The Newton School Committee and Mayor Ruthanne Fuller voted unanimously Thursday to approve a new teacher contract after a weekslong strike.
The Newton Teachers Association voted Jan. 18 to go on strike. Schools in the Massachusetts city were closed for 11 days before an agreement was reached Friday on a contract.
The union said Sunday in a Facebook post that 97% of its members had voted to ratify the four-year deal.
On Thursday, Fuller and the school committee voted 9-0 to approve the contract and return-to-work agreement.
Students returned to class Monday, while questions remain about the financial impact of the strike.
The walkout affected 2,000 Newton Public Schools instructors in about two dozen schools with some 12,000 students. It was the sixth teachers strike in the state since 2022 and the longest, closing schools for 11 days.
The union said it sought living wages for all employees and struck after more than a year of talks with the Newton School Committee, which negotiated on behalf of the district.
The strike sidelined students and prompted bitterness in the mostly affluent suburb of about 87,000 residents. It also proved costly for both sides.
In addition to salary losses, a judge fined the teachers association more than $600,000 for violating the state’s ban on strikes by public workers and on Friday threatened to double daily fines to $100,000 if no agreement was reached by Sunday.
The school district, meanwhile, was expected to spend an additional $53 million over four years to cover the cost of the new agreement, which includes a cost-of-living increase of about 13% over that period for teachers, pay hikes for classroom aides and 40 days of fully paid family leave time.
District negotiators said it also had racked up more than $1 million in court and other costs since the walkout began.
“This contract reflects our values including respect for our educators,” the Newton School Committee said in a statement after the strike ended.
“This strike has been painful for NPS families and the entire City of Newton. The Committee looks forward to the return of students to their classrooms,” the statement said. “We will take a breath, then begin the work of ensuring that this never happens again.”
