Differing Realities

On April 10^th, I attended a meeting of the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education at which its members deliberated upon and adopted a plan for relieving overcrowding at the Adamsville Primary School.  The solution was to move certain students and programs to the Hamilton Primary School which, conversely, has been operating below capacity.

Arvind Mathur offers his views on redistricting at the
April 10, 2012, meeting of the Bridgewater-Raritan
Board of Education.  (Bergeron Image)

Board members and the school administration were quick to point out that they would carefully monitor this change to see how well it works out.  Should adjustments or another wider approach to redistricting become necessary, the administration and the board will address the situation at that time.  The board as a whole was not comfortable with making any district-wide redistricting changes now.

What struck me the most, however, was not so much the discussion and resolution of the agenda item described above, but a subsequent statement on another topic delivered with force and passion to the full BR-BOE by a young teacher during one of the two periods reserved for the public to address board members.


For those of you who don’t have the time or the inclination to be present at these meetings, you should know that lately, groups of teachers in varying numbers have been showing up at the Wade Administration Building in Martinsville.

Sporting red shirts as a sign of solidarity, they tend to sit together, hoping to influence the BR-BOE to come to an agreement with their union, the BREA (Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association).  Teachers have also demonstrated several times outside the same premises before the onset of mediation sessions.

The last three-year teachers’ contract expired on June 30^th, 2011.  Eventually, the BREA called for mediation sessions to begin after successive direct discussions between it and the BR-BOE resulted in no mutually acceptable resolution. 

That situation persists to the present time, and mediation is now entering the fact-finding stage.  Clearly, to any observer, the board and the union seem to be dealing with entirely differing realities.

Morale within the teaching community in this school district is said to be at a low point.  Frustratingly enough, no objective evidence has been presented to support the extent or veracity of that claim.

However extensive or not low morale may be, the young teacher’s comments made on April 10^th to the full board seem to mirror that sentiment.  Consequently, in a following post, I will print her observations in their entirety, unedited (except for paragraph splits), unexpurgated, and without commentary. 

You may form your own opinion.  Thanks for reading.

(Click on the image for an enhanced view.)