During closed session at the June 25 West Windsor-Plainsboro Board of Education meeting, the board approved a new three-year collective negotiations agreement with the West Windsor-Plainsboro Education Association (WWPEA), which represents teachers. The WWPEA membership had previously approved the agreement on June 20. Although the negotiations were conducted with the aid of a state mediator, the process ran relatively smoothly and effectively, commented district labor relations counsel Russell Schumacher.
The agreement covers the period of July 1 through June 30, 2016, and provides for both salary increases for teachers and for increases in their co-pays for prescription drugs and an increase in the annual deductible for dental insurance.
In the first year of the agreement, the 2013-’14 school year, the board and WWPEA have agreed to a salary increase of 2.5 percent. For the following two school years, the salary increase will be 2.3 percent each year.
The salary increases include employees’ increment movement on the salary and longevity guides. The specific individual salary raises will differ depending on the distribution of increases on salary guide steps. Explained Schumacher: “In other words, this does not mean that every teacher will receive a 7.1 percent increase over three years. Those teachers who have reached the salary limit will only receive incremental increases, amounting to less than 3 percent over three years.
Increases in the prescription co-pays and dental deductible will take effect in the first year of the agreement and will result in all district employees having the same co-pays and deductibles. Effective July 1, the copays for prescription drugs will be $10 for generic and $20 for brand name drugs. Effective January 1, 2014, the dental insurance annual deductible will be $50 per individual and $100 maximum for families.
Board Vice President Anthony Fleres, who served as chair of the board’s negotiations team, thanked both the Board of Education and the WWPEA negotiations teams. “Everyone involved worked hard, respected the negotiations process, and thoughtfully discussed issues. We all collaborated to reach a reasonable and balanced agreement that serves the interests of the residents of our district and our outstanding teaching staff.”
In addition to Fleres, Board members Richard Kaye and Dana Krug also served on the negotiations team.
Also on June 25 the district’s anti-bullying coordinator, Lee McDonald, gave a year-end report on harassment, intimidation, and bullying. McDonald noted that during the past six months, there were 48 investigations into allegations of harassment, intimidation and bullying (HIB), and 28 of those cases were confirmed to be HIB activity. The district data reflects national trends.
Middle school continued to be a “hot spot” for HIB activity, McDonald said, with 23 of the 28 confirmed incidents coming from the middle schools. “That’s an area where we have students trying to find their way, their own voice,” he said. “Developmentally, they’re at an age that leads itself to interactions that aren’t always appropriate.”
In high school, the number of HIB incidents drops. As seen in previous years, males rank at the top for HIB offenders and victims, McDonald said, but reports showed a decrease in the amount of special education students being harassed this year. “We’ve really tried to make sure there is that understanding of differences, there is that inclusive level of tolerance among all students.”
The study also showed that approximately 70 percent of the reported incidents took place during unstructured activities or in minimally supervised settings such as recess. On a positive note, there has also been an increase in the amount of students willing to report HIB activity; previously, most people reporting the incidents were victims’ parents.
During the presentation, McDonald pointed out some areas in need of growth, such as providing HIB training and holding annual assessments of HIB programs, approaches, and initiatives.
Said Board President Hemant Marathe, “We will continue to improve our HIB policies and procedures, but we have always taken this issue very seriously.”
Another requirement addressed was the annual discussion of the school board code of ethics. Schumacher facilitated the discussion during the public portion of the meeting, providing the board members with a series of examples of ethics violations (relating to real cases involving school board members in other districts) as a way to illustrate conduct that would be considered an ethics violation.
“I wanted to make the discussion interesting, and I thought this was a good approach,” he said. “We have never had any ethical issues arise with any board members in this district, but it has happened in other districts. We held this discussion because is required under the administrative code. The board members also have outside training in order to meet their annual ethics training requirement.”
Finally, numerous members of the community congratulated outgoing superintendent Victoria Kniewel at her last board meeting. WWPEA President Debbie Baer thanked Kniewel and said that she exemplified the 21st century competencies and quality education.
