Withdrawing threats to lock out educators who refused to work in person Monday, Chicago Public Schools and city officials called for a two-day “cooling-off” period during which educators will be allowed to teach remotely and students will continue learning from home.
“We have reached another important milestone today in our efforts to provide in-person learning for our students,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson said in a joint statement Monday afternoon. “We have secured agreement on one other open issue and made substantial progress on a framework that we hope will address the remaining issues. We are calling for a 48-hour cooling off period that will hopefully lead to a final resolution on all open issues.”
That’s no guarantee negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union will stop being heated, though it’s a sign of how much has changed since Lightfoot and CPS officials initially insisted they did not have to negotiate a reopening plan with the 25,000-member union.
The parties plan to keep bargaining Tuesday and Wednesday, while tens of thousands of students who were expected to return to schools this week continue remote learning at least until Thursday.
“As a result of the progress we have made, and as a gesture of good faith, for now, teachers will retain access to their Google Suite,” Lightfoot and Jackson said.
Through the weekend, the mayor and district leaders proclaimed they would electronically lock out CTU members who did not report to schools on Monday as ordered.
However, officials did not restore access for prekindergarten and special education members who already have been locked out for refusing to work in person. A district spokesperson confirmed those employees, who were supposed to return to schools Jan. 4, are still considered absent without leave.
Union members have already authorized a strike if the district further retaliates, and delegates had been prepared to meet and set a date to strike as early as Tuesday in the event more educators were locked out Monday. It would be the union’s second in less than 16 months, following a two-week walkout in 2019.
CTU President Jesse Sharkey reiterated that union members don’t want another strike, but want to keep teaching remotely until they agree on how to reopen schools safely.
“We are not locked out today or tomorrow because of our members’ unity, their commitment to their school communities and their fearless solidarity,” Sharkey said. ” … None of this is easy. The uncertainty and risk our educators, our students and our families confront all take a toll. And all of the progress we’ve made to date in winning real gains at the table is possible because of the tireless work and dedication of our rank-and-file members, our strike captains, our delegates, our parents, our allies and ordinary Chicagoans who trust us to do what’s right by our schoolchildren.”
Despite the new promises by CPS not to lock them out, educators got an email Monday evening telling them special education cluster program and prekindergarten through eighth grade staff were still expected to work in person. Regardless, staff won’t be newly considered absent without leave “at this time,” according to the email.
Members of a smaller union representing support staff should follow the tentative agreement they reached with the district Sunday night on school reopening, according to the email. Special education classroom assistants and bus aides represented by the Service Employees International Union Local 73 can work remotely until they have students attending school in person, while its custodians, security officers and crossing guards are supposed to report to work as usual, according to the email.
SEIU Local 73, which also includes nutrition staff, has roughly 9,000 members, and many have been reporting to schools throughout the pandemic, running meal programs and temperature checks.
“Without the dedicated members of Local 73 as well as other union staff, we would be unable to serve families millions of free meals, ensure our schools are clean and safe, and support our students with special needs,” according to a joint statement from Jackson and Lightfoot. “We are grateful to have reached an agreement that honors their dedication to Chicago’s families.”
Schools had been slated to reopen for more than 60,000 kindergarten through eighth grade students Monday, joining more than 3,000 preschool and special education students who started attending in person on Jan. 11 but reverted to virtual learning after CTU members voted to work only remotely until they had a reopening agreement.
Late Sunday, when it became clear that a deal was not yet within reach, CPS pushed the resumption of in-person classes to Tuesday but told educators they were still expected in person Monday.
A union bulletin accused the mayor and Jackson of having “trouble telling the truth publicly,” and cautioned teachers not to believe everything they hear.
“CPS never showed up at bargaining Sunday,” the bulletin stated, after Lightfoot said it was the CTU that was absent. “After hours of waiting, CTU leadership was told the CPS team would not come to bargaining unless we made massive concessions: on CDC health metrics; on vaccinations; on giving time for vaccination before reopening; and accommodations for over 2,000 members who have medically vulnerable people in their households.”
Though neither City Hall nor CPS provided local media availability Monday, Lightfoot went on national television to promote the district’s reopening plan.
“Let me be very clear: Our schools are safe. We’ve invested over $100 million in ventilation, other safety protocols, making sure that we have masks, safety health screening, temperature checks — all the things that you would expect that the CDC guidance has told us that we know makes sense to mitigate any issues in schools. We’ve looked at and followed every study across the globe, including here in Chicago, by our local experts,” Lightfoot told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski.
“We’ve had three weeks of safely implementing our plan until the teachers union blew it up,” Lightfoot added.
On MSNBC, Lightfoot struck a more conciliatory tone than she had during the weekend, when her comments prompted union officials to post on social media: “Let’s really be clear: The educators in the room were working toward an agreement. The politician is blowing it all to pieces.”
