The Newark Public Schools and its teachers union have reached a tentative 5-year agreement that would give educators raises averaging 22.5% over the life of the contract and more say in what and how they teach.
In addition, the deal calls for a $3,000 increase in the starting salary for teachers to $65,000 a year as part of an ongoing effort to combat a teacher shortage. That starting pay would rise to $74,000 by the final year of the contract, 2029-30. Newark public school teachers earn an average of $80,834 a year, according to the union.
The contract, which covers 6,700 teachers, classroom aides, guidance counselors and others, will cost the district $369 million in salary increases the first year and balloon to $440 million in the fifth year, totaling $2.02 billion over the length of the contract.
Salary increases were built into Newark’s $1.52 billion 2024-25 budget approved by the district in March, 83% of which is funded by state aid. Newark property taxpayers will contribute $141 million to the budget, a local levy that will cost homeowners an average of $31 more in taxes for the year.
The Newark union’s president, John Abeigon, said Tuesday that the higher starting salary and greater input on curriculum will help make Newark a “destination” district for teachers from all over — and keep them in their jobs longer. Abeigon said individual raises vary depending on qualifications, including whether the staff member has a bachelor’s, master’s or doctoral degree.
“It’s one thing to attract them. It’s another thing to retain them,” Abeigon said. “And the way you retain them is by professionalizing them, which is to make sure they have a say in what goes on in the classroom.”
Teachers, classroom aides, guidance counselors, reading specialists, psychologists and other NTU members are scheduled for a ratification vote on June 6. After that, the Newark Board of Education could approve the deal at its June 18 meeting at 6 p.m. at Sussex Avenue School.
Under the deal, officials said teachers will be allowed to select and design curriculum within their subject areas, a bottom-up approach applauded by Randi Weingarten, national president of the American Federation of Teachers, the NTU’s umbrella group.
“What a difference local control makes, and a superintendent and union that want to make progress for students, as opposed to erecting obstacles or taking pot shots,” Weingarten stated, calling the tentative deal “a transformative document.”
“Teachers will have a genuine voice in classroom and even school operations,” Weingarten added. “No doubt all of this will benefit kids.”
Relations between officials of the state’s largest school district and its union have often been contentious. In a pending case, the union is suing the district to release a report on racial bias at the School of Global Studies, a document the district asserts is exempt from public disclosure. In a separate case, this month a state judge ordered the district to pay back wages to two teachers after concluding they were suspended in retaliation for union activity.
But Abeigon and Newark Superintendent of Schools Roger León announced the contract agreement in a rare joint news release notable for its collaborative tone and message.
“The tentative agreement is a model of labor-management collaboration,” Abeigon said in the announcement. “We felt the best way to get a contract that helps Newark students succeed and thrive would be to be partners, not combatants.”
León said the same would hold true in the future.
“Successful schools must have a culture of collaboration and communication,” León stated. “The NTU and district teams exemplified that during the contract negotiation process, and we fully expect it to continue over the next several years.”
The district has faced public criticism this spring for standardized test scores in which a majority of students in each grade tested were not proficient in math or reading.
León acknowledged that, while the contract was a labor agreement between the district and the union, it will benefit the 44,000 students enrolled in traditional public schools and thousands more pre-schoolers on track to enter the district.
“The ultimate beneficiaries of this contract will be all of the children in the City of Newark,” León said.
School Board President Hasani Council said in a statement that the agreement represented “a significant milestone in Newark’s educational landscape, reaffirming the collective commitment to excellence, equity, and empowerment within the district.”
Stories by Steve Strunsky
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Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com