The new contract for Newark Teachers that includes merit pay and a peer review system is being touted as “groundbreaking” and “historic.” But what do the teachers think about the new plan?

After a long day at school, some of Newark’s more than 4,000 teachers filed into NJPAC for an information session about their new contract.

It includes retro-pay and teachers with glowing peer reviews could also get up to $12,500 dollars in bonuses covered by the donation from Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg.  

Dennis Pignataro is a special education teacher at South Street School. He doubts teachers are actually going to see a raise in pay and besides that:

“What happens when the Facebook money runs out? It’s all gone.”

Carlos Rodriguez, a tech specialist at Weequahic High School says he understands his colleagues’ frustrations.

“They feel like they aren’t fully represented, but when you think about a contract you can’t think about individual. You have to think about the membership as a whole.”

The teachers will vote on the contract on Monday.