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YOUNGSTOWN -- Youngstown City School District officials are considering a proposal from the Youngstown Education Association that the union hopes will end the strike, which is now entering its third week.
YEA spokesman Jim Courim said the union presented a settlement offer to the Youngstown Board of Education when the parties met at East High School to resume negotiations at 3 p.m. Monday.
Talks were continuing as of 8:30 p.m.
"We presented the proposal and we are just waiting to hear back from the district, to see what they have to say," Courim said in a news release.
The release did not include details, but the offer was said to "contain settlements on each contractual item on which agreement has not yet been reached.
"Going back to when these negotiations first began and continuing to the present, YEA deliberately brought a slim and simple proposal to the table," Courim states in the release. "These negotiations have been weighed down by countless complications, and today we're making this offer so that we can bring this whole situation to a resolution."
The release states the offer is intended to prevent "a drawn out back and forth and 'cut to the chase' of reaching full agreement. It is fair and equitable to both parties, and it represents agreements with which both parties should be able to live. Most importantly, it will enable Youngstown students to return to their classrooms as soon as possible. All it now requires are the signatures of the board's negotiations representatives."
The YEA has been on strike since Aug. 23, when the school year was scheduled to begin. At issue, the union says, is contract language relating to how teachers are promoted and transferred, and the authority of Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor.
The union insists that the board refuses to change language in the YEA contract left over from the state's takeover of the district. That language gave the CEO of the state-appointed Academic Distress Commission exclusive authority over personnel decisions, including promotions, raises, transfers and all aspects of bargaining with the union.
Last week, the parties said they had made progress on the matter of teacher transfers between buildings, but the issue of raises remained a point of contention.
The school board has its regular meeting at 5 p.m. today at Choffin Career and Technical Center.
It is unclear if negotiations will take place today.