With only 16 out of almost 600 local teachers’ unions agreeing to salary give-backs, New Jersey School Boards Association has just issued a sample resolution intended for local school boards to call upon NJEA to “reopen contracts to discuss wage freezes.” The resolution also asks “NJ legislators and state-level policymakers to:

• “[reverse] decades-long trend of submitting to special interests and union demands”

• “restore a school board’s ability to implement its last best offer when contract negotiations are fully exhausted, a concept, prevalent in public sector labor law, which was eliminated through union-backed legislation in 2003, significantly reducing the strength of local school boards in collective bargaining;”
• enact the benefits reforms in Senate Bill 3, which would aid many districts in weathering the economic crisis by requiring employee contributions to health coverage
• “implement a requirement that state mediators, fact-finders and super-conciliators consider tax implications on the community before issuing a recommendation for a contract settlement;”
• “suspend the April budget vote in all districts with a proposed budget within the state’s tax levy cap.”

Cool move by NJSBA, and a sign of the times that the organization has found its moxie and is willing to irritate NJEA’s leadership. The last item, suspending a vote scheduled for less than two weeks hence, is a bit out there but understandable given the strong likelihood of record-breaking budget defeats on April 20th.