BOE to Hold Special Meeting Tonight

The Millburn Board of Education will hold a special meeting tonight, when they will get an update on negotiations with the teachers’ union and take action on health benefits and the administrators' contract.

The school board and the teacher’s union reached an impasse in February and have been in mediation for months but have been unable to .

Teachers their lack of contract and were unhappy that the board changed their health insurance benefits without negotiating or discussing it beforehand.

Union representatives say it is rare for Millburn teachers to go this long - more than 160 days so far - without a contract, and the longer the negotiations  dragged on, the more teachers joined in the protests. Teachers have also been wearing their blue MEA shirts on Mondays.

Mark Zucker, who leads the board's negotiations committee, told the board and the public a few months ago that budget constraints and the tough economy had contributed to the impasse.

"The teachers may believe that we are balancing the budget on their backs,” he said then. “To the contrary, the individuals who will actually bear the brunt of the crisis are the taxpayers.”

Both sides have said they would like to come to an agreement - orignally they wanted that to happen before the school year began and then said they hoped to get it done by the end of the year.

The special meeting will be held at 7:45 p.m. at the Education Center at 434 Millburn Avenue.

Update, the following are the Board's action items for tonight:

BOARD ACTION ITEMS (Roll Call Votes)

    1.    Resolution to change the district's medical benefit carrier to the State Employee Health Benefits Program (SEHBP) as of April 1, 2012.

    2.    Ratification of contract between the Millburn Association of School Administrators (MASA) and the Millburn Township Board of Education for the period July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2014.