A deadlock at the bargaining table between Akron Public Schools and the teacher's union.

In a news release from APS today, the district stated that after negotiating more than four months, the Akron Board of Education and the Akron Education Association (AEA) have reached impasse.

Akron Public Schools superintendent David James wouldn't talk about specific issues.

"But we do have several unresolved issues," he tells AkronNewNow, "and it just did not look like we were going to get any resolution."

Akron Education Association vice president Mike Rusnak says that the absence of a long-time mediator means negotations are moving more slowly this year.

"We just think that the loss of the mediator and the facilitator, it's just had an effect, that problem solving approach for both sides," Rusnak tells AkronNews Now. "And we're back to kind of the way we used to do things, I guess we've regressed in time to 1980."

The AEA and the Board will submit all unresolved items to a fact-finder. The fact-finder will conduct a hearing on all unresolved issues and submit a set of recommendations to both sides. If AEA or the Board rejects the fact-finder's report, the parties are required by the Agreement to attempt to mediate the remaining unresolved issues.

The impasse comes as the district places a 7.9 mill operating levy on the November ballot. Voters rejected a similar levy request in November of last year.