[B]URLINGTON – The Burlington School Board and teachers union have moved forward in contract negotiations, according to news releases from both sides.
The school board negotiated with the Burlington Education Association for more than eight hours on Thursday, as contract talks for fiscal year 2018 continued.
BEA President Fran Brock said that the two sides discussed changes to assigned and unassigned time for high school teachers.
“We made progress, although we still have some thorny matters to sort out,” she said.
The union and school board remain far apart on salary, health insurance and working conditions, including proposals that deal with reduced unassigned time for teachers, according to the BEA statement.
Brock pointed to increased preparation time for elementary school teachers as a key issue, in an interview prior to negotiations this week. The union has proposed reducing the time elementary teachers are required to supervise students.
The school board’s proposals for the two-year contract include a 2.25 percent raise each year, which equates to an average annual salary increase of nearly $1,600 a year, according to a district news release. The BEA is proposing a salary increase of 3.2 percent for the first year and 3.4 percent in the second year.
The board’s health insurance proposal would save employees between $279 and $2,103 a year on premiums while protecting employees from increased out-of-pocket costs, according to the district. The BEA’s health care proposal, meanwhile, would be costlier than the plan envisioned by Act 85, a teacher health insurance compromise law reached by Gov. Phil Scott and lawmakers during a special session in June, the board said.
The state has released the dollar amounts of reduced payments for each district totaling $13 million over two years. The districts are expected to save money by negotiating an 80/20 premium split for new health plans that take effect in January.
Burlington will receive $494,000 less from the education fund over two years, with $321,000 coming out of payments for the current fiscal year. That $321,000 is about 0.5 percent of the $61.5 million the district gets from the state.
Brock told VTDigger earlier this week that she’s concerned the school board could try to use the reduced payments as a bargaining chip.
Stephanie Seguino, the board’s vice chair, said the numbers from the Agency of Education are much higher than expected.
“This likely gives us less flexibility in teacher contract negotiations,” she said in an emailed statement.
Contract negotiations between the board and the union began in February. The two sides declared an impasse in mid-March. The board rejected a neutral fact-finder’s report in July.
The union and board’s next scheduled negotiation session is Thursday.
“We are optimistic that a fair and sustainable settlement is achievable and look forward to reaching a deal at our next meeting on Aug. 31,” Seguino said in a statement.
