TIVERTON — With the labor dispute between the School Committee and the teachers’ union entering its second year, about 200 teachers are expected to report to work for orientation today under provisions of a long-standing Superior Court order that keeps them in the classroom.

Tuesday is the first day of the new school year.

Representatives of both the teachers’ union and the School Committee have sounded notes of optimism about progress in the talks in the last few weeks, although there is no tangible sign of an imminent settlement.

Meanwhile, the School Committee and the union for teacher aides, clerical workers, and custodians have agreed on a three-year contract that, on average, gives some 70 workers annual raises of 2 percent and calls for three-figure monetary increases each year in their contributions to health care.

Negotiators for the School Committee met face-to-face with representatives of the National Education Association-Tiverton last week.

Since that meeting, no new sessions have been scheduled due to a death in the family of union president Amy Mullen, according to Schools Supt. William J. Rearick.

Last week’s bargaining session signaled a change in tone in a couple of respects.

For one thing, School Committee members sat at the table, in a departure from the longstanding practice of delegating Rearick as their chief negotiator.

Secondly, both sides agreed to keep the details of negotiations private, in a departure from the practice of publicly airing differences on salaries and health insurance, the sticking points of the labor impasse.

Those public remarks had often escalated tensions between the two sides.

The School Committee had sought nonbinding arbitration, originally scheduled for May, which has been postponed several times.

Most recently, the union has told school officials it cannot meet until December — after the November election, which could affect the composition of the School Committee.

But Rearick said earlier this week that the December timeline is “unacceptable.”

“We are still trying to move it up,” he said.

In the past, the union has criticized the School Committee’s request for a nonbinding ruling, noting that the committee could reject the panel’s findings if it didn’t agree with the results.

The School Committee has insisted that the most it could afford would be annual raises of 2 percent, but the union has contended that those increases would be virtually wiped out by the committee’s demands for increased out-of-pocket contributions for health care.

In the committee’s settlement with support staff, wage increases average out to 2 percent for the entire bargaining unit, with some workers getting more or less than that, according to Douglas Fiore, the School Department’s director of administration and finance.

The 71 employees are represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

Fiore said full-time teacher aides will receive 2.5 percent a year. Year-round employees, mostly clerical workers, will get 2 percent raises, he said, and part-time teacher assistants will receive wage increases 1.5 percent annually.

Fiore said employees’ annual contributions to health insurance will increase from $900 to $1,100 in the current year and by $100 each year for the second and third years of the contract.

gmacris@projo.com