Jersey City school district to reprimand teachers for protesting outside parent-teacher conferences

JERSEY CITY – The public-school district is issuing reprimands to teachers who showed up 30 minutes late to November's parent-teacher conferences, an action the teachers took to protest a labor dispute.

The district's move is the latest in a series of dustups between school officials and the local teachers union, the Jersey City Education Association. The two sides have been at odds for more than a year as they negotiate a new contract for the teachers.

The letters of reprimand will be issued by Dec. 12 and will be placed in the teachers' personnel files. District spokeswoman Maryann Dickar said whenever employees fail to report to work on time, their supervisors are "expected to follow up with appropriate action."

"Teachers chose to ignore the established protocols for addressing labor disputes and chose to not attend their assignments on time when hundreds of parents were waiting to see them," Dickar said in an email.

Dickar didn't know how many teachers will end up receiving reprimands. Ron Greco, who heads the JCEA, said as many as 4,000 teachers could be affected.

Greco said if the reprimands are issued, the union will file a grievance charging the district with unfair labor practices. It would be another in a series of grievances against the district, Greco said.

"Those letters will not change our position," Greco said. "We will be reporting at 6:30 in April as we've done for over 40 years. I'm disappointed that the superintendent did not have the courage to sign the letters herself or contact me."

This latest clash between the district and the JCEA stems from the start time of the district's semi-annual parent-teacher conferences, called "report card night." Last year, the district changed the conference times from 6:30 to 8 p.m. to 6 to 8 p.m., angering the union, which said district requests for schedule changes need to be negotiated.

Teachers worked the extra half-hour last year but this year, 15 months into tense contract negotiations, the union ordered teachers to show up at 6:30 on the four nights of conferences, which began Nov. 18. On those four nights, many of the teachers and their supporters protested outside the schools for the half-hour before the conferences' traditional start time.

Last year, the teachers union filed a complaint with the state Public Employment Relations Commission over the extra half-hour, and the commission found the district's actions "may constitute one or more unfair practices" but added that the dispute should be settled during arbitration.

The teachers have worked under an expired contract since last August.

Source: NJ.com