Two weeks before schools open in many communities, a third of Rhode Island’s school districts still lack new teacher contracts, including two of the largest in the state, Cranston and Providence.

Tensions in at least two districts — Burrillville and Tiverton — are running so high, it seems unlikely a compromise will be reached in either town before classes begin, raising concern about possible teacher strikes or so-called “work to rule” actions.

In all, 13 districts have failed to reach an agreement this summer, including 4 that have gone a year without a new contract: Burrillville, Exeter-West Greenwich, Providence and Tiverton. The others still unresolved are: Bristol-Warren, Cranston, East Providence, Glocester, Johnston, Little Compton, Newport, Scituate and Smithfield.

The number of districts heading into the school year without contracts could have been even higher, but five districts — Central Falls, Foster, Lincoln, Portsmouth and South Kingstown — signed agreements earlier this year.

The number of unresolved contracts is the largest that education leaders can remember. They say the state’s fiscal crisis has made reaching a deal in some communities more difficult — contributing to the high number of districts without contracts.

This year, in an effort to bridge a $425-million deficit, lawmakers did not grant an across-the-board increase in state education aid as they have in past years, essentially level-funding the districts even as energy costs and salaries continue to rise. Meanwhile, districts are also feeling the effects of the second year of Senate Bill 3050, which limits the amount they can increase property taxes. This year, communities are allowed to increase property taxes by only 4.75 percent, down from 5 percent last year.

Also, new state initiatives, such as the high school diploma system, have cost districts money. Health-care costs continue to grow, with many districts asking teachers to pay a larger portion of their health-insurance premiums.

“So I’m not surprised there is a disproportionate number [of un-ratified contracts] this year,” said Peter McWalters, the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education.

School committees and teacher unions now have less wiggle room, especially when negotiating contentious issues such as raises and health insurance, McWalters said.

Some districts are pursuing shorter contracts, such as Portsmouth, which settled a one-year contract with its teachers in the spring, and Providence, which is negotiating a two-year contract with its new superintendent, Tom Brady.

“What is sobering is that no one knows how much state aid they will get next year, so people don’t want to promise what they don’t have,” said Tim Duffy, executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Committees. “We have no state education formula to help predict what communities will receive, and it’s possible that if the state’s financial situation doesn’t improve, the legislature could reduce state aid to education a year from now. We just don’t know.”

In addition to financial pressures, past history, personality clashes and other tensions can derail contract negotiations. “In good or bad years, there is still a local element to this that is temperamental and idiosyncratic,” McWalters said.

Larry Purtill, president of National Education Association Rhode Island, said there is no reason a contract dispute should go to a second year. In Tiverton, for example, animosity is so strong between the School Committee and the teachers union, an agreement will be difficult to reach by the start of school, he said. In contrast, South Kingstown’s contract was settled early, in part because of the experience of Supt. Robert A. Hicks and the willingness of the School Committee and teachers to compromise, he said.

“People have to want to get it done,” Purtill said.

Tensions rose to the surface last year, when teachers went on strike in Burrillville, Tiverton and East Greenwich. In West Warwick, teachers agreed to do only the bare minimum required by contract, an action called work to rule.

McWalters said work to rule is more damaging to students and teachers than strikes because work to rule can drag out for years and students often don’t receive services they need, such as extra help after school or college recommendations.

In response to the strikes, Governor Carcieri convened a task force, chaired by Robert G. Flanders Jr., chairman of the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education. The task force was charged with recommending improvements to the contract-negotiation process, in hopes of avoiding strikes and work actions.

The group met for several months, but its proposal to strengthen state law to explicitly prohibit strikes and work-to-rule actions failed to gain traction and was never introduced as legislation in the General Assembly, McWalters said.

Current state law is murky on teacher strikes. Teachers say the law does not outright prohibit strikes; education officials disagree.

“So now we have what we’ve had for years. We don’t have a right to strike in this state, but at the same time, teachers can have a work action and then be ordered back to work by a judge,” McWalters said.

McWalters says the Regents will look at clarifying their own regulations as a way to improve the teacher-contract process.

But for now, students, teachers and parents in 13 districts wait to see how negotiations will play out.

Unsettled contracts