Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The Teachers Union and the Board of Education will be back at it in November negotiating the next teachers' contract
It took some two years of negotiations, but the Fair Lawn Education Association and the Board of Education finally agreed to a new contract for district teachers last week. “It’s been a tough two years,” union president Gene Kuffel said following the board’s ratification of the agreement. John Mancinelli, who has negotiated five teachers’ contracts in his board tenure, said this was the longest set of talks he’d endured, characterizing it thusly: “When the people across the table from you don’t want to hear what you’re saying and you can’t accept what they want.” Mancinelli said there were many nights when negotiation talks stalled entirely, forcing the board to switch tactics. “We changed the way we negotiated and we changed the …
Thursday, February 2, 2012
At a special meeting Thursday, the Board of Education voted to ratify a Memorandum of Agreement between negotiating teams of the board and the Fair Lawn Education Association
Five-hundred and eighty-one days. That's how long it took from the time the contract between district teachers and the board of education expired on June 30, 2010 until the sides officially agreed on a new contract Thursday night. Over that 19-month span, Middle East dictators have been toppled, Osama bin Laden has been killed and the Iraq War has officially ended. The board of education voted unanimously with one abstention Thursday night to ratify and approve a Memorandum of Agreement from Dec. 1 -- the only item on the one-page meeting agenda. Per the agreement, teachers and other district employees will move from a private health care plan to the State Health Benefits Program in July. Teachers, who had not received a pay raise since …
Thursday, January 19, 2012
A preview of what to expect at Thursday's board of education meeting
A vote to finalize a new contract for teachers won't be taken at Thursday's board of education meeting, superintendent Bruce Watson confirmed. "They're not totally in agreement yet," said Watson of district teahers, who have been working under an expired contract since June 30, 2010. Negotiating teams for the teachers and the board of education reached a tentative contract agreement in late November, but before the contract can go before the board for a vote, the union's membership must ratify it themselves. A representative from the union could not be reached for comment, but board president Michael Rosenberg said he believed teachers were still ironing out salary guide specifics. Thursday's meeting will include a brief budget …
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Senate Bill 2925/Assembly Bill 4132 seeks to give school principal's -- rather than the superintendent or board of education -- sole authority to hire and fire school staff and administration
The Fair Lawn Board of Education passed a resolution Thursday urging the New Jersey Legislature to amend identical Senate and Assembly bills that seek to remove the superintendent and board of education from the hiring and firing process for school personnel. "If you take hiring away from the superintendent, it really takes away from him doing his job," Board President Michael Rosenberg said. "It's almost, what's the use of having a superintendent?" The board's proposed amendment would "ensure that personnel hiring and placement decisions remain under the authority of the district superintendent, with the approval of the local board of education." The Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey, or TEACHNJ, Act…
Friday, December 16, 2011
Fair Lawn teachers have been working under an expired contract since June of last year.
A vote to finalize the recently reached tentative teacher's contract agreement was not taken at Thursday's Board of Education meeting, meaning they will enter the new year without a new contract. Contract issues were discussed by Board members in the closed session after Thursday's meeting, however, and Board President Michael Rosenberg said he expected the vote would be cast at the Board's January meeting. Superintendent Bruce Watson said the Board of Ed had not received any information from the teachers' union on their ratification of the contract. The teachers' union still must assemble, review the contract agreement with membership and vote to ratify it or not. If they accept the terms of the contract, it will then go before the …
Monday, December 5, 2011
The agreement could be approved as soon as the next Board of Education meeting on Dec. 15.
Negotiating teams for the Fair Lawn Education Association and the Board of Education have reached a tentative agreement on a new teacher contract, lead FLEA negotiator Dawn Ebner said Monday. Details of the agreement -- reached Wednesday night at a negotiating sesson -- won't be released until it's approved, Ebner said. The agreement's approval is contingent on its presentation and subsequent adoption by members of both FLEA and the Board of Ed. If either FLEA or the Board of Ed votes "No," Ebner said, both sides will be forced to return to the negotiation process. "We just came up with an agreement and it's totally up to the Association to see if it’s an acceptable one," she said. Ebner said a date hadn't been set to bring forth the …
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Todays top local events and tips
"Five Things" is a daily Patch feature where we give you Fair Lawn's top five tips and events for each day of the week. Have a suggestion for a "Five Things" item? E-mail me at zak.koeske@patch.com. 1) The Board of Education will hold its monthly meeting Thursday night at 7:30 in Room 19 of Edison School on Fair Lawn Avenue. At last month's meeting, teachers packed the school's gymnasium to protest the speed of contract negotiations. 2) The Radburn Players Present: "Rabbit Hole" Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Radburn Association Grange Hall. Tickets are $15. ($10 for members and $12 for students / seniors). The show opened last Friday and continues through Saturday. 3) The Fair Lawn High School Masque is performing William Shakespeare's "…
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Missed any of this week's coverage? It's all here
Monday, Oct. 17 What Should Be Done With Memorial Pool? "The future of Memorial Pool is something that's obviously of great concern to many Fair Lawn residents. If one resident's remarks at last week's council meeting are any indication, rumors about the pool's future are rampant in town. At Sunday's council candidate forum, candidates were asked what they would do with Memorial Pool." Letter: PBA Prez Tells Council Candidate To "Stick With The Facts" Fair Lawn Police Detective and PBA president David Boone comments on remarks made by council candidate Cristina Cutrone at Sunday's forum Fair Lawn Lieutenant's Hunch Nabs Route 4 Car Burglar "For the past couple weeks, Fair Lawn police have been on the trail of a brazen car burglar. The man…
Friday, October 21, 2011
Teachers came out in full force Thursday to speak out about the pace of contract negotiations with the Board of Education
At last month’s Board of Education meeting, while high school parents and school board members offered rebuke after stinging rebuke to Fair Lawn teachers for not writing college recommendation letters, FLEA president Gene Kuffel sat quietly alone toward the back of the room and took it. The tables were turned Thursday when a sea of Fair Lawn teachers fed-up with contract negotiations descended on Edison School and forced a move of the Board of Education meeting from Room 19 to the school's gymnasium to accommodate the crowd. Without enough chairs to seat the almost 200 people who came out Thursday, dozens sat on the floor or stood around the gym’s perimeter. This time, Kuffel sat in the front row, surrounded by colleagues and eager to …
Marty Cone
5:25 pm on Thursday, February 9, 2012
Im glad its done, more ›