YOUNGSTOWN — The Youngstown Education Association, which represents more than 400 district teachers, is asking for fact-finding and plans to issue a 10-day strike notice after contract talks broke down Friday afternoon.

The two sides are “very far apart” on wages, according to a district spokeswoman.

YEA spokesman James Courim said teachers are supposed to report for the 2023-24 school year Aug. 15 and students are scheduled to return Aug. 23. However, those dates could be affected by a strike.

Courim said the teachers’ contract expired June 30 and the union started asking the Board of Education and district administrators for negotiating sessions in March. However, he said the sessions kept getting canceled by the district, and the two sides met for in-person talks for the first time May 4.

He said the YEA at that time asked for a federal mediator to assist in negotiations. However, no new in-person talks took place until Wednesday, and they continued until Friday.

“We were optimistic heading into today,” Courim said on Friday. “We are very disappointed that talks broke down.”

An emailed statement from Youngstown City School District Communications Director Stacy Quinones on Friday states, “On Friday, the Youngstown City School District completed three consecutive full days of collective bargaining with the school teachers union. The three days of bargaining were assisted by a federal mediator appointed by the FMCS (Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service). Although some major hurdles were agreed to at the table, including health insurance provisions including insurance premiums and coverage amounts, the parties remain far apart on wages.”

“Although the parties attempted a creative approach with a short one-year contract, the disparity in the amount of the raise that both sides sought was, in the district’s eyes, the biggest hurdle. The district offered its full budgeted amount at the bargaining table on the final day, which would still continue deficit spending. However, the union’s final demand was more than 2.5 times that amount. The management team for the school district pointed to the state average and the Mahoning Valley average raises as its guideposts. This offer was still not enough to keep the teachers at the bargaining table.”

Quinones said other than seeking to reflect in the contract the actual amount of student-teacher contact time that has been in effect for the past five years, the school district sought no other changes to the contract.

She said the district remains willing to continue negotiations and offered two additional dates with the assistance of the FMCS mediator, and wants to keep working on an agreement.

“The district believes that the strike notice is premature as state law next requires the parties to engage with a third-party neutral known as a fact finder. The fact finder will listen to the final offers of both parties and make a neutral assessment for both sides to consider. That neutral evaluation process called fact-finding has to begin and conclude before a strike would be allowed. The district does not believe that the issues are insurmountable but is concerned with the large gap in the raises offered by the district versus the raises sought by the union,” Quinones said in her statement.