South Burlington School Board imposes contract on teachers

SOUTH BURLINGTON - South Burlington's School Board voted unanimously Tuesday night to impose terms and working conditions on city teachers.

“We really feel like we have been at this for over a year, and we feel it’s time to reach a conclusion in this process,” Chairwoman Elizabeth Fitzgerald said, explaining the board's position that the imposed terms respect experienced teachers and also still attract new talent.

Teachers can either accept the imposed terms, or go on strike.

The previous contract expired June 30.

The conditions affect about 245 teachers. The district's average teacher salary for the 2016-17 school year was $77,932, compared with the state average of $59,154, according to the Vermont Agency of Education.

Board member Steve Wislowski explained before the vote that the imposed conditions were retroactive to July 1 and will continue through June 2018.

Fitzgerald indicated the board was ready to meet and begin negotiating the fiscal 2019 contract as soon as possible.

“Now is not the time to radically change the salary structure of a 50-year agreement between SBEA and the South Burlington community that has served both sides well. Now is the time to compromise,” said Kathryn Buley, co-president of the South Burlington Education Association.

Buley was the only speaker for the 150 teachers who packed into the Frederick Tuttle Middle School library before the board recessed to discuss the option of enforcing a one-year employment agreement on the teachers.

The first time the board imposed employment terms was in February 2011. That conflict over pay structure ended without a strike. Teachers did strike for four days in October 2014 over contract pay increases and monthly contributions toward health care premiums. Teachers won 8 percent increases in salaries and benefits over the past three years.

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The South Burlington School District along with Burlington, Essex, Milton and other districts across the state remain at the bargaining table as school begins. At stake are teacher and staff salaries and health care plans, which face off against savings mandated by Gov. Phil Scott that aim to cut $8.4 million in the current fiscal year from Vermont employee health insurance costs.

Chittenden County schools must cut a total of $3.3 million out of budgets the public approved on Town Meeting Day, or in ballots that followed. South Burlington, according to state documents, must find $304,731 in the current fiscal year and an additional $164,086 in fiscal year 2018. During budget talks that stretched from before Town Meeting Day until a third vote June 6, the district already had cut $50,000 calculated in savings from the health care changes from the final budget.

RELATED: S. Burlington school budget passes on 3rd try

Negotiations between the board and the union have been at an impasse for most of the summer.

July 25, the board rejected a fact-finding report by a mediator assigned to the district to weigh what the teachers said they needed versus what the board was willing to give. Richard Wise, South Burlington Education Association co-president, said on the morning of Aug. 22 that "negotiations didn't go well."

The union contends the board's health insurance proposals fail to reflect the recommendations of the fact-finder and other settled teacher contracts in the state. The education association said members arrived ready with health insurance and sick leave compromises for the board. Members offered to accept lower salary increases as an incentive.

The South Burlington School Board stated that its proposal "represents competitive and sustainable compensation and benefits for our teachers, delivers savings to taxpayers, and if accepted by the SBEA would allow the school year to start with a settled contract."

Teachers, according to the board, receive average salary increases of over $1,600 per year, and senior teachers "would remain the most highly compensated in the state."

The board stated that under their health insurance proposal, "teachers would pay the same amount in premium and average out-of-pocket expenses in each of the next two school years compared to what they paid in 2017." 

Chief negotiator for the teachers' union, Kathy Murphy, said teachers were still ready to talk to the board. The union will meet and discuss options.

"We just want to be teaching," Murphy said hours before the school year began for many district kids.  

July 2017 South Burlington School District fact-finding report here. 

South Burlington School Board presentation

Kathryn Buley SBEA Statement 082917

Contact Nicole Higgins DeSmet at ndesmet@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1845. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHDeSmet.