From the Vermont NEA:
WINOOSKI – The members of the Winooski Education Association have called off their planned strike in the wake of a tentative agreement with the city’s school board.
“From the beginning, we said that we wanted to reach a negotiated settlement with the board, and, tonight, we believe we have reached a deal that is fair to us, good for the school and good for students,” said Brent Litterer, a WEA negotiator and spokesman. “We are pleased that the board came to the table with the same goals we had: to reach a settlement.”
Details of the agreement are being held back for now. Hopefully this will continue to play out positively.
The real shame is that the teachers had their hands forced like this in the first place. It shouldn’t have come to a strike threat, which is an extreme course of action. We should be able to expect school boards to be good faith representatives of the community who should respect the work of the teachers.
As a member of the Winooski School Board, you have no idea how happy I am we and the WEA were able to stay at the table and hash out a fair and equitable deal for both sides last night. It is disappointing it took this long and that both sides felt pushed to the extremes of their bargaining options, but now we can finally move forward as the students and the community expect and deserve.
One point I feel should be clarified: details of the agreement will be released once the full WEA membership have a chance to review it and both sides officially ratify it, hopefully by the end of the week.