Nov 10, 2015 2 min read

Perhaps a third time meeting in downtown Pittsburgh for Peters Township School District’s 285 striking teachers and district officials might lead to a contract.

Representatives of the district and Peters Township Federation of Teachers Local 3431 will meet at 10 a.m. Monday at Piatt Place, the former Lazarus department store building, with a mediator from the state.

This will be the 20th time the two sides have met in an effort to come to an agreement on a contract.

“I am relieved that the union has accepted our offer to meet on Monday. I am hopeful that all parties will stay at the table until this is resolved so we can return our children and teachers to the classroom where they belong,” said Shelly Belcher, district spokeswoman.

Paul Homer, a staff representative of the union, said if a tentative agreement on a contract is reached on that day, then teachers could return to their classrooms as soon as Tuesday.

“I am looking forward to Monday,” he said.

The 4,300 students who attend the five district schools have been out since Oct. 28, the day the strike began. If no agreement is reached before then, teachers will return to work Nov. 27, but they could go on strike again, possibly in the spring. Before the walkout, the teachers had been working without a contract since the school year began Aug. 31.

The major issues between the two sides are salaries and health-care costs. The last time district teachers were on strike was 2000.

So far, graduation for district seniors has not been affected by the work stoppage. It is slated for June 10, Belcher said. And the last day of school is still scheduled for June 15.

A second strike can take place only after both the district and the teachers have exhausted fact-finding and nonbinding final best offers, according to Act 88, a state law that governs how negotiations between districts and teachers are conducted.