JACKSON TWP — Patrick Andrekovich says that by striking as long as possible, the Seneca Valley Education Association has fully engaged the community.

"One of the things that came out of this is much more parental involvement and understanding of our contract and the bargaining process," said Andrekovich, union lead negotiator.

What the association also has demonstrated to the school board is that returning to school on Friday will not deter teacher negotiators from continuing their press for a contract that they think is fair.

Part of that press is getting to see the district's most recent financial report, which covers expenditures from June 2006 to June 2007. Andrekovich said this is a requirement of the teachers before they will enter nonbinding arbitration with the school board.

Tom Breth, a district negotiator, said the union requested the documents in early October and the district will provide them in a timely manner.

Nonbinding arbitration is the next step once the teachers have exhausted their strike days on Thursday.

Breth said the board has offered to go to voluntary nonbinding arbitration in nearly every offer it has made since Oct. 9.

"The point of nonbinding arbitration is to get the parties to submit their final best offers," Breth said. "The obvious question is, why would you wait until now, why not do that earlier and see what happens?"

The union repeatedly declined the offer and remained on strike to pressure the board into raising its offer of 4 percent average annual salary increases, he said.

The union's last request was for average annual 4-percent salary increases, with the inclusion of attritional savings distributed along the 19-step salary scale.

Attritional savings is the difference between a departing teacher's salary and the salary of that teacher's replacement, which is typically lower.

The two sides also disagree on health care packages and contributions.

In addition to a fair and equitable contract, the union is bargaining for an agreement that will attract and maintain a quality staff for the students, Andrekovich said.

Those students have been sitting at home since teachers went on strike Oct. 15.

Since the strike began, the two sides have settled eight of 10 contract issues, leaving just salaries and health care between them.

Life insurance and teacher induction compensation were finished Oct. 17 and supplemental contracts, severance pay, bereavement, sick leave, tuition reimbursement and early retirement were finalized Nov. 5.

The start date for arbitration is unknown because both parties must request lists of potential arbitrators for the process to begin, said Christopher Manlove, spokesman for the state Department of Labor and Industry.

"It's going to depend on how quickly they ask for a list," he said, though once requested the list is typically compiled in a timely manner.