Gary teachers accept contract to end 12-day strike

GARY — City teachers will receive raises and 45-minute lunch breaks under a new contract they approved Friday, ending a teachers strike that has kept some 16,000 pupils out of school for more than a week.\nGary Teachers Union President Sandra Irons said the vote was unanimous.\n"I'm glad it's over," Irons told The Associated Press. "Let's go to work."\nSchool Board President Alex Wheeler Jr. said Thursday that the board had endorsed the tentative deal and was waiting to hear from union leaders.\n"I think we'll all be happy," he said.\nThe contract gives teachers a 2 percent pay raise for each year of the three-year contract and provides a 45-minute lunch break. The school board had wanted to cut teacher lunches from an hour to 30 minutes.\nThe contract is retroactive and runs from 2005-07. Teachers and board members hope to begin working on a future contract soon.\n"The district is very happy to have this behind us," school spokesman Eric Johnson said. "Now we can get on with the business of education."\nOfficials planned for the 1,200 teachers and paraprofessionals to return to their classrooms Friday and prepare for students to start the school year Tuesday. The school year will be extended by a week, ending on June 15, 2007, and students will attend school on Dec. 20 and Dec. 21 to help make up for lost days.\nTeachers went on strike on Aug. 21 -- \nfor the first time since 1984 -- and the district closed schools on Aug. 24, the day after few students attended the first day of classes. The teachers had been working under the terms of a contract that expired in December 2004.\nGov. Mitch Daniels said Friday in Indianapolis that it was "about time" the strike was resolved. He said the strike was especially disturbing because Gary is the "school district with, I believe, the worst results in the state of Indiana, and the kids have lost two weeks."\nThe state recently placed the Gary Community School Corp. in the state's lowest performing tier, academic probation, and the district consistently fails to meet adequate yearly progress as defined by the federal No Child Left Behind act.\n"I just hope that -- as I hope in every school district in Indiana -- people remember the first purpose of the schools is the kids, not the adults," Daniels said. "In that school district, every single advantage that could possibly be given to these kids should be, and here they had a setback instead."\nAbout 50 teachers crossed picket lines Thursday to return to the classroom under threat of possible firing by the school district.\nNews of the agreement Thursday came a few hours after a school board meeting for parents that drew about 700 people, during which many speakers lambasted the board for not reaching a deal earlier with teachers.\n"They say no child left behind. You have a whole community left behind," said Farris Beasley, the mother of a high school junior.\nBoth union and school board members said pressure from parents helped them reach the contract agreement. At least one student was excited to head back to class.\n"I would like to get back so I could have work to do," said student Charless Guthrie. "It's, like, kind of boring not to have work"