The Wiscasset School Committee on Monday passed the proposed next contract with the teachers’ union. The 5-0 vote followed a brief closed-door session of the committee.

The union had yet to vote on the pact but was expected to soon, Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot said. A union leader did not immediately return an email request for comment.

Teachers make up 67.5 jobs in the department, according to Wilmot.

As with a support staff contract that passed recently, the teachers’ one is a fair agreement that meets both the department’s and teachers’ interests,  Wilmot said. And as with the support staff, the teachers have been working under a contract that dates to when Wiscasset was part of Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12, Wilmot said.

“These were long negotiations that started way before I came on board,” she said. A collaborative approach was used, Wilmot said about the process that led to the contract.

“It was a lot easier to vote on than it was to negotiate,” Committee Chairman Steve Smith said. “I’d like to thank the teachers union for meeting with us on many occasions one-on-one.”

One of the reasons the talks took so long was that the parties started from scratch instead of the contract teachers had with the district, Smith said. Now it and the support staff contracts will be unique to Wiscasset, he said.

Wilmot said neither contract’s points will be released until the lawyers have completed the final documents for the parties to sign.

Diploma approved

The committee also had a short executive session resulting in a public vote to posthumously award a diploma to class of 2016 member Ryan Mullens. The Whitefield teen died in 2014 of injuries in an ATV accident.