Jan. 30--Chicago Public Schools' contract offer to teachers would bar layoffs, cap the number of privately run charter schools and provide moderate pay increases as part of a four-year deal, sources familiar with the negotiations confirmed Friday.
In exchange for those provisions, teachers would have to pay more toward their pensions and make higher heath care contributions, sources said.
After more than a year of negotiations, the Chicago Teachers Union on Thursday agreed to take what leaders called a "serious offer" from the city to its "Big Bargaining Team," a group of 40 members who help guide the negotiations process, for a Monday vote.
If the bargaining team votes to accept a tentative agreement, CTU President Karen Lewis would present the deal to the union's House of Delegates for a vote to accept the contract. The House of Delegates, made up of hundreds of union members, is scheduled to meet Wednesday.
Signing a four-year contract with the city's 27,000 teachers and school support staff would remove a major near-term obstacle for Mayor Rahm Emanuel as he continues to deal with fallout from the release of the Laquan McDonald police shooting video.
Asked about the city's offer to CTU during an interview Friday, Emanuel declined to confirm details or offer any further specifics.
"The goal is to create an agreement that respects the hard work of our teachers, respects the hard-earned dollars of our taxpayers and makes our children number one," Emanuel said. "That's all I'll say. OK?"
Under the city's offer, CPS would not be allowed to make any "economic layoffs" through the end of the contract's term in 2019, sources said. The district could, however, eliminate jobs through retirements and attrition, a source said.
The offer also would allow for cost-of-living pay increases for teachers as well as so-called step and lane pay bumps, which are raises doled out based on experience and seniority.
Under the proposal for a new contract, which would replace a pact that expired June 30, CPS also could not increase the number of charter schools beyond the 130 or so that operate now, a source said. The district could approve and open new charter schools if it closes others. The CTU has long opposed the privately run, publicly funded schools, whose teachers are not CTU members.
In return for the job security and pay increases, teachers would agree to pay more for health care and contribute more each year toward their pensions, source said.
The pension pickup had been a point of contention for many months. Under the present offer, the city's long-standing practice of picking up the bulk of teachers' required pension contributions would be phased out, sources said. But new hires would have to pick up their entire share of pension costs right away.
