No strike on Monday.

Four simple words made a world of difference Friday night.

After 16 hours of negotiation over two days, talks between the Pleasant Valley School Board and the Pleasant Valley Education Association have yielded significant progress.

A contract agreement is still yet to come, but both parties were pleased to have made some headway, and the union decided it was enough to halt the impending strike.

A statement on the Pleasant Valley School District’s website stated, “After seven hours of bargaining on Thursday evening, Feb. 24, and eight additional hours of bargaining on Friday afternoon, the parties have made significant progress toward a potential resolution to its contract impasse. As the result of this progress, the Pleasant Valley Education Association has announced that it will not strike on Monday, Feb. 28. School will be open as planned!”

PVEA President Drew Dymond said, “We would like to thank the community for all of their support throughout this process, and we hope to have a tentative agreement soon.”

The mood in the district became tense as the strike deadline loomed closer. The union had drawn the line in the sand in December after months of failed negotiations with two different negotiating committees of the school board and no new contract.

The teachers’ contract had expired in June 2021, but both the teachers and the school district continued to fulfill their responsibilities to each other as if the contract had not expired. The next step is to come to an agreement.