As the 1969-70 school year began, the teachers and school board were in the middle of a contract dispute that saw teachers marching in picket lines and withholding services for extra curricular activities.

The board had adopted a new salary schedule in August based on a report by a three-member mediation panel chaired by a Minnesota District Court judge, a procedure then required by state law. The teachers weren’t happy with the report and alleged the judge was biased.

A week before the start of the school year, 100 picketing teachers met school board members as they entered the District 623 office for a meeting. They presented a petition signed by 460 Roseville teachers protesting the board's “indifference to open talks.”

In school districts across the Twin Cities -- in Hopkins, Moundsview, St. Louis Park and Minnetonka -- similar disputes were raging on.

The issues then sound familiar today. The board wanted salaries to be based on “merit” in addition a teacher’s years of service and advanced degrees; teachers were opposed. Teachers wanted a greater role in determining school policy, especially class size. They would withhold services until the school district administrators agreed to set aside the panel's report and negotiate with them directly.

As the bell rang for the first day of class, the stage band, pep club, drama club and other activities were suddenly no more. Homecoming was threatened -- would the dispute be settled in time? Other activities, including the Ramsey Blueprint student newspaper and the Rambler yearbook, continued without their faculty advisers as student editors scrambled to get organized.