The Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association voted yesterday on a proposed $1.4 million of concessions that would help to save some jobs and programs. Obviously, this won’t be sufficient to offset all of the anticipated state aid that was built into the original Bridgewater and Raritan Schools budget proposed in December, 2009, for the new school year beginning July 1st, 2010.
If the BREA membership has voted in favor of the $1.4M of give-backs, its impact will be folded into the final budget of the B-R BOE on Wednesday.
You may recall that, on March 23rd, according to Board President Jeffrey Brookner, the B-R BOE had projected saving “over $3 million worth of teacher jobs in exchange for givebacks worth approximately $1.7 million.”
That offer was not presented to the BREA membership. Instead, the association leadership returned to the table with a counteroffer of $1.4M in givebacks, in exchange for a like amount of job and program savings by the B-R BOE.
The original Board offer of March 23rd had asked for “the union to forgo $403,000 worth of tuition reimbursements,” and to “reduce its scheduled raise from 4.35% to 2%” beginning on July 1.
How probable is it that the BREA’s counter-offer of $1.4M in give-backs will include a lowering of its scheduled 4.35% hike to 2%? Very unlikely.
Remember, the unions for the principals and the supervisors – the BRPA & the BRSA – had declined to freeze or to reduce their salaries. Their offer which was accepted by the B-R BOE was to pay 1.5% for their health benefits and to forego a small amount of other benefits similar to tuition reimbursements.
The BREA, if it voted to accept the $1.4M in give-backs, is likely to mirror the principals’ and supervisors’ lead and to propose a giveback of tuition reimbursements combined with an offer to pay a portion of their health benefits. Just like the other groups.
Showing posts with label B-R BOE Negotiations Team. Show all posts
Showing posts with label B-R BOE Negotiations Team. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
The Force that Turned the Tide
If you are wondering how this afternoon’s vote by the membership of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association on wage and/or benefit concessions had even the slightest chance of ever taking place, you have to pay attention to a real but rather non-obvious source.
Keep in mind that as recently as on the night of March 23rd in the auditorium at the Middle School in Bridgewater, the head of the teachers’, secretaries’ and custodians’ association had clearly acknowledged before the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education that he “will not accept what has been proposed” by the B-R BOE.
What happened between then and now to make the union leadership change its collective mind? Easy: Very worried and angry parents with children in the B-R School District.
An informal network of parents and individual teachers who felt left out of the process quickly coalesced behind the scenes into an influence that the combined strength of local and state (NJEA) representation could not contain.
Famed Harvard economist J. K. Galbraith once explained this phenomenon. He wrote that when one side in a situation exercises undue influence, there often arises an equally forceful and opposing element. He called this phenomenon countervailing power.
This afternoon, the BREA membership will vote on concessions. Whether that vote is for or against the proposal before it, the entire Bridgewater and Raritan communities will have observed the effect of that countervailing force in action.
At least for this one moment in time, a determined network of parents and individual teachers made their voices loud enough to compel them to be effectively heard.
Keep in mind that as recently as on the night of March 23rd in the auditorium at the Middle School in Bridgewater, the head of the teachers’, secretaries’ and custodians’ association had clearly acknowledged before the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education that he “will not accept what has been proposed” by the B-R BOE.
What happened between then and now to make the union leadership change its collective mind? Easy: Very worried and angry parents with children in the B-R School District.
An informal network of parents and individual teachers who felt left out of the process quickly coalesced behind the scenes into an influence that the combined strength of local and state (NJEA) representation could not contain.
Famed Harvard economist J. K. Galbraith once explained this phenomenon. He wrote that when one side in a situation exercises undue influence, there often arises an equally forceful and opposing element. He called this phenomenon countervailing power.
This afternoon, the BREA membership will vote on concessions. Whether that vote is for or against the proposal before it, the entire Bridgewater and Raritan communities will have observed the effect of that countervailing force in action.
At least for this one moment in time, a determined network of parents and individual teachers made their voices loud enough to compel them to be effectively heard.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Tentative Agreement Reached with BREA
Friday night, at a special session of the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education at the High School auditorium, Board President Jeffrey Brookner disclosed that a provisional agreement had been reached with representatives of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association on wage and/or benefits concessions.
Mr. Brookner stated that the Board Negotiations Team and BREA representatives had reached this agreement only about an hour before the start of the public meeting. It calls for employees of the association to give up $1.4 million in concessions, in exchange for the Board’s reinstating of a like amount of budget cuts in the form of positions and program restorations.
Superintendent Dr. Michael Schilder described to the audience where these job and program restorations would tentatively be made in the budget. Representatives of the BREA have not yet identified the nature of the $1.4M in givebacks.
This provisional agreement needs to be ratified by the membership of the BREA before the Board of Education can act upon it. A ratification meeting is scheduled to take place on Monday, March 29th at 4 PM in the High School auditorium, where the membership will be presented with the details.
