After meeting in the open for the past several months, the negotiators trying to reach a two-year Minneapolis teacher contract head behind closed doors on Friday.

The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers has activated its earlier request that the talks meet under the supervision of a state mediator, which automatically closes them under Bureau of Mediation Services practices.

The closure comes amid signs that a deal could be reached in talks scheduled for Friday, Saturday and possibly Monday. Bureau Director Josh Tilsen said it's likely that the negotiators will use a retired mediator who has been facilitating the talks so far.

Tilsen said he closes mediated talks because he finds that parties make more progress when they're not posturing for the press and public. But Minneapolis Federation of Teachers President Lynn Nordgren said she wants closed talks because she's tired of being sniped at by outside observers who argued that the district isn't aggressive enough in its push for contract changes.

That criticism comes mostly from Lynnell Mickelsen, former school board member Chris Stewart and Bill English. They want the district to push harder for contract changes to make it easier to remove ineffective teachers and to open the filling of vacancies to any applicant, rather than just teachers laid off at other city schools. They're pushing what they call a "contract for student achievement."

That war of words escalated Tuesday night at the school board meeting when all three told the board it's not doing enough to push for contract changes that help kids.

"Why did you ask for so little this time?" Mickelsen said. "This contract that you're about to sign is a triumph for the status quo." Those were fighting words to Nordgren, who is in her second round as the union's chief negotiator. She also laid into the board for considering drafts of next year's school calendar before the union and district had even agreed how many added days, if any, that school year will have. She derided the desire of some for more days in school for students and teachers. "More time is not necessarily the best unless we do it differently," she said.

Another clue to why Nordgren wants the talks closed came a day later,w hen she said in an interview that meeting in public makes it hard for the union to control the flow of information to its members. She also said she thinks that closed talks will make more progress.

"We're close but we're stuck on a couple of items," Nordgren said. "I want a mediator to help us work through those things."