Members of the St. Paul teachers union voted Thursday to authorize a strike over a lack of progress in contract negotiations with the state’s second-largest school district.

The St. Paul Federation of Educators said late Thursday night that two-thirds of its members voted and that 82 percent of voting members want to strike.

“No one wants to strike, but St. Paul educators are fed up. District leaders aren’t listening to the people who know our students best — the educators and parents who are with them every day,” union president Nick Faber said in a prepared statement. “The longer they ignore our proposals, the longer our students go without the resources they need and the schools they deserve.”

The union says it will announce a strike date next week. A 10-day cooling off period will begin once they give formal notice, setting the stage for an early March strike that would close school for some 37,000 students.

Mediated negotiations are scheduled for March 5 and 6, and the parties are trying to schedule additional dates, district spokesman Kevin Burns said Thursday.

“We are extremely disappointed our educators continue down a path toward a strike. Our students, families, coworkers and community expect all of us to work together and avoid a strike, and that’s what I am committed to doing,” Superintendent Joe Gothard said in a prepared statement.

St. Paul has several extra school days built into its calendar, but a prolonged strike would require extending the school year past June 9.

In 2018, the parties reached a deal 11 days after members authorized a strike and one day before teachers were preparing to walk off the job.

MORE THAN PAY

The school district entered negotiations last year planning to increase ongoing spending by no more than $9.6 million — enough for a 1.5 percent pay raise this year and 2 percent next year for teachers, educational assistants and school and community service professionals.

During mediation Wednesday, the district offered an additional $1.2 million for a districtwide mental health team. That was a response to a union proposal for a full-time social worker, counselor, nurse and behavior intervention specialist at every school, plus more psychologists and staff mental health training.

After voting to strike Thursday, Horace Mann Elementary science teacher Sarah Bosch recalled standing with one foot in her classroom full of students and another in the hallway as she spoke with a child in crisis from another class. There was no counselor or social worker in the building, she said.

“We need to stand up for our kids to get what they need,” she said.

Rebecca Stedje, a sixth-grade English teacher at Murray Middle School, said students need more mental health staff.

“They need just so much more than we can give them,” she said.

The union also is pushing for lighter workloads for special education teachers and the hiring of 50 multilingual staffers, among other issues.

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