CAIRO, Ill. -- Cairo school officials and teachers hope to avoid the 1994 crisis that led to a teachers strike during contract negotiations.

Ron Newell, president of the Cairo Association of Teachers and Dr. Elaine Bonifield, Cairo School District superintendent, have agreed to a federal mediator when the two groups meet again.

The mediator will be present for a Wednesday meeting as teacher representatives meet with the Cairo Board of Education bargaining team.

The school board and teachers association jointly requested the mediator.

"It's too early to tell how the negotiations will go at this point," said Bonifield. "We want the mediator to come in and take a look at the overall situation."

"We favor the mediator," said Newell. "We've had a number of meetings and to date, little has been accomplished."

The negotiations are for a "successor agreement" to the current contract which expires Wednesday.

Two years ago, teachers and board members battled through more than a month of negotiations before coming to an agreement that provided job security and pay increases of 4.9 percent for the 1994-95 school and six percent for the 1995-96 school year.

However, a teachers strike prevented the more than 1,000 Cairo district students from attending classes through 24 school days, from Nov. 17, 1994 through the Christmas holidays.

"We don't want to see another strike," said Newell. "That's a hardship on the teachers and students. We're very hopeful that everybody can reach an agreement this time and that school will open on time."

Although salary adjustments are included in the newest teacher proposals, a lot of the negotiations concern minor items and contract language -- mostly items of current practice, said Newell.

Bargaining teams for the two groups held their first meeting in June.

"We had three sessions in June, two in July and one last week in August," said Newell. "With lack of any significant movement towards the settlement of a new contract, both sides agreed to federal mediation for Wednesday's meeting.