ROBBINSVILLE: Board of Education news briefs

By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
Teacher contract talks stalled
   The impasse between the school district and the Robbinsville teachers union shows no sign of progress, according to two Board of Education members on the negotiations committee who briefed their colleagues at a public meeting last week.
   The scheduled Feb. 15 session with a fact-finder Martin Scheinman, who was appointed by the Public Employees Relations Commission, was cancelled at the union’s request and will be rescheduled sometime in April, according to board member Thomas Halm Jr., the head of the board’s negotiations committee.
   ”The board is prepared to go forward, has been willing to go forward, but unfortunately, we cannot find a willing negotiating partner on the other side,” Mr. Halm said at the Jan. 24 Board of Education meeting.
   The teachers union, which has been without a contract since June 30, filed a notice of impasse with PERC last year and a mediator was appointed in June to intervene. The first mediation session was held in August, however, an October session was cancelled and the matter was sent to fact-finding. Fact-finding is the next step and, unlike mediation, results in a non-binding written recommendation.
   Mr. Halm said the union’s field representative, Susan Nardi, requested that the first fact-finding meeting set for Feb. 12 be rescheduled because the union’s expert would not be available on that date. Ms. Nardi did not return a phone message left by The Messenger-Press before it went to print.
   Carol Boyne, who is also a member of the negotiations committee, said she was frustrated that the two sides haven’t sat down together since the summer and pointed out that the Feb. 12 date had been on everyone’s calendar “for months.” Ms. Boyne said that Board of Education members on the negotiating committee had even requested time off from their employers in order to accommodate the union’s request to meet with the fact-finder during business hours on Feb. 12.
   ”I find it ironic that the impasse was filed against us,” Ms. Boyne said.
   Neither the district nor the teachers union has publicly disclosed what the specific areas of disagreement are in the contract impasse.
Williams promoted
   Christina Williams is the Robbinsville School District’s new supervisor of elementary education and professional development.
   The Board of Education voted 8-0 on Jan. 24 to promote Ms. Williams to the $85,000 a year position. Board of Education member Richard Kasper abstained.
   Ms. Williams replaces Baninder Mahabir, who resigned effective Dec. 31 after 13 months on the job to become principal of a primary school in Edison Township.
   Prior to her promotion, Ms. Williams was the Robbinsville School District’s teacher for the gifted and talented education program in grades 5 through 8 and one of the district’s literacy coaches.
   Schools Superintendent Steven Mayer said Ms. Williams “brings a breadth of successful teaching experience, teaching every grade from kindergarten through eighth grade throughout her career.”
   ”She also brings a keen sense of how to lead teachers in order to contribute to our efforts to bring consistency and continuity of program across and between grade levels,” Dr. Mayer said.
Cross country track mulled
   The township and the school district are discussing the possibility of working together to install a 5K cross-country outdoor running course (3.1-miles) suitable for hosting high school races, school district officials said last week.
   The track would be partly on school district property and partly on township-owned land adjacent to Robbinsville High School.
   Board member Thomas Halm Jr. briefed his colleagues about discussions involving the Facilities, Finance & Transportation committee during the Board of Education’s Jan. 24 meeting.
   ”We’re looking at the possibility of developing a cross country site at the request of Town Council that would wrap around and encompass pieces of the schools,” Mr. Halm said. “We’ll need more information as to what exactly that means, whether or not we would be managing it, whether we would be getting the revenue from it, and would the expectation be on the district to maintain the site.”
   Asked about the project after the school board meeting, Schools Superintendent Steven Mayer said that the feasibility of both a 5K course and a smaller 2-mile course for middle school races was being discussed.
   ”The overall vision is to bring a championship style cross country course to Robbinsville,” Dr. Mayer said.
Bids sought for repairs
   The school district is seeking to upgrade inefficient and failing mechanical equipment with a recent request for bids from energy savings companies (ESCOs) for upgrades to the elementary and middle schools.
   A recent state law allows schools to replace outdated, inefficient equipment by using the savings that green technology generates to finance the retrofitting work. A private ESCO provides the substantial upfront costs of the equipment upgrades, with the school district repaying the debt over time through a lease-purchase agreement using the annual savings generated by the new equipment.
   Board member Thomas Halm Jr said the district was hoping that the energy savings improvement plans (ESIPs) offered by the ESCOs would enable the district to replace the boilers and HVAC controls at both Sharon Elementary School and Pond Road Middle School at no cost to the taxpayers. Other energy-efficient improvements needed at Sharon include lighting, doors, meters and windows.
   The district’s architect has been in contact with 19 ESCOs, Mr. Halm said. Once the bids are received and reviewed, the contract will be awarded to the company that provides the best EISP that meets the district’s needs.
   ”This has no cost to the taxpayer and is a way we can update failing mechanical systems,” Schools Superintendent Steve Mayer said after the meeting.
Check no longer in the mail
   A long-overdue check for nearly $1 million of the $1.5 million that the state owes the school district for the construction of Robbinsville High School in 2005 has arrived, enabling the district to clean up its books, school officials said last week.
   The district’s auditor, Rodney Haines, made it a point to mention the missing money in his annual report to the school board last fall. Mr. Haines called the funds a legitimate receivable to list on the district’s books, but expressed concern that if the state check for its share of the referendum project didn’t eventually materialize, the district would be on the hook for the money and have to raise it elsewhere.
   ”The issue that the auditor was talking about, that if we don’t get this money we’ll have a problem, that issue is gone,” School Business Administrator Bob DeVita said at the Jan. 24 Board of Education meeting. “A big problem that’s been here for seven or eight years is gone. We’re in the black, yes.”
   Mr. DeVita said that he was working with the school district’s consultants to get the remainder of the money that is owed to the district.
   ”The money is tied to cash flow and a receivable on our books,” Schools Superintendent Steve Mayer said after the meeting. “Getting the bulk of the missing money permits us to clean up our books.”