Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Chicago Teachers Union reached a tentative deal Sunday to reopen city schools for families seeking in-person instruction, narrowly avoiding a strike but contingent on broader union approval.
Union officials indicated a vote by CTU’s 25,000 members could begin late Monday or Tuesday, but only after the House of Delegates decides whether to send the vote to the full membership.
With a big smile on her face, Lightfoot kicked off a noon news conference by announcing “the very good news that our children will be returning to in-person learning this week.”
“At long last, CPS has finally reached a tentative agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union that opens up school doors for our pre-K, cluster and K through eight students,” Lightfoot said.
Under the tentative framework, the first group of students and staff — pre-K and special education cluster programs — would return Feb. 11. When schools briefly opened to those groups in January, fewer than 1 in 5 eligible students attended.
Subsequent groups would be staggered, with staff returning ahead of students: Kindergarten through fifth grade staff would go back Feb. 22, followed by their students on March 1. Sixth through eighth grade staff would go back March 1, followed by their students on March 8.
Highlighting the hyperdemocratic nature of CTU, sources with the union have been careful to call it a “tentative framework,” rather than an agreement, and said they believe the deal represents the best that could be achieved at the table, although the union did not receive everything it wanted.
“We understand the (members have) the right to say yes or say no, but in fairness to parents who’ve really weathered an incredible storm, particularly over the course of this week and the ups and the downs … given that we have a written document back from them, we felt this was an appropriate time for us to give parents a preview with the caveat that it’s subject to ratification,” Lightfoot said.
During a members meeting Sunday afternoon, union officials presented the framework and explained how they got to this point.
Talks between the two parties seemed to become more productive once it sunk in that the CTU could really go on strike and members started refusing to go into buildings, but they eventually hit a wall, CTU President Jesse Sharkey told members.
Sharkey characterized CPS leadership as having contempt for the union’s concerns and said the bargaining relationship was at times “poisonous and difficult.”
He also told members that “at a certain point, the conversation with the mayor went from reasonable to just outright hostile.”
The tentative framework represents slight movement from the city’s “last, best and final offer” but appears to be the limit, Sharkey said.
“This is the amount of progress in written form that we believe that we can achieve on this current path,” he said.
Sharkey said they had reached a fork: In one direction, members could take a vote and ratify the framework, which would then govern the return to buildings.
“The other path looks like us being locked out and going on strike,” he said. “… It’s not clear to me that if we strike, we automatically get more.”
Lightfoot acknowledged the tough situation under which teachers have toiled for nearly a year, reworking lesson plans and learning to deal “with the wild world of Google Meets, sometimes on small devices, sometimes under really difficult circumstances.”
Although she said stakeholders would “invariably not agree on every issue,” she extended her thanks to all parties involved, from groups to individuals, including Sharkey and city health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady. Though talks had grown increasingly contentious in recent weeks, the mayor signaled a conclusion to the impasse, lavishing praise on teachers during her remarks.
“You have been champions. … I understand that and I want to thank you,” she said of teachers. “You have been there for our kids and we will continue to be there for you.”
Teachers have done so, Lightfoot said, “all while fighting through this roller coaster of your own personal emotions and dealing with your personal health and your family.”
But Lightfoot said the “very public dispute” with the union has been hardest on Chicago parents.
“You have told me directly and you have told us that you feel like, as parents and students, you have been held hostage and your voices have been drowned out,” Lightfoot said.
She also praised families for “their fearlessness (and) superhuman patience to navigate everything that’s been thrown at you over this last year.”
Lightfoot also thanked Sharkey for their one-on-one discussions, which helped land the framework.
“I very much appreciate his hard work,” she said.
During the members meeting, Sharkey and union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates reiterated that there was no agreement until rank and file said so, asking members to read the framework and come to their own conclusions.
Davis Gates said Sharkey was being too generous with his depiction of the bargaining table.
“It was deeply dysfunctional. It was a master class in gaslighting,” Davis Gates said, later referring to pointed news conferences hosted by Lightfoot and Jackson and adding: “Those press conferences, that was the table.”
Sharkey said if a strike was determined to be illegal, members could face financial consequences.
“I have no doubt about our capacity to wage that fight,” he said. “However, we should be clear there is risk down that path.”
Despite progress toward a reopening plan for younger students, there was no word on when high schools might return to an in-person schedule. The framework states that the resumption of in-person learning for high schools will be negotiated separately, and that the parties will form a joint task force to address relevant issues.
Jackson said she’d like to have them back in school “as soon as possible” but didn’t say whether that would happen this school year.
“What we committed to is working with the union to get there,” Jackson said. “I don’t want to start negotiating at the podium today. We just got a victory after a long fight … but my stance remains the same. I think that children should be in school.”
Jackson said that she has relied on the mayor’s leadership and that the potential deal provides “relief and certainty” students need, which cannot be measured.
