Teachers Asked To Reconsider Strike Plan (VT)

[struggle4progress]

BY ROBIN SMITH, Staff Writer
Tuesday May 17, 2005

ORLEANS -- The chief school board negotiator on Monday asked Orleans Central teachers not to walk out this week. <snip>

The Orleans Central Education Association voted last week to strike beginning on Thursday. Neither side has met in negotiations since then.

The potential strike would affect elementary schools in Albany, Barton, Brownington, Irasburg, Glover and Orleans, and Lake Region Union High School in Barton.

Chief union negotiator Cindy Smith, a teacher at Lake Region Union High School, has said that under the existing contract teachers are bearing almost the entire cost of unexpected health insurance increases in recent years. Teachers want the boards to share the increases, a common practice in other school districts around Vermont. A professional mediator agreed. <snip>

http://www.caledonianrecord.com/pages/local_news/story/2d717cfda