On Wednesday, March 31st, at the Wade Administration Building in Martinsville, the Board of Education will meet at 8:00 AM to vote on a final budget. The meeting will be short, as the Board is expected to take a straight up or down vote.
Mr. Brookner stated that the Board Negotiations Team and BREA representatives had reached this agreement only about an hour before the start of the public meeting. It calls for employees of the association to give up $1.4 million in concessions, in exchange for the Board’s reinstating of a like amount of budget cuts in the form of positions and program restorations.
Superintendent Dr. Michael Schilder described to the audience where these job and program restorations would tentatively be made in the budget. Representatives of the BREA have not yet identified the nature of the $1.4M in givebacks.
This provisional agreement needs to be ratified by the membership of the BREA before the Board of Education can act upon it. A ratification meeting is scheduled to take place on Monday, March 29th at 4 PM in the High School auditorium, where the membership will be presented with the details.
On Wednesday, March 31st, at the Wade Administration Building in Martinsville, the Board of Education will meet at 8:00 AM to vote on a final budget. The meeting will be short, as the Board is expected to take a straight up or down vote.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
BREA Members Authorize Talks with B-R BOE
Today, the membership of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association voted to authorize its leadership to meet with the Negotiations Team of the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education for the purpose of re-opening contract talks.
If there is still time to agree and to make changes, this will be a last-minute deal that should, if it comes out right, have a better-than-currently-envisioned impact on the level of the 2010/2011 expense budget of the Bridgewater-Raritan School District, its employees, and Bridgewater-Raritan taxpayers.
But nothing is over until it’s over.
The timeline is now extremely tight because, as previously mentioned, the B-R BOE is scheduled to vote on a final budget tomorrow evening for submission to the County Superintendent early next week.
Folding last-minute changes into a budget of this size and complexity – unless they are minor – will require a major push by the School Business Administrator/Board Secretary, should an agreement be reached.
Maybe this comes under the practice of getting everyone into a room and not letting anybody out until a consensus is reached.
If there is still time to agree and to make changes, this will be a last-minute deal that should, if it comes out right, have a better-than-currently-envisioned impact on the level of the 2010/2011 expense budget of the Bridgewater-Raritan School District, its employees, and Bridgewater-Raritan taxpayers.
But nothing is over until it’s over.
The timeline is now extremely tight because, as previously mentioned, the B-R BOE is scheduled to vote on a final budget tomorrow evening for submission to the County Superintendent early next week.
Folding last-minute changes into a budget of this size and complexity – unless they are minor – will require a major push by the School Business Administrator/Board Secretary, should an agreement be reached.
Maybe this comes under the practice of getting everyone into a room and not letting anybody out until a consensus is reached.
Wage Concessions Update for B-R Schools
Sometime subsequent to Tuesday’s meeting of the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education at the Middle School and the posting of this brief message, representatives of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association decided to poll its association membership for authority to re-enter negotiations with the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education.
Time is extraordinarily short for a decision, because the B-R BOE has to finalize a budget and vote on it by tomorrow evening. The final budget needs to be submitted to Trudy Doyle, the County Superintendent of Schools early next week.
I don’t know if the voting is complete (it should be by now), what the results are, or if an offer has been presented to the B-R BOE Negotiations Team. Or whether time has run out.
If the BREA membership authorized its leadership to proffer an offer, chances are very high that it now sits before Board of Education representatives for consideration and subsequent inclusion into the budget process.
Time is extraordinarily short for a decision, because the B-R BOE has to finalize a budget and vote on it by tomorrow evening. The final budget needs to be submitted to Trudy Doyle, the County Superintendent of Schools early next week.
I don’t know if the voting is complete (it should be by now), what the results are, or if an offer has been presented to the B-R BOE Negotiations Team. Or whether time has run out.
If the BREA membership authorized its leadership to proffer an offer, chances are very high that it now sits before Board of Education representatives for consideration and subsequent inclusion into the budget process.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Schools’ Union Chief Rejects Wage Concessions
After weeks of successfully asking to be admitted into the budgeting process with the Bridgewater-Raritan School Board, Mr. Steve Beatty, President of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association revealed last night that he refused to take the Board’s offer to his membership for a vote.
The B-R BOE had requested the BREA to “reduce its scheduled raise from 4.35% to 2%, and to forgo $403,000 worth of tuition reimbursements.” In exchange, the B-R BOE “offered to submit a budget calling for a $1.7 million tax-levy increase beyond the 4% cap.”
The Board had further committed that the resultant savings would be applied to the last round of budget cuts. The effect of this, according to a statement by B-R BOE President, Jeffrey Brookner, is that it would give “the teachers’ union the opportunity to save over $3 million worth of teacher jobs in exchange for givebacks worth approximately $1.7 million.”
