Only Karns City School District officials and the Karns City Education Association can negotiate the long-elusive teachers contract that has the district on the verge of a strike.

But people who live outside the district, as well as people who are district residents, aren't blind to the fact that the only way to break a contract impasse is by way of negotiations. What's troubling about Karns City's current situation is the district's decision not to agree to negotiate again until almost the eve of the teachers' threatened strike.

It was on May 5 that the teachers union authorized a walkout, and on May 11 the strike date was set for May 25.

Originally, the district said it would not negotiate until May 24, but the Butler Eagle learned Thursday that there would be talks Saturday encompassing only school officials and leaders of the bargaining unit.

The district presented what it termed its "last and best" offer to the teachers on May 2, taking the contract dispute to a more precarious level. However, "last and best" offers aren't etched in stone, so there is flexibility available to the district, presumably if the teachers show a more determined willingness to compromise.

If neither side opts to ease its current stance, Karns City is likely destined for a long, disruptive, divisive environment that won't necessarily end when a contract eventually is achieved.

Some districts that have endured protracted contract impasses and bitter strikes have experienced years of hard feelings, distrust and lower morale afterward. Karns City should not open itself to such a scenario; the two sides are relatively close in terms of what is being offered by the district and what is being sought by the teachers.

Somewhere within that range of difference is a common ground with which both sides can live - despite what has been said up to now.

The tool for achieving that common ground is the negotiating table, but Karns City has allowed valuable time to slip away this month, setting up the prospect of a who's-going-to-blink-first, last-minute showdown. Meanwhile, graduating seniors are caught in the middle, wondering when they will graduate, and how a possible delay in graduation will affect work or other plans. Families that have vacations or other activities planned for the month of June are now left wondering whether those plans will be scuttled by the strike and when children will return to the classroom to finish the school year.

Perhaps the district can find a way to continue holding classes for seniors during a strike, so as not to delay graduation. But even if that can be achieved, the students' graduation, which should be a time of joy, accomplishment and optimism, will be held under a cloud of tension and conflicting feelings over which side in the walkout is perceived to be correct.

Sometimes taking a contract dispute to the edge of a precipice is the only way for a settlement to be hammered out. But reasonable people should be able to work out a reasonable settlement before that last minute is reached.

Neither side in the current Karns City dispute has done enough to avoid the situation in which the district currently is mired. Neither side has acknowledged that the best contract is one in which neither side can claim a big victory.

Compromise is needed in Karns City on the sticking points of salary and health care, but it remains to be seen whether major disruption, picket lines and displays of disrespect will play out before that inevitable outcome.

Hopefully, the district will be able to avoid those unbecoming happenings and the hard feelings that will linger long afterward. If it doesn't, the district's unwillingness to come to the bargaining table for most of this month will be one of the big reasons.