By Joseph Ax
-Minneapolis teachers reached a tentative deal on Friday to end a strike over pay, class sizes and other issues that has kept some 30,000 students out of classes for more than two weeks.
School officials said the agreement, which must still be ratified by the teachers union’s full membership, paves the way for students to return to school on Monday.
The city’s 4,500 teachers and support staff walked out on March 8 after failing to reach a new contract with the district, the first teachers’ strike in Minneapolis in more than five decades.
“The collective action of our members has shown that strikes work,” Shaun Laden, a chapter president at the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Educational Support Professionals, said at a news conference on Friday.
Laden said the tentative deal “significantly raised pay” for education support professionals and secured job protections and seniority rights for teachers of color.
A statement from the union said caps on class size and providing mental health support for students also had been agreed upon.
The union said a return to work agreement had yet to be finalized but was in the works.
The district said it may add minutes to the school day or extend the end of the school year to make up for instructional time lost to the strike.
“I know for many of our students, the past two weeks have been difficult and long,” Kim Ellison, the school board chair, said at a news conference earlier on Friday. “You’ve missed your teachers, you’ve missed your school, you’ve missed your friends.”
A teachers’ strike in Sacramento, California, was set to enter a third day on Friday, after talks failed to yield a contract last week.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax and Katharine JacksonEditing by Chizu Nomiyama and Jonathan Oatis)
