LACEY – Members of the Lacey Teachers Education Association, union came out to the meeting en masse stating that Lacey is one of the lowest paid school districts in Ocean County but Board President Frank Palino presented them a new offer during a recent board meeting.
LTEA President Mike Ryan was in the audience and listened to Palino who appeared to be bargaining from the dais table with the union.
Before giving his report as chair of the Negotiations Committee which is currently trying to reach an agreement with the teacher’s union, he asked Cameron Morgan – a member of the Board’s legal firm – to administer an oath he wrote up and asked Superintendent Vanessa Clark to hold a Bible he provided her. “I consider this the court of public opinion. Please read this,” he told Morgan.
“Go ahead, read it, read it,” Palino repeated to the attorney.
“Mr. Palino the statements you are about to make are the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God,” Morgan stated.
“It is, thank you,” the Board President responded. The audience was chatting as they witnessed the unusual occurrence.
Palino added, “so with that I will say what I consider the truth. I speak the truth every time I can. People may not want to hear it, but I’m going to tell you. So let’s start. Let me tell you about lie one. Union negotiation said we declared an impasse and walked away from the table. On March 28 a letter was sent to PERC (Public Employment Relations Commission) by the LTEA declaring an impasse.
“Lie two, the Board refused to give the mediator dates when the mediator gave three dates and one of those dates was good for us. I don’t wholeheartedly blame the LTEA negations as there was some confusion between secretaries and administrative staff and so forth but we did give them a date March 23 and March 23 didn’t work so ended up going to March 21,” Palino added.
Palino said the negotiations first began over a year ago. “Lie number three, six period stipend. You were told by your union leadership to be given to everybody and we told you no. That is an absolute lie. We took your six period stipend money and offered it to give it to every person (teacher) in your union to put it in, divvy it up, increase it, put it into your base salary, then you get a percentage. If you heard otherwise, you are not being told the truth.”
The Board president then brought up what he called lie four: “On March 21, you were told the minute we sat at the table that the Board negotiation team immediately pulled that one-year contract off the table. Lie. We sat for almost four hours in a Zoom meeting begging for you folks to take your one-year contract,” Palino said.
“We offered 3.15 percent. We offered your retro check. We asked for no givebacks for your one year. We want you to take your money. The union kept coming back with more and more and more ridiculous numbers,” Palino added.
“We told them we appreciate for what they are asking it would be addressed after the one year agreement was taken. Three times this happened. We sent the letter on March 7 to the LTEA and the mediator we are offering a one-year deal 3.15 percent inclusive increments in pay and no give backs,” Palino added.
“You were getting one free year and for those of you who don’t know how negotiations work, you give me something, I give you something. Guess what, we don’t want anything. What I want you to do is take your one-year agreement because on June 30 at midnight, that money that was put aside for you in this past year budget has to be stuck aside and used two years later in the schools for something other than your salaries,” Palino told the LTEA members.
He added, “what does that mean for us? What does that mean for the taxpayers? It means if you do not take this one-year agreement our 4.1 deficit as it stands is going to increase because now we have to budget for your year prior to June 30. We are over a $4.5 million deficit.
Palino said as Negotiations Chair he said he was offering again the one-year deal “and I’ll even go 3.2 percent.” That drew some gasps from the audience.
After several bangs on the gavel to quell the sound of conversations in the audience, Palino said, “listen, I was told to make the offer one more time. I’m offering. The deal still stands. That is our final offer for the one year. There is no lies. There is no question. You heard it here first.”
Union representatives did not take the deal that was offered during the meeting. Negotiations were still ongoing as of press time.
