The Mars Area School Board and Mars Area Education Association announced Wednesday night that they reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement, preventing a teachers strike that was scheduled to start Friday.

On late Wednesday evening, Mars Area Board of School Directors President John Kennedy and Mars Area Education Association President Joe Graff released a statement.

“Both parties will work to finalize the contract language for ratification votes within the next couple of weeks,” the statement read. “This tentative settlement avoids the strike scheduled for Friday.”

Read more in Thursday's Butler Eagle.