At a meeting Monday night, the Montclair Board of Education unanimously approved the hiring of a management auditor as well as a professional negotiator.

School Board President Shelly Lombard said the district is paying about $30,000 for a management audit, which is different from the annual financial audit that is required by law.

"To put the decision in context ... our budget is $110 million," she said. "We are making decisions that impact our students and other people's lives, such as whether to close a school or outsource personnel.

"We don't want to be making those decisions unless we have the information we need, in a format that we can understand, at the time when it matters," she said.

The district hired Nisivoccia, LLP to conduct a management audit of the operations of the school district, a move recommended and applauded by the volunteer Budget Working Group appointed by Lombard in 2010.

School board members said they want to avoid a repeat of what recently happened when they were blindsided by a surplus that had ballooned to as much as $11 million by the end of June 2011. A few have suggested they might have made different decisions in the spring as they finalized a $110 million spending plan that included cuts in programs, services, and healthcare for classroom aides.

Lombard also said the district would be paying $150 an hour for a professional negotiator—Attorney Mark Tabakin—to represent board members during negotiations with the 1,100-member Montclair Education Association.

Lombard noted that some MEA members attending Monday night's meeting had expressed concern the district was hiring someone from the outside—although she's not sure why.

"Teachers work hard and deserve to be paid fairly. But that doesn't negate the need for both sides to be represented appropriately," she said. "I believe the MEA is represented by [New Jersey Education Association] staff who are professional negotiators and all they do is go around to district after district negotiating contracts.

"And that's fine. This is the teachers' livelihood and they deserve to have someone of their choice to negotiate for them," she continued. "But the contract is important to us too."

Lombard emphasized that labor costs represent 83 percent of the district's $110 million spending plan.

"The teachers' contract is our largest contract and it locks us in for three years. So we have alot at stake too," she said. "Why do they feel we should be represented by our personnel director (who has a whole other full-time job as personnel director) and three volunteers?"

Previously, the board's labor contracts have been negotiated by James Patterson, the district's long-serving personnel administrator.

"That's like selling your house and going to the closing with your attorney and real estate agent and being angry that the buyer showed up with his attorney and real estate agent," Lombard said. "The New Jersey School Boards Association recommends boards use outside negotiators and so this year we are.

"I guess their rationale is to separate the personnel function (which has a long-term relationship with our employees) from this once-every-three-years negotiation which can be, but doesn't have to be, contentious," she said.

The board's three-year contract with the MEA is set to expire in June 2012. Both sides have expressed a desire to have a new agreement in place before the start of the 2012-2013 school year.

The Montclair Board of Education's next public meeting is scheduled on Monday evening, Dec. 19.