The Newark Board of Education on Tuesday night approved a five-year contract with the 6,700-member Newark Teachers Union that includes raises averaging 4.5% a year, boosts starting pay, and gives teachers a say in their curriculum.
The board’s 6-0 vote capped a six-hour meeting that ended just before midnight, and was its last official action of the 2023-24 school year. The vote came less than two weeks before the current contract expires on July 31.
Board President Hasani Council and member Kanilea Anderson abstained because of family members employed by the district and covered by the contract, Council said later. Board member Dawn Haynes was absent.
Board Co-Vice President Vereliz Santana, in her fourth year on the board, called the deal “one of my proudest” achievements.
Superintendent Roger León congratulated NTU President John Abeigon and its members.
“I want to thank them publicly for their assistance and support,” León said.
The approval effectively finalizes what labor and management of New Jersey’s largest school district characterized as a landmark agreement in an usually congenial May 28 announcement of the deal by the two sides, which are often at odds on instructional, facilities and other issues.
Tuesday night’s action follows a June 6 ratification vote by the union’s teachers, counselors, classroom aides and other school staffers, when Abeigon said 70% of the 2,000 or so NTU members who cast ballots voted in favor of the contract.
“NTU members voted overwhelmingly to approve the transformational contract that makes them a true partner with the Board of Education on classroom and district policies,” Abeigon said in a statement after his members ratified the deal. “The negotiations and the contract itself are an example of labor-management collaboration at its best.”
Though district officials regularly highlight the achievements of Newark’s exceptional students and improvements in attendance and other areas, the raises were approved as overall academic performance of Newark’s 40,000 traditional public school pupilscontinues to lag behind their counterparts in wealthier suburban districts and the state as a whole.
But officials said the contract would ultimately benefit students as well as staff by helping to attract and retain good teachers, and for other reasons.
For example, under the deal, teachers will be allowed to select materials and design curriculum within their subject areas, a bottom-up approach applauded by Randi Weingarten, national president of the American Federation of Teachers, the NTU’s umbrella group. Weingarten was quoted in last month’s announcement referring to the contract as “a transformative document.”
“Teachers will have a genuine voice in classroom and even school operations,” Weingarten stated in last month’s announcement of the deal. “No doubt all of this will benefit kids.”
Individual pay increases vary depending largely on the members’ level of education — a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree. And some teachers raised concerns last month, asserting that the initial announcement did not adequately reflect the nature of the deal for all union members.
Apart from raises, the new contract calls for a $3,000 increase in the starting salary for teachers to $65,000 a year, a figure that will rise to $74,000 by the final year of the contract, 2029-30. Newark public school teachers earn an average of $80,834 a year, according to the NTU.
The district has advertised the new starting pay on billboards around northern New Jersey in recent weeks as part of an ongoing effort to combat a post-pandemic teacher shortage that is not unique to Newark.
The contract will cost taxpayers $369 million in salary increases for the upcoming academic year, rising to $440 million in its fifth and final year, 2029-30. The projected salary increases were built into Newark’s $1.52 billion 2024-25 budget approved in March, 83% of which is funded by state aid.
The vote was taken before an empty auditorium just after the board reconvened following an hour-long executive session, and there were no public comments on the contract.
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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com
