Why class sizes have been a sticking point in Minneapolis, St. Paul teacher contract negotiations

Pete Grebner remembers what it was like to juggle a Como High School classroom with too many students, conducting chemistry lessons during which half the room did lab work while the other half read from a textbook.

He considers it a triumph that the St. Paul Federation of Educators secured class size limits in its tentative contract agreement with the state's second-largest school district. Until now, class size caps were routinely part of standalone memorandums of understanding between St. Paul Public Schools and its teachers union.

"It needed to be a permanent thing," said Grebner, now a teacher on special assignment for the St. Paul district and a member of the union's bargaining team.

https://www.startribune.com/why-class-sizes-have-been-a-sticking-point-in-minneapolis-st-paul-teacher-contract-negotiations/600157820/