Contracts

between

NOR TH BERGEN

BOARD OF EDUCATION

and

NOR TH BERGEN

FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

LOCAL 1060 -A.F.T.

A.F.L. - C.I.O.

Sept. 1, 2004 – Aug. 31, 2006

Revised July 2004

CONTRACT AGREEMENT

between

NORTH BERGEN

BOARD OF EDUCATION

and

NORTH BERGEN

FEDERATION OF TEACHERS

LOCAL 1060 -A.F.T.

A.F.L. - C.I.O.

Article 8 Changes in Terms and Conditions of
Employment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

8. Special Subjects and Programs . . . . . . 54

APPENDIX “B”
SUPPORT STAFF APPENDIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

1. Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

WHEREAS, the Federation constitutes a combined unit of Board employees resulting from an election conducted on November 6, 1968 pursuant to Chapter 303 of the Laws of the State of New Jersey, 1968 (The Public Employees Relations Act), in the case of the teaching employees, and a further elec-tion conducted on October 22, 1981 pursuant to Chapter 303 of the Laws of 1968 and Chapter 123 of the Laws of 1974, in the case of clerical and secretarial Board employees.

WHEREAS, the Board and the Federation have undertaken negotiations in good faith for the purpose of agreeing on the terms and conditions of employment and grievance procedures.

NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the mutual agree-ments herein below set forth, the parties agree as follows:

(a) The Board recognizes the Federation, as a com-bined unit, as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for all employees of the Board in the bargaining unit.

(b) The consolidated bargaining unit consists of thoseemployees of the Board who are:
(1) Classroom teachers, special subject teachers,librarians, nurses, all guidance personnel, Learning Disability Consultants, Social Workers, Coordinators, BSIP, Summer School Teachers, and supplemental teach-ers. Per diem substitute teachers are excluded from the bargaining unit.
(2) Those employees of the Board who are clericaland clerical aides, except employees who are “conﬁdential� within the meaning of the New Jersey Public Employees

Relations Act as deﬁned by the legislature and deﬁned by the Courts of the State of New Jersey.

(3) Unit members who move to an exempt clericalposition which is subsequently abolished or those who are reassigned by the administration shall be credited with accrued time in exempt position as per the Unit contract upon return to the Unit.

(c) The term “Unit” shall mean all members of the bar-gaining unit.
(d) The term “contract” shall mean this Agreement and any appendices applicable hereto.
(e) This contract is intended to document and codifythe provisions applicable generally to all Unit members. In those areas where distinctions are made between the terms and conditions of employment as speciﬁed for teaching employees and clerical or secretarial employees, those provisions shall be found in Appendix A (Teachers - Special Provisions) and Appendix B (Support Staff - Special Provisions). It is the intention of the parties hereby to facilitate for both the Board and the Federation the use and interpretation of all of the contract governing provisions.

ARTICLE 2. FAIR PRACTICES

(a) The Board agrees to continue its policy of not dis-criminating against any employee on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, marital status or member-ship, or participation or association with the activities of any employee organization.

(b) The Federation agrees to continue to admit inaccordance with its constitution all members of the Unit and those eligible to be members of the Unit without dis-crimination on the basis of race, creed, color, national ori-gin, sex or marital status and not to discriminate against and to represent equally and without favor or prejudice all members of the Unit and those eligible to be members of the Unit without regard to membership or participation in any employee organization.

ARTICLE 3. ADMINISTRATION OF CONTRACT

(a) Teaching staff members shall not engage in organ-ization activities during the time they are assigned to a class; support staff members shall not engage in organiza-tion activities while working. Designated Federation rep-resentatives, however, shall be excused by the Principal with the approval of the Superintendent or his designee, without loss of pay for time spent negotiating with the Board, investigating problems, or engaging in conferences with the Superintendent of Schools or his representative, if such are held on school time. Federation teacher member-ship meetings can be called after 3:00 P.M., clerical staff after 4:00 P.M., or at any times the Unit members involved are not engaged in classroom instruction, assigned duties or work assignments.

(b) Federation representatives shall be allowed timefor appropriate activities relating to the administration of this agreement and to the duties of their office without loss of pay, upon the approval of the Superintendent.
(c) The Board and the bargaining agent shall makeavailable upon request to each other any available information, statistics, and records which are relevant to negotiations.
(d) The Superintendent and Federation representa-tive(s) shall meet at the written request of either party, within fourteen calendar days of receipt of the request, to discuss matters relating to the implementation of the contract.
(e) The Federation shall be given a place on theagenda of faculty meetings for brief reports and announce-ments pertaining to the bargaining unit.
(f) School principals and Federation representativesshall meet, during school hours, at a mutually agreeable time to consult on matters of school and/or office policy relating to the implementation of this agreement.
(g) The President of the North Bergen Federation ofTeachers shall be assigned a maximum of ten teaching peri-ods per week commencing with the September 2004 con-

tractual year. The President shall be assigned a maximum of one period of assigned duty per day but said period shall be used to perform Federation business provided such is deemed necessary by said president. The President of the North Bergen Federation of Teachers shall have a schedule which will permit attention to Federation matters after 12:20 p.m. School day sign-in for the President of the N.B.F.T. may be at any school in the district. It shall be the responsibility of the main office of the school that the President signs in to notify the central and high school office. Should an elementary teacher or member of the support staff be elected president of the North Bergen Federation of Teachers, the Board will make necessary mod-iﬁcations to his/her schedule to enable proper performance of Federation responsibilities.

(a) The Board and the Federation agree to enter intonegotiations over a successor agreement in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Public Employment Relations Commission with the ﬁrst meeting by November 15 unless the parties mutually agree to extend that date. At the time, the parties agree to present to each other their proposals for modiﬁcations to be included in the successor agreement. Counterproposals shall be submitted within 14 days. This time table shall serve as a guideline for the par-ties. Each party shall be free to propose and negotiate with regard to all appropriate subjects which it desires to place before the other for consideration. Such agreement shall apply to all members of the negotiating Unit and the employ-er, shall be reduced to writing and after ratiﬁcation by the Federation and the employer, shall be signed by all parties.

(b) Neither party in any negotiations shall have con-trol over the selection of the negotiation representatives of the other. The parties mutually agree that their represen-tatives shall be clothed with all necessary power and authority to make proposals, consider proposals, and make counter-proposals in the course of negotiations, consistent with their status as representatives of the Board and Federation respectively.

(c) During its term, this agreement shall not be modi-ﬁed in whole or in part by the parties, except by mutual agreement to reopen the negotiations, and/or by a written amendment duly executed by both parties.

(a) The Board agrees to continue its practice of deductingthe Federation monthly membership dues from the pay of those employees who individually request, in writing, that such deduction be made. The amounts to be deducted shall be certiﬁed to the Board by the Federation and the aggregate deductions of all employees shall be remitted to the Federation, in accordance with current practices. The annual deduction shall be made in equal twice-per-month payments for all employees during the period September through June.

(b) The Board agrees to implement an agency shop inaccordance with Chapter 477 of the Laws of 1979, with a representation fee for non-members at the maximum amount permitted by State law. The Federation, in exchange for the implementation of said agency shop, hereby agrees to hold the Board harmless against any and all claims or suits, or any other liability occurring as a result of the implementation of this agency provision. In the event the Board is named as a party, the Federation agrees to reimburse the Board for any costs including legal fees for defense of said suits, but the Board speciﬁcally reserves the right to name its own attorney with respect to its defense. The Federation agrees to a reimbursement rate of up to $125 per hour for such attorneys fees. Should a con-troversy arise concerning said fees, the Board attorney and Federation attorney shall meet to determine a mutually agreeable amount.

ARTICLE 6. GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE

(a) Deﬁnition: Any difference or dispute between the Board and the Unit relating to the terms of this agreement, or its interpretation, or application, or enforcement thereof, shall be subject to the following procedures, which shall be resorted to as the sole means of obtaining adjustment of dis-putes, which shall hereinafter be referred to as a �grievance�.

(a) The Board agrees to have in each elementaryschool such audio-visual materials as it deems appropriate.

(b) The duties of the audio-visual directors shall be asdetermined by the Board of Education.

ARTICLE 8. CHANGES IN TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT

Any changes or modiﬁcations in terms and conditions of employment are to be made through negotiations with the bargaining agent.

Proposed new rules or modiﬁcations of existing rules governing working conditions shall be negotiated with the bargaining agent before they are established.

Waiver of any condition of this agreement by either party shall not be deemed a precedent for any future enforcement of waiver of such condition.

Should the state mandate the extension of the school year beyond our present 180 days plus two, the Board shall meet with the Federation to negotiate additional compensation, only for the additional days.

The school year will be extended two days for a total of 184 working staff days, the additional two days to be used exclusively for ten approved hours of professional develop-ment for the entire professional staff, contributing to each faculty member’s required 100 hours of professional develop-ment. The professional development committee shall approve and participate in planning the content of the professional development activities on the two additional days. One pro-fessional development day will be held in the fall and one in the spring. The schedule will be from 8:30 A.M. to 3:00 p.m. with a one-hour lunch period. The schedule will be subject to review by the professional/staff development committees.

Within two months of the signing of this Agreement by the parties, the Board shall procure 700 copies of this Agreement printed in a Union Shop, the cost to be borne equally by the Board and the Federation.

If any provisions of this agreement, or any application of this agreement to any employee or group of employees is held to be contrary to law, then such provision or applica-tion shall not be deemed valid and subsisting, except to the extent permitted by law; but all other provisions or appli-cation, shall continue in full force and effect.

