Robbinsville School District now has a tentative contract with its teacher’s union.

Tuesday night the board approved a wage and benefit agreement with the district’s teachers, good through June 30, 2014. The new contract, which is retroactive to July 2011, covers more than 300 teachers and employees throughout the district’s three schools.

“I’m glad we were able to come to this resolution,” Negotiation Committee Chair Thomas Halm said. “The best part of this process was that meeting on Monday when we were sitting across the table from each other.”

The teachers will receive a 2.5 percent raise for 2012-13 and 2013-14 and members there in 2011-12 will receive part of a $250,000 payment from the district to the union under the proposed contract. Halm said the district had met with the union heads on Jan. 14 to iron out the agreement. The contract now needs salary guides for different employees and approval by the union itself before it becomes official.

The district and the union, the Washington Township Education Association, have been operating under the old contract since it ran out in 2011.

The district had reached an impasse in the negotiations and was heading toward a state-appointed super-conciliator. The super-conciliator could force round-the-clock negotiations, but did not have the power under state law to force an agreement.

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