This picture really summarizes how things are going in our school district thanks to the problems we are having with getting a teachers' contract. I truly feel that both sides do want to find a resolution so we can get back to the way things are supposed to be, but the school committee and the teachers are facing off, two sides of the same coin. Neither is happy about the situation, but they can't seem to find a way to come to some sort of resolution.

Last night as part of a pretty thorough meeting with a lot going on, the school committee looked a contract proposal put together by the mediator that was hired to bring the two sides back together. The teachers actually ratified the contract. The school committee got a chance to respond to that.

They had taken some time to review the figures with the town's treasury department and the major problem is that there does not seem to be enough money to pay for the contract proposal over the course of all three years. As a result, the committee received the proposal and tabled it. They then voted to request a new mediator because this year long process seems to have failed with the current one and the two sides seem further apart than ever.

It is really a sad thing.