By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

SEWELL, N.J. – The self-centered members of the Washington Township Education Association deserve to be fired and sent to the unemployment line, but their school district is settling for a civil complaint and a possible court date.

During last week’s school board meeting, Washington Township teachers announced that they won’t be writing letters of recommendation for high school seniors until their financial demands are met in a new union contract.

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The Washington Township school board decided the union’s behavior posed an “immediate, substantial and irreparable injury to the [district], the pupils who attend district schools, and to the public and taxpayers at large,” and filed a civil complaint against the WTEA in Gloucester County Superior Court, reports NJ.com.

During last week’s school board meeting, high school senior Alex Dennery explained how the union’s decision could affect his college plans.

Dennery told the board that college admission offices require letters of recommendation that provide in-depth insights into a student’s work habits and classroom performance.

“Who else but a teacher could respond in such a way?” he asked.

“This [stalemate] is really interfering with over 600 kids trying to have a good future. … Are you with us or against us?” asked Dennery, according to NJ.com.

In its civil complaint, the school board noted that at least one Washington Township senior is in jeopardy of losing out on an academic scholarship because of the union’s refusal to write recommendation letters, reports the news site.

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Union President Camy Kobylinski seemed unconcerned about the students’ suffering.

“We have to stop doing these things (writing the letters), not because the students and the parents don’t appreciate them but because certain members of this board don’t value them,” Kobylinski said. “We want these job actions to end, but that can only happen when the board is willing to truly sit down and reach a real agreement that everyone can live with.”

Union members feel justified in working to the bare minimum of their job descriptions (known as a “job action”) because they’ve “been without a contract” since their old one expired in June of 2010.

The board’s civil complaint points out that the terms of the previous contract remain in effect until a new deal can be reached.

And that contract had a clause stating that the union “will sanction no job actions of any type and will discourage any job actions by its membership for the duration of the contract,” reports NJ.com.

So not only is the teachers union cheating students out of necessary services, it’s in violation of its contract. That’s why, in a perfect world, this pack of selfish union teachers would be fired immediately and replaced with educators who put students first.

But since that’s not possible, bringing the union to court seems like the best available alternative.