YOUNGSTOWN — Parents of Youngstown schools students Thursday implored the administration to “get our children back to school.”

A Thursday negotiating session between the Youngstown City School District and the Youngstown Education Association was canceled, however, while the union polishes its newest proposal, aimed at ending the three-week-long strike.

Striking teachers still lined East High Avenue for most of the day, and some of them remained for a 5 p.m. meeting for parents.

Standing at the East High School parking lot entrance, union members used bullhorns to update parents on the latest in the contract negotiations.

Sharon King, a special education and autism teacher, spoke while Linda Soto translated her comments into Spanish.

King told parents the YEA is making sacrifices at the negotiating table to end the strike and get students back in schools. She told parents that the union is establishing a group chat online to keep the community updated on negotiations.

“We need to get in touch with every parent in this community, because you are deserving and you are entitled to free public education,” she said.

King gave parents the opportunity to ask questions or comment.

Nayda Olma spoke through Soto.

“Parents, please speak up. Our children need to be back in school,” she said. Olma has a 9-year-old daughter with special needs, and she said her child is suffering outside her proper and necessary learning environment.

“I’m begging (Superintendent Jeremy) Batchelor, please listen to our parents and get our children back to school.”

Other parents spoke to The Vindicator.

Anita Dickey said her son is autistic and also needs the security provided by his teacher to learn.

“His teachers got him where he needs to be,” she said. “We love our teachers. They’re part of our family. They love my son as much as I do.”

Her husband, Kenneth Dickey, criticized Batchelor.

“Tyranny. That desribes Jeremy Batchelor to a T,” he said. Dickey said the system under which the district operated under a state academic distress commission has not worked, and so it does not make sense for Batchelor to have the same power as the CEO did.

He said Batchelor is abusing his power.

“Nobody should be able to hold students and teachers hostage, and that’s exactly what he’s doing,” Dickey said.

Union spokesperson Jim Courim said negotiations will resume at 11 a.m. today.

CONTENTION

One of the major points of contention between the union and district is contract language left over from the state takeover of the district in 2012. The union says the board is interpreting that language to give Batchelor the same degree of authority as the CEO of the academic distress commission that ran the district completely until July of last year.

King said Batchelor stated publicly that this section of the contract had been removed, per YEA’s insistence.

“That did not happen,” she said.

King said the YEA presented its updated proposal, but did not receive the settlement offer from the board. She also said the board’s negotiators spent little time engaging with the union Wednesday.

Negotiating business began at 12:30 p.m. and paused for the union’s 4 p.m. membership meeting, before resuming at 6:30 p.m. and concluding shortly after 8 p.m.

“Our negotiating team spent a total of eight hours in the East High School library, but the school district’s negotiators only met with YEA for a total of 21 minutes,” she said. “How can the students be their priority if they can only give 21 minutes?”

Earlier in the day, district spokesperson Stacey Quinones criticized the union for calling off the day’s talks.

“Our team was at East and ready and more than willing to negotiate,” she said. “At this point, we would welcome a trained mediator to help us through this process, which has to be mutually agreed upon by both parties.”

Courim said the district did send a proposal to the YEA late on Wednesday, and the union needed Thursday to formulate its counterproposal.