Warren Hills Regional School District teachers settle contract; agreement includes wage freeze

It only took a few months for Warren Hills Regional teachers and district officials to come to an agreement on a two-year contract, which went into effect after the school board signed it Tuesday night.

The agreement includes a wage freeze for the coming school year, and an average 1.5 percent increase following the current salary guide the next year, Superintendent Peter Merluzzi said today.

Negotiations only started in late February as the district waited to see what the effects of Gov. Chris Christie's policies would be on the local budget, Merluzzi said. The prior contract was to expire June 30.

"It was really a good round of negotiations," the superintendent said. "All in all it was fair to the taxpayers. (The teachers) took a wage freeze like they said they would."

A representative of the local teachers association could not immediately be reached for comment.

The district's educators announced in April that they were willing to pass on raises this year, but still had to work out details. About the same time, administrators and support staff agreed to freeze their salaries.

The freezes will help preserve five or six teaching positions, Merluzzi said. Specific staff cuts are still being worked out, he said.

The district's $34.7 million budget was already proposing an unspecified number of staff reductions and the elimination of middle school sports before it was defeated by voters April 20.

The governments of the four municipalities that make up the district -- Washington Borough and the townships of Franklin, Mansfield and Washington -- this month agreed to cut an additional $500,000 from the spending plan.

Two other school districts in the area are known to have instituted across-the-board wage freezes: Mansfield Township and Hunterdon Central Regional High School.

Christie cut state aid to many school districts, forcing school officials to shrink their budgets by cutting programs and staff.

The governor pushed for educators statewide to forgo raises for the year in an attempt to ease the property tax burden on residents, and at one time told voters to reject budgets in districts where teachers did not agree.

For the first time since 1976, more than half of the school budgets in the state failed in the April elections.