TOLEDO, Ohio —
While kids at Washington Local Schools are getting ready to return to class, the district's teachers are preparing to start the year without a new contract.
The district's school board and teachers association have been in negotiations since the spring but have yet to come to an agreement.
The Teachers Association of Washington Local Schools spokesperson, Jeff Christoffers, said the two parties took a break and tried to reconvene to no avail.
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"Went into what we call mediation where we have someone come in and sort of try to bridge the gaps and see what the two sides are looking at," he said. "Unfortunately, this past Monday, which was our last day of mediation, we fell short yet again."
Christoffers said the attorney for the school board said "we're done."
"We as a union, we representing the kids and the community, we'll never be done," he said. "I mean, those are words that just can't be spoken."
Christoffers said the teachers are in the final year of a three-year contract negotiated during the pandemic. He said the uncertainty from COVID made the teachers take some concessions, but now they want to focus on the students.
"Going into this contract, if we are going to serve our kids, we are going to serve our community, we have to think about them and we have to think about the resources we provide here in Washington Local," Christoffers said.
He added there have been great resources in the district before and if the new contract is not established, those resources may not continue to exist.
The teachers are going into this year on an extension of the previous contract.
"If we have to work without a contract for a few months to get what these students deserve then it's something we're going to do," Christoffers said.
He said it's been a while since something like this has happened and that the two parties have normally been able to do negotiations in only a few days.
Christoffers said the teachers association is ready to go back to negotiations, but it just depends on when it gets a call from the school board.
"There's just a continued effort to say get this done, but at the same time — take your time," Christoffers said. "Get it right, and get it right is more important sometimes than worrying about timelines."
A WLS spokesperson declined to comment about the contract due to the negotiations.
TAWLS currently represents over 500 teachers, nurses and other personnel that serve the approximately 6,600 students in the district.