WEST GREENWICH — Negotiators for the Exeter-West Greenwich School Committee and the teachers union will resume mediated contract talks on Monday after a month-long lull, with both sides hopeful for a settlement before the start of the schools’ summer break.

“I’m encouraged of where we are at the moment,” said John Leidecker, a lawyer for National Education Association Rhode Island, the parent organization for the 210-member union.

Monday’s session is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. in NEARI headquarters, in Cranston, with state-appointed mediator Matthew T. Oliverio. Leidecker said, however, that he and Vincent Ragosta, the School Committee’s lawyer, have been communicating informally on a few issues since the bargaining teams last met, on March 31.

“I’m hopeful we have taken some steps in the right direction to bridge the gaps. I think the [School] Committee and the teachers union have made strides. Both parties are looking forward to preserving their interest, but are trying to accommodate what the other seeks,” Leidecker said.

The teachers have been without a contract since last Aug. 31, when the last, three-year pact expired. In February, after months of negotiations produced little progress toward a settlement, teachers adopted a “work-to-rule” stance, performing only those duties outlined in the last contract and shunning many voluntary after-school activities and programs.

The school district, which has an enrollment of nearly 2,000 students, has felt the impact of that stance, officials have said.

Obstacles to a settlement remain salaries and health care, according to Ragosta, the schools’ lawyer.

“We are not going to compromise our objective for responsible bargaining in the expediency of a settlement,” Ragosta said. “We will put our best foot forward [Monday] and move this to closure.”

Maureen Pontarelli, president of the Exeter-West Greenwich Education Association, agreed that salaries and benefit packages are still the “bread and butter issues” yet to be resolved.

“Everything is on the table. Everything has to be looked at with an open mind,” Pontarelli said yesterday. “We continue to exchange proposals, inching our way back and forth toward a settlement. I think the outstanding issues [and] the unresolved issues are still significant in number.”

lsparks@projo.com