Upbeat Attitude between Negotiation Teams Indicates that a Labor Contract Settlement May be Within Reach.

It looks like a deal may be in the works between the teachers and staff of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association and the Bridgewater-Raritan School District on behalf of the parents and taxpayers of our two communities.

Messrs. Beatty, Lerner, and Krenetsky, after the
conclusion of this evening's meeting.  (Bergeron Image.)

In an interview at the conclusion of this evening’s BR-BOE meeting, Steve Beatty, President of the BREA disclosed that he and the Chief Negotiator, Joe Krenetsky have been in informal talks with board negotiators Evan Lerner and Jeff Brookner in a series of recent meetings which took place outside of the formal mediation process that is still in place, should talks break down once again. 

From the spirit evident in the room this evening at the Wade Administration Building in Martinsville, though, it appears that both sides have grown exceedingly weary of the contract impasse which is now over a year old and growing.

Furthermore, pressure has been building for months on both the board and the union to settle:  Tonight’s board of education meeting was filled wall-to-wall with the red jerseys of respectful, yet forcefully-evident-by-their-presence teachers whose numbers spilled out into the corridors of the conference room.


Parents and teachers have also been making their views consistently felt by addressing members of the board during the public portion of their meetings.

Mr. Beatty volunteered tonight that he and Mr. Krenetsky met with board negotiators Evan Lerner and Jeff Brookner last week.  At that meeting, he said that Lerner asked for and obtained a formal confidentially agreement between the parties that binds them not to publicly discuss or to release any specifics concerning further contract discussions.

Mr. Charles McMullin of Raritan,
after admonishing the Board of
Education "to press hard to resolve
this festering condition."
(Bergeron Image.)

The objective, according to Beatty was to “Keep the discussion out of the public domain.”  He further indicated that “We met (again today) and that the meeting was productive.”  The purpose of that informal meeting according to Beatty was “to figure out where we were, where we are, and how to get (this impasse) solved.”

“I would say that we are definitely getting closer,” Beatty responded to a question about how near the two groups may be getting to a resolution.  He volunteered that the BREA is ready to do “whatever works” . . . and that “I’ll take whatever (I can) in terms of moving forward.”  He added his view that “(union) members have had an effect” on the outcome of the current negotiating situation.

Towards the end of this interview, Board President Evan Lerner approached Beatty, Audrey Levine (Bridgewater Patch) and me to jovially add that “Whatever he says, I agree with.”  In a more serious tone, Lerner added “It’s always about money . . . about what makes an acceptable contract that is acceptable to the public.”

Technically, Mr. Beatty confirmed that the negotiation process “is still in process of impasse,” and that formally, mediation remains in the fact-finding stage.  Nonetheless, he explained that there are no meetings currently scheduled with the fact-finder.

Whenever the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education is either close to an agreement or has definitively staked out a position that it feels confident will work, you can sense it in the room.  Although nothing is ever over until it’s over, there was that sense in the air tonight.