LAVALLETTE — The Lavallette Board of Education (BOE) detailed ongoing contract negotiations with the Lavallette Education Association (LEA) teachers union in a Dec. 20 letter to community members. The letter follows a board meeting held the day prior where a majority of the teachers protested the as-yet unsuccessful contract talks.
The school board and union have not reached a new agreement for 2024-2027. The old pact expired June 30.
In Friday’s letter to community members, the Lavallette Board of Education said that it is still in the process of negotiating “in good faith to ensure the ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement with the (LEA) that encompasses fair and equitable terms for both parties.”
The letter details, from the board of education’s standpoint, the negotiation process with the LEA, with two alleged main sticking points. The board said that, at the most recent mediation meeting in November, it offered the LEA a “3.65% salary increase each year for three years, which is above the county average of 3.6% for the 2024-25 school year.”
However, in a statement to The Ocean Star on Tuesday night, teacher and LEA President Lisa Zurichin said that “the three-year average for Ocean County for the 2024-2027 school years is 3.74%. The LEA put in an offer of 3.7%, which is still below the county average. This is also what our neighboring districts, Point Pleasant Beach and Bay Head, have settled on, and who the BOE often compares us to.” The LEA has stood firmly at 3.7%.
According to the New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA), as of Dec. 23 in the state of New Jersey, “teachers’ contracts which start with the 2024-25 school year are reporting an average salary increase of 3.71% for 2024-25.”
The letter from the board also states that, while a new contract has not been brokered, the teachers of Lavallette School will continue to work under the terms and conditions of the expired 2018-2021 contract “until a successor agreement is reached.”
In her statement, Zurichin said, “The BOE has stated that the LEA has not reciprocated a counter-offer. However, this is not true. The LEA and BOE both counter-offered numerous times but without acceptance from either party.”
The board’s letter also details the discrepancy between the board’s offer of 22 after-school faculty meetings per year versus the LEA’s demand of 15.
“The BOE also requested a total of 22 staff professional development after school meetings, to replace the four monthly meetings that have been occurring during teacher’s lunch each Wednesday since 2018,” the letter said. “Prior contracts did not have any language stipulating staff development meetings. The board was agreeable to replacing the current practice of approximately 35 annual ‘unit meetings’ during the day, with an offer of 22 meetings annually for the full faculty after school.”
“The BOE arrived at this offer after surveying 53 districts in Ocean and Monmouth counties, learning that 100% of those districts have after school meetings, with the average being approximately (two to three) after school meetings monthly…with Point Pleasant Beach requiring three after school meetings per month and Bay Head requiring 25 after school meetings per year,” said the board.
However, Zurichin said that this is misleading, claiming that Bay Head School teachers actually participate in 20 such meetings per year. She said that the union would be willing to agree to additional meetings, but not for “less-than-average raises.”
“The BOE is also proposing an additional 22 hours of work in the form of after-school meetings not in our contract,” she said. “The association is willing to agree to participate in additional meetings, but we will not agree to increase our workload for less-than-average raises. Additionally, our neighboring district, Bay Head, has no more than 20 meetings in each school year, not 25 as the BOE originally stated.”
“The LEA is still hopeful that we can work together with the board of education as we have always done. Personally, I have participated in contract negotiations with the board of education numerous times over the last 15 years and we have always worked amicably to come to a fair and equitable bargaining agreement,” Zurichin said. “This community is special and these teachers are exceptional. The many hats they wear on a daily basis to run this school needs to be commended and valued.”
DEC. 19 MEETING
Dozens of teachers and supporters in black clothing, with red “Settle Now!” buttons affixed, came out for the Dec. 19 meeting, urging the board of education to meet the union’s demands.
During the meeting, several of them spoke out against the presently unsuccessful negotiations, including STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) teacher and 2023 Teacher of the Year Lee Oliver.
“I’m a third-generation teacher at Lavallette Elementary School, where I went to school and where my daughter attends as well,” he said. “I am extremely proud and honored to have had the opportunity to grow where I was planted. For the past 13 years, I’ve watched the board of ed and administration support our incredible staff, just like we do for our students.”
“But change has come, and sadly, it has not been for the better; for the past six months, we’ve been working without a (new) contract, and our collective morale is at an all-time low…How is it that, in a community this tight-knit — this supportive — we can’t support the 20-some-odd teachers that run this school? We are not asking for a handout, and we are not asking for anything we do not deserve.”
He also indirectly referenced the LEA’s demands, specifically the 3.7% three-year annual salary increase as opposed to the board’s offer of 3.65%.
“To be clear, we are not asking for anything that would greatly increase the tax rate, and to put that on our shoulders is an unfair burden,” Oliver said. “I believe that Lavallette is a magical place. We are different than other districts in so many big and little ways that put us head and shoulders above the rest…Please do not strip this district and this community of everything that keeps Lavallette magical and turn us into some kind of transactional business.”
Members of the community also spoke in support of the teachers, like resident Jason Homer.
“My wife was Teacher of the Year last year,” said Homer, whose wife, Jane Homer, is a third-grade teacher at Lavallette School. “My two daughters are here, who went to this school — loved this school…I’ll tell you something — the kids from Lavallette who go to Point (Beach High School) are in the top of the class because of these teachers and how well they teach.”
Sam Hammer from Seaside Park, a sending district to Lavallette, attended Lavallette Elementary School as a child, and was disheartened when he heard about the failure to reach an agreement.
“I live in Seaside Park; I went to this school,” Hammer said. “Just hearing about this with all the teachers is upsetting, to say the least…Neighboring school districts with similar enrollment sizes and funding sources have been able to provide salary increases. What specific financial challenges prevent our district from following suit?”
Board President Michael Valeri responded that the board would be in touch with him regarding the answer.
“The board’s negotiations committee began preparing for contract negotiations in the spring of 2024, and met with the (LEA) on two separate occasions to negotiate the agreement, which proved unsuccessful,” he said. “Both parties agreed to enter into mediation and met with a third-party mediator provided by the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC), the state agency that covers negotiations in the public sector.”
“After two long meetings with the mediator, the parties failed to come to an agreement, encouraged by the PERC mediator to continue to negotiate and resolve an agreement outside the formal mediation meetings,” said Valeri. “This board’s negotiations committee attempted on three separate occasions, through our superintendent Dr. (Lisa) Gleason, to do so.”
Valeri said at the meeting that the next step in the negotiation process would be fact-finding, a formal process where a neutral third party gathers information and evidence from both the union and the employer to determine the facts surrounding an impasse when the two sides are unable to negotiate an agreement, providing recommendations to help resolve the dispute. A date for a final mediation session between the board and the LEA is not yet set.
Fact-finding would come at “a direct economic cost to the parties,” according to the NJSBA — a cost which, when asked for by a resident during public comment, the president did not provide.
NEXT MEETING
The next meeting of the Lavallette Board of Education will be the 2025 board reorganization meeting, at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 2, at Lavallette Elementary School, located at 105 Brooklyn Ave.
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