Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools officials say they will lock out preschool teachers and staff who work with disabled children from remote work if they don’t return to schools Monday, reigniting the potential for the city’s second teachers strike in 15 months.
If the mayor and school district follow through with a threat they’ve made then backed off from several times the past two weeks, a Chicago Teachers Union walkout would likely be triggered, plunging the school system into deeper turmoil during a pandemic that has upended education for the past year.
“Despite making significant compromises in an effort to reach a deal with CTU leadership, we still do not have an agreement,” the mayor and schools chief Janice Jackson wrote in an email to staff early Friday evening. “We have the power to make sure this virus does not further disrupt the growth and progress of all our students. We hope a resolution is near, and we thank you for your patience and support.”
The email was sent during a virtual meeting with thousands of members at which CTU President Jesse Sharkey said nobody should report to schools Monday unless there was an agreement. “And I’m not too sure that’s going to happen,’ he said, “although we’re going to keep bargaining.
“Our strategy here, it very much remains the same,” Sharkey told members. “We’re going to work remotely, we’re not showing up at our schools. Which means if the mayor is going to try to force us into in-person, the first thing she’s going to have to do is to lock us out of our remote classrooms. And that’s very politically unpopular because 80% of our students are still learning remotely.”
A strike would halt all district classes — even for high schools, which are not currently scheduled to return in-person — for about 290,000 students.
Lightfoot’s ultimatum came hours after she and CPS said they made their “last, best and final offer” to the teachers union in school reopening negotiations. The CTU said the proposal wasn’t sufficient and “cannot stand,” leaving no end in sight to the deadlock and reigniting the possibility of a work stoppage.
CPS’ offer fell short in a number of key areas in the union’s view, according to an email that was sent to members earlier Friday afternoon. CTU leadership didn’t “consider it a serious proposal,” sources close to negotiations said.
One of the biggest gaps between the district and union is how soon schools would reopen. The city wants preschool through eighth grade students brought back in waves starting next week through March 1, said a city official who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to share details of the negotiations. The CTU is looking at a later timeline that would see educators and students begin to return later this month, with everyone in classrooms by March 8, a union document obtained by the Sun-Times shows.
“To say we’re deeply disappointed that the mayor has chosen to end negotiations and instead move to lock out educators and shut down schools rather than work out our differences is an understatement,” Sharkey wrote in his email. “We remain ready to bargain again today, and every day, until we land an agreement that allows us to reopen classrooms safely, with real equity for our students and school communities.
“Unfortunately, this latest offer is instead a threat to cut all students off from schooling unless educators drop all remaining demands.”
Lightfoot and schools chief Janice Jackson said in an afternoon statement “we have yet to receive a formal response in writing today from CTU leadership. The ball is in their court.” The mayor said earlier in the morning she expected a counterproposal from the union in the afternoon.
In a series of tweets, Lightfoot said the city is “committed to making sure everyone in the CPS community gets vaccinated as soon as possible,” but she blamed the administration of former President Donald Trump’s “gross mishandling of the pandemic” on the city’s “desperate lack of vaccine supply.”
“The truth is that a diversion of vaccine supply to one group of Chicagoans will severely disrupt supply to our most vulnerable Chicagoans — seniors and other frontline essential workers,” the mayor wrote, adding that “this is not an all or nothing decision,” and the city has invested $100 million into preparing schools for a safe reopening.
“It’s time to come to a comprehensive agreement so that the whole of CPS can move forward. ... Being mayor is about making tough calls, and this is no exception. But this is the right call to ensure our children can live up to their God-given potential while keeping everyone — students, teachers, and staff — safe.”
About 100 pre-K and special ed teachers were locked out from remote work after they failed to show up Jan. 4. That number is down to 50.
However, the union later voted to strike if teachers were locked out before thousands of elementary teachers were due back Jan. 25. Lightfoot decided against mass lockouts in hopes of reaching a deal.
The union noted the mayor’s decision to back down earlier Friday in urging its members to stay united.
