St. Paul schools, teachers reach tentative contract agreement, avoid strike

St. Paul Public Schools and the union representing its teachers and support staff reached a tentative agreement on a new two-year contract Tuesday that averts a strike without an expected increase in a daunting $107 million deficit for 2024-25.

"We set up parameters that we work from, and we've stayed very close there," Superintendent Joe Gothard said. "But there are still some very hard budget decisions that will have to be made."

The two sides made a joint appearance at Maxfield Elementary School on Tuesday afternoon — about two hours after issuing separate news releases announcing the deal. They declined, however, to release details of the agreement, which centered on wages and benefits as a major final sticking point.

"No one contract campaign can fix all of the things that we need for our students and for our educators," said Erica Schatzlein, lead negotiator for the St. Paul Federation of Educators (SPFE). "But I do feel strongly that this is one big step in the right direction."

A week ago, the union filed notice it would strike March 11 if a deal was not reached – the fourth time in as many bargaining cycles that it threatened a walkout. The two sides then met in mediation for nearly 40 hours over the weekend and resumed talks on Monday and Tuesday.

"I'm proud of the commitment and the focus that we have all collectively had to be able to get here to a place that is affirming for educators and also provides folks the supports that they need throughout the school day," said Halla Henderson, chair of the St. Paul school board.

Last week, SPFE President Leah VanDassor said that members were eyeing pay raises in surrounding districts and were dissatisfied with offers of 2% to 3% in the first year and 1.75% in the second year.

Schools statewide were fresh off an historic $2.2 billion state investment, she said, and the district was proposing the same types of increases that educators had seen for 10 to 15 years.

"This money was put in place so that students could have better educational situations, and if we don't push to get educators to stay in this district, there's going to be a lot of absent educators in their lives next year," VanDassor said. "This is about retention and this is about stability."

The union also pushed for lower health insurance costs, reduced caseloads for special education teachers and greater mental health supports — all of which when combined with its wages and benefits proposal cost tens of millions more than what the district said it had budgeted.

In an unsuccessful bid to shift talks to binding arbitration, Gothard wrote a letter to VanDassor last week describing a strike as a lose-lose proposition.

"It will cause reputational harm to SPFE and the school district, it will cause disruption to the difficult and important work happening across our school district and, most importantly, it will inflict further harms on our students and families who continue to suffer from the lingering effects of the 2020 strike and subsequent COVID-19 pandemic," he wrote.

Starting pay for a St. Paul teacher with a bachelor's degree is about $49,000 this year, according to the district's salary schedule. A teacher with a Ph.D. and 20 years of experience earns about $102,000. The district said recently that about half of its teachers are paid more than $90,000.

VanDassor said the union will share details of the agreement with members on Thursday, and a public release is expected Friday. Patricia Pratt-Cook, the district's executive chief of human resources, said the district was following protocol, and not the law, in withholding information Tuesday, as well.