Nova Scotia teachers have once again said no to a contract offer from the provincial government. The tentative agreement was turned down Thursday by the teachers, with 78.5 per cent rejecting the deal.

The NSTU has recommended a tentative deal to its members three times, and three times the members have said no.

Union president Liette Doucet says there were improvements in the latest deal.

“Teachers are angry,” Doucet said Thursday night. “They're angry that they're not seeing cooperation from the government that would clearly improve education in Nova Scotia.”

On Friday, both the union and the government were silent on what will happen next.

In a statement Thursday night, Education Minister Karen Casey said the vote result is disappointing for students, parents and government. But the statement gave no indication of the government's next move, saying only that the province must take time to consider its next steps, leaving students and parents with more uncertainty.

Just as they have been throughout the dispute, parents seem divided.

“The teachers are really looking for better working conditions,” says parent Ian Khan. “I’m not sure if this new agreement really matched what they were looking for.”

“If they just focused on that, I think they would have had 100 per cent support from the parents,” says parent Charlotte Mendel. “But when they start talking about service awards and things like that, we start thinking, well your salaries are pretty good and it's hard for us to be sympathetic.”

Grant Frost is a teacher and NSTU’s local president for Halifax County, where more than 86 per cent of members voted no.

“I thought the vote was going to be much closer. I thought it was going to be maybe a 60-40 split,” says Frost.

Frost says he hopes the government will choose to make some changes to classrooms to start rebuilding trust.

“Anything from school improvement plans to data collection to PLC’s to standardized testing,” he says.

Moving forward, the government has a number of options - it could choose to introduce contract legislation, or lock the teachers out, or cut their pay. As of Friday, there is no word on when a decision will be made.

For now, work-to-rule is in effect and it's not clear whether negotiations will continue. The union executive will meet next week to decide what it will do next. The union could change the work-to-rule directives, or escalate to a strike.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Sarah Ritchie