Page 4 - 40thAnniversaryNJPSA

While the NJPSA formally began in 1981, there was a lot that happened leading up to
its formation. Here is a review of what led to the creation of NJPSA and a summary of
its milestones over the past 40 years.

THE STORY BEHIND

THE STORY

1960s 1970s

Until the passage of the New Jersey Employer-Employee Until the formation of the NJPSA in 1981, New Jersey’s
Relations Act in 1968, public sector collective bargaining in secondary principals and supervisors were represented by the
New Jersey did not exist. As a result, nothing stood in the New Jersey Association of Secondary School Principals and
way for all educators to belong to the same organization. Supervisors. The elementary principals were represented by
Superintendents, principals, supervisors, and teachers all the New Jersey Elementary Principals Association.
belonged to the NJEA.
For much of the 1970s both the secondary and elementary
However, once collective bargaining came to the public- principals associations were housed in the same building
sector, school employees, fell into different categories. on West State Street in Trenton, NJ. That’s the way things
Superintendents, assistant superintendents, and school remained until 1980 when the secondary principals association
business administrators didn’t have bargaining rights. They bought their own building, a former funeral home, on
were management. Principals, vice principals, most directors, Greenwood Avenue in Trenton.
and supervisors, were also part of management, but the law
provided them with the same collective bargaining rights that Combining the elementary and secondary principals
belonged to teachers and, more generally, to school staff. associations into one organization had been a topic of
discussion over the years because elementary and secondary
It became readily apparent that the interests among school school administrators realized that they had more in common
staff, always distinct, now diverged even more because of the than not, and that there would be strength in numbers. So,
potential conflicts between teachers and the staff members when the opportunity presented itself in 1980 for the two
who supervised them. Organizations representing the distinct organizations to form one larger organization, the leaders of
categories of school employees were formed. School business both organizations voted to begin the process by merging their
officials formed their own organization, as did superintendents respective staffs. They also formed a constitution committee
and assistant superintendents. Principals, vice principals, and whose purpose was to create an organizational structure that
supervisors formed their own organizations as well. would insure equal elementary and secondary representation.

For the year preceding the formal creation of the NJPSA, the
then Executive Director of the secondary association, Henry
Miller, became the executive director of both the elementary
and secondary associations.