The Mt. Laurel Board of Education and Mt. Laurel Administrators Association have agreed to a new three-year contract running through the 2016–17 school year.
The board unanimously approved the new contract at Tuesday night’s board of education meeting. The agreement includes a 5.9 percent salary increase over the course of three years.
The old agreement between the school district and the MLAA expired on June 30. Marie Reynolds, director of communications for Mt. Laurel schools, said the two sides decided not to begin negotiations until the school district and Mt. Laurel Education Association approved a new contract with the teachers. The new teachers’ contract was approved in September.
“They waited until the other contract was done before they began talking,” Reynolds said.
“Our administrators were gracious in waiting until the Mt. Laurel Education Association contract was approved in September before beginning their own negotiations,” said Diane Blair, chair of the negotiations committee for the Mt. Laurel Board of Education.
In addition to a salary increase, the administrators made some concessions on health benefits.
“The main discussion was around salary,” Reynolds said. “They did the same concession that the MLEA did in reducing the waiver fees for health benefits.”
Mary Fitzgerald, president of the MLAA, said the association is happy with the new contract.
“We were pleased with the results of the negotiations,” she said. “It went pretty well, and we got it done pretty quickly.”
Blair also said negotiations went well from the district’s end. She was pleased an agreement was reached within two months.
“Our negotiations were very amicable,” she said. “I’m grateful to the MLAA’s representatives for the speed with which we reached an agreement.”
Fitzgerald credited the strong relationship between the MLAA and the board as the reason negotiations went well.
“We have a good working relationship with the board,” she said. “It was never contentious.”
The MLAA represents the eight principals, four assistant principals and five curriculum supervisors working in the school district.
