Teachers 'boycott' event for incoming freshmen
Meeting planned for Feb. 21 to negotiate teachers contract
BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer
School district employees in Ocean Township are continuing to work without a contract, and as a result, the annual curriculum fair for incoming high school freshmen was canceled this month.

The fair was called off by the Ocean Township High School administration because of a "boycott" of the event by school district employees who have been unable to reach a contract agreement with the Township of Ocean Board of Education (TOBE).

High school administrators sent a letter to district parents on Jan. 6 that said the curriculum fair scheduled for Jan. 8 was canceled.

"The letter placed the blame for the cancellation on the potential boycott of the fair by high school teachers," Ocean Township High School English teacher Irene Gilman, a 30-year employee of the district, said at the Jan. 15 Board of Education meeting.

"The curriculum fair has historically been a noncontractual event, for which teachers, advisers and coaches volunteered," Gilman said. "It seems to be a contradiction to stage a boycott of a voluntary event.

"I would like to take the time to refute any notion that the teachers and staff of Ocean Township are doing anything less than their best every moment of every day, including beyond the contracted school day," she added.

Ocean Township Superintendent of Schools Thomas Pagano said he disagreed with Gilman's understanding of the boycott.

"It is debatable whether or not [the curriculum fair] is a volunteer activity," Pagano said at the meeting. "Coaches and co-advisers are paid stipends for the work.

"The definition of a boycott is to join together to have nothing to do with something in order to punish or coerce," he added.

The TOBE is discussing whether the curriculum fair will be rescheduled for the sake of the eighth-grade students and the parents, according to Pagano.

"Should we [reschedule] and teachers elect not to attend, then the case could be made for not forwarding to them the second half of their stipends," Pagano said at the meeting.

The curriculum fair has been held in the district for the past 10 years and is an event to introduce incoming freshmen to the district's high school, as well as to show the various programs students can participate in while attending the school, Pagano said.

The Township of Ocean Educators Association (TOEA), composed of teachers and school district employees, has been working under the terms of a 2004 contract that expired in June.

Negotiations for a new contract have been ongoing between the TOEA and the TOBE since November 2006.

Negotiations between the two groups are being handled by a state-appointed fact-finder. A fact-finder is assigned to gather information and to present possible solutions to reach an agreement.

The first fact-finding hearing is scheduled to be held Feb. 21.

Negotiations chair for the TOEA, Gary Bahr, who is a teacher at the high school, said at the meeting that he would like to meet with the TOBE informally to see if the two parties could reach an agreement before the matter goes to a fact-finding hearing.

According to Pagano, an e-mail was sent by Gilman to district teachers that called for high school teachers to not attend volunteer events, including the curriculum fair.

Pagano said he was told by Bill Wishart, a science teacher at the high school and president of the TOEA, that the e-mail was unauthorized by the TOEA.

"I don't know what the intent was of the TOEA," Pagano said, referring to the e-mail sent by Gilman.

"Perhaps it was to win the hearts and minds of the community," Pagano said.

Wishart said at the meeting that the cancellation of the curriculum fair was a "mix-up" and "unneeded."

The TOEA encouraged nontenured teachers to attend the fair, which would have been enough staff members to carry out the event, according to Wishart.

"We did not say cancel [the curriculum fair]," Wishart said at the meeting. "We supported it. "We just wanted to have 200 to 300 people outside with signs [protesting the lack of a contract]," he said.

Wishart added that he plans to reach out to the PTA to explain that the TOEA would like to continue to participate in PTA-sponsored events.

"The teachers say they are here for the kids, but then something like this boycott occurs," Pagano said. "Basically they were here to cover their tracks.

"[The email] was a renegade action by someone who was unauthorized by the leadership of the TOEA, and that was unfortunate, and I think it hurt them," Pagano added.

Gilman said at the meeting that Ocean Township teachers and staff "devote their hearts, souls and energy to the success of each and every child in the Ocean Township schools, to nurture their growth and learning, all for historically low pay and the current offer of a subpar benefits package."

According to Wishart, a contract has not been agreed on between the Board of Education and the district employees association because the TOBE is proposing a contract that calls for all new employees hired after July 1, 2001, to pay 10 percent of their health-care premiums.

Wishart explained that a clause in the teachers' 2001 contract required that all new employees of the district hired after July 1, 2001, pay 10 percent of their health-care premiums.

When the TOEA approved the 2001 contract, teachers were told that the statement calling for the 10-percent health-care premium was a misprint, Wishart said.

During negotiations for the 2004 contract, the TOEA was told that the 10 percent contribution would be removed during negotiations for the 2007 contract, said Gary Bahr, negotiations chair for the TOEA.

Pagano said members of the TOBE never agreed to removing the 10-percent premium.