Montpelier School Board butting heads with teachers union over next contract.

The Montpelier Exempted Village Schools Board of Education is butting heads with the teachers’ union over the teachers’ next contract. Members of the union and the Montpelier Education Association attended the meeting along with former teachers and members of the public. They had a chance to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting, which lasted nearly an hour, and they all expressed support for what they believed was a more fair contract. Much of the discussion involved teacher pay, personal time and administrator pay. The two groups met with a mediator twice already, but were unable to reach an agreement. The proposed contract would put the base pay rate for Montpelier teachers at $39,170 dollars. This would make them the third highest paid teachers in the county, behind Bryan and Edon. One of the sticking points, restricting the use of personal days to have no more than three teachers absent from the district on any given day.