June 20th

Monmouth County Picketing

Local Leaders:

1) Please call the UniServ Office (732-403-8000) with the name of your local and the approximate number of people that will be attending.

2) The attached materials should be forwarded to all of your members:

1. Communications Tips/Picket Line Issues

2. Talking Points

3.

Senate Office locations are available at your UniServ Office or the MCEA Office.

**A Talking Points documents is attached.

Senate Office Locations:

11th District

Manasquan, Asbury Park, Atlantic Highlands, Avon, Belmar, Bradley Beach, Brielle, Deal, Eatontown,

Highlands, Long Branch, Monmouth Beach, Neptune City, Neptune Township, Ocean Township, Rumson,

Wall, Spring Lake Borough, Spring Lake Heights, West Long Branch

Senator Kean – Wall Township

1955 Highway 34 Bldg 2A

Wall Township, NJ 07719

732-974-0400

732-974-2564 FAX

SenSKeannjlegorg

12th District

Colts Neck Township, Manalapan-Englishtown, Fair Haven, All Freeholds… Borough, Township etc., Little Silver, Marlboro, Millstone, Oceanport, Red Bank Shrewsbury, Tinton Falls

Senator Beck – Red Bank

32 Monmouth Street

Red Bank NJ 07701

732-933-1591

732-933-1598 FAX

SenBecknjlegorg

13th District

Aberdeen, Hazlet, Holmdel, Keansburg, Keyport, Matawan, Middletown, Union Beach, Rumson Fair Haven, Monmouth-Ocean Ed Serv Commission, Monmouth County Voc.

Senator Kyrillos – Middletown

One Arin Park Building

1715 Highway 35

Middletown NJ 07748

732-671-3206

732-706-9140 FAX

SenKyrillosnjlegorg

30th District

Howell Township, Upper Freehold Township

Senator Singer

From your NJEA Region 9 Field Reps:

The NJEA has declared War on all New Jersey legislators that are sponsoring or even thinking of voting yes on bills that will undermine the pension and benefits that our current members have and who are promoting bills that undermine and reduce the pension benefits of our new members and part time employees. Apparently our new members and new part-time employees would be on the sacrificial altar as various legislators are using financial gimmickry on the backs of our members and are breaking promises made to us in the past.

Attached above is Part of Joyce Powell

From: John Napolitani, APEA President

Date: January 8, 2008

Re: Separation Agreement Meeting

There will be a meeting on Tuesday, January 15, 2008, in the High School Media Center at 2:45pm to answer your questions and concerns about the early separation agreement that has been negotiated with the Board of Education. The following are points of the agreement but not limited to:

From: John Napolitani, APEA President

Date: January 4, 2008

Re: Separation Agreement

First I want to wish each and everyone a happy and healthy New Year. I hope you had a wonderful and restful break. I am pleased to announce that prior to the holiday break, the APEA came to an agreement with the Board of Education to offer teaching staff members of the Association with 15 years in the Asbury Park School District an opportunity to leave the district with a cash payout. A brief description of the details are as follows but not limited to:

RE: A-8 Legislation

The Legislature concluded its business for the 2006 calendar year without taking final action on A-8 (Wisniewski, Gordon, Greenstein, and Senators B. Smith and Kryillos) in the Senate. This initiative which would establish New Jersey

As you know, the Legislature had announced its intention to push S-40 and A-2
through without adequate committee review and without adequate public comment.

Together with the CWA and host of other unions, we had scheduled a news
conference this afternoon to denounce both the process and the legislation. We
cancelled that news conference because there was a breakthrough development.

Governor Corzine told the legislators today that the most harmful provisions of
the legislation must be removed immediately so that he can negotiate them with
the state public employee unions.

The following provisions of the bill will be removed:

* Moving part-time employees into a defined contribution plan
* Capping unused sick leave payouts at retirement
* Implementing the uniformity clause
* Eliminating the non-forfeitable right for new hires to their pensions
* Automatic pension forfeiture for public employees convicted of a crime
* Precluding public employees charged with a crime from participating in the
pre-trial intervention program
* Changing the highest average salary average for pension calculation from
three to five years and for vets from one to three years
* Moving accidental and ordinary disability coverage to a private carrier.

While these provisions will be removed from the bill, we still have challenges
ahead with these concepts. There will be more battle to come, but we wanted you to know that the pressure we have already put on the legislature and our
relationship with the governor is making a difference. We look forward to seeing
you at our great rally on Monday!

Below is NJEA’s initial response to the proposals from the Special Legislative
Session. We will be posting this information on our website shortly and sending
an email message to members for whom we have email addresses. We are also using
this material as talking points with reporters. Please note that this initial
response is based on an oral briefing we received. NJEA staff is now analyzing
almost 800 pages of recommendations and will produce a more detailed and
comprehensive response as quickly as possible. Please check our website for
daily updates. Thank you.

Lynn Maher

Director of Communications

NJEA

INITIAL RESPONSE FROM NJEA ON THE PROPOSALS

FROM THE SPECIAL LEGISLATIVE SESSION

The four committees of the Special Legislative Session officially released their
recommendations on November 15. They will meet on November 20 to vote to approve
those recommendations and close the Special Session. Many of the recommendations
have been or will be put soon into legislation and debated through the normal
legislative committee process. NJEA will testify extensively. We expect the
pension and benefits proposals to be considered immediately. With the exception
of the school funding formula, we expect most of the bills to be considered by
the end of December.

Together, the committee reports, which are now posted on the Legislature’s
website are about 800 pages. The talking points below are in response to an oral
briefing NJEA received. They are not comprehensive. We will refine our response
after analyzing the actual recommendations. Check this page for updates daily.

