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DALLAS TWP. — After a 45-minute negotiating meeting Wednesday the Dallas Education Association received another contract proposal from the Dallas School Board.

The Dallas School Board’s offer was taken by union leaders for further examination and number crunching, according to John Holland, lead negotiator for the teachers union.

“There are a few issues we need to look at for financial reasons,” Holland said. “It is something that we are looking at.”

DEA President Michael Cherinka said both parties discussed certain parts of the offer.

“It is a step in the right direction,” Cherinka said. “We want to make sure it is fair for both the teachers and the district.”

However, Dallas School Board Solicitor Vito DeLuca said at the closed-door meeting Cherinka held firm to his original comment where he stated the DEA, “would not pay one penny toward healthcare.”

The school board’s latest proposal contained health care premium sharing that would require teachers to pay $20 per person, per paycheck. The same health care contingency was included in the district’s Feb. 21 offer, which was snubbed by union leaders.

“We (district) have been open to all proposals,” DeLuca said. “(The union) has not. We were told (by the union) that premium sharing is a contract ‘non-starter.’”

“I tried to assure them it was something that was necessary.”

The contract proposal will be posted on the district’s website, www.dallassd.com, before the end of the week, DeLuca said.

Dallas School District teachers have worked without a contract since August 2015. The school board began negotiating with the union in 2014.

Nearly 179 members of the union went on strike Nov. 14 and remained on strike past the state-mandated return date of Dec. 13, returning Dec. 19.

The union has rescheduled a second strike date for June 2.

Under state law, teachers can strike twice in one school year. The first strike must end in time for the district to complete the state-mandated 180 days of school by June 15, while a second strike must end in time to complete 180 days instructional days by June 30.

The school board extended the school year, which was initially slated to end on June 6 to June 30 to try to meet the state requirements.

“I want to get back to some sense of normalcy,” Cherinka said.

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By Eileen Godin

[email protected]

Reach Eileen Godin at 570-991-6387 or on Twitter @TLNews.