Both parties agree that certain clauses contained in Appendix A-I are non-negotiable in view of certain Judicial decisions. However, both parties agree that if the law changes so as to make these clauses negotiable, then any such clauses will be in effect and binding from that point forward.

(a) This agreement shall be effective and in full forceand operation for the period from September 1, 2004 to August 31, 2006.

(b) It is agreed that the Federation or employees shallnot call or engage in a strike or threat thereof and the Board shall not institute a lock-out for any cause whatsoever dur-ing the term of this agreement; nor shall the Federation or any of the employees cause or participate in the cessation of work, slow-down, work stoppage or interference of any kind with normal Board operations.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the parties hereto have caused these presents to be signed by their proper officers the day and year ﬁrst above written.

By: ________________________By: ___________________________ HUGO CABRERA, Secretary ELIZABETH LABODE, President

By: ________________________By: ___________________________ STEVE LUDWIG, Secretary MONICA COYLE, President

APPENDIX "A"

The within provisions apply to teaching staff members as distinguished from the Contract provisions applicable to the Federation as a whole.

(a) In matters of teaching assignments, the department chairperson may consider the preferences of members of the department. The ﬁnal decision of any teaching assignment is the responsibility of the Principal or Central Administrator. The teacher may at a mutually convenient time discuss the assignment with the Principal or Central Administrator.

(b) The Administration of the High School shall assign to all faculty members twenty-ﬁve teaching periods, ﬁve professional periods, ﬁve assigned periods, and ﬁve lunch periods per week. In physical education the combined total of teaching and assigned periods shall be thirty periods per week, and in conformity with past practice, science teachers of courses with lab periods, which may vary from twenty-two to twenty-eight teaching periods, shall be assigned duties to total thirty teaching and assigned duty periods. All teachers of grades one through eight shall have a minimum of ﬁve professional periods per week.
The professional periods will be distributed with no more than two scheduled preps in a single day and not to exceed one two-professional-period day per week. In extreme cases, where scheduling cannot accomplish the above, the Principal and the Federation President will review the schedule and sign an agreement to allow the exception for that individual for that year only.
(c) The Board agrees where feasible and educationallysound, no high school or elementary departmental 7th or 8th grade teacher shall have more than two preparations per term. In the elementary schools, the component parts of Language Arts Literacy and the component parts of Social Studies shall, in each case, be considered as one preparation per grade level.

(d) Principals shall make every effort to provide teach-ers with a forty-minute, duty-free lunch period but in no event shall it be less than thirty minutes.
(e) The Board agrees that no high school or elementaryteacher, or special subject teacher shall have, exclusive of laboratory periods more than three consecutive teaching assignments. In those elementary schools where schedul-ing prevents compliance with this agreement, teaching schedules shall be adjusted at midyear in order to achieve optimum compliance. No high school teacher shall have more than four consecutive working assignments.
(f) The Administration shall give Unit members their tentative schedules for the subsequent year during the last week of June.
(1) All teachers transferred after August 15th will receive a letter of transfer via certiﬁed mail or given in person.
(2) All teachers transferred during the school year will receive a letter of transfer via certiﬁed mail or given in person.
(g) Teachers in the high school who are assigned six teaching periods per day as provided in Paragraph 1 (b) shall not be assigned a homeroom, provided however that nothing herein shall be construed to prevent the assign-ment of assigned duties during homeroom.
(h) High school cafeteria duty shall be assigned on ahalf-year rotating basis.
(i) Beginning September 1995, two teachers will be assigned to In-School Suspension. Each will be assigned 25 In-School Suspension periods as teaching periods, ﬁve professional periods, ﬁve assigned periods, and ﬁve lunch periods per week.

2. TEACHER OBSERVATION AND EVALUATION

(a) All observations and evaluations shall be conducted by the Board in accordance with the requirements of
N.J.S.A. 18A:27-3.1 and N.J.A.C. 6:3-1.19. Summarizingthese statutory and regulatory provisions:
If any provisions of this summary, or any application of this summary to any employee or group of employees is held to be contrary to law, then such provision or applica-tion shall not be deemed valid and subsisting, except to the extent permitted by law; but all other provisions or appli-cation shall continue in full force and effect.

(1) The term "observation" means a visit to aclassroom by a member of the administrative and supervi-sory staff of the Board, who holds an appropriate certiﬁcate for the supervision of instruction, for the purpose of observ-ing a non-tenured teaching staff member's performance of the instructional process. Each of the three observations required by law shall be conducted for a minimum dura-tion of one class period in a secondary school, and in an ele-mentary school, for the duration of one complete subject lesson. The teaching staff member shall receive reasonable notice of not less than 24 hours before any pre-observation conference. The observation will be conducted within ten school days of any pre-observation conference. It is under-stood that the pre-observation will serve as notiﬁcation for the observation.

(2) The term "evaluation" means a written evalu-ation prepared by the administrative/supervisory staff member who visits the classroom for the purpose of observ-ing a teaching staff member's performance of the instruc-tional process.
(3) Each non-tenured teaching staff member isevaluated at least three times during each school year, but not less than once during each semester. The evaluations are to take place before April 30 each year. The evaluations may cover that period between April 30 of one year and April 30 of the succeeding year except in the case of the ﬁrst year of employment where the three evaluations must have been completed prior to April 30. The number of required observations and evaluations may be reduced pro-portionately when an individual teaching staff member's term of service is less than one academic year. Each evalu-ation shall be followed by a conference between that teach-ing staff member and his/her superior or superiors. The purpose of this procedure is to recommend as to re-employ-ment, identify any deficiencies, extend assistance for his/her curriculum and improve professional competence.

(a) All ﬁrst year teachers in the state-man-dated mentoring program will attend a ten-week ER&D in-service course in Foundations of Effective Teaching. They will receive three in-service credits and the Board will pay 25% of the mentoring fee that is not funded by the state. If no portion of the fee is funded by the state then the Board will pay 25% of the total mentoring fee.
(4) The Board's policy for procedures for theobservation and evaluation of a non tenured teaching staff member shall be distributed to each teaching staff member at the beginning of his/her employment.
(5) The Board's policy shall include in addition tothose observations and evaluations described above, a written evaluation of the non-tenured teaching staff mem-ber's total performance as an employee of the Board. Observations outside the classroom shall be made openly and with full knowledge of the Unit member. Said evalua-tion must be rendered in writing within ﬁfteen school days.
(6) Each of the three observations shall be fol-lowed within a reasonable time, but in no instance more than ﬁfteen days, by a conference between the adminis-trative/supervisory staff member who has made the obser-vation and written evaluations, and the non-tenured teaching staff member. Both parties to such a conference will sign the written evaluation report and retain a copy for his/her records. The non-tenured teaching staff member shall have the right to submit his/her written disclaimer of such evaluation within ten days following the conference, and such disclaimer shall be attached to each party's copy of the evaluation report.
(b) Teachers should follow the New Jersey State Core Curriculum Content Standards in ﬁlling out the plan book. The plan book should contain the instructional objectives, homework assignments and achievement objectives (by tests and/or quizzes). Comments by a supervisor concern-ing the contents of a plan book are to be made on a sepa-rate form and not in the plan book.
(c) On or before April 30 in each year the Board shall give to each non-tenured teaching staff member continual-ly employed by it since the preceding September 30 either

(1) a written offer of a contract for employment forthe next succeeding year providing for at least the same terms and conditions of employment but with such increas-es in salary as may be required by law or policies of the Board or
(2) a written notice that such employment will not be offered.
(3) If the Board should fail to give any non-tenured teaching staff member an offer of a contract for the next succeeding year or a notice that such employment will not be offered, in compliance with applicable statute, then the Board shall be deemed to have offered to that teaching staff member continuous employment for the next succeed-ing school year upon the same terms and conditions but with such increases in salary as may be required by law or Board policies.
(4) If the teaching staff member desires to acceptsuch employment he/she shall notify the Board of such acceptance in writing on or before July 1, in which event such employment shall continue. In the absence of such notice of acceptance, the offer, either expressed or implied, shall no longer be applicable.
(5) Any teaching staff member receiving a notice that a teaching contract for the succeeding school year will not be offered, may, within 15 days thereafter, request in writing a statement of the reasons for such non-employ-ment, which shall be given to the teaching staff member in writing within 30 days after the receipt of such request.
(6) Upon receipt of a written statement of reasonsfor non re-employment, a non-tenured teaching staff member may request in writing an informal appearance before the Board. Such request must be submitted to the Board within ten calendar days of receipt of the Board's statement of rea-sons. Such informal appearance shall be scheduled within 30 days of receipt of the Board's statement of reasons. Under these circumstances a non-tenured teaching staff member's appearance before the Board shall not be an adversary pro-ceeding. The purpose of such an appearance shall be to per-mit the staff members to convince the members of the Board to offer re-employment. The Board shall exercise discretion

in determining a reasonable length of time of the proceeding depending upon the speciﬁc circumstances in each instance. The Board shall provide adequate written notice to the employee regarding the date and time of the informal appearance. The staff member may be represented by coun-sel or one individual of his/her choice. The staff member may present witnesses on his/her behalf. Such witnesses need not present testimony under oath and shall be cross examined by the Board. Witnesses shall be called into the meeting to address the Board one at a time and shall be excused from the meeting after making their statements. Within three days following the informal appearance, the Board shall noti-fy the affected teaching staff member, in writing, of its ﬁnal determination.

