Services and Utilities (a) Landlord shall provide the following services and utilities during normal business hours on all days except Saturdays, Sundays, and federal and state holidays, or unless otherwise stated below. Cost of such services shall be included as an Operating Cost.
(i) when necessary during normal business hours, central heating and air conditioning in the Premises and the Common Areas at temperature levels customary for comparable office buildings in the immediate vicinity (Landlord and Tenant agree that Tenant shall have the right to operate the HVAC system serving the Premises on an after-hours basis and shall pay for such expense in accordance with Section 8(b));
(ii) janitorial services five business days per week; and
(iii) three passenger elevators, to be used in common with other tenants, except for the occasion of a temporary repair or replacement of the elevators. “Normal business hours” for purposes of clause (a) above shall be deemed to mean the periods from 8:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. on business days (Monday through Friday) and from 8:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. on Saturdays. Tenant shall nonetheless have access to the Premises and elevators seven (7) days a week, twenty-four (24) hours a day, subject to and in accordance with any security procedures that Landlord may have in place.
(b) Tenant shall pay Tenant’s pro rata share of Tenant Electric. In addition, Tenant shall pay for all costs of after-hours HVAC service used by Tenant at an hourly rate mutually agreed upon by Landlord and Tenant. Electric current supplied to or used in the Premises shall be set at the rate prevailing for Tenant’s class of use as established by the company or companies chosen by Landlord or its designee to provide electricity to the Premises. Upon reasonable prior notice, Landlord or its designated electric service provider may have access to the Premises to install equipment necessary to deliver electric service to the Premises or the Building provided that Landlord or the utility company shall restore the Premises to its condition prior to the commencement of such work. Landlord reserves the right to switch electricity providers, if legally permissible, at any time. Landlord shall not be liable to Tenant for damages arising as a result of service interruptions caused by any electric service provider. Electric current supplied to or used in the Premise shall be measured by a submeter.
(c) Any failure by the Landlord to furnish any of the foregoing services or utilities, resulting from circumstances beyond the Landlord’s reasonable control or from interruption of such services due to repairs or maintenance, shall not render the Landlord liable in any respect for damages to either person or property, nor be construed as an eviction of the Tenant, nor cause an abatement of rent hereunder, nor relieve the Tenant from any of its obligations hereunder, unless caused by Landlord or its agents, employees and/or contractors. If any public utility or governmental body shall require the Landlord or the Tenant to restrict the consumption of any utility or reduce any service for the Premises or the Building, the Landlord and the Tenant shall comply with such requirements, whether or not the services and utilities referred to in this section 8 are thereby reduced or otherwise affected, without any liability on the part of the Landlord to the Tenant or any other person or any reduction or adjustment in rent payable hereunder. The Landlord and its agents shall be permitted reasonable access to the Premises for the purpose of installing and servicing systems within the Premises deemed necessary by the Landlord to provide the services and utilities referred to in this Section 8 to the Tenant and other tenants in the Building.
(d) Tenant shall not at any time overburden or exceed the capacity of the mains, feeders, ducts, conduits, or other facilities by which such utilities are supplied to, distributed in or serve the Premises beyond normal office uses. If Tenant desires to install any equipment which shall require additional utility facilities or utility facilities of a greater capacity than the facilities existing, such installation shall be subject to Landlord’s prior written approval of Tenant’s plans and specifications therefor. If such installation is approved by Landlord and if Landlord provides such additional facilities to accommodate Tenant’s installation, Tenant agrees to pay Landlord, on demand, the cost for providing such additional utility facilities or utility facilities of greater capacity. Landlord shall not be responsible for providing any meters or other devices for the measurement of utilities supplied to the Premises. In addition, if Tenant requires lighting other than the standard lighting provided by Landlord for the Building, Tenant shall be required to pay Landlord on demand for the additional costs of such lighting, including light bulb replacement.
(e) Landlord shall cause to be operated a trash removal service for the Project, the costs and expenses of which shall be a part of Operating Costs. In the event that Tenant’s use of the Premises requires trash removal services in excess of that required for standard office tenants, Tenant shall pay to Landlord, as additional rent all costs and expenses in excess of the trash removal costs which are attributable to such excess usage.
