TOLEDO, Ohio — 114 days— That's how long 502 Washington Local Schools union members have worked without a new contract as of Tuesday, Oct. 22.
"It's just unacceptable at this point," said Jeff Christoffers, a spokesperson for the Teachers' Association of Washington Local Schools (TAWLS).
Christoffers, who is an elementary teacher at Monac Elementary, said after another mediation session with the district on Monday, Oct. 21, a deal is still far away.
"We realized 40-45 minutes into that discussion that it wasn't going to [create an agreement], and as a result we've had to move on from mediation and move towards fact-finding," said Christoffers.
According to the state of Ohio's Employment Relations Board, fact-finding is when a neutral panel is selected to evaluate and create a final proposal for two sides to vote on. The negotiations entered this process Tuesday.
However, Christoffers is not confident that this process will generate the answer the union wants.
"If we weren't willing to accept the latest proposal from administration, and fact-finding comes in and they find some happy medium there, I'm not really sure how our union is going to feel about passing that since it will probably be to a lesser degree than the proposal we had on the plate," said Christoffers.
Christoffers believes the primary snag in reaching a deal are negotiations over pay and healthcare.
The most recent collective bargaining agreement between the district and TAWLS lists that for the 2023-24 school year, the pay for an entry level teacher with a bachelor's degree and no experience is about $41,240 — something Christoffers says the district needs to boost.
"What we've wanted to do is we've wanted to get ourselves out of that eighth position, seventh position in healthcare and base pay and move ourselves up to be relative to other districts," said Christoffers.
Those terms have not been agreed to, an now a strike is on the table. If it were to take place, it'd be the first one for the district since 1984. It's possible that the decision to strike could happen even before fact-finding is over.
"We can do the vote of confidence as soon as this week, and it's quite the possibility we'll do that," said Christoffers.
WTOL reached out to the district for comment, who shared the following statement:
"Washington Local Schools deeply appreciates and respects our teachers for their role in impacting our students and community. As the negotiation process continues and enters the fact-finding stage, we remain fully committed to finding a solution that honors our teachers and our taxpayers.
This is a difficult process for all parties. Our contract agreement must walk a tightrope of compensating our incredible teachers fairly while ensuring that any agreement is sustainable for the future provision of education services to students and is fiscally responsible to the community. We are hopeful that fact-finding will help us reach a successful resolution and agreement."
While the fight for a deal has been frustrating, Christoffers hopes the union will do what they must for the students.
"We're fighting for them. I mean it's a simple answer. Everything we are doing is we are modeling for our students on a daily basis," said Christoffers.
"Everything we do in class is modeling for our students as if they were our own. Our parents and community members want us treating them as if they were our own," he continued.
According to Christoffers, there are currently 6,700 students enrolled in Washington Local Schools district.