Teachers Contract Nears Ratification, Officials Say

With a tentative contract settlement in place, the and board of education are waiting on completed salary guides before moving forward.

Board of education president Evan Lerner said at Tuesday’s board of education meeting that they are currently in the process of completing the salary guides, which are drawn up by the union.

“We review them and come to an agreement on that,” he said. “There are very small language issues, but we are pretty much done with that.”

Once the guides are completed, Lerner said, they will move on to ratification by the B-REA, and then ratification by the board of education.

“Everything is moving forward,” he said. “We are hopeful we will be 100 percent resolved soon.”

A after the previous contract expired in June 2011.

Although Superintendent of Schools Michael Schilder did not attribute this to the negotiations, he said Tuesday that he has noticed morale has been up throughout the district.

process that morale was down as they worked without any contract.

Schilder said simply that it is something he is glad to have seen throughout the first week of school, although he didn’t give any reason for why things have changed.

“I get a sense morale is really up district-wide, and I’m looking forward to the year,” he said.

Aside from this, Lerner said, they are beginning to work on negotiations with the principal and supervisors unions.

“We are looking to resume them,” he said. “We will start them in early October.”