[W]ith Burlington educators and the school board still far apart in contract negotiations despite the efforts of a mediator, it’s now up to a fact-finder to recommend a solution.
If that doesn’t lead to a breakthrough, the next step would be for the school board to impose a contract — possibly provoking a teacher strike.
The Burlington Education Association and school board walked away from a five-hour mediation session recently without finding any agreement on the issues keeping them apart. Teachers are in the last year of a three-year contract, and the sides had been seeking a one-year compromise.
“I’m disappointed that the mediation did not result in a settlement. Looking ahead to fact-finding, we are confident that the board’s positions will secure a settlement that broadens student learning, preserves the district’s status as an employer of choice for teachers, and is fiscally sustainable,” said Mark Porter, chair of the school board.
The talks hit an impasse in February, and the mediation was the next step in an effort to find middle ground. Teachers say the board reneged on previously promised salary increases that would bring their pay in step with salaries in neighboring school districts. Board members say they are trying to bring salaries and benefits into alignment with those of most city residents.
Bob Abbey, president of the Burlington Education Association, said it was apparent at the mediation that the school board has “no interest … in keeping their written promise to bring our salaries to the ‘middle of the middle’ as compared to surrounding districts.”
But Porter has said previously that taxpayers can’t continue to pay for ever-increasing costs, especially when those outpace their own salaries and benefits. Also, he has said the district faces financial pressures that surrounding areas don’t. More than half the students in the Burlington School District — 62 percent — qualify for the free and reduced-price lunch program, an indicator of poverty. The district spends 15 percent of the budget on special education.
In 2013, when the current contract was finalized, teachers accepted a smaller-than-hoped-for raise because they believed that by 2016 they would move from seventh on teacher salary schedules for Chittenden County to fifth, which they consider midrange among neighboring school districts.
The average teacher salary in Burlington is $71,624. With benefits, the average compensation package is worth about $100,000, according to Porter, who added that pay increases over the past three years were three to five times the rate of inflation.
Going into mediation, the school board was prepared to increase its original offer of a 1.8 percent average pay raise, according to Porter. This was a sticking point in the February talks because teachers had been expecting a 5 percent average salary for the year, according to Abbey.
The board, which would like to move away from the old step-increase mechanism for salaries to a more flexible system, suggested it work with the teachers union to develop such a model. The board contends that the steps in place in the current system tend to outpace inflation and be higher than what the average worker gets. The board also remained adamant that teachers need to pay more of their health insurance costs.
Abbey told the teachers he represents that the board’s offer wouldn’t be a real gain. “The board made it clear, through the mediator, that they expect teachers to fund their own ‘middle of the middle’ salary increases by giving up long-earned benefits. Essentially, we will be taking money from our front pocket and putting it into our back pocket, and then we are being urged to be excited about the ‘raise’ we just got,” he wrote to teachers.
The mediator was dismissed, and the next step — fact-finding — will begin later in the spring. The process will have both parties lay out their arguments to a third party, who then makes nonbinding recommendations that can offer the breakthrough needed for resolution when negotiations resume.