(7) Prior to requesting the informal appearancebefore the Board, the Unit member may be granted a hear-ing before the Superintendent and the Principal, upon written request to the Superintendent within ﬁve calendar days of receipt of notice of non-renewal; said meeting to be held within ten calendar days of notice of nonrenewal, at which time the possibility of receiving a contract shall be fully explored.

(8) Any appeal of a non-tenured teacher from a decision by the Board not to renew his/her contract shall be made exclusively to the Commissioner of Education and shall not be the subject of a grievance pursuant to the grievance procedure of this contract.
(d) Any written agreements between the Board and an individual Unit member shall be subject to the terms and conditions of the collective bargaining agreement.
(e) No new individual employment contracts shall bepromulgated during the time that there is no collective bar-gaining agreement in effect. However, by mutual agree-ment new teachers may be employed in this interim period.

3. TEACHER FILES

Official teacher ﬁles shall be maintained under the fol-lowing circumstances:
(a) No material derogatory to a teacher's conduct, serv-ice, character, or personality shall be placed in the teacher's ﬁle unless the teacher has had the opportunity to read the material. The teacher shall acknowledge that he/she has received this material by affixing his or her signature on the actual copy to be ﬁled. It is understood that such signature merely signiﬁes that he/she has read the material to be ﬁled but does not signify agreement with its contents. Any inci-dent which has not been reported to the Superintendent and reduced to writing within 20 calendar days of its discovery, if possible, may not be added at a later date.
(b) No teacher shall be given a written reprimand to beplaced in his/her ﬁle without just cause.
(c) A teacher shall have the right to answer in writing any material ﬁled and his or her answer shall be attached to the ﬁle copy.
(d) Upon written request of ﬁve school days notice, aUnit member shall be permitted to examine and copy all ﬁles pertaining to him/her in the presence of an adminis-trative representative. Unit member shall pay a reasonable and customary fee for all copies. The Union shall pay for all copies when needed in defense of a Unit member.
(e) Materials shall be removed from the ﬁles when aUnit member's claim that they are inaccurate or unfair is sustained at any step of the grievance procedure.

4. TEACHING HOURS

(a) The arrival and departure time for all teachersshall be designated in Schedule I.

(1) The total in-school work day of the elementaryteacher shall consist of not more than six hours and thirty-seven minutes except in accordance with Paragraph 4 (b) and Paragraph 14 (f).
(2) The total in-school work day of the high schoolteacher shall consist of not more than six hours and forty-nine minutes except in accordance with Paragraph 4 (b) and Paragraph 14 (f).

(b) Teachers shall, at the beginning of each school year, schedule one 30-minute period per week for pupil help. In the event no pupil requests help, the teacher may leave.
(c) The Administration will attempt to equalize the ele-mentary schools' length of class schedules. In self-con-tained classrooms, the teaching staff personnel shall have the ﬂexibility within the parameters of the curriculum to set the schedule; however, the Administration shall have the right to approve all ﬁnal staff schedules.

5. TEACHER AND STUDENTS

(a) The grade given by any teacher is the record of theteacher's evaluative judgment of the work of a pupil. The teacher shall be the expert in evaluating the work of his or her pupils and the integrity of the teacher in grading the pupil shall be respected.

(b) In the event of a dispute, normal procedures shall befollowed. If, after private discussion, the Board feels it is in the best interest of all to change said grade, it will do so at a public meeting.
(c) Teachers shall be apprised of the criteria for placing students in special groups.
(d) Disruptive child procedure:
(1) The disruptive child or the child who threatensor engages in physical violence to himself/herself his/her fel-low students, or a teacher shall be directed by the teacher to report immediately to the principal or other designated supervisor under such escort as is prescribed by the school. The student shall not be returned to the classroom without a meeting between the principal and the teacher. A written report of such behavior shall be sent to the principal prior to said consultation and within 24 hours of incident (and/or upon ﬁrst day of return of Unit member).
(2) Pupils who so disrupt the classroom work as toimpede effective instruction shall be reported by the teacher to the principal or other designated supervisor. Such report shall contain substantiating data on the behavior of the child.

(3) Upon receiving a written report of violent ordisruptive behavior, the principal or his/her representative shall make an investigation and shall promptly pursue a course of action that will best serve the needs of the school and the child.
(4) If the problem is not solved in this manner, the child shall be referred to other facilities within the school system. If no such facilities exist, the principal shall refer the case to the Superintendent of Schools.
(5) The Superintendent shall set up a meeting between the teachers involved and the Child Study Team for review and disposition of the case. If the Superintendent ﬁnds that the continued presence of that child in a regular classroom so interferes with instruction as to be detrimen-tal to all the children, including that particular child, he/she shall direct that the child not be returned to a regular class.
(6) Nothing contained herein shall be construed torequire the Board to remove a student without affording the student due process rights or to engage in classiﬁcation proceedings in violation of State or Federal regulations. Any conﬂict between this Agreement and State or Federal regulations shall be resolved in favor of such regulations.

6. TEACHER FACILITIES AND SUPPLIES

(a) All requisitions for instructional supplies shall be submitted to the Board or its designee no later than December 15. When requisitions are reduced, the person who originally requested the supplies shall be consulted as to what items are to be eliminated from the requisition. Classroom instructional supplies shall be ordered in time to be available on or before the ﬁrst day of school. Except in unforeseen cases, all orders for instructional supplies shall be placed no later than July 1 or as soon thereafter as bid-ding procedures allow.

(b) It shall be a matter of Board policy to maintaininstructional equipment in reasonable working order.
(c) Kindergarten teachers shall, through a request tothe building principal, be provided access to the use of a piano in the building, if so desired.

7. COMMITTEES FOR EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT

(a) The Board of Education recognizes the need forcontinued curriculum improvement.

(b) An educational Advisory Committee to the Superintendent consisting of ﬁve members shall be appoint-ed by the Federation. The Advisory Committee will create
(1) a Curriculum Committee and (2) a Committee onDisruptive Behavior that will make recommendations to the Superintendent, District Coordinators or designee con-cerning educational and disciplinary matters.

(c) As per the New Jersey Administrative Code,
N.J.A.C. 6A:9-15.3(d), a professional development commit-tee shall be established comprised of four teachers elected by the District Board of Education instructional and educa-tion instruction staff through their majority representative and two administrative staff appointed by the chief school administrator. The initial terms of charter members shall be staggered to assure continuity with half of the members serving two years and the other half serving three years. Subsequent terms for all members shall be two years. Members can be appointed and or elected up to three times.

(d) All other committees in the school system except as expressly provided by in the Agreement or as provided by past practice shall consist of an even number of members, with equal number selected by the Board and the Federation. In the event of a deadlock the Superintendent will cast the tie-breaking vote.

(e) The Board and Federation recognize that the State,through statutory mechanisms, obligates the district to form committees. These mandates supersede any language in this contract.
(f) Teachers shall continue the practice of making rec-ommendations for textbook adoption. The Principal in charge will, after approval, pass such recommendations on to the Board or its designee. Final approval rests with the Board.

8. TRANSFERS OF UNIT MEMBERS

(a) Vacancies existing as of April 15 shall be posted and made available for Unit members.

(b) Unit members seeking transfers to the postedvacancies or to any other position shall make that fact known, in writing, to the Superintendent within ten school days of the posting.
(c) Teachers on transfer lists may indicate up to three choices of schools in order of preference.
(d) Voluntary transfers shall be made in accordance with the availability of vacancies and instructional requirements and the best interest of the school system.
(e) The Board of Education reserves the right to trans-fer any teacher in the best interests of the individual or the system. The Board, except in extenuating circumstances, shall give ﬁve school days’ notice in writing of the involun-tary transfer. Such notice shall be given to the affected teacher by June 30 or as soon thereafter as is possible. All teachers transferred after August 15th will receive a letter of transfer via certiﬁed mail or given in person. All teach-ers transferred during the school year will receive a letter of transfer via certiﬁed mail or given in person. The trans-ferred teacher shall, upon request, be given the reasons for transfer by the principal or Superintendent. In the interest of educational soundness, if the teacher requests and/or administration deems advisable, the district/department supervisors shall provide in-service support/training for all teachers involved in transfers, especially when the trans-fers are between different schools, departments, and grade levels. Any teacher whether or not transferred in any year may apply for transfer for the following year.

9. PROMOTIONS

(a) Promotions may be made from within the system ifstaff members are certiﬁed and qualiﬁed. Notiﬁcation of all promotional vacancies will be given to all teachers; and applicants will be given ten school days to ﬁle for the vacancy. Between July 1 and August 20, applicants will be given 20 work days to ﬁle for said vacancies, provided, how-ever that nothing herein contained shall prohibit the Board of Education from ﬁlling a promotional vacancy by a per-manent lateral transfer or pursuant to the transfer article of this contract.

(b) The Superintendent may invite the President of theFederation or his/her designee to confer as to criteria or qualiﬁcations for promotion.

(c) The Superintendent will interview those candi-dates who are certiﬁed and qualiﬁed and will make his rec-ommendations to the Board of Education for appointment.
(d) In all promotions, the power of appointment restssolely with the Board of Education.
(e) The Board shall notify all applicants of its decisionin writing within one week.

10. SUBSTITUTES AND COVERAGE OF CLASSES

(a) A central telephone answering service which allows teachers to report their absences before 7:00 A.M. will be maintained. A daily district wide unit member absentees list shall be provided to the Federation President.

