Hearing on teachers' contract set for March Fact-finding hearing postponed, new date set for March 27 BY DANIEL HOWLEY Staff Writer Employees of the Ocean Township school district will continue to work under the terms of an expired contract, since a fact-finding hearing on the matter has been postponed until March. The hearing, initially planned for Feb. 21, was rescheduled to March 27 at the request of the Township of Ocean Education Association (TOEA). The TOEA, which represents employees of the school district, is seeking to have the Township of Ocean Board of Education (TOBE) approve a contract that calls for district employees to not have to pay a portion of their medical premiums. Irene Gilman, an English teacher at Ocean Township High School and a member of the TOEA, said at the Feb. 19 Board of Education meeting that district employees deserve a "fair" contract settlement. "Last week the state released report cards to measure the school district test scores and district costs," Gilman said at the meeting. "The report for Ocean Township schools was excellent. Our standardized test scores, including the SAT and HESPA, remain high, and by and large, the people responsible for these achievements are in this room. "Since there are some members of the board and community who continue to equate our jobs and benefits with those in the corporate world, when can we expect our bonus checks?" Gilman asked. "During the last few months, we have repeatedly heard the argument that everyone else pays for benefits, so Ocean teachers should also," she continued. "That argument that everyone else does has never been met with success, either with state troopers on the parkway or with parents of teenagers. "It should not be an excuse for this group of educators, either," Gilman said. The TOEA is composed of district teachers, secretaries, maintenance workers and custodians. The group has been working under the terms of a 2004 contract that expired in June. The New Jersey EducationAssociation (NJEA) UniServ representative Marc Abramson requested that the February fact-finding meeting be postponed, according to Bahr, who explained that UniServ provides assistance to NJEA employees during contract negotiations and labor negotiations. The NJEAand the TOEAneeded additional time to prepare a "tremendous" amount of documents for the hearing that were requested by the TOBE, according to Bahr. The extension was granted by Tim Hundley, the fact-finder appointed for the TOBE and the TOEA, according to Bahr. Fact-finders are employees assigned by the New Jersey Public Employment Relations Commission who act as thirdparty negotiators for state employees. Contract negotiations between the TOEA and the TOBE have been ongoing since November 2006, when proposals for a 2007 contract were first heard. The failure to reach an agreement during negotiations centers around employee benefits - namely, whether or not TOEA employees should be made to pay a portion of their health-care coverage, according to Ocean Township Superintendent of Schools Thomas Pagano. 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, explained Bill Wishart, TOEA president and a high school science teacher. A clause in the 2001 contract required that all new employees of the district hired after July 1, 2001, pay 10 percent of their health-care premiums, according to Wishart. 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, Bahr explained. Pagano said members of the TOBE never agreed to remove the 10 percent premium.