Groton, Vermont, viewed from the southeast. Photo by Ascended Dreamer/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 Nearly yearlong teacher contract negotiations in the Blue Mountain Union School District are at a stalemate after the teachers union rejected a proposal that the school board called its final offe r.  The Blue Mountain Education Association formally declared an impasse in talks Tuesday night, declining to sign a one-year contract for salary increases that the school board proposed. During collective bargaining either side can declare an impasse when they cannot reach agreement. It prompts a mediator from the Vermont Labor Relations Board to get involved, according to a union spokesperson.  The board twice this summer rejected a three-year contract proposal on which negotiators for the district and union had tentatively agreed.  That deal would have given teachers a 4.75% raise this year, a 5.5% raise next year and a 6% raise the year after. Those raises are on top of a teacher’s set yearly pay increase, which is based on their education and years of experience. School board Chair Kelsey Root-Winchester said the district can’t afford the increases that teachers want because Vermont’s sweeping new education reform law puts districts under intense pressure to cut costs and imposes harsh penalties on taxpayers if they don’t.  But teachers don’t buy that argument and aren’t willing to agree to a short-term contract, according to local union representative Jessica Roy, who teaches third and fourth grade. The one-year contract would have given teachers the 4.75% raise this year that they asked for, according to Roy and Root-Winchester.  “It just makes us feel like the teachers aren’t valued,” Roy said in an interview Thursday.  Although the latest contract expired in June, teachers are back in school and will continue getting paid under the terms of their previous contract.  READ MORE The mediation process will likely take months and cost each side tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, according to Darren Allen, a spokesperson for the Vermont-NEA union that represents teachers in the district.  It’s rare for the sides to be at an impasse after previously coming to an agreement in bargaining, according to Allen. The Blue Mountain Union School District serves nearly 400 kids from the towns of Groton, Wells River and Ryegate in its single prekindergarten through 12th grade school. The district is part of the Orange East Supervisory Union.  The teachers union began collective bargaining in September 2025 to draft a new three-year contract. Negotiators reached their tentative agreement in early July. But the school board voted it down at a July 30 meeting and again Aug. 5, citing financial concerns.  Vermont’s new education reform law puts pressure on districts to cut costs and imposes increased taxes on residents if they don’t. The tax penalties kick in if a district surpasses what’s called the excess spending threshold, which is a certain percentage above the average statewide per-pupil cost. Legislation passed this year lowers that threshold year by year. For the next fiscal year, which starts in July, the excess spending threshold will be 115.5%, down from its previous 118%.  Root-Winchester said that although the district can afford the proposed raises for this year, the salaries teachers want next year and the following year are estimated to put the district above the excess spending threshold.  The board voted down the tentative agreement, Root-Winchester said, because it didn’t want to subject residents to tax penalties or have to cut other parts of the district’s budget to reduce spending.  “If money was no problem we would of course give them the raise,” said Root-Winchester.  But the union says there’s more to it than money.  Late last month the union filed a complaint with the Vermont Labor Relations Board alleging that the school board’s rejection of the tentative agreement was retaliation against the union because members had criticized the superintendent.  The union also accuses the board of bargaining in “bad faith,” alleging that board members came to an agreement at the bargaining table but then later rejected the measures they had agreed to.  Union members had taken their concerns about the superintendent to the school board July 1, according to the complaint. And on July 13, union members met with Orange East Superintendent Heather Lawler to discuss their issues with her leadership, the complaint says. Some teachers accused Lawler of lying to them, while others said she generally wasn’t trustworthy, according to Roy, who wouldn’t provide specifics.  Lawler has said previously that although it was difficult to hear criticism of her leadership, the union’s criticism did not influence the board’s decision to reject the contract agreement.  After the union filed its complaint, school board members last week decided to return to the bargaining table with the proposed one-year agreement.  Committing to only a one-year contract would allow the board to kick the can on the contentious salary increases for future years and wait to see how its finances play out, according to Root-Winchester.  But Roy said the union wants the board to honor the original agreement negotiators reached in bargaining sessions.  “Usually in negotiations there’s some give and take,” Roy said, “and there didn’t seem to be any of that.” Read the story on VTDigger here: Teachers in Blue Mountain Union School District declare impasse in contract talks. ...read more read less