It took four-plus years for the Bayonne Board of Education to come to terms with the Bayonne Teachers Association on a new contract, and it apparently will take a few months for the 800 or so teachers and other staff to receive their retroactive paychecks.
The teachers are upset that the Sept. 2 agreement has not yet resulted in their checks being dispersed, especially with the holiday shopping season upon them, according to BTA President Alan D’Angelo, who criticized the board’s delay.
But School Business Administrator Leo Smith said there were reasons for the payments not yet being made, including problems with the vendor handling the checks, as well as the intricacies of the contract and how it affects each teacher differently.
“We’re working though the process of getting it done,” Smith said last week.
Smith said a major part of the holdup was attributable to the board’s payroll provider not being able to handle a retroactive payment assignment this large in scope and the “three-plus years it entailed.”
He also said the process is laborious because of the pension and medical coverage contributions that are different for teachers depending on where they stand in the salary guides.
“If their salary went up, the contribution to medical increased,” Smith said.
He and two payroll employees have been working on the transactions individually.
But D’Angelo said the school district has had three months to work on the checks and that they should have been completed by now.
“It should never take this long,” D’Angelo said on Monday. “I signed off on Sept. 2. It was settled in City Hall with the parties that had to sign off. From that day on, they’ve had three months.”
Smith cited a mid-September board meeting, at which a New Jersey Education Association reviewed the salary guidelines, as an impediment to moving forward with the processing of the checks. But D’Angelo disputes that assertion.
“The Sept. 18 board meeting didn’t prevent them from doing the process,” he said. “I don’t believe they know how to do it in a timely fashion.”
Smith said another reason for the delay was a workshop he had to arrange to help teachers getting large sums of money decide on contributions.
“I couldn’t issue their checks without knowing what they wanted to contribute,” he said.
Smith said the union was partially responsible for slowing down the process by botching the salary guide for school psychologists.
“They bungled that, which meant more time [spent] for my office,” Smith said. “They got that wrong, but that was okay. Send them out wrong, what good is that?”
D’Angelo admitted the error that Smith referred to did occur, but said it affected only a half dozen people.
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“Everything was done by email. All of the guides were sent over by the NJEA,” D’Angelo said. “When they emailed all the guides, the teachers’, secretaries’ and psychologists’, they sent over the wrong one. That’s only a half hour’s work. I’m worried about the other 795.”
Smith said the administration was “close” to getting the checks done. He said that November was a hard month to make much progress for many reasons, including the general election, teachers’ convention, Thanksgiving, and vacation days.
“I understand the teachers’ frustrations,” Smith said. “Two of them are in my family.”
D’Angelo said there is only one satisfactory end to Smith’s check issuance process.
“That he gets it done, by last month,” D’Angelo said.
Joseph Passantino may be reached at JoePass@hudsonreporter.com.