On August 28, 2018, the New Jersey Appellate Division in West Morris Regional High School Board of Education v. Morris Regional Education Association, affirmed the Public Employment Relations Commission’s (“PERC”) determination that the start and end date of the school calendar is a non-negotiable managerial prerogative.
The dispute involved the collective bargaining agreement (“CBA”) between the West Morris Regional High School Board of Education (“Board”) and the West Morris Education Association (“Association”). During their negotiations of a successor CBA, the Board sought to remove the following phrase from the CBA: “teachers…shall be employed from September 1 through June 30.” The Board argued that this language unlawfully interferes with the Board’s managerial prerogative to establish the school calendar. While the Association conceded that that Board has the managerial prerogative to establish the school calendar for students, the Association argued that the Board must negotiate the teachers’ calendar for the days when students are not present. The Association argued that N.J.S.A. 18A:36-2, which gives the Board the right to establish the school calendar, only applies to student calendars.
The Appellate Division rejected the Association’s narrow interpretation of N.J.S.A. 18A:36-2, reasoning that creating a distinction between a calendar for students and one for teachers undermines the Board’s managerial prerogative. Further, the Appellate Division explained that if the teachers’ calendar were negotiable, then the student calendar would be controlled by it, which further diminishes the Board’s managerial prerogative.
