Minneapolis parents cautiously optimistic over deal to end teachers strike

Vania Romay Deeney's daughter thrives in social settings, so the Minneapolis mom is feeling hopeful about a deal that promises to bring an end to a nearly three-week strike by teachers and education support professionals.

"At the end of the day, she needs the interaction," Deeney said of Vania Maria, a Northrop Elementary kindergartner with a rare condition that includes global developmental delays and a mild intellectual disability.

When school is in session, the girl works with a special education assistant, a speech therapist and an occupational therapist, and does her best when learning in a classroom with friends.

The family, like so many others across Minnesota's largest city, was relieved to learn Friday that Minneapolis Public Schools and its teachers union reached a tentative agreement. The deal must clear a union vote before teachers and support professionals return to the classroom.

Parents and students desperate for a sense of normalcy are cautiously optimistic that classes will be back in session soon. On Friday, Deeney said she was "very hopeful and excited about the potential of Vania Maria going back on Monday."

District officials said Saturday that Tuesday was the earliest that kids would be back in school.

The strike has been just the latest disruption for nearly 30,000 students in the state's third-largest school district. Much as they did when Minneapolis Public Schools paused in-person instruction for two weeks in January, and for a longer stretch earlier in the pandemic, families scrambled to cobble together child care.

Some relied on family and friends. Others split day care duties with a partner or spouse. The daily juggling robbed families of the sense of normalcy that kids crave, and proved a particularly outsize burden for families whose children have special academic and medical needs.

Annie Haynos, whose son Barrett Ferguson is a kindergartner at Bryn Mawr Elementary, said it was difficult to find care for the boy because he requires partial feeding through a tube. In the days leading up to the strike, parents began circulating e-mail lists of potential child care sites and setting up rotations for extended play dates.

Haynos considered those solutions but couldn't find one that fit her family's needs.

"When people send around resources for temporary child care, in almost all of those cases, they can't accommodate a child like my son," she said.

Haynos has mixed feelings about the strike. She supports her son's educators fighting for what she believes is a fair wage. At the same time, Barrett has spent more time at home than he has in class this year.

From in-service days to the district's pivot to virtual instruction and then Barrett's bout with a bad stomach bug, the Haynos family has found it impossible to get him into a routine.

A child's early years in elementary school are crucial. It's a period when they adjust to their new environment and form relationships with educators and peers alike.

"His has been entirely wiped out because of COVID," Haynos said.

Chris Heagle of Minneapolis has two children: a sophomore and a seventh-grader. "Three weeks is a long time to have your kids at home, for sure," he said. The family knows they're lucky since he and his spouse can both work at home.

Heagle said his sophomore daughter weathered it better — she was out on the picket lines supporting teachers, and he said that became a learning experience in itself. It's been more challenging for his seventh-grader, he said.

Still, routine also is essential for older students, but for other reasons.

William Harris, an education support professional at North Community High, said he expects his students will want to get right back into the swing of things. He knows they depend on a consistent schedule to keep focus.

"I want them to have that back," Harris said.

That assessment rings true for Lindsey Richardson, whose son Caleb is a junior at South High. The 17-year-old is on the autism spectrum and excels at school when his daily routine maintains a steady structure.

His father is an education-support professional in the district, which meant the family discussed the potential of a strike often in hopes of mitigating the impacts on Caleb's routine.

"As long as he knows ahead of time, he's pretty adaptable in that respect," Richardson said.

Caleb joined educators on the picket line most mornings in part as a way to maintain a routine. He also found a part-time job.

The family hopes caps on class sizes and better pay for education-support professionals will make caseloads more manageable. Before the strike, Caleb rarely got the sort of individualized attention he needed in the classroom, Richardson said.

She's also had to prod district officials when they strayed from her son's individualized education plan. The thought of enrolling Caleb and his younger sister in a different district has crossed Richardson's mind, but she worries about uprooting him after nearly 12 years.

"I've kept my kid there because he has friends there," Richardson said. "He's grown so much in that community."

Deeney has similarly considered moving Vania Maria out of her district. But they, too, have grown attached to the Northrop Elementary community.

"Vania Maria's classmates are a group of kind kids," Deeney said. "And there's nothing more we can ask for."

Still, the family knows that things won't feel normal even when classes start again. It's taken Vania Maria time to readjust after prior disruptions.

Kevin Manthie, whose daughter Harriet is a third-grader at Kenwood Elementary, said he expects it will take at least a couple of days to get back into a routine.

"But that far outweighs the anxiety and stress that came with her out of school with no timetable to return," he said.

When class is in session, Harriet meets with a speech pathologist twice a week. She also gets extra help in math and in reading, the latter requiring small-group instruction out of the classroom.

Over the last couple of weeks, the Manthie family looked for ways to keep Harriet engaged, from play dates to art lessons at a local studio. But those solutions are no substitute for the classroom experience.

"Every day, I get this dread that she's falling further behind her peers," Manthie said.

Haynos agrees, adding that the latest disruption to Minneapolis students' education will have ripple effects that parents and educators won't be able to identify for some time.

"I hope that the school district and other employers can understand that just because school reopens on Monday, it doesn't mean that everything goes back to 100 percent normal," Haynos said. "Parents are going to be dealing with the effects of the strike for weeks, even months, to come."

Staff writer Erin Adler contributed to this report.