'Intense Bargaining' Results in Tentative Settlement Between BOE, Union

Eager to avoid beginning a second school year without a new contract, the Moorestown Board of Education and Moorestown Education Association (MEA) emerged from a weekend of round-the-clock negotiations with a tentative agreement Tuesday.

Superintendent John Bach said a settlement was reached as a result of “intense bargaining” over the Labor Day weekend, ending a 16-month impasse between the two sides. The previous contract expired on June 30, 2010.

Bach said the board of education was loathe to enter yet another school year without a new contract. School begins officially on Thursday. Teachers reported on Tuesday.

“That was certainly the urgency both sides felt,” he said. The district’s inability to settle the dispute last year “had consequences for morale, for productivity, and obviously was concerning to our parents.”

School Board President Don Mishler said he was “very satisfied” with the contract and said everyone, from administrators to teachers to parents, should be relieved.

“It was , especially from a relationship standpoint,” he said.

Both sides were tight-lipped about the details of the contract until it could be ratified, which Bach said he expected to occur Wednesday. The board of education will hold a special meeting, solely to approve the contract, at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday night at . The (MEA), which represents roughly 500 teachers, custodial and administrative staff and other school employees, was to meet Wednesday afternoon to ratify the contract.

In a statement released to Patch, MEA president Lisa Trapani said, “While all parties had to make compromises, it is a fair settlement.”

The two sides had been awaiting a fact finder’s report since early in the summer. Mishler said the board and union coming to an agreement of their own volition is “much more beneficial” for the district.

Details of the contract will be released once its ratified by both sides, Bach and Trapani said.

According to a letter put out by the school board in July, between the board and the union hinged on compensation and health benefits.

The board calculated the cost of its contract proposal at $2.5 million over three years, and the union's proposal at $5.82 million over the same period.

“Increasing taxes cannot bridge this divide,” the board said in its letter. “The fundamental truth is that if we increase salary and benefit costs by too great a margin it will come at the cost of programs and personnel.”

The union contended the board could settle the contract without making deeper cuts.

“The MEA negotiating team proudly stands by our research supporting why the board can afford to provide a reasonable salary and benefits package for Moorestown’s school employees,” Trapani wrote.

Check back with Moorestown Patch later this week as the details of the contract are released.