“Look, I get it. Teachers are concerned; they’re scared,” Lightfoot said. “Which is absolutely why we’ve been working literally night and day for the last two weeks, in particular, 70-plus meetings since June to get a deal done.
“I think we can still get a deal done. We are working diligently to make that happen. A strike would be catastrophic, mostly for our kids,” Lightfoot said.
She said the city wants teachers to be safe and stressed that her administration is not against organized labor. Of more than 40 unions in the city, which she described as “a labor town,” the mayor said the administration has excellent relationships with all but two: “the right-wing leadership of the Fraternal Order of Police and this union.”
“This is about balancing a lot of different issues but mostly also about putting our kids first. If we do that, if both sides do that, we’ll get a deal done in no time,” she said.
The tentative agreement with SEIU Local 73 allows special education classroom assistants to work remotely as long as none of their students is learning in person, a right CTU has been seeking for its own members. Educators have questioned the point of working in person if their students aren’t even there.
Besides approving all accommodation requests for SEIU members with qualifying medical conditions, CPS committed to “prioritize approval of pending telework accommodation requests from employees who serve as primary caregivers for family members at increased risk for severe illness due to COVID-19.”
Similar accommodations for CTU members concerned about a family member’s medical condition remain a difficult point in negotiations.
Lightfoot said the district has “given accommodations, thousands of accommodations for those teachers. We’re trying to see if there’s more that we can do.”
In recent news conferences, teachers have charged that the district hasn’t approved nearly enough accommodations for those who need them. Teachers have also asked for return to be voluntary until they receive coronavirus vaccinations.
The contentious situation has drawn national interest and speculation about what the outcome in the third-largest U.S. school district could mean for the rest of the country.
Sharkey embraced that, saying, “Our rank-and-file educators are setting an example for every school community in the nation that shows the power of unity, solidarity, courage, resolve and our commitment to the greater good.”
Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, fielded a question about President Joe Biden’s stance on the impasse during a media briefing Monday.
Psaki said Biden has “enormous respect for Mayor Lightfoot and he has also been a strong ally to teachers his entire career,” but she did not say what outcome the administration may be hoping for.
“He trusts the mayor and the unions to work this out. They’re both prioritizing the right things, which is ensuring the health and safety of the kids and teachers, and working to make sure that children in Chicago are getting the education they deserve. So, he is hopeful — we are hopeful — they can reach common ground as soon as possible,” Psaki said.
Biden has been a proponent of reopening schools but doesn’t appear to be in a rush to intervene. Lightfoot also was asked whether she would seek help from the White House to meet the shared goal of returning to in-person instruction.
“We are talking to the Biden administration but, you know this, these issues are a uniquely local issue. And we are very, very close, and we can get there if the union takes some steps in our direction. Come back to us and respond to the plans that we put on the table,” she said.
In a show of solidarity with teachers, CPS parents were encouraged to call in sick days for their children Monday as part of an organized “sickout.”
“Good morning, Chicago!” one parent posted on Facebook. “Today is the day CPS parents are keeping kids out of class (remote and in person) for the #CPSSickOut. Why? Because our families are SICK and tired of this failed CPS reopening plan. There has been no parent voice in decision-making.”
While some parents have organized in favor of resuming in-person learning for children whose parents choose it, families in support of the sickout were asked to email the mayor, district and their schools “explaining your frustrations. If you can’t keep them out of class, you can still write to show support for the school boycott!”
Organizers said they began planning the sickout in earnest about a week ago but had been discussing the idea for several weeks after feeling persistently overlooked in the district-union conflict.
Cortney Ritsema, a sickout organizer with three children in CPS, said she had participated in myriad meetings hosted by the school district, the Board of Education and public education advocacy groups. But when she asked questions specific to her children’s school, New Field Primary School, Ritsema said she was repeatedly told to check the district’s reopening plan.
“I’ve seen the reopening plan! I’ve read all of it!” Ritsema said. “… And my question still isn’t answered. I think a lot of parents feel like that, that CPS is just plowing through this and keeps telling us to look at the plan, look at the plan, look at the plan — and we’re getting frustrated because we’re like, ‘I’m not stupid, I looked at the plan!'”
The group, composed of six primary organizers, said it was planning further action on March 1 if the deadlock continued or negotiations fell apart further.
Sickout organizers jumped on a Zoom call with the mayor, Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady, Chicago Chief Engagement Officer Martina Hone and other officials in one of the city’s periodic community engagement calls, in which community and faith leaders meet to hear from city officials, ask questions and air their grievances.
“My children have already been affected by this,” said another sickout organizer, Joseph Williams, pointing to the impasse in negotiations that kept even children who chose in-person learning home on Monday.
“Parents are still in a limbo with this,” Williams said. “So why not pull my children for a day?”
