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GARY, Indiana (AP) -- Few students showed up for the first day of school in Gary, Indiana, Wednesday as hundreds of striking teachers walked picket lines carrying signs that read "No Contract, No Work."
Negotiators for the Gary Community Schools Corp. and teachers union resumed talks Wednesday night after ending a session late the night before.
School officials had said they expected substitute teachers and administrators to carry out a full day of classes, but it was far short of that in the 16,000-student district.
Teenagers leaving Gary Westside High School, normally the district's largest school with an enrollment of about 1,400, said only six or 10 adults and 100 students were inside. Those who showed up were sent to the auditorium then assigned to classrooms by grade level, students said.
"They have somebody so-called 'teaching a lesson' to these kids," said junior Taleesa Malone, who decided to leave.
District spokesman Eric D. Johnson described attendance as "moderate to low" and said many students often missed the first day of school.
Johnson said the new round of negotiations was tense even as administrators hoped for a quick settlement.
"At this point, it does not look like it is going to be settled" by Thursday.
Union president Sandra Irons said agreement still needed to be reached on insurance benefits and the district's efforts to shorten lunch breaks.
Teachers, who have not had a contract since December 2004, last staged a strike in 1984. School officials have offered 2 percent salary increases for 2006 and 2007, while teachers' shares of health insurance premiums would rise from 7 percent to 10 percent.
State figures show that Gary teachers had an average salary of $52,433 last school year, about $5,000 more than the statewide average.
More than 800 teachers and paraprofessionals voted Friday to strike.
The district struggles with discipline problems, one of the state's highest poverty rates and some of Indiana's lowest standardized test scores. The district also has had small increases in state funding as the estimated enrollment for this school year is down nearly one-third from some 22,000 a decade ago.
Unionized school bus drivers refused to cross picket lines Wednesday morning and dropped off children farther away from school than normal.
Across the street from Roosevelt High School, Ivanhoe Elementary Principal Michael Bendicsen struggled to explain the situation to the children.
"They'd like to know why the teachers aren't here. They wonder why they don't want to come to school," he said. "For the younger kids, we just had to say adults don't always agree. We hope they agree soon."
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