Feb. 03--One day after the Chicago Teachers Union rejected a contract proposal from Chicago Public Schools, district officials said they would cut school budgets by $100 million and stop paying the bulk of teachers' pension contributions -- moves CTU's president almost immediately described as "an act of war."
CPS officials told reporters of their plans while announcing the district would make a fresh attempt on Wednesday to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to keep the school system's finances afloat.
"Every one of us is disappointed by yesterday's outcome," Chicago Board of Education President Frank Clark told reporters Tuesday, describing the district's proposal to the union as the "foundation" of a potential deal.
"I believed this represented a compromise in the truest sense of the word," Clark said.
District CEO Forrest Claypool said a CTU bargaining team's vote to reject the district's contract offer was "disheartening," and that the district had no choice but to slash $100 million of student-based funding across the district.
The decision left principals scrambling to determine what cuts they'd have to make in the coming days.
"This was something I had hoped to avoid at all costs," Claypool told reporters of budget cuts that could affect teachers.
"We'll do our very best to prevent teacher cuts, and we'll work with schools to keep class sizes small and prevent midyear disruptions, but it means school support staff will be disproprtionately affected," Claypool said.
CTU President Karen Lewis said the district's action was a retaliatory effort to coerce union members into signing on to a deal.
"We are certain that everyone who works in our public schools is facing a clear and present danger," Lewis said. The union said members would take to the streets Thursday to protest.
"We have no trust in CPS, it fails to keep its promises," Lewis said, echoing remarks made by union officials Monday after announcing their rejection of the district's contract offer.
"We have dealt with a myriad of lies and financial myths that are designed to create a doomsday narrative needed to provide them cover as they continue with their austerity agenda," she said. "Due to their attack, we have no choice but to express our outrage at this latest act of war by rallying against CPS and the bankers who are siphoning off millions from our schools."
Despite the heated rhetoric, school and union officials suggested a deal to replace a contract that expired June 30 could still be reached. Talks have proceeded to a final stage of negotiations that must precede a teachers strike under state law, though that so-called "fact-finding" process doesn't keep both sides from reaching compromise.
In the meantime, Claypool said in a letter to union officials, the school system "could no longer stay its hand in implementing significant cost-savings measures."
Claypool said CPS would stop paying for the bulk of pension contributions for CTU's members "no sooner than 30 days" after the Feb. 2 letter, pointing to a provision in the expired contract that said the expired practice "will not constitute a continuing element of compensation or benefit" beyond the district's 2015 budget year.
The pension pickup had been a point of contention for many months. CPS has for many years picked up 7 percentage points of the 9 percent pension contribution required of teachers and many staff members.
Under the district's latest offer, CPS would winnow its share to 3.5 percentage points this year and phase the practice out by summer 2017. Last year, the district ended the pension pickup for its nonunion workers.
District officials did not specify how schools would cut their budgets as the second semester of classes is set to begin, saying the decision of how to cut spending would largely fall to the judgment of individual principals.
Principals said district officials used a Tuesday conference call to brief administrators about the terms of the rejected contract deal, saying they were to receive more details on how schools would be affected in the coming days.
Pincipals interviewed Tuesday said any teacher layoffs could require schools to reprogram their curriculum with only days' notice.
"I would be the happiest guy around if next week we had an agreement with the teachers union and we could rescind the process on these steps," Claypool said.
"We do not want to take these steps. We're still hopeful that we can reach an agreement with the union, but we have reached the point where we can no longer delay taking the administrative actions necessary to realize these savings, given the threat to our district from this massive budget deficit."
jjperez@tribpub.com
