DANVILLE — Seven hours of negotiations Wednesday led to what everyone in Danville wanted to hear: District 118 students will return to school Thursday.

 “All schools will be in session today at the buildings’ regularly scheduled start times,” said Superintendent Mark Denman and Danville Education President Robin Twidwell in a joint statement released at 1:30 a.m.

The statement followed the two sides’ fifth bargaining session with a federal mediator.

“We look forward to opening up our schools again,” said Denman,

Twidwell said teachers were glad to return to classes “doing what we do best — educating our children.”

The two sides made a tentative agreement sometime around 1 a.m. after an evening of deal-making that had negotiating team members shuttling between meeting rooms at the Jackson Administration Building.

Neither side would release details of the agreement, except to say it was for two years and still needed ratification of DEA membership and the school board.

Twidwell said membership planned to ratify the agreement at a 6:15 a.m. meeting this morning.

The School Board will meet at 5:30 p.m. on Monday and is expected to approve the deal then.

“With the assistance of the federal mediator, both parties worked hard to find a creative solution to solve the outstanding issues,” said Twidwell.

“We are confident that that settlement is the best one for our schools and will keep the district moving forward,” Denman added. “While we can’t give details, both sides have given up something.”

Denman said the district would follow its usual alert system in starting school back up on Sunday.