After protracted and at times heated discussions, the International Falls School Board and the district’s teachers union reached a tentative two-year contract agreement Monday night after only about 1 1/2 hours of discussion, said Local 331 President John Sandberg.

“It was good, very positive,” Sandberg said Tuesday morning of the 2011-2013 offer. “We’re not going to share any details at this point until after we have a meeting with our membership Wednesday night and then have a vote after they've had the required two weeks to review the offer.”

Unless the board calls for an emergency session after that vote, and if it’s successful, the contract with the short shelf life wouldn't be ratified by the school board until the late-April regular meeting, Sandberg said.

Still, by most accounts, the next, apparently much more complicated 2013-2015 contract will once again raise issues that stymied previous contract negotiations and even led to bringing in a state mediator.

“We’ll get there,” said Superintendent Nordy Nelson, a negotiator who announced that he will resign in June after a year to give his full attention to his St. Cloud, Minn.-based consulting business. “The important thing is we are back at the table and will be discussing the main issues.”

Monday was the first official bargaining session since Education Minnesota International Falls Local 331 members resoundingly rejected the last offer presented to them in October – and two new school board members joined the board following November’s elections.

The sides previously met Feb. 7 for an informal get-together at the behest of Nelson. That resulted in the teachers’ decision to proceed further on Monday and bring along an offer, officials said.

They said they also agreed to focus on the 2011-2013 contract, which ends June 30, rather than attempting to take on both impending two-year contracts at the same time.

More recently, teachers and board members reached by The Journal repeatedly have expressed both optimism and a sense of urgency for both contracts. Without saying they’ll cede anything in particular, both sides have indicated a desire to move on and pay greater attention to more and other pressing district matters.

Sandberg said that the key issues the two negotiating teams reached consensus upon Monday night had been thoroughly discussed over roughly the past two years or more.

“Most of it was previously agree-upon language,” Nelson concurred.

Since June 2011, Falls teachers have been working with a continuation contract, or one with language written and agreed upon back in 2009.

Independent School District No. 361 negotiating team members Vice Chairman Gordon Dault, a retired principal, and Nelson, also said that they wanted to wait for ratification before they’d publicly discuss contract specifics.

“I can’t comment on specifics,” Dault said after a school board work session following negotiations.

Dault said the teachers’ vote will determine the timeline for what takes place next. However, both he and Nelson also said they very much hope this contract is ratified so they can turn around and start delving right into the 2013-2015 contract.

And both sides said that restarted talks so far have been more amicable and efficient.

It’s the next pact that will include much of the contentious language that led to the previous protracted process, said Sandberg, a Falls High School teacher.

That may put this honeymoon period to the test, participants said.

“We both wanted to get this over because a lot of big issues for the next contract will take a lot of hard work and a lot of time,” he said. “I would say this one (the tentative agreement) is better than the last offer. And the board did move from some of the previous language, so that was helpful.”

Sandberg also said, in his opinion, Nelson helped a great deal in pushing the process forward soon after the new board was installed and has helped smooth over some differences.

“A lot of us are saddened to see him go,” he said.

In the past, the district’s roughly 70 teachers and the board have been at odds on the central issues of salaries and benefits as well as installing a seven-period day and Q-comp – or quality compensation from the state for teachers who increase student performance.

Sandberg also said that the proposed teacher evaluation system and changing concurrent enrollment practices are other difficult issues that will be on the table.

The teachers’ team is made up of Sandberg, industrial technology teacher George McDonald, English teacher Kayla Gilbert and Dean of Students Kevin Grover.

The school board team consists of Nelson, Dault and fellow members Willi Kostiuk and Michelle Hebner, with Mike Holden as an alternate.