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Members of the Chico Unified Teachers Association marched around City Plaza in downtown Chico...
CHICO — Contract negotiations and alleged problems with one of the newest charter schools should be big topics at Wednesday's meeting of the Chico Unified School District board of trustees.

During their regular meeting, the CUSD trustees will hear reports from representatives of the Chico Unified Teachers Association, California School Employees Association and the Chico Unified Management Association.

Negotiations between the school district and CUTA — which represents most teachers and certificated staff — have not been amicable for the last year.

Monday afternoon CUTA members, dressed in orange union T-shirts and carrying signs, rallied outside of the Chico City Council Chambers, the location of Wednesday's board meeting.

The union and the district are in the last stages of the "fact finding" process, a state-mandated procedure that began last December when the California Public Employment Relations Board declared an impasse in talks. That led to mediation, where both sides met with a state-appointed mediator in an effort to find common ground.

In August the mediator declared the effort a failure and the two sides were ordered into "fact finding."

The fact-finding program is a state-mandated step in the effort to achieve a new contract