Thousands of parents in the Parkland School Division west of Edmonton are bracing for a strike by 550 teachers.

Grace Gruber, board chair for the Parkland School Division, says teachers have a 'shopping cart' of demands.
(CBC)

The union and the district were scheduled to be back in discussions Wednesday, a day after teachers announced that they will walk off the job on Friday if they don't have a deal.

Alberta Teachers Association local president Robert Twerdoclib said Tuesday that the school board isn't offering enough.

"We could be looking at class size, we could be looking at hours of instruction, we could be looking at what the vast majority of our teacher colleagues across the province of Alberta have in their collective agreements."

The school board says the teachers are coming to the table with unreasonable demands that would cost millions of dollars.

"We are talking about a shopping cart here," said Grace Gruber, board chair for the Parkland School Division.

No contract since Aug. 31

The teachers have been without a collective agreement since the end of August. After an unsuccessful attempt to resolve differences through a mediator, the teachers cast a strike vote in October.

The school board is offering a three-year, 9.5 per cent deal with a formula that would see salaries go even higher based on the salary increases of the teachers' provincial counterparts.

Parent Dawn Piggot said teachers shouldn't be allowed to strike.

"I think teachers do an awesome job and probably don't get paid enough, but I think school is very important and they shouldn't be allowed to strike."

Two years ago, teachers were locked out, but it was short-lived, with the province ordering them back to work the same day.

There are 22 schools in the Parkland School Division, which serves 9,000 students on the western edge of Edmonton, the city of Spruce Grove, the town of Stony Plain and Parkland County.