SOUTH KINGSTOWN — The union representing the district’s school bus drivers voted this week to strike, but when that strike would occur — if at all — remained unclear yesterday.

Representatives of the school district, the union and bus contractor DATTCO, the drivers’ employer, yesterday gave differing versions of what’s next after the members of Teamsters Local 251 voted to strike at a heated meeting at the American Legion hall Wednesday night.

According to shop steward Tracie Warren, the union will strike Monday if the bus company doesn’t present a new contract proposal by tomorrow night.

But Cliff Gibson, chief operating officer for DATTCO, left a phone message late yesterday afternoon saying that the strike had been postponed to next Wednesday to give the company time to forward a proposal that could then be reviewed by the union.

Supt. Robert Hicks said yesterday he had been assured by Teamsters representative Brian Carroll that the drivers would not strike as long as talks were under way and that he’d been told the union forwarded DATTCO a proposal yesterday morning.

The company had not received a proposal from the union, according to Gibson’s message. Carroll did not return a phone call placed to his East Providence office.

Warren said she was not aware of such conversations, repeating that the union representing 36 drivers and 26 aides and monitors had voted to strike.

The School Department will keep parents informed through its telephone alert system, Hicks said. He added that he had received calls that drivers of the district’s 44 buses had told children about their intentions to strike. Hicks objected to children being used to communicate the drivers’ positions.

“I am hoping and expecting that people will keep talking and that reasonable heads will prevail and the education of our children will not be disrupted,” he said.

The rank and file rejected DATTCO’s contract proposal, 29 to 17, at Wednesday’s meeting, Warren said. It was the first proposal the union had received, but was presented as “last and final,” she said.

“No one wants to do this, obviously,” Warren said yesterday. “If it has to be done, it has to be done.”

A major sticking point, Warren said, was that DATTCO presented the union a four-year offer, but a majority of members did not want to enter into a contract longer than three years. They also sought an unpaid personal day and a paid snow day, and the opportunity to contribute to retirement plans, she said.

Their 401k accounts were frozen when members voted to unionize in 2002, she said. They have not been able to contribute to their retirement since.

“We’d like to contribute to our retirement,” Warren said. “We’re looking for respect from the company. We just feel we don’t receive respect.”

While DATTCO’s proposal brought local salaries more in line with neighboring towns, it still came in slightly shy of other districts, she said. She criticized DATTCO for being willing to pay fill-in drivers more than its full-time drivers.

She attributed the driver shortages the district has experienced in the past year to low wages and paltry benefits being offered by the company. The contract proposal did not include raises to its new drivers for a year, she said.

DATTCO, meanwhile, is involved in a dispute with the district about whether the New Britain, Conn.-based company is obligated to extend its contract with the town for two more years.

In 2005, the School Committee awarded DATTCO a three-year contract to transport the district’s 4,300 students, with a two-year extension. The company alerted the district in December that it could not follow through with the extension because the deal did not account for diesel fuel prices jumping 200 percent, according to Gibson. The contract did not allow for fuel adjustments.

The district accepted new bids for the busing contract last month. DATTCO, which has held the contract since 2002, and First Student Inc. submitted bids for three-year deals that could be extended two more years, at the district’s discretion, under the new specifications.

DATTCO’s price would be $3 million for 2008-09, $3.3 million in the next year and $3.7 million the year after, according to district business manager John Ritchotte. The total cost over the full five years, if the district chose to renew after three years, would be $18 million.

First Student, which provided local bus service for a decade previously, has proposed $17.8 million over five years. It would charge $3.3 million in the first year and $3.5 million and $3.6 million in the next two years.

The district has budgeted transportation costs for the 2008-09 fiscal year at $2.7 million, at least $300,000 short of DATTCO’s proposal and $600,000 shy of First Student’s.

The district has taken the position that DATTCO is obligated to fulfill the remaining two years and that the choice to extend or not extend the current contract lies with the School Committee. Gibson disagrees.

Bid specifications in the contract reached in 2005 read: “The South Kingstown School Department also reserves the right to negotiate an extension of this contract with the successful company that is selected.” The agreement terms state that the contract runs through Aug. 31 with a “two-year option for extension based on service and/or pricing.”

In addition, it states that the district has the right to secure alternate transportation at DATTCO’s expense should a strike occur.

The two sides are talking about “what the terms and conditions would be” to release DATTCO from the contract, according to Hicks.

The School Committee in executive session on Tuesday authorized Hicks to take legal action against DATTCO, if need be.

“We’re certainly not going to have children pay for corporate decision-making that they now have buyer’s regret,” committee Chairman Dr. Anthony Mega said.

kmulvane@projo.com