Teachers Challenge Board On 'Last Best Offer' Vote

About 40 Watchung Hills Regional High School teachers attended the school's board meeting Monday to argue against a resolution endorsing legislation reinstating the ability for districts to impose "last best offer" terms in contract negotiations. The teachers' lobbying proved convincing enough for five of the board members to postpone a vote on the resolution until later.

At issue is the practice which allowed public employers to impose terms from their last, best offer when negotiations reach an impasse, which had been the law in New Jersey until 2003. The resolution outlining N.J. Senate bill 2043 and Assembly bill 2960 notes since the end of the policy, more contract negotiations have not been resolved before mediation and fact-finding by outside experts.

But to the teachers, the board's endorsement of the bills just as contract negotiations are getting started was seen as an affront.

"I think there's a lot that can happen when we negotiate together in good faith," Dr. Sean DiGiovanna, president of the Watchung Hills Regional Education Association, said, adding the district and union have a successful track record of negotiations. "I feel and I fear that the board endorsing (the bills) is sending a signal to us, the employees, that it intends to further discount this long history of mutually beneficial cooperation."

"If you're going to pass a resolution, why not pass one condemming the cuts to education?" he added. "Why not one that questions the botched 'Race to the Top' application that cost us money, that cost this district money? Why not opposing the voucher act?"

Several other teachers also addressed the board, praising the history of the two bodies working together.

But the board members said they were not trying to send any signals to the staff, instead only "restoring the balance to where we've been and the history of where we've been in collective bargaining," according board Vice President Peter Fallon.

" Our support of that ... is not a signal that we're not going to negotiate in good faith," Fallon continued. "We're going to negotiate as far as we can with your present representatives to try and achieve the contract that is best for not just for the school, but for the teachers, the parents, and for everyone else."

After the discussion, several board members said they hadn't considered the message the resolution may be signalling, and Harold Grossnickle moved to postpone a vote.

"This is the first night that I've known that we were going to consider such a vote and I'd like to have time for all of us to talk and consider this," he said. 

Despite board member Robert Horowitz's urging to vote since the vote doesn't bind the board in any way, only expresses an opinion, Grossnickle's recommendation to delay the vote was accepted on a 5-4 vote. Members Gerry Binder, Bernard Yaged, Robert Horowitz and Peter Falsarano voted aganst delaying the vote, while Grossnickle, Louis Pepe, Sondra Fechtner, Peter Fallon and board President Paul Seelig voted to wait.

"I think it's the right thing to do," Seelig said after casting his tie-breaking vote. "We've had some new feedback here."