Haverhill Public Schools students had no classes for a fourth straight day Thursday as the teachers strike that started Monday in the Massachusetts city continues to linger.At 8:50 p.m. Wednesday, Haverhill Education Association President Tim Briggs said negotiations with the Haverhill School Committee broke down during the evening. Talks resumed at 10 a.m. Thursday.According to Briggs, the School Committee came forth with a financial proposal that the teachers union was ready to tentatively agree to. However, Briggs said a lot of the union's proposals on contract language "didn't come through," including language that codifies student safety."We did have some engagement with the School Committee for one of the first times and it was meaningful, and then we were pushed to a deadline for the superintendent to call off school," Briggs said. "And at that point, things broke down a little bit more.""The headline tonight is that the Haverhill School Committee has accepted the union’s financial proposal, which totals approximately $25 million," said Scott Wood, chair of the School Committee's Teacher Negotiating Subcommittee.Briggs said several members of the School Committee, including Wood, were willing to bargain with the teachers union all night. The mediator, however, stopped talks when Haverhill Public Schools officials said they needed to call off Thursday's classes.“We're gonna take care of these kids. We're going to get them education and we're going to get them the best schools they can have,” said Barry Davis of the Haverhill Education Association.Both sides say they've made progress. The Teachers Union said they've reached a tentative deal with the school committee on money, but are stuck on student safety.“If I had kids, and the kids I teach, I cannot put a price on their safety and will not put a price on their safety,” Davis said.Earlier in the day, Essex County Superior Court Judge James Lang announced the Haverhill Education Association and the Massachusetts Teachers Association would both face $50,000 sanctions if the work stoppage continued beyond 4:30 p.m. Wednesday."I have to consider in light of the determination to keep striking, notwithstanding the known illegality of such activity, what it will take to bring the teachers back to the classrooms," Lang said.Lang said the MTA is being fined along with the HEA because members of the state teachers union failed to stop encouraging and condoning the Haverhill teachers union's strike.Both unions will also be sanctioned an additional $10,000 from the previous day's fine for each additional day the strike continues. For example, the teachers unions will be fined $60,000 if the strike lasts through late Thursday afternoon and then fined another $70,000 if the stoppage continues through late Friday afternoon.Briggs said union members plan to be back on the picket line on Thursday and that the fines imposed upon them are not a factor. Such teachers strikes are illegal in Massachusetts since state law prohibits strikes by public employees, which makes them exceptionally rare in the commonwealth.The judge issued a temporary restraining order to stop the strike on Monday and reaffirmed the order on Tuesday. According to the court order, educators were to immediately return to work, and the union was supposed to inform members of this obligation.Despite the orders, the strike continued through Wednesday. It was the third consecutive day that classes were canceled in the Haverhill Public Schools district. There are approximately 8,000 students in the Haverhill Public Schools system.