COOS BAY - Even with a new bargaining format, Coos Bay school officials remain at odds with the district's teachers over a contract for next school year.

Leaders from the teachers union met with school board members and administrators in an open meeting at the Sunset Middle School gym Tuesday.

After several hours of back and forth, the two sides still were deadlocked over salaries and contract language.

The district is asking for a salary freeze, which it got from the classified union as well as from administrators. Those two groups also got 8 percent increases in school district insurance contributions both years.

Those decisions won't influence the teachers, though, said teachers union president Lynda Sanders.

"We are going to negotiate for our people," she said. "If that's what they have chosen to do, that's what they have chosen to do."

Part of the reason the teachers union hasn't agreed to a contract is it's waiting to see the results of the state's budget forecast on Friday.

"Until May 15, we aren't going to know what's available," Sanders said.

State officials have said there could be as little as $5.4 billion set aside for K-12 education. That would mean Coos Bay still has at least $600,000 left to cut from next year's budget on top of proposed layoffs including 16 teachers.

There are clear philosophical differences between the two sides, said Superintendent Bob De La Vergne. The district wants to institute a salary freeze, while the union has proposed a pay raise.

If the two sides can't reach an agreement, teachers would automatically receive a small bump in pay, leaving the district with really only one option to balance its budget: more job cuts.

"We are being affected by market conditions," De La Vergne said. "There is no money in the system. We don't have many options left."

The teachers union understands the district has financial difficulties, Sanders said, but it isn't the union's fault. And while the district may have a good leadership and school board now, the union wants to ensure its contract includes protections should there be future leadership hostile to teachers.

School Board member Wally Hazen was critical of this line of thinking, suggesting it's more important to think about the problem at hand than what happens several years down the line.

"I hate to make long-term cuts for a short-term problem," he said.

While the teachers are waiting to see what happens Friday, the classified union ratified its contract with the district Monday.

Classified union President Linda Smith said her members recognized the crisis and wanted to settle so the focus could return to the students.

"We just hope the district remembers us when the money comes back, to bring back positions and hours," she said.

Prior to the meeting, Board Chairwoman Kathy Murray sent a mass e-mail to district employees, urging teachers to "join the classified and administrative groups in doing their part to preserve programs for our students and jobs for our truly valued staff members."

Barbara Anderson, representing the teachers union, said it wasn't appropriate for a board member to send a message to her members during their work day.

Jessica Knieling, of the Oregon School Boards Association, represented the district in negotiations.

There were as many as 60 teachers in attendance at one point, though the number fluctuated throughout the afternoon. Some paid close attention, while others graded papers, scanned through books or tried to keep children preoccupied.

Sanders said it's not unusual for it to take several meetings to hammer out a contract.

"It takes dialogue and that dialogue takes a long time," she said.