{"id":25572,"date":"2025-08-12T04:28:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T08:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=25572"},"modified":"2025-08-12T04:28:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T08:28:34","slug":"brick-school-board-inks-new-5-year-contract-with-teachers-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2025\/08\/brick-school-board-inks-new-5-year-contract-with-teachers-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick School Board Inks New 5-Year Contract With Teachers’ Union"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Brick<\/a>

Brick Township Board of Education\/Schools (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Brick Township teachers will receive salary increases for five years under a pact unanimously agreed upon by the Board of Education at its latest meeting.<\/p>\n

The contract between the board and the Brick Township Education Association focused primarily on simple raises versus complex issues regarding work rules or healthcare, as in past contractual negotiations. With the state having adopted its own uniform healthcare plan for teachers, Trenton officials have largely usurped what was once a negotiating point for local school districts that once engaged in a give-and-take discussion on salaries versus the breadth of benefits packages.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt pretty much takes the negotiation of health benefits off the table,\u201d said district Business Administrator James Edwards. \u201cIt\u2019s written in law what that plan is going to be offering, co-pays and contributions, so the negotiations of health benefits, unfortunately, for schools districts across the state has been taken off the table for teachers\u2019 unions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new contract provides the districts teachers and paraprofessionals an 18.7 percent raise over five years. The contract, which runs retroactively from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2030, calls for salary increases of 3.4 percent in year one, 3.7 percent in year two, 3.8 percent in year three, 3.9 percent in year four, and 3.9 percent in year five.<\/p>\n

Edwards said the board\u2019s negotiating committee and union officials met about 15 times to hammer out a pact before it was presented to both the union\u2019s members and the board, both of which approved its final language.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process took a little bit longer than in the past,\u201d said Edwards. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those tough things that, when you know you did a job, both teams leave the table a little unhappy \u2013 sort of. I think this was successful in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards said besides the salary increases, the district will bring back its \u201cperfect attendance\u201d benefit, rewarding teachers who reliably come to work every day. The district previously had such a policy built into its teachers\u2019 union contract, but it was removed as part of previous negotiations and had become a minor source of controversy among residents who did not favor its inclusion. This time, however, officials are trying a different implementation that would offer a $500 bonus that winds down with the number of days missed in a set time period.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather it being counted by quarter, we\u2019re bringing it back in a semi-annual counting period,\u201d said Edwards. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be phased, so when a professional uses a day, it will be phased down. We\u2019re trying to think of ways to promote better attendance, and both parties felt this was something that was needed to promote better attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want people coming to work just to get the $500 if they are sick, and we didn\u2019t want to penalize people for staying home if they really are sick,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The contract drew praise from BTEA President Kevin Bliem, who said the financial pressures borne by both taxpayers and teachers emanate from Trenton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re fighting for our pensions, we\u2019re fighting for school funding, so I ask that the community stick to Dr. Farrell\u2019s motto that I love: \u2018we all need to work together on this,'\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about the teachers getting a certain percentage, or this or that \u2013 our battle is with Trenton for school funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bliem said that the new contract is a positive for morale heading into the new school year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to know you always have our backs because the number one priority for you, and for us, are the kids,\u201d he said. \u201cYou build our morale just for speaking highly of the teachers and the paras, and you always do, so I want to thank you for that and I appreciate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2025-26 school year begins Thursday, Sept. 4, for students.<\/p>\n

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Brick Township teachers will receive salary increases for five years under a pact unanimously agreed upon by the Board of Education at its latest meeting. The contract between the board and the Brick Township Education Association focused primarily on simple raises versus complex issues regarding work rules or healthcare, as in past contractual negotiations. With […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3140,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[24,1539,471,4484,3190,3189],"class_list":["post-25572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brick-schools","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-brick-township-education-association","tag-btea","tag-featured","tag-teachers-contract","tag-teachers-union"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/DSC_0004.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-6Es","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25573,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25572\/revisions\/25573"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}