CHICAGO _ Striking Chicago teachers marched to the site of the Lincoln Yards megadevelopment Tuesday morning, kicking off their walkout's ninth school day by directing scorn at the $6 billion North Side project as the union continues demanding more funds for the district.
Starting about 8 a.m., teachers in red shirts met at three locations _ Wicker Park, the North/Clybourn Red Line stop and the Oscar Mayer School _ and a little before 9 a.m., marched to the 55-acre mixed-use development, which has drawn criticism this year over the City Council's approval of $1.3 billion in subsidies via tax increment financing.
The Tuesday march comes hours after a marathon 16-hour bargaining session that began Monday morning and ended in the predawn hours on Tuesday. The strike, which began Oct. 17, now is the longest against the Chicago Board of Education since 1987, although nowhere near the length of that 19-day strike.
The Chicago Teachers Union has blamed the mayor for greenlighting the use of tax money for private developers, like the Lincoln Yards project led by developer Sterling Bay, and not public schools.
"We are literally robbing the poor to line the pockets of developers," Chicago Teachers Union president Jesse Sharkey said at a Saturday rally.
Lori Lightfoot's first budget as mayor allocated an additional $66 million in this year's TIF surplus to CPS, giving the district a total of about $161 million from the tax fund.
Following the end of the marathon talks early Tuesday, CPS Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade emerged and expressed disappointment over the failure of the sides to reach a deal.
"We are pretty frustrated," McDade said. "We still have some big issues on the table where we are fundamentally far apart."
Before they began marching west on North Avenue toward Lincoln Yards, teachers Tuesday morning streamed into the lobby at the North/Clybourn Red Line stop, holding their signs above the turnstiles, some clad in red hats and scarves layered over winter coats.
Erma Voss, a preschool teacher at Deneen on the South Side sat with her colleagues sipping coffee and eating a sandwich. Even as the days add up, she said she's in it "as long as it takes."
"I'm here till the end," she said. "I'm not turning my back on my CTU members."
The second group of teachers marching toward Lincoln Yards, from Oscar Mayer School, including some playing drums and others blowing whistles.
Police on bicycle guarded the street and trailed the marchers. The teachers also walked down a residential area where few onlookers took the time to stop and marvel at the march.
Energy picked up as the teachers approached the part of Lincoln Yards where they were meeting, at Cortland Street and Southport Avenue.
The group began chanting, "We want libraries, we want books. We want the money that the Lincoln Yards took."
By 10 a.m., a picket line of thousands of teachers formed around the targeted block. The crowded space left many leaving the area with marchers searching for places to shield from the cold drizzling rain.
Organizers guided teachers to surround the block. An organizer with a megaphone urged teachers to make some noise and was met with lackluster cheers from the crowd.
When the two sides meet again Tuesday at Malcolm X College on the West Side, the "big issues" still outstanding will include providing a half hour of paid prep time for elementary school teachers in the morning. The district opposes the provision because it would require a reduction in instructional time, McDade said.
In addition, the union and the schools remained at odds over the gap in their offers for funding. Starting this weekend, the teachers union has said $38 million a year is all it's asking to bring students and teachers back in classrooms, but schools officials maintain that figure is in fact more than $100 million. Both are accusing the other of misrepresenting the facts.
Addressing reporters about 2 a.m. Tuesday, the union's general counsel, Robert Bloch, said the sides are inching closer toward a number for total funds for the district.
"The parties have narrowed their differences but we're not there yet," Bloch said, declining to provide specifics.
McDade earlier said the city is prepared to make an investment of nearly half a billion dollars in schools that "addresses all (the union's) key issues."
"The truth is we have made quite a bit of compromise at the table, and we also need the union to make compromises," she said.
Parents still looking for options for things to do with their kids as the strike drags on got some good news Tuesday, as the Field Museum announced it would offer free basic admission Tuesday to CPS students and accompanying adults, with proof of city residency.
