Contract talks continue for National City teachers in an effort to avert a teachers strike called for Friday.
Word is the negotiations are very promising. Both sides came out of the negotiations around 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, describing talks as "hopeful."
"We're all encouraged and we're all hopeful and that's why were here we want to reach that fair settlement and get back to our job of educating the kids," said Linda Cartwright, union president.
"So far in our conversations, we feel hopeful that there'll be a resolution from this that we can all live with," said George Cameron Ed.D, former school superintendent and current district spokesperson.
On Thursday, parents and students marched in front of the district offices in support of the teachers.
The 354 teachers from the National City Elementary Teachers Association have been without a contract since July of last year, contract negotiations started long before then.
Among the issues, a change in calendar year, class size, and the number of furlough days.
National City parents seem to be happy to hear that negotiations seemed to be going well.
"It's excellent, that's what we want to hear," Laura Sanchez, a parent of a student at Las Palmas Elementary school. "They need to move forward and fix it for sure."
"That's good, I wouldn’t want to see them strike," said parent Phillip Gomez. "My teacher, she’s doing a good job, so I don’t want to see nobody on strike."
Both sides say they are willing to work until late in the evening to get this resolved.