No deal!
Instead, Mr. Beatty addressed the School Board at the Middle School last night, acknowledging that he “felt awful when he left school Friday,” and that he had been ”flip-flopping about it on Saturday.” (The B-R BOE Negotiations Team and school bargaining units had met on Saturday.)
Emphasizing that he would not accept what had been proposed, Mr. Beatty claimed that the “teachers would be losing $1800 per year, a grossly disproportionate burden on the back of the staff,” while taxpayers would be asked to shoulder only a $288 tax increase. (These numbers have not been verified by the B-R BOE.)
He went on to say that “It is a band aid and would not save Tier 3 cuts.” He confirmed that although he “accepts it in principle” (the Board’s proposal), he “does not agree with the math.”
Mr. Beatty claimed that “it is a bargain for the taxpayers,” and that the B-R BOE “is more concerned with the Town Council.” (This is because, should the budget be defeated on April 20th, it would be remanded to the municipalities of Bridgewater and Raritan for resolution.)
The BREA Chief affirmed that he was “ready right now” to “personally” go with an “offer that is fair and right . . . so don’t tell me that I am unreasonable.” He concluded with, “I will suffer the slings and arrows and hold my head up high.”
Later, in response, Mr. Brookner explained why the B-R BOE could not accept the BREA’s plea to pass on all cuts to due to the loss of state aid to the residents of Bridgewater and Raritan. Probably the most notable of his comments is, “A tax levy of 7% (or more) would go down in a blazing ball of glory.”
The B-R BOE had requested the BREA to “reduce its scheduled raise from 4.35% to 2%, and to forgo $403,000 worth of tuition reimbursements.” In exchange, the B-R BOE “offered to submit a budget calling for a $1.7 million tax-levy increase beyond the 4% cap.”
The Board had further committed that the resultant savings would be applied to the last round of budget cuts. The effect of this, according to a statement by B-R BOE President, Jeffrey Brookner, is that it would give “the teachers’ union the opportunity to save over $3 million worth of teacher jobs in exchange for givebacks worth approximately $1.7 million.”
No deal!
Instead, Mr. Beatty addressed the School Board at the Middle School last night, acknowledging that he “felt awful when he left school Friday,” and that he had been ”flip-flopping about it on Saturday.” (The B-R BOE Negotiations Team and school bargaining units had met on Saturday.)
Emphasizing that he would not accept what had been proposed, Mr. Beatty claimed that the “teachers would be losing $1800 per year, a grossly disproportionate burden on the back of the staff,” while taxpayers would be asked to shoulder only a $288 tax increase. (These numbers have not been verified by the B-R BOE.)
He went on to say that “It is a band aid and would not save Tier 3 cuts.” He confirmed that although he “accepts it in principle” (the Board’s proposal), he “does not agree with the math.”
Mr. Beatty claimed that “it is a bargain for the taxpayers,” and that the B-R BOE “is more concerned with the Town Council.” (This is because, should the budget be defeated on April 20th, it would be remanded to the municipalities of Bridgewater and Raritan for resolution.)
The BREA Chief affirmed that he was “ready right now” to “personally” go with an “offer that is fair and right . . . so don’t tell me that I am unreasonable.” He concluded with, “I will suffer the slings and arrows and hold my head up high.”
Later, in response, Mr. Brookner explained why the B-R BOE could not accept the BREA’s plea to pass on all cuts to due to the loss of state aid to the residents of Bridgewater and Raritan. Probably the most notable of his comments is, “A tax levy of 7% (or more) would go down in a blazing ball of glory.”
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
B-R BOE Budget Reduction Options
A few refreshers: The preliminary budget for the 2010/2011 school year has been submitted to the Somerset County Superintendent of Schools, Trudy Doyle. That budget does not include the last round of $4.4 million of cuts due to the final reduction of state aid. That is why the Bridgewater-Raritan Board of Education has to decide this week how to handle the final reduction.
The B-R BOE has already presented the four options below to the public:
1. Pass all or a portion of the cost onto the taxpayer by invoking an automatic tax waiver, exceeding the 4% cap on the tax levy. That final revised budget would still have to be approved by the County Superintendent of Schools before being placed on April’s ballot.
2. Insert additional spending proposals on the ballot as separate spending question(s) for voter consideration in the April 20th election, also exceeding the 4% cap. This requires the County Superintendent’s approval prior to budget insertion, and would also require at least 60% voter approval.
3. Implement some combination of the first two options, exceeding the 4% cap as well.
4. Maintain the tax levy increase at its current 4% cap level by absorbing the $4.4M as spending reductions.
However, there is a fifth option that was not part of the mix presented by the B-R BOE last Thursday evening: That is the possibility of still holding the three bargaining units, the BREA (teachers), the BRPA (principals), and the BRSA (supervisors), to a wage freeze. The Board President has made it clear that he and the Negotiations Team had been in discussions on the topic, but could not disclose any specific data.
