The Salem school secretaries union is just about ready to file a Superior Court petition asking that an item for a vote on renegotiated raises be placed on the September primary ballot.

Jack Brouse of the National Education Association, who is representing the secretaries union in the collective bargaining process, said the petition was to be filed, hopefully, on Monday, July 7.

In March, a warrant article asking voters’ permission to spend a total of $31,830 in raises and benefit cost increases failed by 52 votes.

That amount would have included a 2.5 percent pay increase for the 22 members of the Salem Educational Personnel Association. Since then, the negotiation process was taken up again, and the Salem School Board has approved a contract that includes a pay increase of 2 percent.

In order to get the salary increase in place, the secretaries have to return to the voters. The only option left open at this point is to put the item on the primary ballot, which would cost no more than the price of the ink, Brouse said, because the polls would already be open for voters coming to vote in the primaries.

Voters also turned down a warrant article which, if approved, would have authorized the School Board to call a special meeting to reconsider the raises in the event they and several other articles on the ballot failed in a 2,737-to-2,010 vote.

For that reason, the School Board cannot hold a special town meeting to reconsider the raises, as towns such as Pelham and Hampstead have done in the past, Brouse said.

“This is really kind of uncharted waters,” Brouse said. “We would have to go through all the steps. There would have to be a deliberative session held, and I believe (the contract) would need submission to the Budget Committee at that point,” Brouse said.

After the petition’s submission to Superior Court, a hearing would be scheduled within the next few weeks.

Brouse said the town has always voted favorably on raises for the most part, and said this is the first time secretaries’ raises have been voted down in the town.

A Superior Court decision on whether the extra ballot item would be allowed on the primary ballot should be forthcoming by the end of July.