NJEA RESPONDS

For more than a decade, legislators and governors of both parties have badly
mismanaged the state’s finances, beginning with Governor Whitman’s reckless
income tax cuts and continuing with the annual under-funding of the state
pension plans. Finally facing fiscal catastrophe, the Special Session of the
Legislature has produced recommendations that will have far-reaching unintended
consequences.

Taken together, the proposals seek to address the property tax problem all at
once and largely at the expense of hard-working public employees.

While NJEA supports the committees’ recommendations that deal with ending
pension abuses, among others, many of the recommendations would gravely damage
public education in New Jersey, would undermine collective bargaining, and would
make it more difficult to attract new teachers and school employees. Even
proposing some of the changes to the pensions and post-retirement medical
benefits may result in a mass exodus of teachers and school employees who are
eligible for retirement.

Currently, 32,498 school employees are eligible to retire. That represents
almost one in four, a stunning 23.3 percent. Many will leave before the end of
this school year in order to be grandfathered and avoid paying the new premium
on their post-retirement medical benefits. This could result in chaotic
circumstances in the immediate future.

Big problems have far-reaching consequences. They need thoughtful analysis and
careful scrutiny to ensure that any proposed solutions do not create new and
more difficult problems in the long-term. NJEA will fiercely oppose those
proposals that would be blatantly unfair to school employees, would make school
employment far less competitive, and would damage the educational quality of our
public schools. We will testify. We will lobby legislators in Trenton and in
their district offices, and we will rally at the State House on December 11.

NJEA supports the following proposed concepts:

* Providing incentives for the voluntary sharing of services.
* Reducing property taxes by 20% with means testing.
* Permitting no reduction in the state-paid employer contributions to the
pension plans.
* Use sound actuarial funding and accounting practices.
* Eliminating the vote on school budgets that are under the cap.
* Providing state support for full-day kindergarten in all districts and
support for pre-school construction in A/B districts.
* Providing some selective increase for in-district placement and inclusion of
special education students if there is appropriate classroom support, class size
reduction, and training.
* Increasing bulk purchasing of pharmaceuticals.
* Creating disease management programs, if carefully implemented.
* Screening participants in the SHBP for eligibility.
* Replacing the Homestead Rebate with credit on the property tax bill.
* Respecting the collective bargaining process.

NJEA opposes the following proposed concepts:

* Tiering the pension plan in any way because those benefits serve to attract
and retain experienced employees. Two individuals doing exactly the same job
should receive the same pension benefit.
* Moving the early retirement age from 55 to 62 for new employees. This would
also cost districts more money in higher salaries and health insurance and
contribute to higher property taxes.
* Raising the retirement age to 62 for new hires. This also would cost
districts more money in higher salaries and health insurance and contribute to
higher property taxes.
* Repealing new school employees’ non-forfeitable right to their pensions. In
the 1990′s, NJEA gained employees’ “nonforfeitable right” to their pensions in
return for withdrawing our legal challenge to the under-funding of the pension
plan. The State should never renege on a deal it made with public employees.
* Changing the pension formula calculation from an average of the three
highest years to the five highest years. This amounts to an non-negotiated
reduction in employees’ overall compensation package.
* Moving n/55 back to n/60, a substantial reduction in benefits, for new
hires. The state would be penalizing school employees for its fiscal
mismanagement over the last decade. With ESEA and increased standardized
testing, expectations of teachers have risen steadily. This is no time for what
amounts to a decrease in teachers’ compensation.
* Removing part-time employees making more than $5,000 from the Defined
Benefit Pension plan and placing them in a Defined Contribution plan. Part-time
school employees, such as food service workers, are career employees who serve
their communities for a life-time. Although their pensions are very small, for
many, their most important compensation is their pension and health benefits.
With their low salaries, a defined contribution plan would not provide a
dignified retirement, thus making those jobs less competitive.
* Removing part-time employees making less than $5,000 from all pension plans.
Part-time school employees, such as food service workers, are career employees
who serve their communities for a life-time. For many, their most important
compensation is their pension and health benefits. Removing those benefits will
result in an unprecedented shortage of school employees in many important job
categories.
* Cap pensionable salary at $97,000 for 2007. Pension calculations should be
based on actual salaries.
* Reducing the level of benefits in the State Health Benefits Plan. We should
be working to improve the health insurance available to all New Jerseyans, not
trying to reduce that which is now available to some.
* Requiring all active school employees to pay a premium on their health
benefits now and in retirement.
* Tiering health benefits for new retirees because those benefits serve to
help retain experienced employees. This step would immediately create a mass
exodus of employees.
* Ten percent premium sharing for the new employees in the SHBP. This amounts
to a “tax” on new participants in the SHBP. The state can negotiate this
increase with the state employee unions, but such a change can only be
negotiated for school employees at local bargaining tables.
* Placing a $15,000 cap on sick leave buy-outs (to be put in place when
current contracts expire). This directly undermines the collective bargaining
process. It will most certainly result in litigation across the state.
* Placing an even more restrictive cap on revenue and/or school budgets which
could be raised only with a super majority of voters’ approval. There are
serious emergencies and unanticipated conditions for which schools must be
prepared to respond. Requiring a super majority of voters makes it almost
impossible to remove the cap, even when it is the only responsible step to take.
* Giving county superintendents enhanced authority over local budgets and
out-of-district placements. This would reduce and undermine citizens’ control of
their local public schools.
* Moving school board elections to November. This move would politicize what
is currently a non-partisan election process.
* Applying the Abbott regulations to all districts. The applicability of each
regulation must be analyzed and considered individually.
* Providing grants to districts based on (test) outcomes. Scores are not an
appropriate criteria because they put too much emphasis on superficial learning.