Brick School Board Hires Labor Attorney For Contract Negotiations

In an effort to keep contract negotiations on track with its transportation employees, the Brick Township Board of Education voted to hire a labor attorney on Monday.

The contract, not to exceed $16,500, was awarded to Paul C. Kalac of the law firm Schwartz, Simon, Edelstein and Celso, of Whippany. Kalac also is the district’s special education attorney, Superintendent Walter Uszenski said.

Uszenski said the move to hire Kalac as labor counsel was made due to the illness of John Talty, the school board’s vice president and head of the board’s transportation committee.

The district is negotiating contracts with all of its unions, Uszenski said, and Talty, along with board members Frank Pannucci and Susan Suter, had been actively working on a contract with the union, which represents the district’s bus drivers.

Talty has been ill since before the March 16 board meeting and when he might return is not known.

“Out of respect for them (the transportation workers union) we want to keep things moving,” Uszenski said. Trying to move another board member into Talty’s spot would mean a delay while that board member was brought up to speed on what has taken place in negotiations to this point, he said.

The Transport Workers Union of America Local 225, Branch 4, represents not only the district’s bus drivers and bus aides, but also the grounds maintenance personnel, cafeteria workers, mechanic staff, secretarial staff, and the custodians, said John Menshon, president of the local unit.

The vote on the hiring was 4-0, with board member Michael Conti abstaining. In addition to Talty, Pannucci was absent from the meeting.

Talty has been critical of several issues with the district’s bus drivers during school board meetings, including the Jan. 29 meeting where he expressed frustration at the level of absenteeism, particularly among the bus drivers, calling it appalling.

In a followup email in early February, Megan Osborn, the district’s human resources manager, said on average, 14 of the district’s 187 transportation employees, 7.4 percent, were absent each school day. Some of those absences are attributable to leaves of absence, Osborn said.

Among the district’s 897 teachers, there are an average of 83.4 absences each day, of which 65.6 require coverage by a substitute, Osborn said.

As of early February, absences by bus drivers and bus aides -- including those on a leave of absence, those out due to workplace injuries, and vacations -- had cost the district nearly $150,000 in pay to substituteabses, Osborn said. For the teaching staff, that figure was more than $700,000 as of early February, she said.

“We are working with our supervisory staff to more closely monitor those employees with attendance issues and hold them accountable,” Osborn said.

The transportation union has had some ongoing grievances against the district that have been the subject of executive session discussions. How many grievances and the nature of them was not available, however.