FLORENCE — A yearlong dispute over teachers' salaries in Boone County Schools may be coming to an end, after teachers threatened to picket this week's school board meeting.

        The teachers union and the school board have been haggling over raises for the current school year since last spring. The teachers want more money, but the board has said its pockets are empty.

        However, a settlement is expected this week, school and union officials said, a month before negotiations are scheduled to begin for next year.

        Union leaders are scheduled to meet with the school board Thursday night. Both sides have said they hope to reach a tentative agreement before the meeting.

        If that happens, union leaders would ask teachers to stop a demonstration planned last week at a meeting of about 350 teachers.

        “Just the hours and the dedication of these people is amazing,” said Debbie Wooten, president of the Boone County Education Association, the teachers union.

        “You can see lights in these buildings all hours of the night and weekends ... We just need something little to say, "We appreciate you.' That's all we're asking.”

        Boone County teachers are among the highest-paid in the state. The district's average salary in 1999-2000 was $37,073, ranking 20th out of 176 districts.

        Union and district officials began negotiating teacher raises for the 2000-01 school year last March.

        Teachers so far have received a 2.2 percent cost-of-living increase mandated by the state and an additional raise, averaging 1.9 percent, based on their

        experience.

        However, the union is asking for an additional $300.

        That's reasonable, Superintendent Bryan Blavatt said. The board would like to pay teachers more, but money is tight, he said.

        The teachers “do a great job. Nobody denies that,” he said. “We're under some pretty strong financial constraints.”

        However, district leaders may have found a way to meet the teachers' demands by reallocating some state funds, Mr. Blavatt said.

        Some teachers also fear that their contract is in jeopardy. They want more than a bigger raise; they want a promise that the board is not going to dissolve their bargaining agreement — fears that school district leaders say are unfounded.

        Boone County is one of only a dozen districts in Kentucky with bargaining agreements, where teachers and school boards negotiate contracts that include details about job conditions, salaries and benefits. Kenton County and Newport Independent Schools are the only other Northern Kentucky districts with such agreements.

        Kentucky does not have a collective bargaining bill, which would require school boards to allow employees to negotiate a contract. Some boards, such as Boone County, have agreed to collective bargaining, but they can also dissolve the contracts at any time.

        Mr. Blavatt said the disagreement over salaries doesn't mean the board is considering doing away with the contract.

        “There's never been any discussion of that,” he said. “There's no move afoot from the board and certainly not from the superintendent. That's ridiculous.”

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