CENTRAL JERSEY: EWRSD schools open on sour note: contract impasse

By Matt Chiappardi, Staff Writer
   Teachers in the East Windsor Regional School District were working without a new contract when classes began Thursday.
   And the East Windsor Education Association, which represents 450 teachers, filed for impasse on their contract negotiations Monday, after the Board of Education cancelled a meeting scheduled for the same day at which time it was expected to vote on the agreement, said EWEA President Ellen Ogintz.
   The filing now moves the negotiations into mediation, but a schedule for that process has not yet been set, Ms. Ogintz said.
   Each side signed a tentative agreement for the contract — about which neither Ms. Ogintz nor members of the Board of Education would reveal any details — on June 17. She added that the union gave the board salary guides and an addendum to the tentative agreement on June 22.
   Board President Alice Weisman refused to say why the board cancelled that meeting. She did say that the board never received any of those materials in June, but got them later in the summer.
   ”Those items were not in our possession until August, and we haven’t had a regular board meeting since that time,” Ms. Weisman said Wednesday.
   The three board members on the negotiation committee — Bonnie Fayer, Susan Lloyd and Vice President Bob Laverty — all said this week that they could not remember when they received the items.
   And all three said they had no idea the union had filed for impasse and would not comment further on the matter.
   Given the situation, the teachers now work under the conditions of their previous contract, which expired at the end of the 2008-2009 school year.
   That contract gave teachers annual salary raises of 4.7 percent and included a salary scale that ranged from $44,410 to $76,138.
   Ms. Ogintz said she does not expect day-to-day life for students to be affected.
   ”There will be no strain on the administration and certainly no strain on the children,” Ms. Ogintz said.
   ”I hope this can be finished sooner rather than later so that this can be resolved and we get back to the business of teaching the students of this district, which has always been our primary passion,” she added.
   When asked, Ms. Ogintz said the teachers have no plans at the moment to strike.
   ”I have faith in the process,” she said.
   District Superintendent Ron Bolandi, who repeated this week that he does not get involved in labor negotiations, said he does not expect there to be any disruption to the schedules of any of the district’s six schools.
   ”We’re not going to be doing anything we don’t normally do, and I don’t see this as something spilling over to the kids,” Mr. Bolandi said.
   ”I don’t think there will be any problems,” he added. “The teachers of this district are very professional and I’m sure they will continue to be.” The superintendent also said he does not know of any new requirements or duties for teachers that were not present in their previous contract.
   Contracts in mediation are turned over to a representative from the state Public Employment Relations Commission or PERC. If mediation fails the contract goes to fact-finding, in which both sides present formal statements about where they stand in the negotiation process to an appointed neutral party.
mchiappardi
@centraljersey.com 