Jackson said the return to in-person learning will not only help students get back on track with their studies but should help restore a sense of normalcy that has been lost during the past 11 months of the ongoing pandemic, since district schools closed in March.
“Though it’s been a challenging process, to say the least, I do truly believe that getting our students back in school is worth it,” Jackson said, adding that she believes “every educator wants what’s best for students.”
“I’m just happy that we have a resolution and that we are moving forward. We cannot lose sight of our mission as a school system. This return to in-person instruction will help us live up to that,” Jackson said.
With the schedule in place, she said, “We will be able to accommodate the students and families that have signed up.”
Both sides have been close to a deal for days, but the agreement kept falling through, often with little notice, leading to confusion and frustration from some parents. Lightfoot previously had accused the union of moving goal posts by adding last-minute demands while the union, in turn, accused her of making unnecessary threats and holding up a deal.
The standoff escalated when pre-K and special education teachers were ordered back to schools Jan. 4, but many refused to work in person and dozens ultimately were deemed absent without leave, locked out of their CPS accounts and denied pay.
Before the much larger second wave of kindergarten through eighth grade students were due to start in-person classes on Feb. 1, union members formalized the remote-only tactic as a collective labor action, which meant that if teachers were locked out on a large scale, they would go on strike.
On Friday, hours after district officials said they’d proposed their “last, best and final offer” to the union, CPS announced a staggered return of teachers and students over the course of several weeks.
An email sent to CPS families Friday detailed a new schedule that would have had prekindergarten and special education cluster programs resuming in-person classes on Tuesday and required educators to return on Monday or else the district would resume lockouts.
One of the union’s central demands not entirely addressed in the framework relates to dozens of educators who were locked out in the first wave of reopening. The tentative framework mentions a “side letter” that would rescind discipline for AWOL cases but states, “Withheld pay and benefits, and discipline concerning parent communication cases, to be handled through resolution of pending litigation.”
Documents obtained by the Tribune referred to the deal as a “framework for the resumption of in-person instruction,” which would become a binding agreement between the union and the Chicago Board of Education, if ratified by members.
The district would revert to remote learning for 14 days if the seven-day average test positivity rate increases for seven consecutive days; the rate for all seven consecutive days is at least 15% higher than the prior week; and the current day’s positivity rate is at least 10%. The district would remain closed longer than 14 days if those three criteria remained true.
An “operational pause” would occur for a classroom or pod with one or more confirmed positive cases and an individual school with three or more confirmed cases within two weeks of one another.
Arwady said the health department makes some decisions for the city but has also advised CPS and CTU.
“These are not metrics that apply for learning across all of our settings, but they were developed specifically for CPS,” Arwady said.
Employees could use paid time to get vaccines, though Jackson reiterated that CPS can’t mandate vaccination.
CPS would provide at least 1,500 first vaccine doses each week to employees, language that is not specific to CTU members. However, bargaining unit members who get their first dose through the employer program would be guaranteed a “timely” second dose, which would not count against the weekly allotment. The number of doses earmarked for CPS employees would increase as the city’s overall supply does.
In addition to working with vaccine partners, CPS would seek for employees who live or work in qualifying communities to be prioritized through the “Protect Chicago Plus” vaccine initiative. The district would not make clinicians and clerks work in person until they were offered vaccines.
At least 1,000 “expedited” vaccines would be provided this week to in-person special education and pre-K educators. Another 1,000 would go to employees requesting remote work accommodations for a household member’s medical condition who commit by Tuesday to work in person within two weeks of their first shot. But employees without approved accommodations who don’t make that commitment could take unpaid leave.
The framework states that no member would be required to work in person before having the option to be fully vaccinated, an important point to the union but short of what it fought for.
While CPS already agreed to approve remote work accommodations for employees who either have medical risks or are primary caregivers for a relative who does, the tentative framework states accommodations for those simply living with someone in that category would be granted “to the extent operationally feasible,” with the input of principals.
Classroom staff who don’t have any students in person would be allowed to work remotely, and principals could reassign students to different homerooms or combine classes of the same level.
“Appropriately qualified, licensed teachers or paraprofessionals” could end up switching assignments and schools could pair in-person educators with teleworking colleagues to create student rosters that are either fully in-person or remote. Principals could also form classes with two different grades, but not more.
Tentative agreements reached on individual items last week are also reflected in the framework, including contact tracing and surveillance testing teams. CPS would offer COVID-19 tests to any staff and students who are old enough before they return for in-person learning.
Each week after that, the district would offer tests to all in-person employees of schools in the 10 ZIP codes with the highest COVID-19 prevalence, and to half at other schools. When schools reopen to students, with parental consent, CPS would also test 25% of students weekly in high-positivity ZIP codes and in high school special education cluster programs.
hleone@chicagotribune.com
gpratt@chicagotribune.com
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