BOE, MEA to Meet with Fact Finder

The Moorestown Board of Education and the Moorestown Education Association will meet with Fact-Finder Thomas Hartigan March 28. It will be the first fact-finding session for the two parties who have been negotiating a teacher’s contract for more than a year.

The role of the fact finder is to try to mediate, Linda Alexandroff said in a statement at Tuesday’s Board of Education’s Community Budget meeting.

“If that is unsuccessful, he will meet with each side, make inquiries and investigations, and hold hearings,” said Alexandroff. “It is our belief the hearings will not be open to the public.”

If an agreement cannot be reached, a written report of the facts and recommended terms of a settlement will be submitted to both parties and the director of conciliation, Alexandroff said. Fact-finding is not binding.

“At this point, we believe that an impartial fact-finder has the potential to provide a way to find a solution to the contract,” Alexandroff said.

The BOE and the MEA, which represents the district’s teachers and staff, have met 14 times. The board has said it has offered the MEA a proposal based on the Moorestown Administrators Association (MAA) agreement of no salary increases in the first year, 2 percent in year 2, and 2 percent in year 3 along with a health plan that would mirror the MAA arrangement. The MEA did not accept the offer.

“The board has offered a variety of proposals over the last year, as has the MEA,” said Alexandroff. “The one thing we believe that we agree upon is that these are financially difficult times for all. Our meetings have been cordial and designed to work together as a team. We continue to keep the public’s interest in mind, however we are having a hard time coming to a contractual agreement.”

The MEA did not comment.