Board Officers Add their Views on Collective Bargaining with BREA

On March 22^nd, Messrs. Krenetsky and Beatty of the BREA’s Negotiations Team responded to questions about the status of their talks with the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education.

Following that discussion, I spoke with Mr. Jeffrey Brookner, President of the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education and, at the end, with Mr. Evan Lerner, Board VP, concerning the same talks noted above.  (Both are members of the School District’s Negotiations Team.)

Question:  Will you provide specifics about the status of the current negotiations with the BREA?

Responses:  Mr. Brookner said that “The (Negotiations) Team had discussed whether or not to have a public statement at this time and decided not to.”  

In an important follow-up answer, Brookner volunteered that, “Sometimes boards (of education) agree with unions to maintain confidentiality of negotiations.” He emphasized that the B-R BOE has “no such agreement in this case” with the teachers’ union.

Brookner elaborated that the “committee decided that making a statement at this time would tend to undermine the trust and cooperative spirit of negotiations,” while adding that “negotiations are at a very early stage and there are lots of issues on the table.” 

It became clear that pressing further for additional information would not yield any specific data.

A composed Brookner insisted that, “Any public statement would be premature and counter-productive.”

Question:  Can you provide a probability as to when you expect the BREA to reach an agreement with the B-R BOE, and how likely is that to happen before the April 27^th election, when the school budget goes before the voters? 

Responses:  Mr. Brookner:  “I won’t comment on the probability of reaching an agreement before April 27^th.”

Brookner, however, confirmed that there is another negotiations meeting scheduled for April 11^th, a day before the Board of Education meets again in full session on April 12^th.

He further stated that “On the 12^th, there will likely be an update” on the status of negotiations, but did not indicate whether it would be a “substantive” one.

Towards the end of Brookner’s comments, Evan Lerner entered the conference room from the corridor, and offered this concluding comment to the interview:  “We won’t reach an agreement which we think is not financially sustainable and responsible.”