YOUNGSTOWN — It’s been slightly more than five months since a one-year contract between the Youngstown Education Association and the Youngstown Board of Education was ratified, yet Eric Teutsch feels incomplete.

“We’ve been trying to get this resolved for a while,” Teutsch, the YEA’s president, said during Tuesday’s regular board of education meeting at Choffin Career and Technical Center.

Teutsch said that the board’s attorney is reviewing certain language, corrections and edits to the document. He and other YEA members met with the board a few weeks ago, and a final revised copy of the pact needs to get done, he added.

The contract, which was ratified soon after the end of a nearly four-week teacher’s strike that began Aug. 23, the original first day of classes, expires June 30. Teutsch was unable to comment on negotiations for the next contract.

Contract language regarding how teachers were promoted and transferred was one of the core issues at the heart of the strike.

The pact included 3% wage increases and removal of language associated with Ohio House Bill 70, which was placed in the contract during the state takeover of the district between 2012 and mid-2022.

Among other things, HB70 gave a chief executive officer of the state-appointed Academic Distress Commission complete control over hiring, personnel decisions and other matters.

During Tuesday’s session, Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor said the contract is being reviewed, and that the process should wrap up Friday.

Also at the meeting, board President Juanita Walker offered no comment on the district’s looming budget shortfall of about $16.9 million by 2028.

In November, voters approved a four-year, 9.51-mill renewal levy that is to bring in about $5.2 million annually for the district’s general operating expenses.

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