After eight days of striking, Evergreen Park Federation of Teachers will put down their pickets and return to the classrooms.
“After 11 hours of negotiations, we have reached a tentative agreement,” the Evergreen Park Federation of Teachers posted on its Facebook page. “We are thankful that we will be back in school on Monday with our students. We have missed them.”
On Thursday, strike talks between Evergreen Park teachers and the district's school board broke down early Thursday, leaving students out of class for the seventh day.
When the union spokesman walked out of negotiations at 2:30 a.m., he said they would have kept meeting, but after 10 hours, talks were called off with no deal in place.
The school board president sounded optimistic about the progress made when it comes to retirement benefits, but teachers said that's a minor issue and they still have a long way to go.
The union and the school board scheduled a meeting Saturday to complete the agreement and have 1,800 students back in classroom by Monday.