(b) A pool of substitute teachers will be provided for the coverage of absent teachers. A daily substitute assignment list shall be provided to the Federation President.
(c) Teachers who are assigned to cover classes during the Preparation period shall receive one ﬁfth of the per diem substitute pay rounded off to the nearest dollar amount for each class covered. Such payments shall be made to the teachers twice per year, in February and in June.
(d) The quality assurance team of each school will establish and review a rotation list for the use of special area teachers as substitutes when emergency circumstances require. The goal is to avoid full-day use of special area teachers as substitutes and to ensure an equitable rotation. Special subject teachers will be remunerated for coverage on the same basis as other elementary school teachers.

(1) High School - Students will be distributedamong the classes in that subject area and any excess stu-dents shall be placed in appropriate study halls.
(2) Elementary Classroom Teachers - Students in classes shall be divided as equally as possible among other teachers and such teachers shall receive an equal propor-tion of substitute's pay provided that said number of stu-dents exceeds four.
(3) Special Education Classes - Students shall be distributed to other special education classes up to the legal class size limit, without remuneration to any teachers.
(4) Special Area Teachers - In the event an ele-mentary school teacher loses his/her professional period or periods as a result of the absence or unavailability of a spe-cial area teacher due to administrative action, he/she shall be paid one-ﬁfth of the substitute pay to the nearest dollar amount per period lost.
(5) If a Unit member certiﬁed in the subject areais asked by the administration to take the class of an absent teacher for instructional purposes for a period in excess of 20 consecutive school days and the teacher agrees, the teacher shall be compensated on a prorated basis of the ﬁrst step of the Salary Guide.

11. SUMMER SCHOOL

(a) The Board at its discretion after consulting with the revelant principals, department chairpersons, and the sum-mer school director shall appoint and assign summer school teachers; provided however that in making such appoint-ments and assignments, the following shall be considered:

(1) Experience in subject and grade to be taught; and
(2) Length of service in the North Bergen School System.
(b) A priority list for teachers applying for summer school employment shall be established and released by the April Board meeting date.

(c) Summer School shall be 120 hours of instruction.

12. GUIDANCE

(a) Aprogram of articulation and communication between the guidance department and the other staff depart-ments shall be mutually developed and maintained through-out the school year.

Central attendance registers shall be maintained in all schools. All teachers will cooperate in the initial organiza-tion of the central registers and will assist in the daily pupil count by submitting a daily attendance sheet to the main office in each school. Where possible, elementary school attendance and report cards shall be computerized.

(a) Teachers of speech and reading improvement shall meet with their respective groups in September and June. Such meetings shall be held on school time and arranged through the Superintendent's office and when needed for purposes of curriculum or policy discussion and review.

(b) Parent-teacher conferences shall be scheduled at the discretion of the teacher; however, conferences may be sched-uled during the school day only with the mutual agreement of the teacher and principal. In the latter event, class coverage becomes the responsibility of the administration.
(c) Any Unit member called to a disciplinary meeting by an administrator shall have the right to have a Federation representative present, if the position of the Unit member is adversely affected. Nothing herein con-tained shall preclude the administrator from having a pri-vate professional conference with the teacher.
(d) At least twice a year, once in the fall and once in the spring, the school day will be shortened, with the Superintendent's approval, for the purpose of a 1:00 P.M. staff meeting.
(e) The Board of Education may schedule two separateparents' nights each year. On each occasion there shall be a one session day. Whenever a parents' night is split and held over a two day period, a single one-session day will be so designated.
(f) Up to two faculty meetings per month may be calledby the Superintendent or building principal with the approval of the Superintendent or his designee. The con-tent of half of the aforementioned faculty meetings will ful-ﬁll eight hours annually of the 100 hours of professional development required for all professional staff. These meetings will be held at the end of the last teaching assign-ment on the second and/or fourth Mondays of the month and will be of up to thirty minutes in length. The Superintendent may, by giving two school days prior notice, extend one meeting per month up to sixty minutes for educational purposes. The content of these Monday meetings must pertain directly to educational issues. The Superintendent may designate individual teachers to attend other educational meetings within the system in lieu of these faculty meetings. Individuals and/or individual departments will conduct these designated meetings in lieu of the general meeting, if deemed necessary for educational purposes. Any additional meetings will be held during school hours.
15. PERSONALDAYS
(a) Each Unit member shall be allowed four absences per year for personal reasons. Whenever possible, three days prior notice is required in writing. In any event notiﬁcation by noon of the prior school day is required for the exercise of two of these personal days. The Superintendent or designee may in his/her sole discretion grant more than one emer-gency personal day per school year. Notiﬁcation of personal days must be made to the designated school administrator and to the central switchboard.
(b) Personal days may not be taken on the day preced-ing or following a school holiday except in cases of religious holy days. However, under extenuating circumstances, exceptions may be made by request to the Superintendent in writing.
(c) No deduction of salary will be made for personalday absences. Unused personal days shall be added to the Unit member's accumulative sick leave. In the event there is new law (judicial or legislative) ruling this provision to be illegal, then the sick leave as set forth in paragraph #16 shall be increased from ten to thirteen days and the per-sonal days set forth in this paragraph #15 shall be reduced to one.
(d) In the event that a person retires prior to June 30th, sick and personal days for the ﬁnal year commencing September 1st shall be prorated as follows: One sick day per month and .4 personal days per month for each month worked, beginning with the second year of the contract (2005-2006).

16. ABSENCE, SICK LEAVE, FUNERAL LEAVE

(a) Subject to the provisions of Paragraph 15 (c) above,all full time employees shall be entitled to ten sick leave days during each school year. A day shall be deﬁned as 1/184 of the annual contracted salary. Employees hired after the commencement of the work year shall receive sick leave days on a prorated basis. Sick leave is deﬁned to mean absence from post or duty due to illness or injury, or as a result of medically documented contagious disease in the employee's immediate household. Five days of an employee’s alloted sick days may be used by the employee to care for members in the immediate family (as deﬁned on page 31, Article 16 1(l)). Unused sick leave days shall be accumulated from year to year with no maximum limit.

(b) If an employee reports to work and becomes sick onthe job, the maximum amount of time charged to his/her sick leave shall not exceed 1/2 of a working day, provided that the employee is at work for at least ninety minutes from the official sign-in time as stated in Schedule I.
(c) In the event of an extended illness beyond the Unitmember's accumulated sick days, the employee may be granted extended sick leave at the discretion of the Board. A Unit member's request for extended sick leave shall not be arbitrarily, capriciously, or unreasonably denied, and shall be considered after:
(1) submission of a written request for extended sick leave to the Board Secretary.
(2) submission of medical veriﬁcation of illness.
(d) Sick leave may be used at the option of the employ-ee for absences resulting from pregnancy, childbirth, and/or convalescences related to the childbirth. The beginning and end of such absences, if any, shall be determined as in the case of any other sick leave. The length of the absence must be substantiated by medical evidence.
(e) Extended sick leave schedule after expiration of allaccumulated days upon Board approval shall be as follows:
(1) Next 20 days-loss of one-half substitute's pay.
(2) Next 20 days-loss of one day substitute's pay.
(3) Next 50 days-loss of one half of a teachers regular daily pay (1/200 of annual salary).
(4) Any further payment of salary is discretionary with the Board.
(f) Any employee absent on sick leave for eight or more consecutive work days may be required by the Board to submit a physician's written statement substantiating his/her illness or disability whenever such request appears reasonable.
(g) Unit members who are absent due to illness from contagious diseases (e.g. measles, mumps, mononucleosis, infectious hepatitis, meningitis, and chicken pox) contract-ed while serving in the schools will suffer, upon presenta-tion of a doctor's certiﬁcate, no loss of pay or sick days.
(h) The Board shall notify each Unit member of his/heraccumulated sick leave on or before September 1 of each year.
(i) An employee must notify the Board of sick leave at the earliest practical time but in any event, 15 minutes before sign-in time unless there is an emergency or exten-uating circumstances.
(j) An employee who is absent for two consecutive days or more and does not notify the Board shall forfeit one-half day's pay for each of those days.
(k) Late sign in and early sign out procedure.
(1) Personal Reasons. If the total amount of timethat a Unit member arrives late or leaves early exceeds three hours and ﬁfteen minutes in a school year, he/she is penalized one-half sick or personal day. Each additional hour in the same school year shall be penalized one-half sick or personal day. When signing out early the Unit mem-ber must inform a building administrator and sign the proper form, a copy of which will be given to theUnit mem-ber. However, the Unit member may not invoke this clause on the ﬁnal day before Christmas vacation, February recess, and Easter vacation, the Thanksgiving Holiday and all other days preceding school holidays.
(2) Emergency or extenuating circumstances. TheUnit member may request permission to be excused early. The request is to be made to the Principal, or his/her designee if he/she is unavailable. If the Principal approves the request, the time will not count against the Unit mem-ber. If the Principal does not approve the request, the Unit member may appeal the decision to the Superintendent or may use Section 1 above.
(3) School-related business. The Unit member canonly be excused for school-related business by the Superintendent or his/her designee. Such excuse must be presented in writing to the Unit member prior to assign-ment. The time will not count against the Unit member.
(l) Funeral Leave. No deduction shall be made in aUnit member's salary for the following absences:

(1) Each employee shall be entitled to bereave-ment leave of ﬁve school days from the date of the funeral or date of death in the employee's immediate family.
Immediate family is deﬁned as parent, spouse, broth-er, sister, child, grandchild, grandparents, mother-in-law, father-in-law, daughter-in-law, son-in-law, brother in-law, sister-in-law, or any relative or person who makes his/her permanent home with the Unit member.
(2) Funeral of a relative other than deﬁned aboveprovided the absence does not exceed one day.
(3) Funeral of a close friend provided the absencedoes not exceed one day with a limit of two days per year.
(m) Jury Duty. An employee who is called to and serves on Jury Duty shall suffer no loss of pay
(1) if the employee has not voluntarily sought juryservice while school is in session.
(2) upon presentation of summons by Clerk of theCourt. Employee will return to duty the day after release by the court.
(n) A Unit member shall suffer no loss of pay when subpoenaed or summoned to appear in court, provided the Unit member’s negligence or monetary gain is not the rea-son for the court case.

