This story was posted at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 13.

The Hampton Township Education Association bargaining team walked out of the Nov. 13 negotiation session after being “extremely disappointed” with the district’s latest proposal, said the union’s chief negotiator Arleen Starr.

The district’s teacher contract expired on June 30 and covers approximately 225 teachers. The two sides have been negotiating since January.

“We were extremely disappointed,” Starr said. “We walked out.”

Starr said the union has cancelled the bargaining session set for Tuesday, Dec. 11. She said the district’s negotiation team was using regressive bargaining and stripping the contract. She did not say specifically what had been taken out.

Starr said that each new proposal that’s made is less than the one before.

“The district is engaging in contract stripping and regressive bargaining and we don’t have a response to that,” she said.

The district’s solicitor, Patrick Clair, said he doesn’t consider their latest proposal regressive. He thinks the two sides have made movement toward the goal of contract, but it hasn’t been as dramatic as what the union may have hoped to this point.

“I believe that the proposal we gave them was anything but regressive,” Clair said.

Starr said that it would take a new proposal from the board in order for the union to still attend the next scheduled bargaining session.

The teachers will hold a general membership meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 27 to decide what their next move will be.

“If they’re willing to present us with a serious proposal and stop contract stripping and regressive bargaing, then we’re willing to meet,” Starr said.

Clair said the district hasn’t taken the meeting off of their calendars and would still like to meet with the teachers. The teachers union relayed the cancellation through the state mediator.

Clair said the reason the contract discussions are taking so long is because of their complexity, saying that they involve public resources, students, taxpayers and teachers.

“We have not taken that date off our calendar,” Clair said of the next meeting. “We invite them to come without recrimination.”