{"id":1811,"date":"2022-03-25T11:44:01","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T11:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/district-officials-union-leaders-say-deal-close-to-end-minneapolis-teachers-strike-mpr-news\/"},"modified":"2022-03-25T11:44:01","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T11:44:01","slug":"district-officials-union-leaders-say-deal-close-to-end-minneapolis-teachers-strike-mpr-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/25\/district-officials-union-leaders-say-deal-close-to-end-minneapolis-teachers-strike-mpr-news\/","title":{"rendered":"District officials, union leaders say deal close to end Minneapolis teachers strike – MPR News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Officials with Minneapolis Public Schools said the district expects to have a deal with its teachers\u2019 union by late Thursday night or early Friday morning.
School Board Chair Kim Ellison said that the board is prepared to meet in an executive session Thursday night to finalize the negotiation. If a deal is reached, students would go back to school on Monday.
"I believe we're close in negotiations. We're going to get a deal tonight, tomorrow morning,\u201d Ellison told MPR News. \u201cI want to let families know, sorry this is taking so long. Hang in there. We're going to get this done."
Earlier Thursday, leaders with the Minneapolis teachers union said significant progress had been made toward a new contract with the school district and that a deal could come together by the end of the day.
Greta Callahan, president of the union's teachers unit, told reporters Thursday morning there had been dramatic movement toward a deal. The head representative for the union's education support professionals also said he expected a deal by the end of the day.
\u201cIt can absolutely be the day. We are not having a lot of sticking points, we don\u2019t believe. We have moved dramatically around mental health supports,\u201d Callahan said.\u00a0
It\u2019s a marked change from the most recent rhetoric around the strike, which began March 8. As of 4 p.m. on Wednesday, neither the district nor the union appeared to have scheduled further negotiations.\u00a0
Getting mental health support for students has been a main union focus. Earlier this week, according to the district, the biggest line item request from teachers<\/a> was a $70.9 million investment in increased mental health and special education support.
Callahan said Thursday the union was modifying that request, turning to federal COVID-19 relief money the district has that is due to run out in a few years.\u00a0
\u201cThey have said very clearly we have one-time money to use for some of these things,\u201d Callahan said. \u201cSo we have gotten really creative in some of our proposals to ensure that they can use one-time money for some of this stuff because we know that our students need these supports now. They cannot wait.\u201d
Salary increases for teachers are the largest sticking point left to be resolved, according to Callahan. Union leaders want the district to agree to raise salaries 3 percent the first year and another 3 percent the next year.
\u201cThe money is there,\u201d she added, \u201cIt\u2019s within parameters and we think, if we can get that done today, let\u2019s get our kids back in school. It\u2019s reasonable, we\u2019re ready to go, and we\u2019re feeling really hopeful.\u201d
There are two contracts at stake in the Minneapolis strike: one for the more than 3,000 classroom teachers in Minneapolis and another for approximately 1,200 unlicensed education support professionals, or ESPs, who work in the district.\u00a0
Shaun Laden, leader of the union\u2019s support professionals unit, said he believed talks on Thursday would result in a contract agreement.\u00a0
\u201cEducation support professionals are extremely close to a deal. I would anticipate this afternoon that we will have one done. Hoping that momentum will carry over into negotiations with our teacher chapter,\u201d Laden said. \u201cI have not been this hopeful that things will be resolved prior.\u201d
If the Minneapolis district agrees to a 3 percent raise, it will be 1 percent more than the agreement St. Paul teachers received<\/a> in their recent contract. The average wage of Minneapolis teachers is $14,000 less than what teachers make in St. Paul.
Staff shortages are an issue districts have been dealing with across Minnesota and the rest of the country. A recent report<\/a> from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found state and local public education employment down nearly 5 percent since the start of the pandemic.
The report also found that pay was a widespread concern for support staff and teachers.\u00a0
MPR News reporter Matt Sepic contributed to this story.<\/em>
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Officials with Minneapolis Public Schools said the district expects to have a deal with its teachers\u2019 union by late Thursday night or early Friday morning. School Board Chair Kim Ellison said that the board is prepared to meet in an executive session Thursday night to finalize the negotiation. If a deal is reached, students would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1811\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}