BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer

Jackson JACKSON — Members of the Board of Education voted unanimously at their Dec. 20 meeting to approve a three-year contract that had been ratified a day earlier by the rank and file of the Jackson Education Association (JEA).

The JEA represents teachers, school-based secretaries, media assistants, paraprofessionals, paramonitors and interpreters and has about 1,000 members, according to school district spokeswoman Allison Erwin.

JEA members had been working under the terms of the previous contract since it expired June 30.

While the new deal gives JEA members a 4.7 percent increase in each year of the contract, which is retroactive to July 1, board member Marvin Krakower, who served on the negotiations team, said it also includes health-care cost containments.

“Instead of asking [union members] to contribute to their health policy, they will have go to a PPO or an HMO, and the deductible will be higher,” he said. “That’s the key, trying to control costs.”

In order to further accomplish that goal, the contract also re-quires that JEA members pay higher co-pay amounts for doctor’s visits and prescription medications. In addition, deductibles paid by employees in the traditional medical plan will increase in the first year of the contract and then increase again in the third year of the contract, according to a press release from the school district. New employees will be limited as to the type of health plan they can choose during the first three years of their employment.

Krakower indicated that for the past several years, every school district in New Jersey has struggled with escalating health-care costs.

“This agreement provides a way for Jackson to better endure those costs by increasing the amounts employees pay toward their office visits and prescription medications and by changing the eligibility requirements of some plans,” he said. “This translates to a significant savings for the district.”

Krakower went on to say in the press release that the changes in the JEA’s health-care benefits will actually reduce the 4.7 percent increase per year to less than 4 percent per year.

Krakower spoke with the Tri-Town News on Dec. 23. He said the new agreement puts into place a means of retaining experienced educators.

“People from steps 4 through 11 [on the salary guide] weren’t receiving competitive salary increases” under the old contract, he said. “We agreed [with union negotiators that] we have to try to make our middle steps competitive with other districts and we accomplished that partially. Future contracts will give teachers who stay with the district a chance to improve their earning capability.”

Krakower said that with each future contract that is negotiated, additional salary incentives will be provided to experienced teachers in an effort to retain their services.

“We don’t want to lose those mid-range experience teachers because [another district offered them more money],” he said. “It’s a work in progress.”