Striking teachers in the Seneca Valley School District met with three school board members yesterday morning in an attempt to break a stalemate in contract negotiations, but they failed to reach agreement.

Robert Hill Jr., one of three school board members who serve on the negotiations committee, said the session was very disappointing.

"There was no progress made," he said. "Sadly, we didn't get anywhere."

The meeting started at 9 a.m. and lasted about two hours, Mr. Hill said.

At the meeting, Mr. Hill and his fellow board members, Anthony Storti and Tom Roth, presented the teachers with a three-point proposal that was put together by the entire school board on Friday and Saturday prior to yesterday's meeting.

"Certainly, this was a proposal that we came up with as a board, without our labor counsel, so this was coming from us," Mr. Hill said.

The board members asked the union representatives in attendance if they would take the proposal back to the entire association for a vote.

"They told us that wasn't going to happen," he said. "We really want to find a way to get the union membership access to these proposals."

Pat Andrekovich, lead negotiator for the teachers union, said the options were not new.

"They brought us the same proposal which they've presented to us two other times, with only one minor change," he said. "It's unfair of them to present us with the same proposal we've seen before, but then ask us to present a better offer than our last one."

Union members did not present a counter-proposal of any kind yesterday, Mr. Hill said.

According to information released by the district, board members presented three different wage options.

Option one included a 4 percent annual wage increase for each teacher, based on his or her individual salary for the 2005-06 school year. The contract would cover five years, ending in the 2010-11 school year and teachers would get their increase in the current school year in a lump sum payment.

The lump sum payment would be paid out within 30 days of signing a new contract.

Under the second option, teachers would dollar amounts in each year of a five-year contract that would average 4 percent.

The payments included $2,142 for the 2006-07 school year, $2,226.00 for 2007-08; $2,312 for 2008-09; $2,406 for 2009-10; and $2,506 for 2009-10.

The third option called for salary increases that would be determined by the Seneca Valley Education Association and approved by the school board. The stipulation was that the increases average 4 percent and that they "provide fair and equitable raises to the most senior teachers."

The meeting was held at the urging of the association, that last week invited the board to sit down -- without its labor counsel present -- to iron out an agreement.

By state law, the teachers must return on Friday to be able to provide 180 days of instruction to students by June 15.

Unless an agreement is reached between now and then, both sides also will be subject to nonbinding arbitration.

The district's 575 teachers have been without a contract since June 30, 2006. They walked out of classes Oct. 15, idling nearly 7,600 students.

The next regular school board meeting will be at 8 tonight.