MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) – Eight schools in the Northeast Kingdom planned to close early today if teachers start picketing.

Teachers in the Orleans Central Supervisory Union were preparing Wednesday afternoon to go on strike at 6:30 a.m., said Cindy Smith, a chief union negotiator and a teacher at Lake Region Union High School. Elementary schools in Albany, Barton, Brownington, Irasburg, Glover and Orleans, Lake Region Union High School in Barton and the Family Education Center, an early childhood program in Barton, will close midday if teachers strike, said Superintendent Ron Paquette.

“We are running school until 11:30 (a.m.) because we are worried about the safety of all of the children and exposure of the children to unnecessary conflict,” Paquette said Wednesday.

School normally ends between 2:45 p.m. and 3:15 p.m., he said.

The Orleans Central Education Association voted last week to strike beginning on Thursday if a contract agreement was not reached.