LITTLE COMPTON — Students returned to the first day of classes yesterday as teachers looked forward to voting on a new multi-year contract.

Any possibility that a strike or work-to-rule limitations would mar the opening of school vanished when the union and the School Committee reached a tentative agreement on Saturday. The pact concluded a nearly 10-hour mediation session at the offices of the state Department of Labor and Training, in Cranston.

“It’s always good to reach an agreement. When the parties come together it’s always a good feeling,” said Supt. Harold Devine. With a union vote yet to be taken, Devine declined to discuss the contract details, saying, “At this stage of the game, I certainly wouldn’t.”

Union President Carol Belair could not be reached yesterday to talk about when the union’s 36 members would hold a vote on the contract.

“I expect they’ll be fairly soon, but I can’t say when they’ll be,” she said on Saturday after the session ended.

The two sides have agreed not to discuss details of the agreement until it is ratified, according to Belair.

“We still have to reduce it to the final language to make sure this is, in fact, what we agreed to,” Devine said.

The previous three-year contract expired Sunday. In it, teachers received annual raises of 2 percent, 3.8 percent and 4 percent, with the top base salary this year set at $65,786.

The current contract introduced health-insurance premium sharing. Teachers now pay 10 percent of the cost of their premiums.

Saturday’s session was the fourth since the union, which is represented by the National Education Association, asked the state for mediation. The state appointed lawyer John J. Harrington to help guide the two sides to a resolution.

Belair said last week that teachers had voted to return to work without a new contract, but that they might observe work-to-rule conditions, where teachers cease performing functions not required by their contract, such as after-school activities

rsalit@projo.com