School was back in session in South Burlington on Monday, following four days of canceled classes due to a teachers’ strike in the district.
On Saturday evening, mediator Joseph McNeil announced that after 29 hours of negotiating, the school board and the South Burlington Education Association had reached a tentative agreement. No details were disclosed, pending ratification.
SBEA, which is affiliated with the Vermont chapter of the National Education Association, began the strike Oct. 14, in protest of failed contract talks with the school board. Members had voted Oct. 7 to strike if agreement hadn’t been reached by then.
Aside from disagreement over health care plans (the teachers wanted to keep their current plans indefinitely) and salaries (the school board wanted to offset the cost of the plan with lower raises), each side said the other was unreasonable in the bargaining process.
School board members initially rejected the union’s suggestion of a mediator, but later agreed to bring in McNeil.
Teachers were scheduled to vote Monday afternoon at 3:45 p.m. in the Tuttle Middle School library whether to accept the tentative agreement.
