The Rutherford Board of Education (BOE) voted to approve an agreement with the Rutherford Administrators Association (RAA) and the Rutherford Supervisors Association (RSA). The two unions, though relatively small, are composed of the district's highest earners (principals, assistant principals, department heads, etc.), with most salaries exceeding $100,000 per year.
The new benefits package in the contracts reached with the two groups mirrors that in the teacher's contract, according to Superintendent Leslie O'Keefe. All three groups used to get three possible health plans: a Point of Service plan, an HMO and a traditional indemnity plan. In the past most of the staff opted for the traditional indemnity plan, the most expensive of the three, according to O'Keefe. The new contracts have a preferred provider plan (PPO) that is significantly less expensive for the district.
Earlier last year, O'Keefe anticipated the new plan would save the school about $400,000 from the teachers' contracts alone. She said the new RAA and RSA contracts will continue those savings. The new three-year contract takes effect on July 1, early enough to affect the next school year's budget.
The RSA and RAA contracts also included four-percent annual increases, less than the 4.5-percent increases the two groups used to get in their previous three-year contract, according to Rutherford High School Principal Jack Hurley, who represented the RAA in talks with the borough.
"It was very amicable and we came to an agreement quickly," said Hurley, who noted the RAA met with the district twice in December and once in January. "There weren't any sticking points."
The new rate of annual increase is less than the 4.6 percent included in the new teacher contracts, according to district business administrator Bob Brown.
Earlier last year the Board of Education indicated there was a good chance the 2008-2009 school budget could have either a minimal increase or no increase at all over 2007-2008. This possibility was attributed to the money saved on the new health care plan as well as about $400,000 in savings due to a large number of unexpected retirements at the end of last year and a $250,000 reduction in debt service caused by a 20-year bond that matured this year.
According to Brown, preliminary numbers indicate a 1.6-percent increase for the tax levy for the next school year.
"We're very sure it's going to hold at that figure," said Brown.
School taxes always make up the largest chunk of the total tax bill. Fifty-eight percent of the average homeowner's tax bill went towards the Rutherford school district this year. Rutherford's five schools had a total budget of about $37.4 million for the 2007-2008 school year, up about $800,000 from last year's $36.6 million.
