The Latest: School board, teachers’ union avert strike

BURLINGTON, Vt. – The Latest on contract negotiations between the Burlington School Board and the teachers union (all times local):

8 p.m.

Teachers in the state’s largest school district will not be going on strike.

The Burlington Education Association announced Wednesday night that the union and the city’s school board had reached a tentative agreement for a one-year contract.

Details of the agreement will not be released until it’s ratified by both parties.

The two sides began meeting with a federal mediator Wednesday morning in an attempt to avert a strike. If the talks had failed, teachers could have gone on strike on Thursday. It would have been their first since a six-day strike in 1978.

The yearlong contract negotiations have been bitter. The school district has 400 teachers and about 4,000 students.

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9:30 a.m.

The Burlington School Board and union representing teachers in Vermont’s largest city are meeting for last ditch negotiations in hope of averting a teachers’ strike.

The two sides began meeting with a federal mediator just after 9 a.m. Wednesday. If the talks fail, the strike would begin Thursday.

The teachers union voted last week to go on strike after a year of bitter contract negotiations.

The union has rejected the working conditions imposed by the board last month and wants a negotiated contract for the current school year.

The school board chairman said last month that the board had no plans to return to the bargaining table.

The strike would be the first by teachers in Vermont’s largest city since 1978 when teachers were on strike for six days.