Detroit Teachers, School Board Agree to Tentative Contract

Striking teachers and the school board agreed Monday on a tentative contract that could end a weeklong walkout over reforms sought by the schools chief hired to turn the troubled district around.

Teachers could be back in school by Wednesday, and the district’s 172,000 students would return Thursday, negotiators said.

“I’m going to recommend to the teachers that they accept this contract,” Detroit Federation of Teachers President John Elliott said.

Teachers won agreements for smaller classes and raises of up to 4%, and defeated proposals for merit pay and longer school days, he said.

In one of the nation’s biggest teacher strikes in recent years, Detroit students missed four days of class last week and would miss class again today.

The teachers walked out in defiance of a Michigan law that bars teacher strikes and fines teachers one day’s pay for each day they strike. Legislative leaders had said they would move to seek sanctions against the teachers today.

The union, which represents 9,200 teachers, had been unhappy with the proposed reforms that administrators sought after the Legislature voted in March to replace Detroit’s elected school board with one appointed by the mayor. Similar school takeovers have been enacted in Chicago and Cleveland.

Schools in Detroit, the nation’s 10th-largest city, have been beset by mismanagement and chronically low test scores, attendance and graduation rates, and the new chief executive, David Adamany, said the reforms were aimed at turning those trends around.