Parties Negotiating Bridgewater-Raritan Schools Labor Contract Remain Apart

On Thursday evening, March 15, negotiators for the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education and their counterparts for the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association met at a mediation session held at the Wade Administration Building in Martinsville. 

Mr. Dave Doheny, a member of the teachers' union
 negotiating team is shown taking notes at the Board of
Education meeting on February 29, 2012.  (Bergeron Image)

They had hoped to make progress in their ongoing labor contract negotiations – but, to no avail.

Reached early Friday morning, Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education President Evan Lerner was succinct in his comments:  “The news is that we did not reach a settlement last night.  We (the B-R BOE) need to regroup and figure out what the next step is, and what comment is appropriate” to provide for the public.

Mr. Lerner was reluctant to disclose any specifics of that meeting.  It was still early in the morning when I contacted him, and members of the board had yet to be briefed.
 

Although Lerner did not discuss this at the time, it’s reasonable to assume that by now, he already will have updated board members via a written summary or a phone call placed to each one individually. 

At the end of our brief conversation, I commented that from the tone of his voice he sounded disappointed.  He replied affirmatively that yes, “It is disappointing that we did not settle.”

Later, on Friday afternoon, in a separate telephone conversation between me and Mr. Steve Beatty, President of the teachers' union (the BREA), he responded similarly, stating that “We didn’t settle.”  When asked what’s next, he replied, “Now we go to fact-finding.”

Volunteering further, Beatty said that “We couldn’t agree on what we thought was a fair package,” or, put another way, “What does it mean as a whole thing?” By that last comment, he was referring to the three main issues in these negotiations -- health care, work rules, and salary.

Beatty added, “I’m disappointed.  I don’t think anybody wants it to go on.”

When prompted about the salary issue -- one of those three key factors in this process – Beatty pointed out that Franklin Township has just settled for a wage agreement of 7.2% spread out over three years, consisting of 2.5%, 2.3%, and 2.4% in each successive year.  That contract, he added, still “needs to be ratified.”

The salary question for the Bridgewater-Raritan School District seems to be a major sticking point, because the school budget for the present year – 2011/2012 – contains  a 0% provision for pay increases, and the BREA “would like to see some kind of a raise” in that first year as part of a multi-year package.  “That part hasn’t even come close to being settled,” the BREA President stated.

Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Michael Schilder, as he
turns to the audience on February 29, 2012, to explain
aspects of the new 2012/2013 school budget.
(Bergeron Image)

According to Mr. Beatty, the BREA appears to be relying on its understanding fostered, he claims, by statements made by Superintendent of Schools Dr. Michael Schilder, when the latter presented the 2011-2012 school budget to the public at various public meetings – that’s the one approved by voters last April, and it contains no provision for salary increases for BREA members.

Beatty said that he remembered attending just about all of the school board meetings at the Wade Building where those presentations were made.

As he put it to me during our conversation, his best recollection and understanding of what Dr. Schilder conveyed is, as Beatty paraphrased the superintendent, “If there is going to be a raise, (in the 2011/2012 school year) it has to come from found money; some source of income to offset the raise, for a net result of a ‘0%’ increase” to the budget.

The BREA President staunchly maintains that the money to offset any such stated negative impact to the budget is now available.  It exists, he says, in the form of three significant sources: 

a) savings to the board as the result of a new state-mandated law that now requires school employees to contribute to their health care plan; b) breakage – (that’s an arcane accounting term used by school districts to describe the lower salary costs which occur when higher paid employees retire and are replaced by lower paid personnel); and, lastly, c) additional unanticipated school aid funding from the State of New Jersey to the Bridgewater-Raritan School District.

Mr. Beatty claims that, “You could say that they (the school board) are making a profit on account of all the found money.”

These notions, whether they are accepted or not, is what the BREA steadfastly asserts “Was part of our focal argument . . . . It has definitely been part of our argument all along.”

Thanks for reading, and have yourselves a good week..