The Teton Education Association (TEA), which is the area’s local teachers union, and the Teton school district have been unable to agree on a master contract for teachers. The groups will now try mediation to resolve the issue.

The main sticking points in the debate involve salary schedules and pay raises for teachers. Reports from the last negotiation session in mid-June were that the groups were still far apart from agreement. Either side had the option of beginning the mediation process if it seemed that negotiations were going nowhere, and that is now where they are headed.

The school district was hoping to tie the salary schedule to the state’s career ladder. The ladder lists how much the state gives to the district for salaries and representatives from the district stated if the two were not tied together it would cause the district to lose money that could otherwise go toward student programs. It was this salary discussion that caused negotiations to break down, though TEA claimed they were offended by the district’s lawyer and claimed his actions were punitive. Some reports were that the attorney wanted language in the contract that teachers could not spend the school day conducting union business.

There is currently no time line in place for the upcoming negotiation, but if an agreement is not reached by July the district will have to abide by last year’s contract until a new deal is reached.  Several issues up for debate had already been settled when the impasse was hit.