NORTH BERGEN — The North Bergen Federation of Teachers reached a tentative contract agreement with the North Bergen Board of Education a week ago Friday, according to School Superintendant George Solter Jr. The previous contract was in effect from Sep. 1 2013 to Aug 31 2016. Because the new school year began in Sep. 2016, after the original’s expiration, the teachers still worked by the previous contract while simultaneously negotiating a new one.
At a special meeting on March 8, the board will hear the new contract’s terms and vote on it in resolution. Should they affirm it, it will become official.
“There’s always been dialogue going back between the Federation and the board,” Solter said about the tentative agreement. “There’s been talking. And in any contract negotiations, there’s disagreements. And I think they wanted to get serious about serious issues.”
“The end product is, I think we got a contract that both sides are happy with,” he added. “We came from a lot of work on the teachers’ side; we came from a lot of work on the negotiating team. I give credit to both of them for being able to have conversations with each other.”
Solter did not specify what the new terms are, saying, “Let the teachers vote on it first.”
