YOUNGSTOWN — Last week closed with a state board ruling in favor of striking teachers and a decision by the Youngstown Board of Education to get back to the negotiating table. This week started with teachers still on picket lines with no official date for talks to resume.

The Youngstown Education Association on Sunday called for district leaders to return to the table and help end the strike.

YEA spokesman Jim Courim said he has not heard from the district about any firm meeting date, but there is speculation a negotiating session could happen in the next couple of days.

“I don’t know 100 percent. I hope they come back to the table quickly because we need to get this done and get back in the classroom. We never wanted to be on strike,” he said. “We’d like to be back to work by the end of the week, if we can just get them back to the table.”

Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

The district filed a complaint with SERB, arguing that the union went on strike without participating in state-mandated fact finding.

“It became pretty obvious to us last week that instead of looking to address the contractual issue that led us to this point, the board was putting its energy into its SERB case, hoping they could break our strike that way,” Courim said in a news release.

“Now that SERB has ruled in agreement (with the union), the board needs to redirect their energy into working with us to get the one contractual item that is prolonging this situation out of the contract,” Courim said.

The union includes approximately 450 members.

STICKING POINT

Teachers voted to strike a week ago Monday and were on the picket lines Wednesday, as the school year was set to begin.

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.

The YEA says the sticking point is contract language from 2012 that required an academic distress commission to sign off on any contractual terms between the district and union. Ohio House Bill 70 gave the state full control of the district in 2015 under a new, stronger commission until July 1, 2022.

When the state wrote new laws that voided HB 70, full control of the district returned to the board of education, Courim said.

“The board and its Columbus attorneys have attempted to twist the contract language in question to mean that the YEA contract really has no power of contract and that, essentially, the superintendent is able to determine all student learning and teacher working conditions without any check and balance,” the news release states.

Courim said Youngstown’s board has the same negotiating authority as any other school board in Ohio, and the board’s contention that it doesn’t is inaccurate.

“As soon as they agree to remove that troublesome language, this strike is over,” he said.