Bayonne Board of Education Meeting on Mar. 21, 2013

This isn't the first time teacher's have come head to head with Mayor Mark Smith. Smith listens as the public comments during the budget meeting on Mar. 21, 2013 at Bayonne High School. Alyssa Ki/The Jersey Journal

About 300 teachers are planning to march out of their union office at 497 Broadway in Bayonne at 3 p.m. Friday and head toCity Hall to call out the mayor as contract negotiations drag on.

The teachers, whose

, will demand that Mayor Mark Smith step up as the leader of the city, Bayonne teachers union president Alan D'Angelo said.

"We think the mayor plays an important part,'' D'Angelo, who represents some 750 teachers and secretaries, said. "He's the leader of the city and he's not working to that end. ... He's the chairman of the Board of School Estimate and they set the budget."

Smith spokesman Joseph Ryan declined to comment, saying: "The appropriate people to speak to in regards to the event are the teachers' representative and the Board of Education."

D'Angelo said he doesn't believe the teachers' demands are excessive.

"We expect a move on the 'step salary' guide,'' he said. "They want to freeze them and we're against that."

A teacher’s salary begins at $49,500 and increases to $54,000 in 12 years before making larger jump to $90,000 after 15 years.

Negotiations between the Bayonne Board of Education and the teachers union are currently in a fact-finding phase.

Since 2010, Smith's unpopular decision to

has soured the relationship with teachers.

This won't the first time the teachers have turned out in large numbers.

In January,

.

Attempts to reach Police Chief Ralph Scianni and Director of Public Safety Jason O'Donnell were unsuccessful, but D'Angelo said the teachers have permission to march.

"We got permission and we're going to march," he said.

School district Business Administrator Leo Smith, the mayor's brother, said the teachers are exercising their Constitutional right.

"It's their public right,'' he said. "The First Amendment gives them that. I know they're disappointed that we haven't come to finalization. We're still in fact-finding.''