With talks in arbitration, Superintendent Philip Thornton is hopeful schools will have a teacher contract before the end of the academic year.

Thornton said a full-day “preliminary” meeting was held Dec. 16 at the Airport Radisson Hotel. A second meeting is set for Jan. 5, at which time the parties are expected to call witnesses as they step through each aspect of the contract.

By state statute, the process can take no longer than 20 days, at which time the panel – comprised of an arbitrator favorable to the union, one favorable to the school committee, and an impartial arbitrator – has 10 days to put forth a report. At that point, the findings become public, a factor that Thornton finds important because what the School Committee has offered and the counter offers of the union have only been talked about in general terms.

“To the extent possible, we’re trying to expedite this,” Thornton said.

The previous contract expired with the start of school this year. And while union leaders say the membership did not take a vote, teachers have basically followed a “work to rule” practice, performing only what is required of them under the terms of the expired agreement.

For the most part, teachers did not attend school open houses at the start of the year and are not coming into school prior to the hour specified by contract, or staying after school.

With the consolidation of schools resulting from declining school enrollment – this is the last year for Gorton and Aldrich junior high schools and Vets High School – the committee is looking for greater latitude to lay off teachers, which is now set at a limit of 20. With the closing of the two junior highs, Vets will be re-purposed as a junior high next fall. The plan is to convert it and Winman into middle schools with grades six through eight in the fall of 2017.

A provision the committee is also looking to change is Warwick’s unique system of weighting students with individual education programs, or IEPs. Students with IEPs – making up more than 20 percent of the student population – count as more than one student when calculating class sizes, which are also set by contract.

Teachers have found a sympathetic ear from parents, who fear elimination of weighting could result in larger classes and the loss of individualized instruction. At Norwood School, parents joined teachers to parade in front of the school with signs in opposition to larger classes.

After talks between the parties stalled this fall, they moved for mediation. When progress wasn’t being made in mediation, schools moved for arbitration.

Robert Casey, who has long worked for the Warwick Teachers Union, an American Federation of Teachers affiliate, is acting as the union arbitrator. Attorney Ron Cascione, whose firm the committee has retained for legal representation, will represent the School Committee. The parties have agreed on Michael Ryan, an arbitrator and mediator since 1984 with experience both as a union and as a management advocate, as the impartial arbitrator. Ryan is a member of the American Arbitration Association.