17. LEAVES OF ABSENCE WITH PAY

(a) Attendance at educational conventions or confer-ences when approved by the Superintendent.

(b) Visits to other schools when such visits are approved by the Superintendent.
(c) If summer college courses commence prior to theend of the school year, Unit members enrolled in said courses shall be given a leave of absence not to exceed ﬁve

school days with full pay for that period. Any request in excess of ﬁve days shall require the approval of the Superintendent. This beneﬁt is available to a maximum of ﬁve Unit members per year. In the event more than ﬁve Unit members apply, the ﬁve Unit members with the most seniority shall receive a preference. In order to invoke this provision, a Unit member shall be required to give two weeks advance notice to the Superintendent. Unit mem-bers shall meet responsibilities for usual closing assign-ments.

(d) Unit members eligible to attend the New JerseyState Federation of Teachers and American Federation of Teachers Conventions, please note: North Bergen Federation of Teachers shall be allowed to send two repre-sentatives to sponsored activities of parent and affiliated organizations without loss of pay or personal days. The total number of days allotted to the bargaining agent is not to exceed twelve per school year. No individual may use more than one half of the bargaining agent allotment.

(e) Unusual extenuating circumstances other thanthat provided for herein shall be discretionary with the Superintendent.

18. LEAVES OF ABSENCE WITHOUT PAY

A printed notice concerning the parties' agreement to observe all Federal and State family leave entitlements available to Unit members shall be posted in a conspicuous place in each school and work area.

(a) Leaves of absence without pay shall be granted toteachers for the following purposes:

(1) Child-Rearing Leave - Child-rearing leave shall be granted for a period of up to one year and shall include Unit members adopting a child or children. Child-rearing leave shall commence and end at the beginning of a marking period. All requests for child-rearing leave shall be made at least six weeks prior to the commencement date for which the leave is requested. In the event of an adoption or other emer-gency in which the teacher does not have sufficient notice to meet the six week requirement, the teacher shall provide

such notice as is possible under the circumstances. If the need for a child-rearing leave is negated, prior to commence-ment, the teacher will notify the Board as soon as possible and the leave shall be cancelled. If the child-rearing leave has begun and the need for same is negated, the Board shall be notiﬁed as soon as possible and the teacher will return to work at the beginning of the next marking period following the expiration of 60 days. Unit member may request and will be granted a second year. However, this second year's leave will be assured only once during a Unit member's employ-ment. Any additional leave request may be granted at the discretion of the Board. Requests for a second year must be made prior to May 1. Requests for extensions beyond a sec-ond year must be made prior to May 1. This second year’s leave will be assured twice within the tenure of the employ-ee. However, there must be a minimum of two years of active employment between the ﬁrst and the second two-year leave. Child-rearing leave terminates on the following September 1 or on the September 1 of the following year.

(2) Armed Forces - Those Unit members entering the Armed Forces will be granted, upon request, a leave of absence.

(b) Leaves of absence without pay shall be granted totenured teachers for the following purposes:
(1) Study - A one-year leave for full time study relat-ed to the teacher's ﬁeld of certiﬁcation shall be granted upon request. The teacher shall verify said study and must return to the North Bergen System for a minimum of one year after the termination of such leave.
(2) Residency requirement - When a teacher pur-sues studies for a certiﬁcate, other than that held by the teacher and when such study requires a residency, the teacher will be granted, upon request, a one-year leave of absence. The duration of residence must be veriﬁed if it exceeds one year.
(3) Other Teaching Positions - Acceptance of a teaching position for a United States Government agency in another country, Vista, or Peace Corps entitles the teacher to primary consideration for re-employment in the North Bergen School System upon termination of service with any Government program.

(4) Employment - Leave of absence for one year, renewable for a second year, for any Unit member employed by the North Bergen Federation of Teachers, The New Jersey State Federation of Teachers or the American Federation of Teachers. The Board shall pay all health ben-eﬁts to which the Unit member would have been entitled if he or she were in the school system, provided that the employee is not covered by the employing organization.
(5) Other extenuating purposes as approved bythe Board.
(c) All Unit members on leave of absence without pay, with the exception of those entering the Armed Forces, will return to the system on the next step of the appropriate salary guide above the one on which he/she was granted his/her leave with no loss of seniority.

19. SABBATICAL LEAVE

(a) A leave of absence at full pay for one year for the purpose of study in a full-time matriculated or certiﬁed pro-gram shall be given to two members of the bargaining unit annually, after ten consecutive years of service in the North Bergen Public Schools. If the member should discontinue his or her studies with justiﬁcation he or she shall be assigned as a permanent substitute for the remainder of the school year. At the completion of a sabbatical leave a tran-script of record for the school year of attendance shall be submitted to the Superintendent's Office as veriﬁcation of said attendance. Upon written request from the Federation, the Superintendent's office shall provide a statement veri-fying that the persons granted the sabbatical leaves have complied with the terms and conditions of the leaves as set forth in this agreement. All beneﬁts, pension, salary, sick leave and personal days, and seniority rights are retained while on such leave.

(b) A leave of absence at one-half pay for one year will be granted to two members of the bargaining unit annually after fourteen consecutive years of service in the North Bergen Public Schools, provided each member shall not have received a leave under paragraph (a) of this section. All beneﬁts, pension, salary, sick leave days, and seniority rights are retained while on such leave. Personal days are not included.

(c) Additional leaves may be granted at the discretion of the Board.
(d) All applications must be submitted to the Board of Education for approval prior to November 15 of the year preceding the leave, and the Board will grant the sabbati-cals prior to February 1.
(e) All other things being equal, the applicant or appli-cants having the greatest number of consecutive service in the North Bergen Public School System shall be given preference.
(f) Teachers shall agree to return to employment for a period of not less than two years after the sabbatical. The teachers on leave are entitled to return to the same position in the same school.
(g) Consecutive shall be deﬁned as continuous daily teaching service (excludes occasional illness absences and childrearing leave.)

20. TERMINALLEAVE COMPENSATION

(a) Terminal leave compensation shall be paid to Unit members upon death or resignation after 15 years of serv-ice in the North Bergen School System. Such payments, up to the sum of $8,000, shall be made no later than August 15 of said year. If terminal leave compensation exceeds $8,000, the Unit member shall submit in writing the option of choosing from the following payment schedules.

(1) The total remaining sum shall be paid by July15 of the year following the Unit member's leaving, or
(2) The total remaining sum shall be made in equalannual payments over a period of time between 2-4 years fol-lowing the Unit member's leaving, to be determined by the Unit member. Such payments will be made by July 15 of each year.
(b) Terminal leave compensation shall be computed as fol-lows: one-half day’s pay for each accumulated sick day. Day’s pay is deﬁned as 1/300 of teacher’s ﬁnal contractual salary.
(c) If a member should die during the duration of this con-tract, and was eligible to receive terminal leave compensation

under Paragraphs (a) and (b) of this item, the estate shall receive the terminal leave compensation computed pursuant to this paragraph.

(a) All official bulletins, memos, etc. shall be posted on the school bulletin board.

(b) Speciﬁc information as to the rotation of assign-ments, seniority, etc. shall be made available upon request of any teacher.
(c) A copy of current teaching and non-teaching assign-ments shall be made available to the building or department representative of the Federation upon request.
(d) Lists of vacancies and any lists that may be needed by the Federation showing seniority of teachers for purposes of implementation of this contract should be made available to the Federation annually on the ﬁrst pay date in April.
(e) A list of all available teaching, administrative and extracurricular positions shall be posted in all schools at the time such positions become available. The postings shall contain a speciﬁc job description, qualiﬁcations needed. When a candidate is chosen, the Federation president will be informed of the speciﬁcs including remuneration. The Board shall mail notiﬁcation to teachers, who supply stamped, self-addressed envelopes to the Superintendent's office, for positions available as of July 31. A teacher must contact the Superintendent's office to be informed of any position which becomes open during August.
(f) Available class enrollment shall be furnished annu-ally to the Federation.
(g) The Federation and other teacher organizations may use the bulletin boards and the mailboxes in the North Bergen School district, provided that the literature of other organizations does not undermine the status of the North Bergen Federation of Teachers as the bargaining represen-tative of the teachers. The North Bergen Board of Education shall not be responsible for policing the use of the mailboxes and bulletin boards within its school district, and will instruct their administrative employees accordingly.

(h) Upon request, the Board shall acknowledge in writ-ing, the receipt of any correspondence from Unit members by executing a signature line on the cover page of any docu-ment submitted by the applicant.

