St. Paul Public Schools and the district’s teachers union have reached a deal they say will prevent a strike next week.
After months of negotiations and a marathon of closed-door mediation sessions over the weekend, both sides on Tuesday said they reached a tentative contract agreement that will prevent a walk-out. The teachers were expected to strike next Monday if no deal was reached.
“We have reached a settlement that affirms our educators, that commits to building the future I think we all want for our students,” said school board chair Halla Henderson, who thanked union and district bargainers for working through the weekend to reach a deal.
Union and district leaders came together at Maxfield Elementary School Tuesday afternoon to speak with reporters about the tentative two-year contract, which appears to have averted a strike in the state’s second-largest school district.
Contract still needs to be voted on
Details on the new contract will not be available until the St. Paul Federation of Educators ratifies the agreement. SPFE’s membership will soon hold a vote on the contract, leaders said.
“I can tell you it’s a contract that both sides feel proud of, and that we feel confident that our membership will feel the same,” said lead union negotiator Erica Schatzlein.
The 3,700 teachers and non-licensed staff represented by the union overwhelmingly voted to approve a strike last month, and last week the union filed its official intention to do so. That triggered a state-mandated cool-off period where the sides could continue negotiating to avoid a strike.
This is the fourth consecutive two-year bargaining cycle in a row where St. Paul teachers have threatened to strike. The union went on strike for four days in 2020 and almost went on strike in 2018 and 2022. However, this year the teachers and district managed to settle days, rather than minutes, before canceling classes.
Months of negotiations
Tuesday’s deal is the result of negotiations that started months ago and have been behind closed doors since the sides went into mediation in January.
With a strike looming, the sides went into long sessions beginning last Friday that often went into the early morning hours.
She said the union was pleased about the involvement of school board members.
“The school board was more engaged this round than they have been before, and I only have positive feelings about that,” she said. “I think the more that people come to the table and have those hard discussions, the better it will be for everyone.”
Henderson, the board’s chair, said she hopes to work more closely with the union in the future.
“We all acknowledge that there is still work,” she said. “This is step one. The conversation in the work does not end at the bargaining table.”
Contract
The contract for the teachers, education assistants and community service personnel represented by the union ended in the summer, so the new two-year contract goes into effect retroactively once approved.
There isn’t an exact timeline yet for when the school board will approve the contract agreement. They’ll wait for the union to ratify the deal, and then a vote will be taken, said Superintendent Joe Gothard.
During this year’s negotiations, the district said it was in a tough spot because of an expected $107.7 million budget shortfall driven by factors including declining enrollment, the expiration of federal pandemic aid and growing operational expenses.
Earlier in the process, district officials estimated union requests could top $112 million, and the district said it was willing to allocate only $12.4 million in additional funding. The sides requested a mediator in December, and talks have been behind closed doors since January.
Teachers and district officials had expressed optimism about the negotiations, but debates over pay and insurance remained sticking points. Teachers in St. Paul Public Schools have a starting salary of about $49,000 if they have a bachelor’s degree. The district says half of its teachers make $90,000 or more.
While discussions have been behind closed doors for a little over a month, early offers from the public phase shed some light on the starting points for both sides.
But in the most recent publicly available offers, the union was seeking a $7,500 pay bump for all teachers and community service personnel in the district in the first year, and a 7.5% raise in the second year. They’re also asking for a $5.43-an-hour raise for educational assistants followed by a 7.5% raise in the second year.
Meanwhile, the district was offering a 2% raise in the first year, and a 3% increase for teachers at the lowest pay level.
Last week, district negotiators said they were committed to reaching a deal with the union over the weekend. The last mediation session was scheduled to begin March 1 and there weren’t any scheduled meetings before the strike.
Asked if the district’s deal with the union exceeded the $12.4 million ceiling, Gothard didn’t offer specifics but said the deal put the district “in a place where we’ve stayed right at or near our parameters.”