals that after less than a month of discussions, the Board and teachers' union are at a standstill.
With the current teachers' contract set to expire on June 30, negotiations between the South Orange - Maplewood Board of Education and the South Orange Maplewood Education Association (SOMEA) teachers' union -- which only began in April -- appear to be at a stalemate. Sandra Karriem, chairperson of the BOE negotiating task force, said Monday night that SOMEA's representative told the board last month that the union did not agree with any of the board's proposals and therefore saw "no reason to move forward or to continue meeting." Karriem said SOMEA has officially filed a declaration of impasse with the State of New Jersey's Public Employment Relations Committee (PERC), which means "that SOMEA is unwilling to negotiate further without …
Monday, February 25, 2013
With only four months to go before contract expires, BOE and union reps have yet to meet.
Sandra Karriem, chairperson of the South Orange - Maplewood Board of Education's negotiating task force, said at Monday's board meeting that the South Orange Maplewood Education Association (SOMEA) teachers' union had not yet responded to the board's overtures to begin negotiations on the current teachers' contract, which will expire on June 30. Since September, Superintendent Brian Osborne has issued monthly reminders at board meetings that the current contract will expire in June of this year. Monday night, Karriem said she thought the public deserved to know where the negotiations stand. The board is "deeply committed" to reaching a mutually satiscfactory contract and the task force has been meeting regularly with a consultant since …
Danielle Perrotta
4:59 pm on Tuesday, June 18, 2013
CJV- I don't quite understand your comment. I spoke, did you watch it or just read the article? Any job in this country gets 200 applications. My point was that I LOVE my job, but I did not feel that respect that we all desire from our employers. I welcome a conversation with anyone - my invitation to the board to come to meet with me is now an open invite to the community. Let's talk - CJV, and … more ›