MINNEAPOLIS — As the teachers strike continues through a third week, Minneapolis Public Schools and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers are still without a deal as of Thursday night. However, both sides were optimistic about negotiations at the end of the night, with Minneapolis School Board chair Kim Ellison saying she's hopeful a deal would be reached no later than Friday morning.
Both parties confirmed with KARE 11 that one of the hang-ups on Wednesday was over seniority protections for education support professionals, or ESPs.
Wednesday morning, MFT chapter president Greta Callahan and ESP chapter president Shaun Laden expressed frustration over the way negotiations apparently ended the night before. They said district representatives walked away from talks at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, leaving them uncertain as to whether negotiations would resume the next day.
However, Minneapolis Public Schools responded to inquiry Wednesday saying, "MPS remains committed to meet anytime, any day, for as long as we need to meet, when MFT is working within the financial parameters set forth by our last, best and final offers."
Meanwhile, ESPs are left waiting to find out if a new contract would mean new protections from getting laid off or excessed. ESPs handle a variety of jobs, from working one-on-one with students with special needs, language barriers and/or behavioral issues to helping teachers with large class sizes maintain control. Saturday, MPS sent the ESP chapter its "last best final" offer. While it included wage increases, Laden said protections are lacking. He explained that many ESPs are people of color and are new to their jobs. When layoffs occur, they're often the first to go because they lack seniority.
"When you don't have seniority protections, you have to apply for your same job in another site," Laden said. "These educators of color, our ESPs who don't have seniority rights, who don't have placement rights, they deserve to have those things. About half of our unit does, and of course our entire teacher group does as well, so if we're serious about settling a contract that's equity focused we really need to see the district move and provide these protections for educators of color."
Laden also expressed concern over communication with the district, claiming it hasn't interacted with the ESP chapter since Saturday.
"We would like to have conversations that are gonna settle this strike," he said.
The district confirmed MPS and ESPs are negotiating about seniority rights but did not provide more detail.
For the teacher chapter, MPS said it gave its "last best final" offer Tuesday, which they said addressed all MFT demands and MPS priorities. Union leaders say a major hang-up is over the teacher pay scale.
On Thursday, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey commented on the negotiations during a press conference to discuss a new contract with Minneapolis Police. Frey said he's been in contact with both the school district and union representatives, saying "I think there's a deal to be struck."
"I think that we can all agree that teachers need to be paid more. They have bore a whole lot of the difficulty and burden over these last couple of years. I mean, teachers are heroes in both (our) community and certainly (for) our children, and I think we can all agree on that," said Frey. "I think we can also agree that any district has limited funds and does not have levy or taxing authority. It provides a difficult predicament that in essence in the mid and longer term that requires all of us to be locking arms, going to the legislature, going to the Capitol and saying, 'Hey, we need to make sure that our schools are properly funded and that our children are properly cared for.'"
That topic was at the forefront of a forum at Lake Harriet Community School's Upper Campus on Thursday, featuring four DFL state legislators pushing for more public education funding. Parents from Southwest Minneapolis packed the school's cafeteria, discussing issues of enrollment and state funding formulas.
From Oct. 2019 to Oct. 2021, total K-12 enrollment at MPS dropped from 32,932 students to 29,580 students, according to district data, which means the district will receive less state funding.
The district has said it faces a $59.5 million budget shortfall in Fiscal Year 2022-23, which it will try to mitigate in the short-term through some federal relief funding.
Kate Kerfoot, a parent of four at MPS who attended the forum, said the strike has weighed heavily on parents across the district.
"My thought on the strike is, we've got to get this deal done, and then get the energy in this room to continue," she said. "We need to hold onto that energy and really put on the pressure."
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