Rutland School District offices in 2016. File photo by Andrew Kutches/VTDiggerThe Rutland City Public Schools and its teachers’ union have reached an impasse in contract negotiations ahead of an April 15 deadline, which the school district says could result in layoffs. Salaries proposed by the Ru tland Education Association union pose “a significant difference” to those proposed by the city’s school board, according to a letter Superintendent Bill Olsen sent teachers and other staff Monday. To bring the union’s proposed salary in line with the school district’s voter-approved budgets, the district must issue staffing reductions, Olsen added in the letter.Without clarity on what a final contract may be, Olsen wrote that the district must put out official notices for so-called reductions in force, or RIF, decisions by April 15, a deadline set in the teachers’ current contract. Such letters provide notice to teachers that their position is not secure for the coming school year. “Our teachers, our members are incredibly disappointed,” union President Sue Tanen said. “To tie the bargaining process to RIF notices while we’re still at the table, it’s incredibly disheartening, and members are clearly upset by it.” Those notices were scheduled to go out to some staff members Monday afternoon, according to the letter. Tanen declined to say if any union members had received such letters yet. Olsen wrote in his letter that notices would be recalled if the contract negotiations result in a salary increase in line with what district management believes its budget can support. However, the threat of reductions in force notices has not changed union members’ goals, Tanen said. “We just keep saying that we are coming to the table. We’re willing to come to the table,” Tanen said. “We have not really changed our stance — that is our stance, that we’re just going to keep coming to the table and advocating for our members.” The union is asking for equitable pay with other teachers in the region as well as sick time that accounts for the toll the Covid-19 pandemic took on many teachers, Tanen added. “We wish this was not happening, but we need to continue to operate in good faith consistent with all of the applicable rules required by the contract,” Olsen wrote in the letter. “Please know that we are fully committed to our great staff and will proceed with transparency, and more importantly, with compassion.”The teachers’ contract with the district expired in July 2024. Their negotiations for a new one have been ongoing since January 2024, according to the Rutland Herald. “We’ve been without a new contract for close to the whole school year, and the effect that has on the morale of teachers going in every day, it’s incredibly difficult,” Tanen said. “They give every part of their being to make these kids’ days everything that they can be. And so it’s incredibly frustrating that we’re still here and that we’re not done.”Neither Olsen nor the school board’s head of contract negotiations responded immediately to requests for comment.Read the story on VTDigger here: Rutland school district contract negotiations lead to staff layoffs . ...read more read less