Negotiations with teachers will resume on June 16

ENGLISHTOWN- The 450 members of theManalapan Englishtown Education Association (MEEA) will likely start the 2008-09 school year in September working under the terms of a contract that expired in June 2007, according to the president of the teachers union.

The MEEA represents faculty members in the Manalapan-Englishtown Regional School District. The district serves children in kindergarten through eighth grade who reside in Manalapan and Englishtown.

MEEA President Ken Weber said an April 7 mediation session between union officials and members of the Board of Education was "not productive." He said the next move will be for both sides to sit down with an independent arbiter.

A fact-finding discussion has been scheduled for June, according to board member Ryan Green.

Green is currently running for a seat on the Manalapan Township Committee. If he wins his party's nomination in the June Republican primary and is elected to Manalapan's governing body in November, he will have to leave his seat on the school board by the end of 2008.

Green, who works for the PerthAmboy School District, said the possibility that he may have to leave the school board is why he is going to concentrate his efforts to seeing that a new deal with the MEEA is ratified as quickly as possible.

Green said theApril 7 negotiations session was not productive and explained that a June 16 meeting will be mediated by an independent arbiter. He said the June 16 fact-finding session will yield a report that will be nonbinding.

According to Green, if both sides cannot come to a resolution at that time, the matter will then be scheduled for a hearing by an individual who is referred to as a super-conciliator.

Board President Anthony Manisero said he is "hoping to see a negotiated contract settlement between the school board and the teachers by the end of this school year."

However,Weber said he was not nearly as optimistic as Manisero and Green about reaching an agreement in the near future, considering the fact that no further meetings are scheduled until mid- June.

"It's obvious things are not going well and the time frame involved does not lend itself to something happening anytime sooner (than September). It's a very timeconsuming process" Weber said.