A Dane County judge denied an injunction filed by the Madison Metropolitan School District on Friday that would force teachers to return to work after three consecutive sick-outs required the district to close its doors to students last week.

The district filed for the injunction against Madison Teachers Incorporated, which would make the work stoppages and school closures illegal acts under state law. Late Sunday it was announced classes would be canceled again Monday but would resume on Tuesday.

Dane County Circuit Court Judge Maryann Sumi denied the complaint on the grounds that the work interferences were not clearly defined as strikes according to state law.

In reaction to Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill, teachers around the state have been calling in sick and failing to report to work, forcing schools to close because of safety concerns for students. MMSD officials said it was uncertain when schools would reopen because not all teachers who were missing work had previously called in.

In an MMSD release, Superintendent Dan Nerad said filing the injunction was necessary to bring back teachers and resume education for students.

“Recognizing that we understand how this proposed legislation is significantly impacting our staff, we also have an obligation to ensure that our students are educated,” Nerad said in the statement. “Because we lacked assurances that staff would return to work on Monday, we made the decision to seek a legal solution to the need to have our students back in school.”

Ken Syke, MMSD spokesperson, said MTI attorneys promised in court teachers would return to class Tuesday in order to resume normal school days.

In an e-mail apologizing to parents of the district’s students, Nerad said the teachers’ actions need to end and the district was considering all of its options to see that the work stoppages come to a halt.

“I want to assure you that we continue to examine our options to more quickly move back to normal school days,” Nerad said in the e-mail.

Syke said the district and MTI have been meeting every evening to determine school cancellations based on staff presence.

“We’ve talked about whether there would be enough staff to be able to have school and we’ve still expected staff members to show up for work, though obviously many have chosen not to do so,” Syke said.