It's back to the picket lines for striking Hermitage teachers after an hourlong negotiation session Tuesday with the school board yielded no movement by either side.

"They had nothing to say to us except to scold us," said Paul Estock, sixth-grade teacher and chief negotiator for the Hermitage Education Association. "They called the mediator; they invited us to come. We had always moved our numbers, but they haven't."

But the board claimed that it was the teachers that refused to move. "We came. They didn't do anything," said Board President Duane Piccirilli. "This is our best offer. We wanted them to give us theirs."

The impasse is over raises for teachers. The board is offering $1,600 a year and the union is asking for $2,700. Those numbers have not changed since the strike started.

Even if the contract is not resolved, teachers and students will go back to school Monday. Under Act 88, the state law that covers teachers strikes, teachers can only strike up to 10 days before they have to return to work and the matter goes to non-binding arbitration.

No official word has come from school officials, but under the state law's timetable, the last day of the strike-extended school year would be June 14. Administrators have not made a decision about graduation day, but seniors can't receive diplomas until they attend 180 days of class.

The board claims Hermitage is being targeted by the PSEA, the state teachers union, because it is the first Mercer County school in negotiations since recession-related pension-fund losses forced school boards to pay a larger part of teachers' pensions.

The school district must fork out about $260,000 more this year to cover pension costs. "Since Sept. 11, funding from the state has been drastically reduced," Piccirilli said.

"The only logic is, it's not our teachers, it's the PSEA. Honestly we have a wonderful relationship with our teachers," he said.

But Estock made it clear that he had the backing of the 165-member HEA.

"Every decision has been made locally with the members. They didn't tell me to go cave. This is not my decision. It's the HEA's decision," Estock said.

"My concern is before all the numbers changed, before any economics went downhill, we did not have a contract. They held us up and continue to hold us up," Estock said, referring to contract negotiations that began in January 2001. The teachers contract expired in July and they have been working without one since then.

After the teachers go back to work Monday, the next step in negotiations is to bring in an arbiter appointed by the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board. The offer that results from the nonbinding final arbitration can be voted down by either side. If that occurs, teachers can strike again, which could potentially keep Hermitage students in school until June 30, the state-mandated last day of school.

"I was under the impression they wanted to settle it locally," said Estock. "They obviously don't. Now they're going to get nonbinding arbitration."

Besides repercussions for students, the board has made a decision that may have an effect on teachers.

"Once a settlement is reached, we're going to pro-rate the cost of their health insurance," said Piccirilli. "Really, the taxpayers shouldn't be paying the health insurance during a work stoppage."

"I don't know what that means," Estock said. "We make up all the days. I'm confused by that statement."

"It seems to me the comment was made to try to make our members concerned for their benefits," added Marcus D. Schlegel, Pennsylvania State Education Association communications/organizing program specialist.

"It's a game of words. It's time they started getting real," Piccirilli said. "It's unfortunate our kids' education is being held hostage." But Schlegel took offense at the hostage comparison. "It's unfortunate that they'd resort to shameless sensationalism -- equating a negotiation session to something of that magnitude and seriousness," he said.