Yet there are clues. BREA President Steve Beatty has made public statements of his desire to get involved. At the B-R BOE meeting on February 23rd, for example, Mr. Beatty expressed his wish for the BREA to, “…Let us help in restoring funding . . . let us do the right thing, not the popular thing.” He also mentioned the word “lobbying” in his statement to the Board.
Later, during the public portion of the March 18th B-R BOE meeting, Mr. Beatty reinforced that view when he said, “Let us in the process. Let us be part of the process,” he asked.
It sounds good, depending on the results and the nature of the process. But the idea of a wage freeze on next year’s 4.35% scheduled wage hike sounds better.
At least one other option can be imputed from the nature of what we already know. And that is the possibility of the B-R BOE and the bargaining units linking wage concessions to a waiver of the 4% spending cap, or the inclusion of a second ballot question also exceeding the 4% spending cap. Not a good idea.
The B-R BOE has already presented the four options below to the public:
1. Pass all or a portion of the cost onto the taxpayer by invoking an automatic tax waiver, exceeding the 4% cap on the tax levy. That final revised budget would still have to be approved by the County Superintendent of Schools before being placed on April’s ballot.
2. Insert additional spending proposals on the ballot as separate spending question(s) for voter consideration in the April 20th election, also exceeding the 4% cap. This requires the County Superintendent’s approval prior to budget insertion, and would also require at least 60% voter approval.
3. Implement some combination of the first two options, exceeding the 4% cap as well.
4. Maintain the tax levy increase at its current 4% cap level by absorbing the $4.4M as spending reductions.
However, there is a fifth option that was not part of the mix presented by the B-R BOE last Thursday evening: That is the possibility of still holding the three bargaining units, the BREA (teachers), the BRPA (principals), and the BRSA (supervisors), to a wage freeze. The Board President has made it clear that he and the Negotiations Team had been in discussions on the topic, but could not disclose any specific data.
Yet there are clues. BREA President Steve Beatty has made public statements of his desire to get involved. At the B-R BOE meeting on February 23rd, for example, Mr. Beatty expressed his wish for the BREA to, “…Let us help in restoring funding . . . let us do the right thing, not the popular thing.” He also mentioned the word “lobbying” in his statement to the Board.
Later, during the public portion of the March 18th B-R BOE meeting, Mr. Beatty reinforced that view when he said, “Let us in the process. Let us be part of the process,” he asked.
It sounds good, depending on the results and the nature of the process. But the idea of a wage freeze on next year’s 4.35% scheduled wage hike sounds better.
At least one other option can be imputed from the nature of what we already know. And that is the possibility of the B-R BOE and the bargaining units linking wage concessions to a waiver of the 4% spending cap, or the inclusion of a second ballot question also exceeding the 4% spending cap. Not a good idea.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Wage Negotiations Update for B-R School District
As of 1:00 PM TODAY. The Negotiations Team for the Bridgewater-Raritan School District met on Saturday, March 20th, following a request by Evan Lerner at last Thursday’s Board meeting. Early this afternoon, Mr. Lerner confirmed that Representatives of the Bridgewater-Raritan Education Association, the Bridgewater-Raritan Principals Association, and the Bridgewater-Raritan Supervisors Association were in attendance at Saturday’s closed door meeting. The state-level New Jersey Education Association was also represented.
Saturday’s meeting was an ongoing effort by Board President Jeffrey Brookner following his earlier request to these associations to re-open their wage contracts due to this school district’s loss of state aid. Mr. Lerner confirmed that no agreements were reached on Saturday and, that as of 1:00 PM this afternoon, no further meetings are currently scheduled.
I don’t know which tack these discussions will take. Nor do I know if there will be any more meetings to discuss wage concessions. I believe there should be. These associations are part of the solution.
Time is short – budgets need to get finalized by the end of this week. The terms and conditions of any potential last-minute wage concessions need to be fully laid out to the Bridgewater-Raritan community now. In July, the BREA is scheduled to enter the last year of its 3-year 12.8% total wage hike.
Saturday’s meeting was an ongoing effort by Board President Jeffrey Brookner following his earlier request to these associations to re-open their wage contracts due to this school district’s loss of state aid. Mr. Lerner confirmed that no agreements were reached on Saturday and, that as of 1:00 PM this afternoon, no further meetings are currently scheduled.
I don’t know which tack these discussions will take. Nor do I know if there will be any more meetings to discuss wage concessions. I believe there should be. These associations are part of the solution.
Time is short – budgets need to get finalized by the end of this week. The terms and conditions of any potential last-minute wage concessions need to be fully laid out to the Bridgewater-Raritan community now. In July, the BREA is scheduled to enter the last year of its 3-year 12.8% total wage hike.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)