A special meeting of the Youngstown City School Board on Friday ended with a promise to call striking Youngstown Education Association teachers back to the bargaining table early next week. 21 News pressed both superintendent Jeremy Batchelor and board president Tiffany Patterson about a date and time, but neither would give specifics.

"I can't give you an exact date, but we're going to be reaching out this weekend and trying to set some dates for the future," Batchelor said.

YEA spokesman Jim Courim responded by saying "why wait?", adding that he and the workers were prepared to negotiate any place at any time.

"We have done everything we're supposed to do, now it's time for the board and the district to do what they're supposed to do," said Courim.

The district is still in academic distress, which the board says is complicating the situation.

"We've still got two more years so it's a lot of stuff that they would like to see taken out of the contract that we just can't legally remove," school board president Tiffany Patterson said.

The YEA has been striking since Wednesday, and the strike forced the district to begin the school year with remote learning Friday. That's expected to continue next week as negotiations resume.