British Columbia’s 40,000 public school teachers have voted to accept a new contact, bringing an end to a year-long labour dispute that saw teachers reduce service and shut down classes during a brief walkout.

The BC Teachers’ Federation announced Friday that its members voted 75 per cent in favour of a tentative agreement that was reached earlier in the week. Turnout was low, at 52 per cent.

The dispute has overshadowed the entire school year, with teachers refusing to perform certain administrative tasks such as filling out report cards and, in March, staging a three-day walkout.

The provincial government eventually passed back-to-work legislation and sent the negotiations to mediation, a move that itself is now the subject of a new court challenge.

The Yes vote means those disruptions likely won’t affect students when classes resume from summer break in the fall, but that stability may be short lived.

The new contract ends in June of next year, just a month after a provincial election, promising to set off a fresh round of what will almost certainly be heated negotiations.