The St. Paul school board on Tuesday formally approved the contract agreement that ended the teacher strike last month.

Superintendent Joe Gothard said the deal requires the district to create more than 50 new positions to satisfy the union’s demands for mental health support and other priorities.

He said the district doesn’t have the $4.7 million for the mental health jobs and will have to shift resources from other positions.

According to board meeting materials, the new positions will come at the expense of numerous “learning leads” and teachers on special assignment. Gothard created the learning lead position last year in order to provide school-level training for his strategic plan.

Gothard initially proposed hiring 70 learning leads over two years but ended up hiring 28 for the current school year after the union complained he was adding an unnecessary layer of administrators.

Board member Steve Marchese said the contentious biennial contract talks have damaged the district. He expressed disappointment that the union took negotiations private through mediation and forced the district to change its spending priorities.

“We have to decide as a community who’s leading this district,” he said.

The contract agreement includes salary schedule increases of 1.5 percent this school year and 2 percent next year, at a cost of $9.6 million. That’s all the district was planning to spend coming into teacher contract negotiations.

The strike began March 10, costing teachers three days of work and students four days of school.

School buildings still haven’t reopened because planning for distance learning amid the coronavirus pandemic began the following week.

Union leaders have said the pandemic forced them to reach a deal with the district sooner than they’d have liked.