Progress made in school talks

Austintown teachers and the board met for five hours Saturday.

AUSTINTOWN — Neither side would divulge details, but the school board and the district’s teachers have reached what the superintendent calls a “conceptual agreement on a proposal.”

The Austintown Education Association and the district’s bargaining team met Saturday in a more than five-hour meeting to hash out a contract.

Superintendent Doug Heuer said the board’s attorney and Ohio Education Association representatives will work out the proposal’s language over the weekend and Monday.

“Both sides worked very hard and very long to try to reach a fair proposal,” Heuer said.

Alf Nelson Jr., labor relations consultant with the OEA, said the bargaining committee hopes to have the proposal ready to present to the union membership Monday, but because of Thanksgiving, a vote isn’t expected until Nov. 26. There are 326 teachers in the union.

Of 10 Mahoning County school districts in negotiations with teachers this year, Austintown was the only one left that had not settled on a contract.

The district is also still negotiating with its nonteaching employees in the Ohio Association of Public School Employees union.