Updated at 10 p.m.
The Rutland school board moved Friday to impose a contract on Rutland City’s teachers, a day after an overwhelming majority of the union’s members voted to strike next week without a deal. The two sides have been negotiating a new teachers’ contract for 18 months.
In a Friday afternoon meeting, the Rutland Board of School Commissioners decided to impose terms for this and the next school year on the teachers’ union, the board announced.
“The board has a fiduciary responsibility to make a fair contract that is sustainable,” Board Commissioner Charlene Seward told VTDigger Friday morning. “We don’t want taxes to go up, and that’s what will happen. We don’t want to make layoffs. There is not a secret pile of money we are sitting on.”
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The union’s leadership objected to the school board’s vote, saying in a press release that imposing terms for two years — and not just one — defies Vermont law. They cited a primer of labor law provided by the Vermont Labor Relations Board.
Seward said the board released two separate contracts (one for each year) to comply. She added that because Rutland’s voters approved an education budget for the 2025-26 school year, the board believes it can create a contract for that year.
The school board and union had been expecting to continue working through the details after school Friday. But the board now says the imposition of contract terms puts an end to those talks.
The teachers’ union’s statement said leaders still hope to negotiate and avoid a strike starting May 14. The union posted a photo of their negotiators waiting to begin Friday evening talks with the board, even though the board said the talks would no longer be happening. It is unclear when they will resume.
Seward said the board tabled Friday’s talks after not receiving a response from union representatives to an email about timing. However the union disputes this and provided VTDigger with emails from the lead negotiator to the district superintendent, saying “What we see that needs to happen is the parties need to negotiate, and the Board needs to send a team that is authorized to make a deal. We hope to see your team after school today.”
“Today(‘s decision not to meet) was not on a contentious basis,” Seward said. “We definitely want to keep talking, hopefully soon.”
The negotiations have exhausted the tools for mediation set out in state law, which concluded with an independent fact finder whose report was delivered to each side last month. For the union, that meant the next step was deciding whether to strike. For the board, it was imposing contract terms for a period of one year. Each tactic is designed to force an agreement.
The board’s new terms include a salary increase of 4.8% for the first year and 4% in the second year. It’s a step back down from the offer the board made earlier this week: 5% increases in base salaries for both school years, on the condition that a strike is avoided. They are also offering one additional sick day, rather than the fact finder’s recommended two.
The union is asking for larger salary increases to keep teachers’ pay in line with their peers across the state, and in line with a living wage for Rutland. The union has agreed to the terms outlined by the independent fact-finder.
The primary dispute comes down to what those salary increases include. The union is asking for a percentage increase over and above the annual step up in wages that would occur each year. The board is offering a percentage increase that includes the step increases. The board’s terms also outline deeper restructuring to these salary grid steps for incoming teachers.
“Our hope is that they reverse course,” union president Sue Tanen said in the press release. “Otherwise, we will do what we promised – begin our strike on Wednesday.”
