With a Jan. 9 teacher strike date looming in Palmerton Area School District, future contract negotiating sessions are in doubt.

Palmerton Area Education Association President Tom Smelas said Monday that the last meeting with the district's negotiating team took place Dec. 20.According to a press release from the district, the association presented its most costly proposal to date at that session."It increased its salary proposal and presented a regressive health care proposal costing more money to the district than its last proposal," the district's release said."The district, interested in keeping talks going, did not reject the proposal immediately, but asked for time to cost out the proposal."While the Dec. 20 meeting yielded no movement, Smelas said the association remained open to meeting on all future dates leading up to the strike."At that time the PAEA offered to meet any and every day through Jan. 8," he said. "We remain committed to that extent until an agreement is reached. The district's response was to offer to meet once, on Dec. 29. "That meeting, however, never took place as the mediator was unable to make the session."While the mediator unexpectedly could not attend the session, he encouraged the parties to meet and negotiate in his absence. Despite this encouragement, the district canceled and refused to meet with us. The association then reiterated its willingness to meet at any time at any place. As of this writing we have not heard from them."The association proposed new dates to meet on Dec. 31 via email."The district has every intention of meeting on one or several of the dates and intends on responding Tuesday morning, when all calendars can be coordinated," according to the district's release, which was sent by board President Chuck Myers.According to the district, the association has rejected all requests to enter into a fact-finding process and also "emphatically rejected" a request to push back the Jan. 9 strike date.The PAEA membership issued a strike notice in October.Around that time, the district said it offered to raise the starting salary for teachers from its current $43,982 per year to $50,000."The district has consistently made movement with every offer," it said in its release. "It commits that it will do everything in its power to avoid a strike short of paying out more in salary and health benefits than the district and taxpayers can afford. The outcome of this labor dispute is squarely in the association's hands."The PAEA has not detailed any offers or expectations throughout the negotiations, but said it remains hopeful for a quick resolution."The association remains committed to devoting every available resource to finalizing this contract negotiation before Jan. 9, 2017," Smelas said. "We invite the district to do the same."