Students in classes at the Weyburn Comprehensive School whooped and cheered when it was announced the province's teachers reached a tentative agreement in their contract negotiations on Friday afternoon.

The tentative agreement, which will go to a vote for ratification by teachers on Oct. 4 and 5, ended a work-to-rule job action taken by the province's 12,000 teachers that cancelled all extra-curricular activities and events as well as noon-hour supervision.

The job action also caused thousands of high school students across the province to take protest action, including students at Weyburn and Pangman.

The full details of the tentative agreement were not released by the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation or the Saskatchewan School Trustees Association, but the proposed salary increases were leaked to the public. The proposed settlement includes an increase of 4.5 per cent in 2000, retroactive to Jan. 1, three per cent in 2001 and two per cent over the first eight months of 2002. Also proposed is 1.6 per cent for a comprehensive health plan and a 0.4 per cent increase for principals' allowances.

While these increases were made known, the details of how this proposal effects teachers' salaries, according to their levels of experience, won't be known until the documents are copied and sent out to all teachers across the province, said Weyburn Teachers' Association spokesman Brian Pegg.

"We have a rough idea what's in it but we have to see the language of the contract. I can't really give a reading on it right now," said Pegg, who is a teacher at the Comp.

"When we announced the settlement in the afternoon, the kids in the classes cheered. I was with my Grade 12 class at the time, and they cheered and applauded like it was a sporting event," Pegg added. "We've been really busy getting things back up to normal again."

The biggest issue for school boards will first be the ratification vote, and secondly if there will be sufficient funding to pay for the salary increases.

For one school board, the assurance has been made by the province that the cost of the first year's increase will be covered.

"The board has been told if the first-year increase is above three per cent, the government will provide additional funding. In fact, most boards anticipated this increase would be in the three-per-cent bracket, so most budgets have already adjusted for that," said Jan Chell, director of education for the public school and Comp boards.

She added the return to normal activity was good news both for students and for staff - a sentiment echoed by her counterpart with the Weyburn Central and Separate school boards, Al Boutin.

"The job action was tough on the teachers. I know they were welcoming the ability to come back and do the job as they like to get it done," he said.

Regarding the financial impact at the division level, "The boards are taking a little bit of a wait-and-see approach," said Boutin. "They're hoping the increase in expenses will be covered by an increase in funding from the Department of Education. It will definitely have an impact on our ability to meet the terms of the new contract."

Most schools resumed their extra-curricular activities at noon and after school this week, and for the high schools, staff were scrambling to reschedule events and salvage a season for the football and volleyball teams. The Comp Eagles' football season has been shortened to five games now, with their first game on Saturday at 1 p.m. versus Notre Dame.

The Comp girls' volleyball tournament will go as planned this weekend, and the boys' home tournament cancelled last week is being rescheduled for sometime later in October.

On Friday, the day the settlement was reached, over 400 Comp students walked out of class after the first bell in the morning, but Pegg said many were back in class by the afternoon, especially the Grade 12 students.

The students gathered at Jubilee Park and held an impromptu football game, along with holding protest signs along First Avenue.

"This isn't to choose sides in the issue," shouted student Mike Larson to the crowd through a megaphone. "It's to put pressure on both sides to get this thing settled. We didn't know what we had until it was taken away from us. Nobody has liked this week."

"It effects everything because a lot of colleges look at your marks. This is our future, people playing sports are not going to be scouted and won't get the scholarships," added SRC co-chair Devon Dubnyk.

High school students at Pangman School also walked out of class on Wednesday, said SRC member Lindsay Vande Velde. Students picketed outside the school, and at break times teachers came out to talk to the students about their action.

"A lot of students are supportive of the teachers, They understood what we were doing," she said.