BALTIMORE — The Baltimore City Public School System and the Baltimore Teachers Union did not agree on a new compensation and promotion ladder for teachers before a state deadline requires one to be in place.

School districts across Maryland need a revamped career ladder by Monday under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan. After failed rounds of negotiations over Baltimore’s teacher career ladder, the union and school system have reached an impasse, launching a mediation process that could take months to resolve.

“We’re not going to have one,” Zach Taylor, the union’s director of research and negotiations, said Friday of an agreement by the deadline. “We’ve already filed formal impasse papers.”

The state Public Employee Relations Board will now consider the impasse request, Taylor said.

The new four-step Blueprint career ladder aims to offer more ways for teachers to become school leaders and advance their careers and salaries faster. Teachers’ ability to do that largely depends on whether they have their National Board Certification, a rigorous credential through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

A sticking point in negotiations in the school district’s proposal is that board-certified teachers take on additional responsibilities to earn the raise, without specifying what those responsibilities are, Taylor said. Under the Blueprint, National Board-certified teachers will receive a $10,000 raise and up to a $17,000 raise if they work in high-needs schools.

“[District officials] are just going to say, ‘You have to do more work later, and we get to decide what that is.’ I can tell you no place is doing that,” Taylor said. “That’s not what state law says. That’s not what any of our neighboring districts are going to do.”

The district’s current career pathway, a system started in 2010, ended Sunday, leaving the process for teachers to earn a promotion or pay raise unclear. The missed deadline also means the Blueprint’s Accountability & Implementation Board, a powerful state entity that enforces the very specific reform, can’t approve Baltimore City’s plan for how to implement the Blueprint.

Maryland’s 24 school districts submitted two-part implementation plans this past spring and are in the process of updating them with the board’s feedback. If a school district’s plans aren’t approved, the accountability board could withhold 25% of state funding. Districts can appeal the decision to withhold funds.

“Under that process, the AIB would issue a warning, and by February, the board would make a decision on withholding funding,” said Rachel Hise, executive director of the board. “That would trigger an appeals process.”

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