No Strike! S. Burlington teachers, board agree to tentative contract

Nicole Higgins DeSmet
Burlington Free Press

Correction: The state Legislature in June passed a bill requiring school districts to reduce their budgets by about $13 million over the next two years. The amount was incorrect in an earlier version of the story.

SOUTH BURLINGTON - Teachers union and School Board negotiators agreed to a tentative contract just before the witching hour on Wednesday morning after almost 10 hours of mediation, narrowly averting a strike.

David Boulanger, a former high school English teacher who is the Vermont-NEA field representative for Chittenden County, shakes hands with mediator Cynthia Jeffries after the South Burlington School Board and teachers came to a tentative agreement in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Oct. 4, 2017, at Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School after about ten hours of negotiations that started Tuesday night.

"We are pleased to say the kids will be back in school today," School Board Clerk Martin Lalonde said. "Both sides worked really hard."

Chief union negotiator Kathy Murphy said the union could hold a ratification vote as soon as Thursday. 

"I'm really happy that I will be going to school tomorrow," Murphy said. 

If the South Burlington Educators' Association, the union, ratifies the contract, the board will follow with a vote to finalize the agreement.

Lalonde would not hint at what the contract agreement held, but promised more information would be forthcoming after the union ratification.

More:Teachers to strike Wednesday if agreement cannot be reached

On Tuesday afternoon parents were worried about the impending strike.

Elizabeth Pacheco, who has a kindergartner at Rick Marcotte Central Elementary School, said as a stay-at-home mom she wouldn't be affected like other parents but was concerned about the impact of a strike on her child's routine. 

"I just want them to figure it out," Pacheco said. "Just knock it off and get it done."

Negotiations commenced at 5 p.m., and the parties pushed through almost 10 hours to reach a deal brokered by federal mediator Cynthia Jeffries.

Tuesday's negotiations marked the second time in less than a week that teachers and board members attempted to sort out their differences. In the previous negotiation session that extended into early Friday morning, the board said the union rejected a contract with a 4.47 percent raise over two years with a return to an indexed salary grid in the second year.

Mediator Cynthia Jeffries announces that the South Burlington School Board and teachers came to a tentative agreement in the early hours of Wednesday morning, Oct. 4, 2017, at Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School after about ten hours of negotiations that started Tuesday night.

After those failed talks, the union's chief negotiator said the board was clinging to the imposition of terms and conditions for the current year, which the union could not abide.

At the same time, Vermont Education Health Initiative (VEHI), a nonprofit that handles most health care plans for school employees, revealed that monthly premiums for those plans might increase next year from 6.4 percent to 17.2 percent.

RELATED:Vermont Education Health Initiative predicts cost increases

School Board Clerk Martin LaLonde said as he walked into the Frederick H. Tuttle building Tuesday that the health care plan currently on the table was an 80 percent / 20 percent split between the district and the teachers.

"We are holding firm to what the Legislature and the governor recommended," LaLonde said. 

VEHI said the reason for the rate hike was rising medical costs, but some of the hike could be attributed to the balance of how each local district negotiated contracts.

The union's spokesman Noah Everitt said on Tuesday prior to the negotiations that he thought health care costs need a national solution.

"In two years we will be negotiating again," Everitt said, referencing the state's two-year $13 million take back from school districts.

Keri Goldberg stands outside Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School in South Burlington with her son Tuesday night, Oct. 3, 2017, frustrated at the prospect of a teacher strike that could start tomorrow if the School Board and teacher union can't come to an agreement. Both sides started negotiations  shortly after 5 p.m.

As for the imposed salary schedule, Everitt said it was a unilateral move, such as in a Monopoly game when one player decides without consulting other players to change the rules half way into the game. 

"Essentially they told us, 'You can take it, or you can quit playing,'" Everitt said.

The fact-finding report by independent mediator Ira Lobel, which the board rejected, sides with the union on the salary index system.

"There's no justification for changing the salary schedule," Lobel wrote, explaining that a change would be inconsistent with other local districts.

But on health care, Lobel wrote that the legislature couldn't be ignored, and recommended the district to pay 80 percent of the premium.

If teachers had gone on strike Wednesday, it would have been the South Burlington Educator's Association second strike in three years.

South Burlington parent Michelle Rosowsky placed this sign outside Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School on Tuesday night, Oct. 3, 2017, before School Board members arrived to continue negotiations with the teachers union.

Outside the middle school just before the board and union were set to meet, parent Keri Goldberg and parent Michelle Rosowsky both said they disagreed with the union's plans to strike.

"People in corporate America are losing jobs with fewer benefits," Goldberg said.

Rosowsky, who had to leave before the meeting's public comment period, planted her remark in the school's lawn. Her sign stated: "Don't hold families hostage. No Strike."

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