By Ellie Fellers,Special to the Sun Journal

GRAY – A tentative agreement between the SAD 15 board and the Gray-New Gloucester Teachers Union is in the works.

Superintendent Victoria Burns said the lapsed contract that ended last June will be resolved once the teachers union and the school board approve a final contract.

A tentative agreement between the parties must be approved by the district’s 150 teachers, librarians and nurses.

Burns plans to meet this week with Michelle Adler, president of the Gray-New Gloucester Teachers Union, to review each part of the agreement.

Then the teachers will vote to adopt the contract, followed by a school board vote.

Adler said by telephone on Wednesday that details of any pending contract are not ready to be released to the public.

However, union members may vote on the contract offer before next week’s school board meeting if all the details can be finalized.

“I hope to be able to shore things up by the end of the week,” she said.

Burns said that part of the impasse dealt with teacher preparation time in light of increasing duties under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

She said school policy gives teachers time to prepare for student teaching responsibilities, and it was never the board’s intention to remove that provision for the teaching staff.

The next regular school board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1, at Stimson Hall in Gray.

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