Robert Muccilli
Robert A. Muccilli, Esq. is Co-Chair of Capehart Scatchard’s School Law Group and a Shareholder in the Labor and Employment Group. For over 25 years, he has focused his practice in the areas of school law, and labor and employment. He has represented school districts with respect to a variety of education law issues involving students, teachers, school construction and special education issues including questions pertaining to inclusion, least restrictive environment, discipline, behavior management, transition, evaluation, discrete trial instruction, medically fragile students, dyslexia, Down Syndrome, Aspergers Syndrome, and equal access to activities and services for disabled individuals. He has also been recognized as one of South Jersey’s Top Attorneys as published by SJ Magazine. Mr. Muccilli is admitted to practice law in New Jersey, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and Washington, DC.
Districts Ordered to Pay Increments Upon Expiration of Contract
By: Robert A. Muccilli, Esq. Editor: Sanmathi (Sanu) Dev, Esq. The question of whether a school district with a collective bargaining agreement of less than five years in duration is required to pay the increment for teaching staff members at the expiration of the agreement has existed since the amendment of N.J.S.A. 18:29-4.1. The amendment permits school districts to adopt a salary policy schedule for a period of up to five years. In In the Matter of Englewood Board of Education and Englewood Teachers’ Association (decided October 29, 2018) and In the Matter of Cliffside Park Board of Education and […]
PERC Restrains Two Districts from Demanding New Dues Authorizations from Union Members
By: Robert A. Muccilli, Esq. Editor: Sanmathi (Sanu) Dev, Esq. The Public Employment Relations Commission (“PERC”) recently granted interim relief restraining two school districts from requiring that union members file new dues deduction authorizations. In Delanco Board of Education and Delanco Township Education Association (Docket No. CO-2019-043), school administrators informed the Association President that Board counsel advised that Janus v. AFSCME[1] required the Board to obtain written authorization from all employees in order to continue making membership dues deductions from unit employees’ compensation. The Superintendent provided the Association President with a copy of a draft letter to the Association’s members requesting […]
Resolution Survives Despite Absence of Advance Public Notice
By: Robert A. Muccilli, Esq. Editor: Sanmathi (Sanu) Dev, Esq. Public bodies have flexibility when an action item presents itself at a meeting where the public was not given advance notice of the matter provided the body is not deceiving the public or intentionally omitting an item it knew would be acted upon. In Jeffrey S. Feld, Esq. v. City of Orange Township et al., the plaintiff alleged that the City of Orange Township violated the Open Public Meetings Act (“OPMA”) by passing a resolution settling outstanding water and sewer bills. Specifically, the plaintiff alleged that the City failed to […]
Use of OPRA Not Limited to Citizens of New Jersey
By: Robert A. Muccilli, Esq. Editor: Sanmathi (Sanu) Dev, Esq. School districts sometimes receive requests for public records from a requestor in another state. Some of these requests come from data mining companies that seek to provide information about school district contracts and vendors to commercial entities. Fulfilling these requests can involve a considerable expenditure of time and effort by the records custodian. Trial court decisions addressing the question of whether an out-of-state requestor may make a valid request for records under the Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) have reached different conclusions. On May 16, 2018, in Scheeler v. Atlantic […]
Appellate Division Addresses Rights of Part-Time Teachers Under Tenure Act
By: Robert A. Muccilli, Esq. Editor: Sanmathi (Sanu) Dev, Esq. Educational service commissions sometimes employ part-time teachers to work in public and non-public schools. The Sussex County Educational Services Commission (“Commission”) reduced the number of hours worked by part-time teachers but did not alter the hourly rate of pay. In Zimmerman et al. v. Sussex County Educational Services Commission two teachers challenged the action arguing that their tenure and seniority rights were violated. The Commissioner of Education (“Commissioner”) sided with the Commission by determining that the decrease in work hours did not reduce the teachers’ compensation or trigger their seniority rights […]
Draft Meeting Minutes Not Subject to Disclosure Under OPRA
By: Robert A. Muccilli, Esq. Editor: Sanmathi (Sanu) Dev, Esq. Now and then even the Government Records Council (“GRC”) is sued. In a published decision issued on January 26, 2018 by the New Jersey Appellate Division in Libertarians for Transparent Government v. Government Records Council and Frank Caruso, the plaintiff alleged that the GRC violated the Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) and the common law by failing to produce draft minutes of a GRC meeting. Finding that the draft minutes were protected by the deliberative process privilege, the trial court rejected the plaintiff’s claims. The plaintiff appealed. On appeal, the plaintiff […]
Cadillac Tax on Health Care Plans Delayed Again
By: Robert A. Muccilli, Esq. Editor: Sanmathi (Sanu) Dev, Esq. In the context of labor negotiations, health benefits is an important issue to both sides of the bargaining table. On January 22, 2018, Congress passed and the President signed into law a two-year delay on the Affordable Care Act’s (“ACA”) 40% excise tax on health care plans, also known as the Cadillac tax. The 40% excise tax applies to the amount by which the cost of coverage exceeds certain monetary thresholds. For individual and family coverage, the annual premium thresholds are $10,800 and $29,500, respectively. The tax was initially slated to […]
Appellate Division Remands Case on Disclosure of Student Records Under OPRA
When is a student record, such as a settlement agreement involving a special education student or a request for an independent special education evaluation, subject to disclosure in response to a request under the Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”)? According to the Appellate Division’s published decision dated October 16, 2017 in L.R. v. Camden City Public School District, et al., the answer is that disclosure is permitted when the requestor is one of the sixteen (16) authorized organizations, agencies, or persons identified in regulations adopted by the New Jersey Department of Education to implement the New Jersey Pupil Records Act […]
Atlantic County and Bridgewater Township Required to Continue Step Increases After Expiration of Contracts
By: Robert A. Muccilli, Esq. Editor: Sanmathi (Sanu) Dev, Esq. The New Jersey Supreme Court on August 3, 2017 decided In re County of Atlantic in which it held that the salary increment systems in collective bargaining agreements between two public entities, Atlantic County and the Township of Bridgewater, and their respective FOP and PBA unions remained in effect after the agreements’ expiration dates. The County and Township were required to pay salary step increases during the period between the expiration of those contracts and the formation of their successor agreements. Accordingly, the Court upheld the Appellate Division’s ruling in […]
Governor Signs Law Expanding Voting Rights for Sending School Districts
By: Robert A. Muccilli, Esq. Editor: Sanmathi (Sanu) Dev, Esq. For years, sending school districts have felt left out of many important decisions made by the receiving districts to which they send their students and to which they pay tuition. That will no longer be the case under a new law signed by Governor Christie on July 21, 2017 (S. Res. 3191, 217th Leg., 2d Sess. (N.J. 2017)) which greatly expands the voting rights of sending districts. Representative of sending districts are no longer limited to voting on tuition, certain bill lists or contracts, new capital construction to be utilized by […]
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