(a) Teachers shall not be subject to ﬁnancial responsibil-ity for loss within the school of school property or children's property. However, teachers shall exercise due diligence with respect to the care and security of such property.

(b) Employee shall be reimbursed for lost, damaged,destroyed, stolen, or vandalized personal property when such action results from any action or direction of the Board or Administration. Except that use of parking facili-ties provided by the Board shall not be construed as being used at the direction of the Board. The maximum limit for reimbursement is $300 Claims which are reported to the employee’s personal insurance carrier shall be limited to the insurance deductible or $300 whichever amount is less. The Board of Education may, upon application and in its discretion, approve a reimbursement in excess of the nor-mal reimbursement.

23. LEGALASSISTANCE TO UNIT MEMBERS

(a) Any Unit member who is charged with an offense arising out of the performance of his or her duties, who is entitled to a legal defense paid for by the Board under law shall have the right to legal counsel of his or her own choice. The Board shall reimburse the legal counsel in an amount not to exceed $125 per hour for such legal counsel.

(b) Assistance in assault cases shall be in accordance with law.
(c) The Superintendent shall inform the teacher imme-diately, in writing, of his or her rights under the law.
(d) The Superintendent shall make arrangements forthe teacher to be accompanied by an administrator or board attorney to any resulting hearings from the case.

24. SALARY PAYMENT AND FRINGE BENEFITS

All salaries shall, at the option of the employees, be paid on either a 20 semi-monthly basis or on the summer payment plan. Such requests must be made prior to August 15, except for newly hired Unit members. Withdrawal from such may not be made after August 15. Staff members absent more than 92 working unpaid days during a school year shall be placed on the same step of the guide the fol-lowing school year.

(a) Teachers shall receive checks on the 15th and last school day of each month. In cases where a school holiday falls on the 15th, or the last day of the month, the teachers shall receive checks on the last school day before said holi-day. Unit members exhausting their total accumulated days shall be removed from Direct Deposit.

(b) The Board shall pay Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Rider J, Major Medical premiums, N.J. Worker's Compensation, Dental Plan and Prescription Plan for all members of the Unit on the individual or on the family plan at the option of the Unit member. Prescription co-payment amout is to be $5/2 for a one-month thirty-day supply. Mail order is $5/1 for a ninety-day supply.
At the option of the employee, continuance of the above beneﬁts shall be at the employee's expense during the term of an unpaid leave of absence.
(c) The voluntary program of tax-sheltered annuitiesshall be continued by the Board.
(d) Should there be any change in beneﬁts or carrierthe coverage provided shall be not less than that currently existing. Any such change shall be negotiated with the Federation. The Superintendent shall make arrangements for the teacher to be accompanied by an administrator or Board Attorney to any resulting hearings from the case.
(e) Placement of teachers on step: Each teacheremployed shall be on a full step of the salary guide. Any teacher employed prior to February l of any school year shall be given full credit for one (1) year of service toward

the next increment step for the following year. Any teacher employed after February l of any school year shall not receive the credit for the year of service toward the next increment step for the following year. Those Unit members presently on a half step shall as of September l, 1973, and henceforth, be placed on the next full step.

(f) The Board will provide in-service courses for allhigh school and elementary teachers. Each course will carry three graduate credits (15 hours) which will be added to the individual teacher’s accumulated credits up to a maximum of twelve credits; however, this maximum does not apply to credits accrued prior to September, 1983. No credit will be given for duplicate courses. Courses having the same title must be supported by evidence from the institution denoting that the course is different, i.e., course syllabus, department supervisor or chairperson.

(g) The Board will provide two in-service courses peryear in Math, Science, and Language Arts for teachers who require courses to become “highly qualiﬁed� in the subjects they are teaching according to the No Child Left Behind act mandates. These courses will be available only in the 2004-2005 and 2005-2006 school years. Each course will also carry three in-service credits per course. These courses are not available to ﬁrst-year teachers in state-mandated mentoring program.

SCHEDULE A: SALARY GUIDE

STEP 2004-2005

1 38200
2 38700
3 39700
4 40700
5 41700
6 42700
7 43700
8 44700
9 45700
10 47200
11 48700
12 50400
13 51700
14 54200
15 55200
16 56200
17 57200
18 59200
19 61200
20 63200

2005-2006

For elementary school teachers of grades K-8, “in Field” shall refer to the following:

24. National Honor Society 2 1800 1860

25. School Detention 1 4335 4395

26. Jazz Band 1 1325 1385

41. Future Homemakers of America H.S. 1 1210 1270

42. Art Club 1 1035 1095

43. Literary Club 1 1035 1095

44. French Club 1 1035 1095

45. German Club 1 1035 1095

46. Italian Club 1 1035 1095

47. Russian Club 1 1035 1095

48. Spanish Club 1 1035 1095

49. DECA 1 1035 1095

50. Job Place Coordinator 1 2365 2425

51. Scholarship Show 1 1440 1500

52. Key Club 1 1555 1615

Clubs must have an approved Constitution with a minimum of one (1) meeting per month.
Years of Coaching Sport Experience 2004-05 2005-06

SCHEDULE C: ATHLETIC COACHES SALARIES Football
Head	0	6730	6935
	1-2	7085	7300
	3	7680	7910
	4+	7795	8030
Assistant	0	4605	4745
	1-2	4960	5110
	3	5080	5235
	4+	5315	5475
Freshman	0	4250	4380
	1-2	4605	4745
	3	4725	4870
	4+	4960	5110
Basketball
Head	0	5150	5475
	1-2	5550	5720
	3	6024	6210
	4+	6615	6820
Assistant	0	4075	4200
	1-2	4200	4330
	3	4605	4745
	4+	5020	5175
Junior Varsity	0 1-2	3545 3780	3655 3895
	3	4135	4260
	4+	4605	4745
Track - Spring
Head	0	3780	3895
	1-2	4135	4260
	3	4370	4500
	4+	4605	4745
Assistant	0	2955	3045
	1-2	3070	3165
	3	3190	3255
	4+	3424	3530

Years of Coaching Sport Experience 2004-05 2005-06

Assistant
0 1-2 3 4+ 0 1-2 3 4+ 2960 3070 3190 3424 2360 2480 2600 2960 3050 3165 3290 3530 2435 2555 2680 3050
Track - Cross Country

(l) Disciplinarians shall not have any classroom dutiesassigned. Compensation for said position shall be the appli-cable step on the salary guide plus 10% of the fourth step on such salary guide. However, anyone presently holding such position shall not suffer any monetary loss because of this paragraph.

(2) Schedule Coordinator shall be a 12-month position.Compensation for said position shall be the applicable step of the salary guide plus 10% of the fourth step on such salary guide. However, anyone presently holding such posi-tion shall not suffer any monetary loss because of this paragraph.
(3) Coordinators2004-05 $5300 2005-06 $5500

(4) Independent Work/Study
2004-05 $2300 2005-06 $2400

(5) Cooperative Work Program
2004-05 $2300 2005-06 $2400

(6) Transportation Cooperative Work Program 2004-05 $1100 2005-06 $1175

Employees are to maintain a log of accumulated mileage.

Regular and Special Education instructors shall be paid at the following hourly rates

(b) The Board of Education recognizes the need forsome counselors to work during the summer. These coun-selors will be selected to work from a voluntary list provid-ed to the Superintendent and shall be required to work from the last day of school until June 30 and an addi-tional thirteen days between July 1 and the opening of school, including orientation day. Counselors are to be selected on a rotation system so as to ensure a fair and equitable distribution. The rotation shall be among those people who have high school/elementary experience as the administration deems the need. Guidance Counselors selected shall receive 5% of their total salary on the salary guide. Said employees are to be paid on a twelve month basis. A deduction for days not worked shall be computed using the following formula:
Days not worked/total eligible work days x (5%) (base salary) = amount deducted.
(2) Special education teachers and speech therapyteachers shall receive $500 above the teachers’ schedule.
(3) Learning Disability Consultants and SocialWorkers. A deduction for days not worked shall be comput-ing using the following formula:
Days not worked/total eligible work days x (5%) (base salary) = amount deducted.
(4) Learning Disability Consultants, SocialWorkers, and Cooperative Work Program Teachers shall receive the travel expense negotiated in SCHEDULE D (6) Transportation cooperative Work Program.

All employees holding these positions shall be required to work eleven months. (The days and hours based on the current practice existing for the School Psychologists) Compensation shall be an additional ﬁve percent (5%) of their total salary on the salary guide.
SCHEDULE H

Unit members will report to school and be paid full contractual salaries for the number of days school is open as required by State Law, with the following exceptions:

(2) Summary day, when necessary.

If an extension of the approved school calendar becomes necessary the Board will review the extension with the bargaining agent.

Absence in accordance with the sick leave and personal leave policy will be applied toward the approved school year.

(j) A high school teacher's daily class load shall not exceed 140 students. This limit shall not apply to Physical Education classes.

(k) Study hall sizes shall not exceed the followingratios:

(l) Forty students per teacher in classroom study halls.
(2) Sixty students per teacher in auditorium study halls.
(3) Forty-ﬁve students per teacher in cafeteria study halls.

(l) Where physical facilities and scheduling permit, themaximum daily load in self-contained classroom grades l through 6 shall be twenty ﬁve pupils per teacher.
(m) Laboratory Science, Home Economics, Art and other courses in which there are a ﬁxed number of stations, the number of available stations shall not be less than the num-ber of students in class.
(n) The daily class load for each teacher in the PhysicalEducation Department shall not exceed 162 students. The current practice with regard to health classes shall be con-tinued.

