Teaneck Charter School Mulls Change to Teacher Pay

The Teaneck Community Charter School board is considering developing its own pay scale for teachers after years of using a pay guide tied to the township’s public school district, according to a published report.

“Since our inception, our salaries are tied to the Teaneck Public School salary guide. When we're using that as our metric, it gives us as a board very little flexibility in how to craft our own future,” TCCS board member Ed Pierce said, according to a report on NorthJersey.com.

Charter school teachers are not part of the township teachers union, the Teaneck Education Association. 

Some charter school teachers at a board meeting Monday said the two salary guides are linked because charter teachers traditionally made less than their colleagues working in the district and offered the charter school staff protection without their own powerful union representation. 

"Being tied to the Teaneck contract is the only secure thing we have here. We're a staff of 40; Teaneck is a staff of hundreds. They have the power of the union, and all of the union lawyers behind them," TCCS teacher Barbara Finklestein said in the report. 

Any change would require a board vote and an application to state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf.