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Both sides will be back at the negotiating table Tuesday to try to hammer out a deal. Efforts to do so
failed Monday after 12 hours of bargaining.
The last time there was a teachers’ strike back in 1987, it took 19 days to reach a contract deal. But School Board President David Vitale believes the contract issues should be resolved Tuesday.
“We have said to them again we believe that we should resolve this tomorrow, that we are close enough to get this resolved,” Vitale told reporters Monday outside the law firm where the latest talks took place.
Regardless, 350,000 students will still be out of class for a second day, and parents will have to find alternatives for their children.
Vitale left the bargaining table at 6:40 p.m. Monday, saying the two main sticking points — the teacher evaluation system and recall policy — were not even touched.
Vitale said the union was not ready to talk about those issues.
But the union president Karen Lewis said the district did not offer anything new to move those matters along.
“There’s no sense in just sitting there looking at one another. They have made no movement. They understand what our positions are, so they made no movement. So as a result, we use this as we have used every bargaining day,” Lewis said.
