RBR Teachers, BOE 'Frustrated' By Negotiation Process

After 25 months of negotiations, there are more parties involved than just the Red Bank Regional Board of Education and the teacher's union in working out a contract agreement for about 150 staff members.

There is a board attorney, a representative from the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) and now a fact finder furnished by the state to help provide recommendations for the two sides to settle. There are hearings, mediation and impasse to contend with, too.

And with these additional participants and hurdles to jump through come more calendars to coordinate and representatives whose schedules already have them stretched thin.

Signaling their frustration, about according to teacher Katie Backwell, and to promote awareness of the status of the long-expired contract.

"Both sides want to reach a settlement," says Blackwell, who heads the negotiating team for the RBR Education Association. "But the process really needs to be addressed."

Both Blackwell and members of the school board also spoke of communication issues throughout the process.

While board members say they proposed a meeting with the union as they await a report from a fact finder that both sides met with in December, Blackwell says that offer was never communicated to her team.

According to Board President John Garofalo, the board requested its attorney to notify the NJEA representative assigned to the union that the BOE was interested in continuing negotiations. Blackwell says neither she nor RBREA President Mary Karlo received that message.

Emily Doherty, who has served on the high school's board for 30 years, says she was "rather surprised" to see faculty members gathered on the sidewalk outside the school at drop off last week. "I absolutely understand the " she says, "but there had been no response to the proposal to meet before the report came out."

"There does seem to be a communication issue," says Blackwell, "which points to the overall issue of how this process is carried out."

"The process by nature is tainted," says Doherty. "You're at the mercy of timelines and decisions made outside the two parties."

In a letter addressed to the RBR faculty and staff on Monday (attached), Garofalo writes that the association "suddenly and without warning" declared in impasse in the negotiation process in November 2011.

"With the association's abrupt filing of impasse, the process slowed down dramatically," he continues.

Doherty says, "Both parties are frustrated by differing points of view and by the exceptionally protracted timelines that have resulted from the unanticipated impasse."

In separate interviews, both sides expressed a desire to find common ground and ratify an agreement. The board officially offers to return to the table in Garofalo's letter and Blackwell says that she will take that back to her team to discuss action.

Doherty says, "We are who we are, and what we are, because of our teachers and staff."

"We have a damned good school," Garofalo adds.