WESTERLY - District educators are entering a third month of work without a contract, with negotiations between the teachers' union and School Committee scheduled to continue tonight.

Westerly School Committee Chairman James Murano Jr. said the school board and Westerly Teachers' Association's negotiating teams are scheduled to enter interest arbitration on Wednesday if a final agreement is not reached tonight.

This means both sides would present proposals to an arbitrator, who would decide what provisions to include in the final contract.

Westerly has reached what the teachers' union president described as a "contract stalemate." Murano said the union and school board have reached agreements in some areas, while they have been unable to reach common ground on a "few items."

Neighboring Stonington and Chariho school districts both ratified new teachers' contracts last week.

The district's previous three-year pact expired Aug. 31 and teams representing the two parties have been holding formal, closed-door negotiations since July 20. A state Department of Labor and Training-appointed mediator has been participating in the talks since August.

Donna Allinson, president of the roughly 300-member Westerly Teachers' Association, did not return a call to comment.

In an Oct. 29 letter to the editor published in The Sun, Allinson said the teachers' union is not negotiating publicly.

"The WTA has prided itself in playing by the rules of a contract negotiation. Negotiations, as they are currently run, are done privately. While the dates and times of the negotiation meetings are posted, the actual negotiations are not done in the public arena," she wrote.

She wrote it would be "unprofessional" to discuss the economic package being negotiated, and the union "absolutely understands the economic climate the entire country is facing and has not once lost sight of this during the course of negotiations."

But an interview Allinson gave the Westerly High School student newspaper sheds some light on the union's negotiating stance - specifically its bid for a pay raise, or step increase, this fiscal year.

"The School Committee had very strict budget constraints. They did not have a budget for a step increase. We've had to figure out how to pay our own step increase," Allinson is quoted as saying in the Oct. 2 story.

The School Committee has said this fiscal year's $49.37-million school budget does not include money for teacher pay raises.

The board also went into the negotiations calling for teachers to pay more toward their health and dental coverage, support a restructured health insurance plan and agree to a new teacher evaluation system.

It's unknown if common ground has been reached in any of these areas.

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