Ridgewood school board, teachers a step closer to contract agreement

Ridgewood school board, teachers a step closer to contract agreement
August 29, 2012
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, While details are not yet being disclosed contract negotiations between the Ridgewood Education Association (REA) and the Board of Education (BOE) may soon be over. The contract news comes just in time for the beginning of new school year.

Rumors of an agreement had been circulating for weeks were confirmed today by a story in the Ridgewood News stating that REA and BOE negotiators have reached a memorandum of agreement (MOA), meaning the terms of a potential agreement still await ratification from the REA and a vote from the BOE, said Superintendent Daniel Fishbein. ( https://www.northjersey.com/news/167831865_Ridgewood_school_board__teachers_a_step_closer_to_contract_agreement.html )

Superintendent Daniel Fishbien told the Ridgewood News ,”Details will be kept confidential until the need for confidentiality no longer exists,” noted the board in an addendum to the agenda provided at its public meeting on Monday.

“[An MOA] means both sides have agreed to the terms and both sides have to ratify it,” Fishbein said, adding that negotiations are done when the contract is ratified by both parties. A timetable for the potential ratification could not be provided.

The official ratification now depends how quickly the REA is able to coordinate a meeting with its members and explain the MOA and vote to ratify it.

Earlier this year contract talks were thrown off track when longtime BOE member Bob Hutton was defeated  by upstart BOE critic  Jim Morgan . Hutton had until that time been the BOE’s point man on the teacher contract negotiations .