Last night I was at school until 1:15am for a negotiating session. We have reached the point where a state-appointed mediator is trying to reach some common ground between the teachers’ representatives and the Board of Ed’s representatives, which in this case is the superintendent of schools. Because the Board of Ed lost a $84 million referendum last winter, and the budget was defeated in the spring, they are trying desperately to convince the township that they are fiscally secure by taking it out on the teachers. Complicating the situation is the fact that several Board of Ed members are anti-tax, anti-teacher, while there are 3 members who are forbidden by state law from voting on budgets since they have family members who teach.

We had a successful rally six weeks ago, at which nearly the entire district and teachers from the entire county marched on the Board of Ed meeting. And the teachers overall are remaining supportive of our efforts in spite of our working without a contract this year, so that nobody has gotten any raises at all since last year. It will be interesting to see what the mediator’s report says when it is released to the public in another month. If it is favorable to us, it might put pressure on the Board of Education to settle. That would be nice...