2. TEACHER OBSERVATION AND EVALUATION

A teacher's classroom performance shall be evaluated in each area he/she has been assigned.

(d) Non-Professional assistance will continue to be pro-vided to teaching staff members in accordance with prior practices.

(f) Unit members with at least three years of service inthe school or grade level from which the transfer is sought shall be placed on the transfer list in order of seniority. For this purpose seniority shall be determined by the number of years of service in the North Bergen School System. In the case of a newly created position, school seniority shall be determined by length of service in the North Bergen Public Schools.
(g) Vacancies shall be ﬁlled from such preference sheets before any appointments are made from existing eli-gible lists.
(h) In the case of teachers with equal seniority in theschool system, placement on the transfer list shall be determined by the date of the application.
(i) Preference shall be given, if applicants are equallyqualiﬁed, to seniority as a regularly appointed teacher in the North Bergen School System. Transfers shall not exceed 15% of the Unit membership.
(j) Such teacher shall be placed on the list in order of seniority.

5. PROMOTIONS

(g) If fewer then three members of the staff are certi-ﬁed and qualiﬁed, the Superintendent may recommend to the Board of Education the appointment of a certiﬁed and qualiﬁed person from outside the system.
(h) The above criteria does not apply to the position ofSuperintendent of Schools and Assistant Superintendents.

6. SUMMER SCHOOL

(e) Unit members shall be given priority in summerschool employment as of September 1973.

(d) In the elementary school, a pupil/counselor ratioshall be maintained which meets the needs of the school.

(e) In the high school, a pupil/counselor ratio of 250 to 1 shall be maintained. The Vocational Placement Counselor is to be included in the ratio.

8. SPECIALSUBJECTS AND PROGRAMS

(a) The Board agrees to maintain its present policy ofprograms in physical education, vocal and instrumental music, art and world languages.

The within provisions apply to support staff members as distinguished from the Contract provisions applicable to the Federation as a whole.

(a) No material derogatory to an employee's conduct, service, character, or personality shall be placed in the employee's ﬁle unless the employee has had the opportunity to read the material. The employee shall acknowledge that he/she has read this material by affixing his/her signature on the actual copy to be ﬁled. It is understood that such sig-nature merely signiﬁes that he/she has read the material to be ﬁled but does not signify agreement with its contents. Any incident which has not been reported to the Superintendent and reduced to writing within 20 school days, if possible, may not be added at a later date.

(b) An employee shall have the right to answer in writ-ing any material ﬁled and his answer shall be attached to the ﬁle copy.
(c) Upon written request of ﬁve school days’notice, a Unit member shall be permitted to examine and copy all ﬁles pertaining to him in the presence of an administrative representative.

(d) Materials shall be removed from the ﬁles when aUnit member's claim that they are inaccurate or unfair is sustained at any step of the grievance procedure.

(a) The normal work week shall be from Monday toFriday, both inclusive, and shall be comprised of ﬁve days of seven hours each including the lunch period according to present practice. Part-time employees shall work nineteen and one-half hours or less per week.

(b) Any work required to be performed beyond seven hours including the lunch period in any one day or on Saturday shall be considered overtime and compensated for at one and one-half times the regular hourly rate of pay. This includes time required after school when a clerk/sec-retary must remain, waiting for a parent/guardian to pick up a child. Work performed outside an employee's regular assignment (second job within the school system) shall not be considered as overtime. An overtime rotation list based upon seniority shall be established for each of the employ-ment categories. Overtime shall be offered to Unit mem-bers on a rotating basis according to said list provided the employee is able to do the work.

1. 1. In the event the Board of Education ﬁnds itnecessary to employ anyone during the summer closing outside of employee's regular assignment (2nd job within the school system), the employees in the bargaining unit shall be given ﬁrst preference to such assignment on a sen-iority basis and at the prevailing rate for such job.
2. 2. Summer work schedule begins July 1 and endsAugust 31. Starting with the second week of July, there will be six weeks during which the offices of all secretaries and clerks will be closed on Fridays. During those weeks, there will be four days of work, hours 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. with a half-hour lunch period. In the remaining ﬁve-day work weeks (including the week of 4th of July), the secre-tarial hours will be 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with a half-hour lunch period. Vacations taken during the weeks in which the four-day week is in effect, will constitute four vacation days per week.

3. During three consecutive weeks (two in Julyand one in August), the offices of the school secretaries and clerks will be closed. Each week will constitute four days of vacation time. Of the remaining eight days of vacation, a maximum of ﬁve may be taken during the course of the school year.

. (c) Any work required to be performed on Sunday shall be considered overtime and compensated for at two times the regular hourly rate of pay.
. (d) It is understood that Holiday pay shall be consid-ered as time worked for the purpose of computing overtime pay.
. (e) Employees requested by the Superintendent ofSchools or Board Secretary to work prior to the start of their normally assigned work schedule, shall be paid over-time at a rate of one and one-half times for any such time worked.
. (f) In the event any employee is called back to workafter the conclusion of his normal assigned work schedule, the employee will be entitled to a minimum of four hours pay at one and one-half times the employee's regular rate of pay. Work contiguous with the scheduled work day shall not be eligible for recall payments, only the overtime rate.
. (g) The Board shall notify the employees of anySaturday or Sunday work not later than the end of the shift on Tuesday of that week, except for emergencies.
. (h) Any time there is a district-wide early dismissal of students and teachers due to inclement weather, all cleri-cal employees shall be dismissed no later than 30 minutes after dismissal of students.
. (i) Hourly rate shall be deﬁned as 1/235 of the employ-ee’s annual salary divided by 7 hours.

3. HOLIDAYS

Employees shall be paid at their regular rate of pay for holidays not worked as indicated on the North Bergen Public School "School Calendar" showing days school will be closed and July 4th in the years 2004-2005, 2005-2006 excluding summer and winter vacation closing.

All clerical personnel shall be dismissed at 1:00 P.M. on the days preceding Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter Holidays.

Employees shall be granted vacations for the 2004-2005, 2005-2006 school years in accordance with the vaca-tion program now in effect. Vacation days shall be pro-rated for individuals hired after the start of the school year (September 1). (It is understood that the vacation time shall begin July of the ﬁrst year worked). Those with less than one year of employment will be entitled to one day for each full month of employment. Thereafter, individuals will be entitled to full contractual vacation time (20 days).

The Board of Education agrees to post a notice of vaca-tion dates on all Bulletin Boards not later than April 1.

. (a) If new jobs are created, if vacancies occur in a high-er rated position, or promotions are to be made, and if two or more employees equally qualiﬁed apply for such position, seniority shall be the determining factor in the selection of employees to ﬁll such positions before any new employees are hired. Applicants must apply in writing to the Board Secretary.
. (b) The Board agrees that it shall post a notice of suchnew job, vacancy, or promotion on the Bulletin Board for a period of three working days. Such notice shall contain, where available, a description of the job, the rate and when the job will be available. Anyone interested, in order to be eligible, must sign the notice.
. (c) The successful bidder and the Federation shall benotiﬁed in writing of the employee's acceptance by the Board within seven days of such acceptance. If there are no suc-cessful bids the Board may appoint or hire to ﬁll such job.

. (d) Any employee so selected to ﬁll such job shall be granted a trial period of up to ninety days. If it shall be deter-mined by the Board during the said trial period, that the promoted employee is not qualiﬁed to discharge the duties of the position to which he or she was promoted, the employee shall resume his or her former position or a position equiva-lent thereto. During the trial period the employee shall receive no increase in salary by reason of the promotion, but shall, if accepted in the new position, receive such an increase in salary retroactive to the commencement date of the trial period. However, if the employee has experience and has ade-quately performed the higher rated position, previously, such employee shall receive the higher rate immediately.
. (e) No position shall be posted as temporary if similarpositions are, or have been, permanent in the past four years.
. (f) Reductions in force shall be in reverse order of sen-iority in the North Bergen School System.
. (g) A full-time employee may refuse to claim a part-time position. In that event, she/he shall maintain seniori-ty rights.
. (h) Unit members who move to an exempt clerical posi-tion, and subsequently the exempt position is abolished or the person reassigned by the administration, shall be cred-ited with accrued time in the exempt position as per the Unit contract upon return to the unit.

6. SUBSTITUTES

. (a) A central telephone answering service which allows employees to report their absences before 7:30 A.M. will be maintained.
. (b) If a clerk is absent for more than ninety (90) calen-dar days, the Board shall attempt to hire a substitute until said clerk returns.

7. SCHOOLMEETINGS

Any Unit member called to a disciplinary meeting by an administrator shall have the right to have a Federation representative present, if the position of the Unit member is adversely affected.

Each full-time employee shall be allowed four absences per year for personal reasons. No deduction will be made in the clerk's salary for these absences. Unused personal days will be added to accumulated sick leave.

Personal days may not be taken on the day preceding, or the day following a school holiday. However, under extenuating circumstances, exceptions may be made by request to the Superintendent. Where possible, three days prior notice of absence for personal reasons is required.

