For parents Jamie Crandall and Christine Schmidt, spending most of Friday in a gymnasium watching negotiators go back and forth over contract issues was worth it.

“I’m glad to see a peaceful resolution was reached at the end of the day,” said Crandall, a mother who has two children in District 46 schools and two high school students who graduated who went from kindergarten through eighth grade in the district.

Friday afternoon, in an unusually public setting, the bargaining teams for the Prairie Grove Teachers’ Association and the district struck a deal after almost eight hours of mediation at Prairie Grove Elementary School, 3223 Route 176 in Crystal Lake. The agreement ended a one-day teachers strike that kept 1,000 students out of class Friday.