After months of negotiations and failing to agree on a new contract, the East Moline School District and its teachers union have brought in some outside help. Monday afternoon, the two sides will meet with a federal mediator.
Rich Palmer from the East Moline Education Association says the union and district officials began meeting last April. And he thought they'd been making some progress until October.
"And then the district declared impasse which kind of put a halt to everything until a mediator could be involved. So at this point neither side can meet until the mediator is available."
The education association represents about 270 teachers and support staff. And their most recent contract, for 3 years, officially expired in August.
Palmer says the union is proposing a one year contract to replace it, with an additional cost to the district of 750,000 dollars.
