School teachers, board reach contract agreement

Minneapolis school administers and teachers announced Thursday that they have reached a tentative contract agreement.

The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and the Minneapolis School Board are expected to vote on the contract by mid-April. If approved, it would cover teachers until 2013.

Negotiators worked through some "tough and challenging issues" said Stan Alleyne, Minneapolis Public Schools spokesman.

"When you have negotiations, it's rare for everybody to get what they want, but we feel good about where we ended," Alleyne said. "We were able to focus on student achievement and the kids and the betterment of the district."

Although the parties aren't releasing many details of the contract until next week, Alleyne said the negotiation teams spent a lot of time on issues like class size.

The district was fined about $800,000 in 2010 after failing to reach a contract agreement. This time, representatives of the teachers union and school district started holding weekly meetings in early October.

"At the end of the day, we're in administration and we work with teachers and we need to able to get along for the betterment of the district," Alleyne said.

A representative of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.