School will be in session in the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union Wednesday. The district includes schools in Bellows Falls, Saxtons River, Westminster and Grafton, and Bellows Falls Union High School.
Many feared classes would be canceled as contract negotiations, aided by a mediator, continued into the night.
At around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, the school boards and the teachers union reached a tentative agreement. Stephen Fine is chief negotiator for the school boards.
"It was signed off on by the boards and by the union," Fine said. "The terms cannot be disclosed at the moment. The agreement has to be ratified in effect by the union and each of the separate boards and then it has to be written up in a formal document. That’s going to take a little while, But in the meantime, schools will be open, there will not be a strike."
Bellows Falls Union High School teacher Erica Moody is the spokeswoman for the Windham Northeast Education Association.
Moody says the union is pleased that differences have been overcome. "Now, we can get on with the business of making our schools the best they can be," she said.