YOUNGSTOWN — A state board has ruled that a teachers strike in Youngstown is legal.

The ruling from the State Employment Relations Board came Friday afternoon, following a 10 a.m. hearing to determine whether the Youngstown Education Association was within its rights to strike after failed attempts at negotiations with Youngstown City School District officials.

Teachers voted to strike Monday and were on the picket lines Wednesday, as the school year was set to begin. The district filed a complaint with SERB earlier this week, arguing that the union went on strike without participating in state-mandated fact finding.

According to a document from SERB outlining its ruling, the YEA has maintained that its contract includes a mutually agreed-upon dispute settlement procedure (MAD) that supersedes the fact-finding obligation under Ohio Revised Code. YEA says the contract only requires a mediation process, which the union says it fulfilled.

The school board stipulates that the MAD exists in the contract, but argued that it does not allow for the YEA to forgo fact-finding in negotiations.

The district’s complaint asked SERB to declare the strike unauthorized, and to grant a stay until the parties could determine the validity of the MAD in rendering the fact-finding process unnecessary. The district argued that it could only be determined through a SERB hearing, not through the process outlined under ORC regarding collective bargaining.

SERB found, however, that even the cases YCSD presented in its argument show that SERB can allow for the determination of a MAD’s validity through that ORC negotiating process.

The board also found that while the bargaining parties can abandon the MAD in favor of other processes, by means of a joint filing with SERB, their separate filings about the fact-finding process — and YEA’s subsequent retraction of its filing — do not constitute a joint request.

The ruling states the school district has the burden of proving that a strike is unauthorized, and SERB found that YCSD did not meet that burden.

YEA spokesman Jim Courim said the union is pleased and expects talks to resume.

“We’re happy about the outcome. We knew it was going to happen because we had checked all of our boxes, we did what we were supposed to do,” he said. “Now it’s time for the district to do what it’s supposed to — come back to the table and hammer out a fair contract for our community, our students, and our staff.

At a special meeting at 5 p.m. Friday, the board immediately went into executive session, and stayed there for just over an hour. After board members emerged, President Tiffany Patterson said the board will be reaching out to the YEA to resume negotiations, and the meeting adjourned.

Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor spoke after the meeting.

“Obviously we’re disappointed that we weren’t able to get it to the point where we feel like, statutorily, we should be, but we respect the decision of the Employment Relations Board,” he said. “Now we will just try to continue to work through the process. We’ve always said we want our teachers in school.”

Tensions remain high between the two sides. The district has filed a temporary restraining order against the union, alleging that picketing teachers have been blocking entrance points at the schools.

Batchelor said picketing teachers have blocked entry ways at the district’s central kitchen, warehouse and bus garage, preventing the delivery of food and supplies.

“Now we have companies calling to say that they’re not going to deliver because they’re being accosted when they come. That’s not part of the process. We respect the right to picket, but that’s not part of the process,” he said. “We’re looking at options to get that to stop. It’s something we have to do. We need to be able to get our buses out for our nonpublic and parochial students, and if we don’t do that, we can be fined.”

Some parents confronted Batchelor after the meeting, asking how the district intends to serve students with special needs who must be in classrooms.

Batchelor told them there are teachers and programs available to meet the students’ needs during the strike, and told them to call his office. Some said they have called his office and have received no response. Batchelor said he would look into it over the weekend.