B-R Not Only District Mired in Negotiations

As township school officials and teachers await the beginning of the fact finder process, their counterparts in nearby districts are also mired in talks.

The Warren and Watchung Regional board of education and association representatives have been public about some of the details separating negotiators as they prepare for their own upcoming meeting with their state mediator April 12.

Teachers in Warren and Watchung Hills have, like Bridgewater, also been working under a contract that expired in June 2011, and they have instituted a "work to rule" clause, where they only work in the capacity outlined in their contracts, eliminating options for outside help for students.

This mirrors Bridgewater-Raritan teachers' choice to since December.

Although there are many issues besides salary ranges at stake in all of the districts, salary cuts to the core is the biggest fly in any contract negotiation ointment.

Education associations will sometimes seek to narrow any gaps in salary ranges between nearby districts, which can push up increase requests, but it appears the salaries in all three districts are comparable: Warren's average salary in 2010 was $66,429, while Bridgewater-Raritan's average was $66,969 [and includes the higher paid and frequently higher-educated high school teachers]. Watchung Hills Regional's average salary was $71,965.

In addition to the salary issue, Bridgewater-Raritan teachers and the board of education have also been back and forth on how to switch to the state health plan as part of its offer, a cost-cutting move the Warren Township Board of Education imposed last year.

Talks are dragging on in many contract negotiations across the state—according to the New Jersey School Boards Association, there are 138 districts in the state negotiating over expired contracts, including 32 which, like Warren Township, had contracts expiring June 30, 2010. That's down from 208 in August, and out of 223 districts with contracts expiring at the end of the 2010-2011 school year.