The West Contra Costa Unified School District has reached a tentative agreement with its teachers’ union to end a strike that started last week, district officials announced Wednesday.

District spokesperson Raechelle Forrest said that during overnight negotiations, the union United Teachers of Richmond agreed on the district board’s latest counterproposal that included salary and health care increases and addressed several other contractual items.

The agreement still must be ratified by the union’s members and voted upon by the board, but schools will return to normal operations Thursday. Schools have remained open since the strike started last Thursday.

“We are relieved that the strike is over and our students and teachers will be reunited in the classroom on Thursday,” Forrest said in a statement.

The United Teachers of Richmond on its social media page also announced the tentative agreement in a post at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.

“Through our unbreakable solidarity, we forced WCCUSD to FIGURE IT OUT,” the union’s post said. “It was OUR COLLECTIVE POWER that forced the District back to the table and paved the way for an agreement that lays a foundation for the safe and stable schools our students deserve.”

Dan McMenamin is the managing editor at Bay City News, directing daily news coverage of the 12-county greater Bay Area. He has worked for BCN since 2008 and has been managing editor since 2014 after previously serving as BCN’s San Francisco bureau reporter. A UC Davis graduate, he came to BCN after working for a newspaper and nonprofit in the Davis area. He handles staffing, including coaching of our interns, day-to-day coverage decisions and management of the newswire.