A group of New Hampshire teachers grouped under their union and the Board of Education have reached a stopping point in their negotiations for new contracts.  The Nashua Teachers Union has stated that an impasse has been reached, which means that both sides will now be sent to mediation to manage their concerns. 

Negotiations over the contract started nearly a year ago and although both sides admitted that progress had been made, they also acknowledged that neither side had moved forward on a few key issues, leading them to an impasse.  The union and the board agreed to work together to choose a mediator to assist with their issues and agreed that moving forward with mediation as soon as possible was the next option.  The contract negotiations fully started in 2011 but the impasse comes just three weeks before the contracts are scheduled to expire. 

Teachers have issues with the contracts since no raises or new contracts have been awarded in more than two years.  A closed-door meeting was recently held in an attempt to hold off a strike, although that meeting was later determined to be illegal by a Hillsborough County Superior Court judge.  The year following the temporary agreement between the two parties, the school district spent more than $3.3 million beyond that planned budget, with payroll being a leading cause for overspending. 

Although teacher contract negotiations are certainly not new subjects of disputes, mediation is increasingly being used as an option when long-term negotiations are not yielding any significant results.  Typically, parties will attempt to work together to generate their own solutions, but failing to reach a consensus through that method will generally result in mediation sessions geared towards getting a result.  Used across the spectrum as a tool of alternative dispute resolution, mediation affords many benefits to numerous parties.