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November 20, 200% North Brunswick • South Brunswick 50$

RRAH MAFFAI staff North Brunswick preschoolers and their parents enjoy a hay ride through Sabella Park during the township's annual Turkey Trot festivities Tuesday. See page 7. Teachers and board reach agreement terms of their old contract since July 1. The ers union told the crowd that all the local rtomeMemjofmmmi Marathon negotiating fooard and union have been negotiating a new unions stood with South Brunswick teach- contract since February but reached an ers in their fight. session is fruitful impasse in August, according to the board. "The board has been playing a lot of in South Brunswick Prior to the negotiation session, about 300 games, canceling board meetings and dis- teachers rallied appointing parents who looked forward to BY CHARLES W. KIM at the high communicating with the board," Lee said. Staff Writer school. Two previous board meetings were can- "We are here celed, and the next scheduled meeting is set outh Brunswick teachers may finally to send a mes- for Monday, according to district officials. have a deal. sage • to . the One of the main issues facing the board S South Brunswick Education board. We areand union is the disparity among the salary Association President Sylvia Lee said that strong, we aresteps in the district. a tentative agreement was reached with unified, and we The union is asking for an equal distri- the Board of Education at about 4:15 a.m. will not give up bution of dollars between the 13 pay steps, yesterday. until we get the according to Lee. "It was a tough one," Lee said. contract - we Middle school social studies teacher Sal The teachers union and board nego- deserve," Lee Scurato said that the disparity is causing tiating teams met Tuesday night with a said. teachers to leave the district after a few state mediator to try to iron out an agree- Members of years. ment between the parties. t e a c h e r s ' "They are leaving to [go to] districts that "We are in for the long haul," Lee told unions from pay more," Scurato said. the teachers before the start of the 6:30 Piscataway, Scurato, who started teaching in the dis- ||fj||§ p.m. session Tuesday. East Bruns- trict in 1974, said that this kind of impasse According to Lee, the details of the wick, Monroe, is not really new to the district, and that it agreement will not be released to the public North Bruns- is not fair. until the membership has a chance to wick and "The teachers have to come [to the review it. Edison joined board] with a cup in hand. All we are look- "I will be reporting to them this af- the SBEA in ing for is parity. Why do the teachers have j|!3^^ ternoon," Lee said yesterday. the protest. to do that?" Scurato asked. Lee estimates that the proposal may be CHARLES W. KIM Frank Za- He said teachers want to stay in the dis- voted on by the membership sometime Krlstine Kaufman and Alexis remba, presi- trict. early next month. Pezzicola join about 300 www.gmnews.com teachers in a rally at South dent of the Teachers have been working under the Brunswick H.S. on Tuesday. county teach- (Continued on page 23) SENTINEL, November 20, 2003 NS

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BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP plex tenants allowed their unspayed colony, Espenschied said. woods will have a tag clipped to their Staff Writer and unneutered cats to roam in the "We will only return the cats we feel ears for monitoring. NOETH BKUNSWICK - A local woods. are not suited to adoption because they "We are all confident that this pro- animal adoption group has six months In order to avoid the extermination would prefer to live outdoors, void of gram will work and the remaining cats to try to humanely solve the township's of the remaining 30 cats in the colony, human contact," Espenschied said. will be able to continue living out their stray cat problem. Animal Lifesavers requested more time The East Brunswick PetSmart cur- lives," Espenschied said. On Nov. 12, municipal Judge Ronald to initiate a trap-neuter-return (TNR) rently has cats from the colony up for The aim of TNR is the control of E. Wright, sitting in North Brunswick, technique. adoption. reproduction within the colony. granted Animal Lifesavers Pet Kittens and tame cats from the Using the TNR technique, Animal Desexing cats in a colony usually Adoption Inc. six months to manage the colony have been and will continue to Lifesavers will feed the cats to trap inhibits new cats from entering the cat colony living in the woods behind be adopted into good homes, whereas them, and then spay or neuter them. population and reduces fighting and the Ramada Inn on Route 1. remaining adult cats, too wild for do- Those animals returned to the spraying within the colony, according to The Township Council agreed to mestication, will be returned to the Espenschied. give the group an extension to the pre- Drawbacks of TNR, as outlined by vious deadline of Nov. 12 during its the New Jersey Audubon Society Web workshop meeting last week as long as site, include cat illness and starvation the group assumes all costs and en- when the colony becomes wholly reliant sures new cats are not introduced into on the trapper for food. the current population. The Audubon Society concluded "As long as we don't have any com- TNR had little effect on unowned cat plaints from area residents and this cat populations, stating, "The cats wei-e colony does not become a host site still present in the area causing com- where other cats migrate for food, I munity nuisance, and the spread of have no problem giving this group an- fighting and disease amongst them- other six months before we