Teachers have hit the picket lines at public schools across Minneapolis, calling their strike a fight to ensure “safe and stable schools” for students and for better wages for the lowest-paid support staff
“We are on strike for safe and stable schools, we’re on strike for systemic change, we’re on strike for our students, the future of our city and the future of Minneapolis public schools,” Greta Callahan, president of the teachers’ chapter of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers, said outside a middle school where more than 100 union members and supporters picketed in freezing weather.
In the St. Paul district, with about 34,000 students, teachers and administrators reached a tentative agreement late Monday to avert a strike. The teachers union said the agreement would raise pay, maintain caps on class sizes and increase mental health supports. Mark Spurlin, who has 6-year-old twins in kindergarten at the same Sapnish immersion school as Dengler, said it could be a challenge to get through an indefinite strike. Day care would cost him and his wife, Megan, about $50 to $60 a day per boy.