School District's Negotiations With Unions Stalled

Negotiations with two associations has been deferred until after the creation of the 2011-12 budget after an agreement could not be reached earlier this month.

In a statement read at last week's Board of Education meeting, board president and member of the negotiations committee, Jeffrey Brookner, said that representatives from the board, the Principals Association and the Supervisors Association met together beginning on Dec. 10 to discuss a new collective bargaining agreement.

The current agreement for both associations expires on June 30, 2011.

According to the statement, the two associations and the board had hoped to come to a new agreement before the creation of the 2011-2012 budget, but were unsuccessful in reaching new terms.

As Brookner read from the statement, "The board's goal was, and still is, to control the overall costs of employee compensation, including both salary and benefits. This would bring consistency and predictability, as well as satisfying budgetary constraints placed on the board by the current economic climate and the mandates of the New Jersey Department of Education."

In total, over the course of the month, the associations met three times with the board, but were unable to come up with an agreement moving forward.

Because of this, the rest of the discussions to reach a final agreement will be deferred until the school district's 2011-2012 budget has been created.

Brookner said that, because these talks are being done through the negotiations committee, there will be no further comments on the issue at this time.

The board of education's contract with the also expires June 30, 2011.