As of the Nov. 25 meeting of the Cherry Hill Board of Education, it had been 128 days that teachers in the district had been working without a contract.
Those who entered the Nov. 25 meeting unaware of that information might have had a better grasp on it before the meeting’s close, as it was repeated by dozens of teachers from the Cherry Hill Education Association who filled the seats and also took to the walls, floor, doorway and hallway outside the board meeting room.
Of those educators in attendance, many chose to make their presence known on the record by speaking during the public discussion portion of the meeting, which lasted nearly hour.
A running theme was the teachers chose not to praise their own individual work, but instead extolled the virtues and work of their colleagues, some of whom were present at the meeting and many who were not, but all of whom they said loved working with and for the children of Cherry Hill.
Those who spoke shared stories of teachers working through lunch, being at school buildings hours before and after school, grading papers on nights and weekends, attending school functions regardless of the time of night or day of the week, missing time with their own children to help their students, spending their own money on classroom supplies and much more.
C.H.E.A. president Martin Sharofksy was the last to speak and said he was there representing approximately 1,000 teachers and more than 200 others from secretaries to custodians to support staff.
Sharofksy said the group went to the meeting because he thought it was time to let the board “see all the faces” of whom it was actually negotiating with, and while negotiations have not been adversarial, it was time for a fair and equitable contract.
The group’s last two-year contract expired on June 30.
“Our decision was to be positive,” Sharofksy said. “This is not an adversarial negotiation. It has not been at all. We respect the board of education, and they’ve shown us the respect that goes along with it, but I believe very strongly they need to know who we’re talking about.”
Sharofksy said he believed the two sides had not yet reached a contract because of “certain sticking points” that “always” arise in negotiations, such as salaries and health benefits, but there were also other unresolved issues that been on the negotiating agenda for several years.
“It’s not always money sometimes,” Sharofksy said. “It’s change of title, movement from one specific to another specific. We’ve been working on stipends, and stipends haven’t changed now in 10 years. They’ve been at the same amount and they haven’t gone up or made any type of changes whatsoever.”
Sharofksy said he was fearful those “little things” would be lost if a mediator is brought into the negations, which he said he regrets happening with the group’s last contract, and is what is scheduled to happen again at the next meeting between the two sides on Dec. 15.
Ultimately, Sharofksy said he also hopes the community will now start asking questions about the lack of a contract.
“Parents should ask and parents should know, because a lot of the community doesn’t know that we’re working without a contract, and I really believe they need to know,” Sharofksy said.
After the board closed public discussion, the only board member to comment regarding the teachers’ comments was board president Kathy Judge, who said the board’s negotiating team was looking forward to the next meeting with the C.H.E.A.
“Thank you very much, and before I motion to adjourn, I just want to state that the negotiating team of the board is looking forward to our next meeting that’s scheduled for Dec. 15, and thank you for your time this evening,” Judge said.
