UPDATED: Watchung Hills Board Calls Special Meeting

The Watchung Hills Regional Board of Education will meet at 12:30 p.m. Friday in a closed session to discuss negotiations, with possible action taken after, according to a notice posted on the school's website.

The meeting will be held in the conference room next to Superintendent Frances Stromsland's office.

The meeting may indicate a possible coming together of the board and the Watchung Hills Regional Education Association over the stalemated contract talks. Teachers are currently working under the terms of a contract that expired at the end of June 2011.

"We are extremely happy to hear that the board is meeting tomorrow to discuss negotiations," Michele Lettington, co-chief negotiator for WHREA, said Thursday. "We are hopefully optimistic that this is a sign that the process is continuing to move forward and that we will be able to reach a mutually beneficial settlement with the board soon."

Neither side has said how far apart the negoatiations are for salary increases, which may be a crucial point in the talks. Under requirements of the pension and health care reform enacted last year, teachers pay an additional 1 percent of their salaries for pension costs (which increases by 1 percent each year to the year 2018) and up to 35 percent of the premium costs for health insurance. 

Last week, teachers upped the pressure on the board by instituting work to rule hours, whereby the teachers fulfill the requirements of the past contract, while not performing many of the extra-classroom functions students often rely on.

Warren Patch will update this article as additional information becomes available.