NEWARK, NJ — The Newark Board of Education and the Newark Teachers Union announced in early June that they have agreed to raise the district’s new teacher starting salary to $62,000 per year. In a briefing with his staff, Superintendent of Schools Roger León thanked district negotiators and the NTU bargaining team for this expeditious resolution that will make Newark one of the most competitive urban school systems in the northeast, according to a press release from the BOE.
In order to recruit new teachers and retain veteran teachers, the BOE needed to be competitive with other school districts. Some districts’ labor agreements expired during the pandemic, so their teachers’ salaries have been raised as part of the process of reaching their next labor agreements. Other districts reopened negotiations midcontract during the pandemic to raise teachers’ salaries as an incentive for recruitment and retention. Because the current agreement between the Newark BOE and its teachers’ union runs through the 2023-24 school year, immediate action was taken.
“While teacher shortages across the nation have been exacerbated by the global pandemic, we in Newark are leveraging multiple strategies to attract and retain great teachers,” León said. “These new salaries will attract fresh talent and at the same time foster retention by increasing the salaries of experienced teachers.”
The increase to $62,000 is expected to attract and improve the recruitment of new teachers, especially for student teachers and college graduates looking forward to entering the teaching profession. The reopener will also increase the salaries of all teachers who currently earn less than the new teacher salary, also to $62,000, and retention of all other teachers is addressed with increases of $1,000 over the next two years.
In addition, Newark’s new hires in critical areas — mathematics, science, special education, bilingual education and English as a second language — are eligible for a $4,000 signing bonus, and all district employees are eligible for a $1,000 bonus for referral of a new teacher that is successfully on-boarded.
“We have to continue to find creative ways to attract stellar teachers,” BOE President Dawn Haynes said. “This recent development with the reopener is just one more example of doing just that.”
“The current crisis in public education is twofold: Teachers are leaving the profession, and there is a lack of qualified teachers to fill those positions,” NTU President John M. Abeigon said. “While it took some time for it to impact education, what economists and employment experts are calling ‘The Great Resignation’ has indeed done so. Fortunately, for now, in Newark this has been limited to classroom teachers whose numbers are leaving Newark at a startling rate compared to other education workers and support staff.
The Newark Board of Education proposed a solution for recruitment and retention directed solely at attracting classroom teachers and keeping them,” he continued. “The importance of this agreement cannot be overstated. This is a great first step in attracting new hires, retaining recently hired and recently tenured staff, and rewarding those who have remained throughout Newark’s most challenging decade. Equally important is the impact this will have on all staff salary guides in our future negotiations set to begin in January 2023.”
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