Contract negotiations between the All-Island School Committee and school secretaries have stalled and will go to mediation at the end of the month, Vineyard Schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss announced this week.

“It’s taking far too long,” Mr. Weiss told Island newspapers on Monday afternoon. “This is my second negotiation with these groups, and we’ve never even come close to mediation with any other group. This is a unique circumstance.”

Talks have been under way between the two sides for seven months.

The secretaries’ present contract expired June 30. Both sides are working toward a three-year contract. The previous contract included a three per cent salary increase each year plus an extra step and five per cent increase for people at the top step in the final year of the contract.

There are five separate bargaining units in the public school system. The school committee reached multi-year agreements with teachers and cafeteria workers in September, and is currently in negotiations with para-professionals.

The Massachusetts Teachers Association represents nearly 30 secretaries in Vineyard schools. Mr. Weiss said the school committee is offering the professional clerical workers multi-year contracts with cost of living increases similar to those accepted by Island teachers in addition to step increases already in place, although he was not specific. He did say that under the proposal, secretaries would retain four weeks paid vacation and in the second year of the contract would move from the indemnity health insurance plan to a less expensive PPO or HMO coverage.

A union spokesman for the secretaries declined to comment.

A state-appointed mediator will come to the Vineyard on Oct. 26 and meet with the groups; the mediator will split her time between secretaries in one room and the school committee in another. If no agreement is reached under mediation, the next step is fact-finding followed by nonbinding arbitration.

The secretaries are a separate unit under the Martha’s Vineyard Regional Teachers and Educators Association (representing the high school and up-Island schools) and the Martha’s Vineyard Education Association (representing the down-Island schools).

Representatives for the school committee include Priscilla Sylvia, David Rossi, Susan Parker, Roxanne Ackerman, Skip Manter, Ron DiOrio, Richard Willams, Fred Condon and Joan Borkow.