"It is looking less promising than it was a couple of days ago ... We're not getting close to an agreement very fast," Joan Husted, lead negotiator for the Hawaii State Teachers Association, said last night.

Although she had expected more progress by now, Husted still hoped a settlement could be reached by Thursday's 5 a.m. strike deadline.

"Let's hope we can get it done,

but time's running out."

The two sides met for 61/2 hours Saturday and 41/2 hours yesterday.Earlier, negotiators had said talks would go around-the-clock if progress warranted.

Yesterday's meeting ended about 6 p.m. because the state side wanted to caucus privately, and apparently report to Gov. Ben Cayetano. Negotiations were to resume today at 4 p.m.

Lead state negotiator Charles Toguchi and Denise Matsumoto, representing the Board of Education, refused to comment.

The union's 11,700 members, mainly teachers but also school librarians and counselors, threatened to strike if their demands for higher pay and better working conditions are not met.

Pay is the major roadblock. Although the union has backed off its initial demand of 7 percent raises each of the past two years, it still wants more than the state is offering. The state's formal offer is no retroactive raises, but 4 percent raises in 1997 and 1998, the same given University of Hawaii professors. The state also wants to lengthen the school year by 10 days and would pay teachers for the extra work.

Besides thwarting the academic, athletic and after-school activities of more than 188,000 students, a strike could leave parents of young children scrambling for alternate supervision for their kids.

Teachers would lose their paychecks while on the picket line, and also risk losing service credits toward tenure and retirement if the strike lasts past mid-March.

According to teachers, the union's aim is to have 100 percent strike participation, especially on Thursday and Friday. That way, the Department of Education would be forced to close schools and there would be more pressure to settle quickly.

But the Department of Education strike manual, used to advise administrators, predicts that if there is a strike it could be a long one because the state's financial condition is not likely to change and a much larger pay increase would remain unfeasible.