. (a) A full-time clerk absent from her position because of personal illness, shall suffer no deduction in pay for each of the ﬁrst eleven days of absence in any school year. This per-tains only to A & B categories. Such sick leave, if unused, shall be cumulative.
. (b) The Board shall provide each clerk with an account-ing of accumulated sick leave on or before September 1 of each year.
(c) Extended sick leave schedule after expiration of allaccumulated days upon Board approval shall be as follows:
The clerk shall forfeit two dollars and ﬁfty cents for each day of absence for the next twenty days. Loss of ﬁve dollars a day for the next twenty days. Loss of a half day's pay for the next ﬁfty days. Thereafter it is up to the discre-tion of the Board.
. (d) Any employee absent for eight or more consecutive work days shall be required to submit medical evidence sub-stantiating the illness.
. (e) No deduction shall be made in a Unit member'ssalary for the following absences:

1. 3. Quarantine.
2. 4. Summons to court by subpoena.

(f) A Unit member who is absent due to illness from a contagious disease (e.g. measles, mumps, mononucleosis, infectious hepatitis, meningititis, and chickenpox) and who claims that such illness was contracted while serving in the schools shall within ﬁve days of return to work submit (1) a doctor's certiﬁcate and (2) documentary or other evidence in support of his or her contention of having contracted said illness while serving in the schools. If the Board is satisﬁed with the submissions, the Unit member shall suffer no loss of pay or loss of sick days for the period of absence and any such pay or sick days so debited shall be restored to the Unit member.

1. 1. Personal Reasons. If the total amount oftime that a Unit member arrives late or leaves early exceeds three hours and ﬁfteen minutes in a school year, he/she is penalized one-half sick or personal day. Each additional hour in the same school year shall be penalized one-half sick or personal day. The Unit member must inform his/her building administrator and sign the proper form, a copy of which will be given to the Unit member.
2. 2. Emergency or extenuating circumstances. The Unit member may request permission to be excused early. The request is to be made to the building administra-tor or his/her designee if he/she is unavailable. If the admin-istrator approves the request, the time will not count against the Unit member. If the administrator does not approve the

request, the Unit member may appeal to the Board Secretary or Superintendent or may use Section 1 above.

3. School-related business. The Unit membermay be excused by his building principal. The time will not count against the Unit member.

(h) Each part-time clerical employee shall be entitledto ﬁve sick days per school year.

. (a) A short term leave of absence shall be granted only in the following instances:
. (1) Attendance at educational conventions or con-ferences when approved by the Superintendent.
. (2) Visits to other schools when such visits are approved by the Superintendent.
. (3) Unit members eligible to attend the NewJersey State Federation of Teachers Conventions.
. (4) Unusual extenuating circumstances otherthan that provided for herein shall be discretionary with the Superintendent.
. (b) Jury Duty Pay. An employee who is called to and serves on Jury Duty shall suffer no loss of pay.
. (1) if the employee has not voluntarily soughtjury service.
(2) Upon presentation of summons by Clerk of theCourt. Employee will return to duty the day after release by the court. The Board may request veriﬁcation of atten-dance at jury service.
(c) Veterans Rights and Beneﬁts.
. (1) The seniority rights of all employees whoenlist or who are drafted pursuant to an appropriate law now in force, or to be enacted, shall be maintained during such period of military service. Each such employee shall

have the right to reinstatement to his or her former posi-tion or to a position of equal stature, at the salary rate pre-viously received by him or her at the time of his or her induction into the military service, together with all salary increases granted by the Board to said employee's previous position during the period of such military service. Such reinstatement of veterans shall be upon application made within ninety days after such an employee is honorably dis-charged from the service. This clause shall be subject to all pertinent and applicable provisions of the Selective Training and Service Act, as amended.

(2) The Board agrees to pay an employee for allreasonable time lost in reporting for physical examination for the military service.

. (a) Leaves of absence shall be granted for the followingpurposes:
. (1) Child-Rearing Leave - Child-rearing leave shallinclude Unit members adopting a child or children. Child-rearing leave shall commence and end at the beginning of a pay period. All requests for child-rearing leave shall be made at least six weeks prior to the commencement date for which the leave is requested. In the event of an adoption or other emergency in which the Unit member does not have suffi-cient notice to meet the six week requirement, the Unit mem-ber shall provide such notice as is possible under the circum-stances. If the need for a child-rearing leave is negated, prior to commencement, the Unit member will notify the Board as soon as possible and the leave shall be cancelled. If the child-rearing leave has begun and the need for same is negated, the employee shall return to work at the beginning of the next pay period. Unit members may request and will be granted an additional year. Requests for a second year must be made prior to April 1. Requests for extensions beyond a second year must be made prior to April 1. Child-rearing leave terminates on the following September 1 or on the September 1 of the following year. The Board and the Federation agree to summarize the Federal and State Family Leave Acts which provide leave of absence without pay and post same in the Board office and the main office of each school.

. (2) Armed Forces - Those Unit members entering the Armed Forces will be granted, upon request, a leave of absence.
. (b) All Unit members on leave of absence without pay, with the exception of those entering the armed forces, will return to the system on the next step of the appropriate salary guide above the one on which he or she was granted his or her leave with no loss of seniority.

12. TERMINALLEAVE COMPENSATION

. (a) For the contract years 1997-00 Unit members hav-ing at least ﬁfteen years of continuous service with the North Bergen School System, immediately prior to termi-nation of employment shall upon termination of employ-ment for whatever reason receive terminal leave pay as fol-lows: One-half day's pay for each accumulated sick day. A day's pay is deﬁned as 1/300th of the member's ﬁnal annual salary.
. (b) The estate of a Unit member who dies during theduration of this contract and who has otherwise qualiﬁed to receive terminal leave pay shall receive such pay for accumulated unused sick days, computed on the same basis as outlined above.

13. INFORMATION IN THE SCHOOLS

The Federation may use the bulletin boards and the mailboxes in the North Bergen School District. The North Bergen Board of Education shall not be responsible for policing the use of the mail boxes and bulletin boards with-in its school district, and will instruct their administrative employees accordingly. The Board shall maintain a bulletin board at the Board of Education building for the use of Federation members (concerning unit business only).

. (a) No employee shall make or be requested to makeany agreement, or to enter into any understanding incon-sistent or conﬂicting with the terms of this agreement.
. (b) Employees not included in the bargaining unitshall not be permitted to perform the duties of employees in the bargaining unit.

. (c) No clause in this agreement shall be construed orinterpreted as to imply any lowering of present wages or working conditions.
. (d) All clerical personnel hired as of July l, 1979 shall be employed for an eleven month period. As of July 1, 1979, all voluntary transfers from eleven-month positions to a present ten-month position the job classification will remain an eleven-month position.

15. SALARY PAYMENTS AND FRINGE/WELFARE BENEFITS

. (a) The salaries of ten-month employees shall at theoption of the employees, be paid on either a twenty semi-monthly basis or on the summer payment plan. Such requests must be made prior to August 15, except for newly hired unit members. Withdrawal from such may not be made after August 15.
. (b) Clerks shall receive checks on the 15th and lastschool day of each month.

In the case of eleven month employees, employees shall receive their pay checks on the 15th and last work day of July and August.

In cases where a school holiday falls on the 15th, or the last day of the month, clerks shall receive checks on the last school days before holidays.

. (c) The Board agrees to continue the present Welfare beneﬁts, including Blue Cross-Blue Shield, 1420, Rider J and Major Medical for the employees and their dependents. The Board will provide coverage for the employees and their eligible dependents under the Dental Plan and the $2.00 Co-Pay Prescription Program at no cost to the employees in the bargaining unit.
. (d) The voluntary program of tax-sheltered annuitiesshall be continued by the Board. Employees employed prior to January 1st will be placed on the next succeeding step as of the following July 1st. Such employees will receive cred-it for a full year's service. Employees employed for the ﬁrst time after January 1st will not receive credit for a full year's service until the second July 1st.

. (e) For all employees hired as of September 1, 2001,longevity will be based on years of work in the district.
. (f) Additional compensation shall be provided to sup-port Section personnel for completion of courses (with appropriate certiﬁcation notice or transcript) in the ﬁelds of:
1. 1. Word Processing
2. 2. Shorthand/Notetaking Skills
3. 3. Supportive Programs For Word Processing (Spreads, Data Bases, Etc.)
4. 4. Associate degree from accredited business school.

5. The Board will provide one in-service course annually, open to all clerks. Completion of two in-service courses (15 hours per course) offered by the Board, which may enhance an employee’s execution of his/her job (i.e. conversational Spanish).

This becomes effective with the 1992-93 contract and is not retroactive to past certiﬁcation.

25200 26350 5 26000 27150 6 26800 27950 7 27600 28750 8 28500 29550 9 29400 30450 10 30300 31350 11 31200 32250 12 32100 33150 13 33000 34050 14 33900 34950 15 34500 35850 16 35700 36450 17 36600 37650 18 37500 38550

All persons in category A remain in category A. During the term of this contract all employees in category B shall be given an opportunity to move to category A by the fol-lowing process:

Upon completion and presentation of certiﬁcate, for two courses within the following three areas:

■ (a) word processing
. (b) database
. (c) spreadsheet

Employees in category B who have presented two cer-tiﬁcates as of June 30, 1997 shall be moved to category A as of July 1, 1997. Other employees who present two certiﬁ-cates by July 31, 1998 shall be moved to category A on August 1, 1998 and those that present two certiﬁcates by August 31, 1999 shall be moved to category A on September 1, 1999.

	Contract Between

	N Bergen Tp B/E-Hudson

	- and -

	N Bergen F/T

			* * *
	09/01/2004 thru 08/31/2006


	Category	School District
	Unit	Teaching/Professional Staff


	Contract Text Below	Printer Friendly Version (Requires Adobe Acrobat)