Tentative agreement reached

We have reached a tentative agreement with our VAESP labor partners.

This tentative agreement was reached through both sides’ strong commitments to our students and community. After many days of both bargaining teams putting in hours of calculations, tough conversations, and a lot of give-and-take, we believe we have arrived at our shared goal: a fair contract.

There are a couple of next steps until everything is final. The broader VAESP membership will vote on whether to approve (ratify) the agreement later this month. If they vote to approve (ratify) it, our school board will review and vote on whether to approve it during their next board meeting on October 14.

We’re thankful for our staff, families, and community who’ve stuck with us during this process. While a few steps remain, this tentative agreement is good news for all of us.

VAESP negotiations update

Families, staff, and students may have many questions about the ongoing labor negotiations with our VAESP educational support professionals. 

Negotiations can feel uncertain, and we want to respect the bargaining process while also answering all the questions we can. 

Many thanks to our VPS families and community for your patience, care, and support of our students and staff during this time.

Questions

This FAQ addresses common questions we receive about the bargaining process. If you have other questions that can be answered factually, objectively and with respect to our bargaining process we’ll be happy to address them here as well. 

Please email your questions to questions@vansd.org

Frequently asked questions

If a strike happens, school would be paused. Families would need to arrange child care during that time. We know this is challenging, so we are sharing information now so families can plan. 

If a strike happens, breakfast and lunch will be provided to our students each day. We will provide details on where and when these will be available to you. 

Bargaining can be a complicated process that is sometimes circular and back-and-forth. The contract is like a pie. There is a set amount of money and work hours in the contract (pie). If we offer more in one area (for example, adding staff), that means there is less available to increase another area (like salaries).

Because this takes so much back and forth to figure out how everything can fit within the limits of the limited resources (pie), contract negotiations typically take a long time between any union and employer. These negotiations also have to work around the fact that members of both bargaining teams are also working their usual jobs.

The length of time does not mean that anyone is not respecting the importance of these negotiations. We deeply respect our VAESP labor partners and appreciate schools cannot run without these staff. 

Bargaining is especially difficult right now because our current funding does not match today’s real world costs to run a school. We are all left to try to find a way to make sure our students and staff get what they need, and deserve, even with our very limited resources. Both the VAESP and VPS teams are working hard to find an agreement.

Running our schools in their current status today is costing more money than we receive from our funding sources (federal funding, state funding and local levy taxes). We have been having to take money out of our savings just to keep our schools functioning in a way that meets the current legal and moral obligations we have to our students and staff. 

Current projections are that our savings will drop to about $195,000 by the end of the school year. That is very small for a school district our size, and could put us at risk of the state stepping in and recommending closure of programs or even schools. 

As early as last spring, we began sharing that more cuts will be needed at the end of this year even if no costs increase. 

Our goal in our labor negotiations is to reduce the impact of these inevitable cuts even in the face of many challenges. We remain committed to negotiating in good faith and believe we can still find a fair contract solution that honors our staff while keeping our schools strong and financially sustainable.

No, our bargaining teams do not receive extra pay for their time bargaining. 

You can learn more about our 2025-26 budget on this webpage. We also usually give a budget update each month during our board meeting. We will begin creating a webpage for the 2026-27 budget in the near future.