CHICAGO — A proposal for Chicago Public Schools to resume in-person classes Wednesday has been approved by the Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates, sources confirmed.
The measure still needs approval by the union’s full membership, but the delegates also voted to suspend the union’s work action that saw teachers refusing to work in person for the last four school days.
In their latest update at about 7 p.m. Monday, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez and Mayor Lori Lightfoot had called the day’s negotiations “productive” and said they were “waiting to hear back from” the teachers union.
In addition to a return to in-person teaching Wednesday, the plan the House of Delegates considered would set conditions by which an individual school would return to remote learning, determined by the rate of staff absences and students in quarantine or isolation, as well as whether it was during a period of high community COVID-19 transmission, where a lower threshold would apply.
Earlier Monday, CTU President Jesse Sharkey said the sides were “apart on a number of key features” and accused Lightfoot of bullying teachers.
Union leaders argued that teaching remotely — which a large majority of CTU members voted in favor of doing through Jan. 18 amid the current omicron-driven COVID-19 surge — is preferable to losing more instruction time altogether.
“What’s needed is the ability to work together (toward) an agreement to start instruction,” Sharkey said during a Monday morning news conference, saying Lightfoot was being “relentlessly stupid” and “relentlessly stubborn.”
“The mayor needs to help actually compromise. … The mayor says she’s going to be relentless in prosecuting the case. But she is not a prosecutor and I am not a criminal,” he said, adding the union is “hitting a brick wall” in its request for a clear metric that would trigger a school to go remote.
By the end of the school day, some schools were already reporting that Tuesday classes were canceled or would be if there was no agreement reached with the union.
The Chicago Principals and Administrators Association weighed in on the stalemate Monday by offering recommendations on issues CPS and CTU are debating, such as in-school COVID-19 testing procedures, substitute teacher financial incentives and contact tracing protocol.
Most of the school leaders who participated in their group’s discussion said they support a week of remote learning because of staffing, cleanliness, ventilation, masking and testing woes.
“CPS officials often state that schools are safe when proper mitigation strategies are in place. We agree. However, in far too many schools, the resources for mitigation are not in place,” reads the statement from the principals group. “Roughly half of participating administrators run schools that have staffing, cleanliness and ventilation issues so severe that those administrators deem their schools unsafe.”
Lightfoot, whose administration has repeatedly asserted that schools are safe for students despite record numbers of COVID-19 cases, said Sunday her administration “categorically” rejects a districtwide return to remote learning.
“To be clear, what the Chicago Teachers Union did was an illegal walkout,” Lightfoot said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “They abandoned their posts and they abandoned kids and their families.”
Asked about the Chicago schools stalemate at a briefing Monday, President Joe Biden’s press secretary, Jen Psaki, said the White House is in regular touch with the mayor and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker over the situation.
“We have been very clear. … We want to see schools open,” Psaki said.
Late Saturday, Pritzker announced his office had secured 350,000 rapid antigen tests for CPS to purchase. That followed a report from political news site capitolfax.com, confirmed by Pritzker’s office Friday, that the state had earlier offered CPS vaccination clinics, masks and SHIELD tests to CPS, but the city didn’t take up the offer.
CTU issued a statement regarding Psaki’s comments Monday, saying: “We welcome the president reaching out to the mayor, and urging her to partner with our city’s educators to develop a plan that will keep our students and school communities as safe as possible — similar to the collaboration and partnership taking place in school districts in cities across the U.S., from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C.”
CPS said negotiations went until 9:30 p.m. Sunday and resumed at 10:30 a.m. Monday.
Hours earlier, outside Spry Elementary in Little Village — an area hit hard by the pandemic — staff members and parents spoke at a CTU news conference about students who’ve lost family members to COVID-19, about high rates of absenteeism in school because of cases and quarantines, and about lingering doubts on whether now’s the time to send students back.
“We need our mayor to step up and be a leader,” Spry teacher Elizabeth Morales said.
CPS reported 10 new cases at Spry last week, with 37 people in quarantine as of Sunday. About 315 students are enrolled at Spry, according to the district.
Districtwide, about 7,500 students and nearly 2,100 adults are in isolation because they tested positive or in quarantine because they came in contact with an infected person, according to CPS figures reported Monday. Last week, CPS reported 1,300 new adult and 1,200 student cases — a record for both groups.
Between surging cases and the teachers union action, though, some schools are still trying to provide whatever programming they can.
Brennemann Elementary in Uptown announced it will be closed for regular classes Tuesday because of expected staffing levels, except for a small group of students whose families had been notified.
Sutherland Elementary in Beverly said it would be rolling “in-person enrichment” for a small group of kindergarten through fourth grade students beginning Tuesday.
“We will reassess resources each day and expand the program as we are able,” officials said in an email to parents. “Our sincere hope is that the CTU and CPS reach a swift resolution and this program will be short-lived.”
Ravenswood Elementary officials reported that on Monday they were able to offer in-person activities to 35 prekindergarten through second graders, including P.E. “exploratory time” and digital media, overseen by recess, lunch and opening staff members.
“We will continue to offer similar activities ... on Tuesday in the event where CPS and CTU have not come to an agreement,” officials said in a note to parents.
CTU floated a new proposal Saturday under which remote instruction would begin Wednesday. Lightfoot quickly rejected that, though CPS reported some progress on issues.
“We understand the public wants this impasse to end,” Sharkey said Monday. “The issue here is that of how we’re dealing with the pandemic. It’s not that teachers don’t want to work. We’ve been working.”
Repeating his plea for collaboration, Sharkey said: “We don’t like bullies. We don’t like tyrants. We’re not going to be bullied and pushed in a corner.”
Some CPS parents spoke at a news conference Monday hosted by the local nonprofit Kids First Chicago. Though a few said they’d prefer in-person instruction for their children, others said their main frustration with the ongoing impasse is feeling like they’re not being included in the decision-making process.
“We demand a legitimate seat at the table for CPS parents as negotiations continue,” said Blaire Flowers, the parent of a North Lawndale College Prep freshman. “If CPS and CTU can’t come to an agreement that allows our kids to resume learning immediately, then they clearly need some adults in the room who can figure it out.”
Tierra Pearson has three kids in the CPS system at Clemente High School and DePriest Elementary. She said the behavior of CPS and CTU is “making our children suffer,” and the back and forth between the two district and union has “turned Chicago into a political circus.”
“We are all human beings and have different views and opinions, but we can find some common ground to agree upon,” Pearson said. “Reasonable adults should be able to agree upon what’s best for the safety and well-being of all families at this time with the increased COVID rate.”
Pearson said she prefers the option of remote learning for all three of her children because her youngest has health issues, but Pearson still understands that a “one-size-fits-all approach just will not work for all families, schools and situations.”
“We need flexible learning options that can meet the needs of different families,” she said.
