Strike Over, Classes to Resume on Monday

Evergreen Park Elementary School District 124 and the Evergreen Park Federation of Teachers have come to a tentative agreement meaning kids will be back in school on Monday. 

The union announced that after an 11-hour negotiation session that began at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, a tentative agreement between the two sides has been reached. 

"We are thankful that we will be back in school on Monday with our students. We have missed them," the statement posted to the union's Facebook page reads. 

No details of the agreement have been released. 

Standing together in front of news cameras early Friday morning after the deal had been reached, both Board President Kathy Rohan and Daneen Pajeau, of the Illinois Federation of Teachers remarked on the strike's end.  

"I think everybody is happy that it is over,"  Rohan said. "With any negotiation everyone gets something they want and you don't get something you want, but I think we are all relieved the kids should be back in school on Monday."

The extended negotiation session resulted in a tentative agreement, although both sides will meet again to iron out more detailed language before final votes are taken. 

"We worked 11 hours very hard on reaching an agreement to finish out all the open items on the table," Pajeau told television cameras. 

The district has releases a statement on the deal calling it a "verbal tentative agreement." Here is the full statement:

"The Board and the Union continued use of a sidebar format from the last meeting and agreed to give a supposal process a try instead of requiring written proposals.  Representatives from the Board and Union had a number of extended sidebar discussions in an attempt to resolve the remaining issues as quickly as possible.  The two parties continued through the evening exploring options to bridge the differences.  The discussions were mostly positive and productive and brought the parties to the point where we reached a verbal tentative agreement.  Given the late hour, both parties agreed to adjourn for the evening and meet on Friday at 6:00 pm to review the language detailing the agreement. "

Updated, 10:20 a.m.   

Read all of Patch's strike coverage. 

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