How much tax money will the district waste to delay a settlement?

The LWESP and LWSD bargaining teams met more than 12 hours on March 10. No contract settlement was reached. We are approximately $62,000 apart in our salary proposals. Surely, the Lake Washington School District can find $62,000 in its $200 million budget or in its $17 million ending fund balance. How much more time, energy, and administrative salary costs does the district really want to waste by further delaying the settlement of this contract?

In addition, the parties need to resolve issues over the punitive and defamatory letter that was delivered to many LWESP employees on March 9.