(f) In the event Tenant wishes, at any time, to utilize the services of a telecommunications provider who is not then authorized by the Landlord to provide telecommunications services to tenants in the Building, such provider shall be permitted to install its lines or other equipment within the Building after it secures the prior written approval of the Landlord. Landlord hereby authorizes Verizon, Worldcom, and Telephonet to provide telecommunication services to the Building. Tenant shall use its best efforts to get such vendors to execute license and access agreements reasonably acceptable to Landlord provided that such agreements do not materially alter the telecommunication service to Tenant or increase the costs to Tenant of such telecommunication services. Landlord’s approval shall not be deemed any kind of warranty or representation by Landlord, including, without limitation, any warranty or representation as to the suitability, competence, or financial strength of the provider. Without limitation of the foregoing standard, unless all of the following conditions are satisfied to Landlord’s satisfaction, it shall be reasonable for Landlord to refuse to give its approval: (i) Landlord shall incur no expense whatsoever with respect to any aspect of the provider’s provision of its services, including, without limitation, the costs of installation, materials and services; (ii) the provider shall agree to use the Building’s central communications distribution system (“CDS”) to deliver telecommunications services to Tenant (unless the CDS is not physically capable of delivering such services); (iii) prior to commencement of any work in or about the Building by the provider, the provider shall supply Landlord with such written indemnities, insurance, financial statements, and such other items as Landlord reasonably determines to be necessary to protect its financial interests and the interests of the Building relating to the proposed activities of the provider; (iv) the provider agrees in writing to abide by such rules and regulations, Building and other codes, job site rules and such other requirements as are reasonably determined by Landlord to be necessary to protect the interests of the Building, the tenants in the Building, and Landlord, in the same or similar manner as Landlord has the right to protect itself and the Building with respect to proposed alterations as described in this Lease; (v) Landlord reasonably determines that there is sufficient space in the Building for the placement of all of the provider’s equipment and materials; (vi) Landlord receives from the provider such compensation as is reasonably determined by Landlord to compensate it for the fair market value of a provider’s occupancy of the Building, and the costs which may reasonably be expected to be incurred by Landlord in conjunction with the provider’s occupancy of and activities within the Building; and (vii) all of the foregoing matters are documented in a written agreement between Landlord and the provider, the form and content of which is reasonably satisfactory to Landlord. Except as otherwise authorized in writing by Landlord, all communications services provided to Tenant shall be delivered via the Building’s CDS. Landlord may charge Tenant’s service providers fees for use of the CDS (“CDS Fees”), which includes monthly recurring fees (“Recurring CDS Fees”) for use of each circuit of the CDS used in the delivery of communications services to Tenant, and non-recurring fees (“Non-Recurring CDS Fees”) relating to activities such as moves, adds and changes of circuits which Landlord or Landlord’s agents are making. In the event that a service provider refuses for any reason to pay the CDS Fees directly to Landlord, or if Tenant is directly using the CDS to connect to a provider or otherwise, Tenant shall be responsible to pay Landlord Non-Recurring CDS Fees, but in no event shall Tenant be responsible to pay to Landlord Recurring CDS Fees, Landlord shall repair or replace the CDS as necessary to eliminate any interruption or other adverse effects to Tenant caused by malfunction, damage or destruction of the CDS, the cost of which shall be borne by Tenant if the problem was caused directly or indirectly by the act or omission of Tenant, its agents, representatives, employees or invitees. In no event shall Landlord or its agents be liable for any direct or indirect claims or damages of any kind arising out of any interruption or failure of communications or related services (including without limitation, local or long distance phone service, internet, cable TV, CDS, and data services) received by Tenant, it being understood that Tenant shall look solely to its communications services providers for recovery of any such claims or damages. To the extent that Landlord or its agents provides any communications services directly to Tenant, Tenant’s sole remedy in the event that such services provided by Landlord or its agents are interrupted or otherwise fail shall be an equitable abatement of the fees paid by Tenant to Landlord or its agents for such services, pro-rated from the date of the interruption or failure of service until the date upon which service is restored. Landlord shall have the right to designate a third party as its agent to manage and/or own the telecommunications infrastructure in the Building, whose responsibilities include without limitation management of circuit activity on the CDS (“Manager”). Manager or Landlord may provide to Tenant operating procedures for the CDS, including the phone number(s) for the, person or persons responsible for the operation and maintenance of the CDS, and Tenant agrees to comply with any such procedures. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Landlord may, in its sole discretion and upon notice to Tenant, also designate other entities as Manager of the CDS.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT A. The Board of Education agrees to pay the actual tuition costs of courses taken by a teacher at accredited colleges or universities up to three courses per two (2) year fiscal periods from July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2008 and July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2010 respectively, except as follows:
