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ABOUT US

Working for Vermont Schools

The employer commissioners negotiate school employee healthcare benefits on behalf of all Vermont school boards. Our primary goal is to negotiate high quality healthcare benefits for education employees (teachers, support staff and administrators) at a cost that is reasonable to school districts and Vermont taxpayers. Decisions that are made at the bargaining table will have a significant impact on the future affordability of the healthcare plans that are available to all school employees. Healthcare benefits should be affordable for both the employee and Vermont taxpayers, who ultimately are the employers.

Deeper Dive

 

Act 11 of 2018 created the Commission on Public School Employee Health Benefits. It consists of 5 members appointed by the VSBA, 4 members appointed by Vermont NEA and 1 member appointed by AFSCME. The Act requires that ALL school employees move toward the same health insurance benefit. The Act also specifies the parameters of bargaining which includes the potential for binding arbitration if the sides are unable to come to an agreement during negotiations. The binding arbitration process requires the arbitrator to select the "last, best offer" submitted by either the employer commissioners or the employee commissioners. The arbitrator is not allowed to mix & match aspects of either sides proposals into a final award.

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