With the low bassy booms of lightning rattling the windows of the United South Central high school, negotiators from both the district and the teachers union worked from 6:30 to 9:45 p.m. to try to resolve a contract dispute. While the sides reported some progress was made, the largest issue &045; severance packages &045; remained untouched, creates another issue for the schools: Will the teachers strike?

&uot;Certainly our intention is to do what we can to avert a strike,&uot; said Superintendent Frank Lorentz, one of the negotiators for the district. &uot;We are now down to a point where we have a single issue. Unfortunately this issue is a very hard one to negotiate. It is nobody’s fault, teachers or school board, that insurance rates have gone up. We just can’t afford to give the teachers a higher cap on their severance package because of that.&uot;

The cap is the key issue of controversy. The teachers union would like a $72,363.16 severance package for retirees. That would break down to $25,324 for a cash severance and a $47,363.16 maximum retiree insurance package.

The district has stood strongly by their offer of a $60,000 severance package with a $25,000 cash severance and a $35,000 health package.

On this issue, the sides said, there was no progress Tuesday.

&uot;We’ve made significant concessions,&uot; said Jim Sand, the lead negotiator for the teachers’ union. &uot;We don’t feel that the board has made many at all.&uot;

A few differences in language on the contract and a 403 (b) investment matching plan were among the issues resolved, but the union wasn’t encouraged.

&uot;The things that we worked through tonight were much more technical than substantive,&uot; said Sand.

The issues that remain to be solved are the severance package and a retirement death insurance provision.

Negotiators for the teachers were Sand, Karen Robbins, Jim Prust, and Mel Evjen, who are all teachers in the district, as well as Jackie Baumgard from Education Minnesota, a statewide teachers’ organization. Representing the district was Lorentz, legal advisor Kevin Rupp, and school board members John Skare, Pat Staloch and Julie Steverner. There was no mediator for the meeting.

A future negotiation meeting has yet to be set. The teachers’ union negotiators will present the current contract and the district’s offer on the severance package, but don’t expect it to pass muster. &uot;We definitely won’t give the contract a favorable recommendation to our union,&uot; Evjen said.

&uot;We have to vote on what to do next,&uot; said Karen Robbins.

&uot;This does not mean that we will strike,&uot; Evjen said, &uot;but it does not mean we won’t strike.&uot;

As the meeting went on through the evening, more than 50 teachers waited anxiously in the school cafeteria to hear what, if anything, would happen. Most stayed through the negotiations.

&uot;We have an old saying around here,&uot; said Sand during the meeting. &uot;You should leave no one behind.&uot;

Sand said the team will work to get the best benefits package they can for every worker in the district. He commended the crowd of teachers after the meeting.

&uot;Seeing all of you here, involved in the process, is a big deal. It’s what this is all about,&uot; he said. Sand has had some experience in the past with these sorts of negotiations in the district. &uot;This is the most informed group I’ve ever seen,&uot; he said.

The group will decide sometime next week what action they will take to further negotiations.