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Teachers Team 2

BACKGROUND

The Ridgecrest Teachers’ Association is currently seeking to enhance its contractual agreement with the Board of Education (BOE) during the beginning of this new school year. Currently, the previous year’s contract has expired and the Association believes it is a good time to negotiate and conclude a contract that achieves our members’ expectations rather than asserting an impasse or strike.

Over the past couple of years the Teachers’ Association has been able to obtain several benefits for our members and would like to avoid losing any that have been acquired. The main priorities for our members are to negotiate a favourable salary increase, cost of living allowance and a manageable workload. Our final objective is to negotiate a fair and equitable agreement that satisfies both our members and the BOE needs and expectations.

The negotiations will take place telephonically on Wednesday, September 27th, at 8:30 p.m. The negotiations will be conducted in two sessions and are expected to take no longer that two hours per session. The negotiation team will have a conference call one hour prior to the negotiation for a briefing conducted by the Chief Negotiator.

PARTICIPATION AND CONDUCT OF TEAM MEMBERS

The Chief Negotiator is responsible for ensuring that the objectives of the negotiations are met and the rules for this negotiation are implemented as detailed in this plan.

a. All team members are to be present at the negotiating sessions, unless they have been excused by the Chief Negotiator.

b. Negotiation team members will be required to provide advice and counsel on their functional area on the behalf of the Chief Negotiator.

c. During negotiation sessions, the Chief Negotiator must ensure that team members are negotiating within the Teachers’ Association’s target area and members concerns are being addressed.

The items to be negotiated are detailed below. Each item has been ranked in the order of importance for the Teachers’ Association:

1. Salary

2. Workload

3. Reduction in staff

4. Benefits

5. Evaluation of teachers

6. Binding arbitration of employee grievances

NEGOTIATION RESEARCH

Team members have conducted research of neighbouring school districts in New Jersey. The average Salary of New Jersey Teachers is between $68,302.00 and $68,797.00. This information was obtained on teacherportal.com and NJspotlight.com. Additionally, according to the Miami Herald, 3.1% was the average raise in 2016. Bonuses and payouts are becoming more popular and may be something we suggest if we can’t come to an increased salary agreement.

NEGOTIATION

For the first session of the negotiation the team will focus on salary. The opening stance for the portion of the negotiation will be adding a 10% salary increase to all levels on the pay scale. This is ambitious, so other scenarios are being developed including: 10% raises for Step 1 through Step 8 and 5% raises for Step 9 through 20; 5% raises across all levels of pay scale; 7% raises for Step 1 through Step 8 and 3.5% raises for Step 9 through 20; one-time end-of-year payouts/bonuses (these could be dependent upon taking on additional duties or a performance-based scale of some sort).

Concessions

The concessions that will be offered vary. We are willing to compromise on how much our salaries are to increase, as well as suggesting performance-based bonuses if necessary. We are willing to work with the BOE to help discuss budgeting alternatives.

Resistance Points

The team resistance point on these figures are 7% raises for Step 1 through Step 8 and 3.5% raises for Step 9 through 20.

NEGOTIATION OUTCOMES

At the conclusion of negotiations, the Chief Negotiator will have negotiated a salary increase that meets the Teachers’ Association’s needs within their desired outcome. In addition, the Association will set the foundation for a long-term collaborative working relationship with the BOE.

StepAmount

Proposed

Salary

Increases:

BEST

Proposed

Salary

Increases:

MID

Proposed

Salary

Increases:

MID-BOTTOM

Proposed

Salary

Increases:

BOTTOM LINE

LY # of

TeachersLY Cost

CY # of

Teachers

Proposed Cost:

BESTProposed Cost: MID

Proposed Cost:

MID-BOTTOM

Proposed Cost:

BOTTOM LINE

143,000$ 47,300$ 47,300$ 45,150$ 46,010$ 261,118,000$ 0-$ -$ -$ -$

244,000$ 48,400$ 48,400$ 46,200$ 47,080$ 20880,000$ 251,210,000$ 1,210,000$ 1,155,000$ 1,177,000$

345,000$ 49,500$ 49,500$ 47,250$ 48,150$ 301,350,000$ 19940,500$ 940,500$ 897,750$ 914,850$

446,000$ 50,600$ 50,600$ 48,300$ 49,220$ 221,012,000$ 261,315,600$ 1,315,600$ 1,255,800$ 1,279,720$

547,000$ 51,700$ 51,700$ 49,350$ 50,290$ 311,457,000$ 221,137,400$ 1,137,400$ 1,085,700$ 1,106,380$

649,600$ 54,560$ 54,560$ 52,080$ 53,072$ 381,884,800$ 311,691,360$ 1,691,360$ 1,614,480$ 1,645,232$

752,000$ 57,200$ 57,200$ 54,600$ 55,640$ 301,560,000$ 382,173,600$ 2,173,600$ 2,074,800$ 2,114,320$

855,100$ 60,610$ 60,610$ 57,855$ 58,957$ 221,212,200$ 291,757,690$ 1,757,690$ 1,677,795$ 1,709,753$

958,400$ 64,240$ 61,320$ 61,320$ 60,444$ 291,693,600$ 221,413,280$ 1,349,040$ 1,349,040$ 1,329,768$

1060,400$ 66,440$ 63,420$ 63,420$ 62,514$ 301,812,000$ 271,793,880$ 1,712,340$ 1,712,340$ 1,687,878$

1162,300$ 68,530$ 65,415$ 65,415$ 64,481$ 16996,800$ 302,055,900$ 1,962,450$ 1,962,450$ 1,934,415$

1264,000$ 70,400$ 67,200$ 67,200$ 66,240$ 15960,000$ 151,056,000$ 1,008,000$ 1,008,000$ 993,600$

1365,700$ 72,270$ 68,985$ 68,985$ 68,000$ 13854,100$ 151,084,050$ 1,034,775$ 1,034,775$ 1,019,993$

1467,100$ 73,810$ 70,455$ 70,455$ 69,449$ 10671,000$ 11811,910$ 775,005$ 775,005$ 763,934$

1568,500$ 75,350$ 71,925$ 71,925$ 70,898$ 9616,500$ 10753,500$ 719,250$ 719,250$ 708,975$

1670,600$ 77,660$ 74,130$ 74,130$ 73,071$ 10706,000$ 7543,620$ 518,910$ 518,910$ 511,497$

1772,700$ 79,970$ 76,335$ 76,335$ 75,245$ 8581,600$ 10799,700$ 763,350$ 763,350$ 752,445$

1875,100$ 82,610$ 78,855$ 78,855$ 77,729$ 9675,900$ 6495,660$ 473,130$ 473,130$ 466,371$

1978,700$ 86,570$ 82,635$ 82,635$ 81,455$ 7550,900$ 6519,420$ 495,810$ 495,810$ 488,727$

2082,500$ 90,750$ 86,625$ 86,625$ 85,388$ 1078,827,500$ 1109,982,500$ 9,528,750$ 9,528,750$ 9,392,625$

48229,419,900$ 45931,535,570$ 30,566,960$ 30,102,135$ 29,997,482$

7.2%3.9%2.3%2.0%