1. No teacher may be reimbursed for courses taken during the first year of teaching in Vineland.
2. Teachers taking courses in the second and third years of employment in Vineland will not receive remuneration until tenure has been secured. The remuneration will then be retroactive and will be paid to the teacher in a lump sum within sixty (60) days after the teacher has secured tenure.
3. All courses must be pre-approved by the Superintendent or his designee subject to the following requirements:
(a) A teacher must provide official documentation that he/she has obtained a grade of B or better;
(b) Reimbursement shall be paid only for courses directly related to teacher’s teaching field which increase the teacher’s content knowledge and are related to the teacher’s current certification, as determined by the Superintendent or his/her designee in his/her sole discretion; no reimbursement shall be paid for courses leading to a post graduate or professional degree in a field other than education or teaching. Further, effective September 1, 2010, all newly hired teachers shall not be eligible for reimbursement until they are tenured, and they shall not be eligible for retroactive reimbursement upon gaining tenure for courses taken prior to being tenured.
(c) The maximum total payments to be made by the Board shall not exceed $130,000.00. Courses shall be applied for no earlier than the following dates: Summer Session - April 1 Fall/Winter Session - June 1 Spring Session - October 1 Courses must, as set forth hereinabove in this sub-article 18.A.3, be pre-approved by the Superintendent or his designee, prior to the teacher commencing the course(s); and
(d) Teacher taking courses shall sign a contract requiring them to reimburse the Board for all tuition paid for a course if the teacher shall voluntarily leave the employ of the Board within one (1) full school/academic year of completion of said course, except that reimbursement shall not be required when the teacher shall voluntarily leave the employ of the Board due to a significant, documented life change.
4. Tuition reimbursement costs shall be a sum not to exceed the actual cost of college credits charged in an accredited public State college/University of the State of New Jersey.
B. When the Superintendent initiates in-service training courses, workshops, conferences and programs designed to improve the quality of instruction, the cooperation of the Vineland Education Association will be solicited. Notwithstanding the above, the initiation of in-service training courses, workshops, conferences and programs shall be determined solely at the discretion of the Board.
C. One professional leave day may be granted to a teacher upon request, according to the following guidelines:
1. The professional day may be for attendance at a workshop, seminar or visit to another school for the expressed purpose of self professional improvement for the job.
2. The request shall arrive in the office of the Superintendent of Schools at least ten (10) working days prior to the date requested and shall be reviewed by the immediate supervisor prior to submission. The Board reserves the right to deny a professional leave day before or immediately following a holiday or on a day which by its nature suggests a hardship for providing a substitute.
3. No more than two teachers from any one elementary school or from any one department in the secondary schools may be granted a professional leave for a given day.
4. The teacher may be required to submit a report to the Superintendent of Schools, Assistant Superintendent, supervisor (s), principal and staff regarding the activity of the professional day.
5. Costs incurred by the teacher for the professional day authorized under this Section shall be the teacher’s responsibility.
6. A maximum of 90 professional leave days may be authorized for the school year which shall be apportioned as follows: elementary, 35; grades seven and eight, 20; and high school, 35.
D. If the Board initiates a teacher’s attendance at a professional workshop, seminar or visit, the expenses shall be the responsibility of the Board. Further, this day shall not be subtracted from the 90 professional leave days granted to teachers of the Association.
E. The Board agrees to pay the full cost of courses taken by secretaries related to skills and knowledge improvement when such courses are required and approved by the Board.
F. The Board and the Association agree that it is important to communicate when developing and implementing current and future learning technologies, including but not limited to distance and on-line learning.