“Three times in the past week, the mayor has drawn a line in the sand, and three times, our solidarity and our commitment has forced her and CPS leadership to step over that line,” Sharkey said. “We remain remote until we land an agreement, because what we’re fighting for is right and necessary.”
About 21,700 preschool through eighth grade staff members are due to return to schools when they reopen, including more than 12,000 teachers. Up to 67,000 students could return to classrooms — most for two days a week, while preschoolers and some in special education go back full-time. The remaining 123,000 preK-8 students will continue exclusively learning remotely, as will all high school students.
Earlier Friday, the CTU hosted a dozen city, county and state elected officials — all strong political allies of the union, including CPS graduates and parents — at a news conference Friday expressing their disappointment with the mayor’s stance. “Parents in my community want negotiations, not ultimatums,” said State Rep. Greg Harris, the House majority leader. State Sen. Robert Martwick urged the city to return to the table and continue negotiations.
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“The reality is that a hasty re-entry could have devastating impacts on our schools and the larger community,” said State Rep. Lindsey LaPointe. “It’s wrong and it’s cruel to ask our public school teachers to choose between keeping their jobs and keeping their loved ones safe from a virus that has killed almost 20,000 people in our state.
“It’s difficult to understand how we have reached this impasse here today. This is an unnecessary showdown. We all agree that the teachers and students deserve safe classrooms. We know that teachers want to continue to work. We know that teachers have been working.”
Conflicting proposals
The city’s proposal would bump the number of outstanding work-from-home accommodations granted to educators with medically vulnerable household members from 20% to 25%, according to a union document obtained by the Sun-Times. About 350 of those requests have already been granted with up to 2,000 pending. The district’s offer would allow those who are denied accommodations to start getting vaccinated Monday. Those that get a shot in the next two weeks will be allowed to work remotely for an additional 14 days. Those that turn down the vaccine can take unpaid leave with full benefits.
“This new arrangement is in addition to the 5,000 accommodations CPS has already granted for staff who are either medically vulnerable or a primary caretaker of a vulnerable family member,” CPS said in a statement Friday afternoon.
On a health metric that would determine school closures, the district offered to revert to full remote learning if half of schools are shut down with COVID-19 outbreaks, the city source said. The district would also consider widespread closures when its surveillance testing of staff reaches a 2.5% positivity rate, down from its previous offer of 3%. The union has asked for schools to only open when the community positivity rate falls under 5% or fewer than 20 new cases are identified per 100,000 residents every 14 days.
The CTU has asked for 1,500 specifically for its members and for the district’s share of doses to increase with the city’s supply. CPS has not agreed, sticking with its offer of 1,500 first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine to district employees per week.
“Under that schedule, educators forced back into buildings could still be waiting until June for vaccinations through CPS, months after the mayor proposes to fully reopen school buildings,” Sharkey said.
The union has also asked to phase-in a return to classrooms by grade levels that would see preschool through eighth grade educators vaccinated and in classrooms by March 8.
The district’s offer is for pre-kindergarten and special education cluster programs to return to schools Monday, a city official said. Regardless of whether they’ve been vaccinated, K-5 staff would report in-person Feb. 15, with their students back Feb. 22; and 6-8 staff would return Feb. 22, with their students in classrooms March 1, the source said.
The mayor had already pushed back the in-person return for K-8 teachers by two weeks. Elementary students were initially supposed to return this past Monday but the district called off classes all week because the union voted not to report to schools. Lightfoot said Thursday she was out of patience with the CTU, and the two sides were “out of runway” after more than 80 meetings. The school system had “bent over backward” to accommodate CTU’s health and safety concerns, she said.
‘Minimally, you provide safety’
Also Friday, a number of Black educators and CTU leaders spoke during a virtual panel about challenges facing Black and Brown communities in the pandemic and an equitable path to school reopening.
“We are actually on the front line fighting for the dignity and respect of Black life,” teacher Tara Stamps said. “It is the absolute wrong message that we do not want to go back to school. What we are saying is ‘If you want people in the buildings, if you want children to return in the dead of winter in the city of Chicago … then minimally you provide safety, minimally you provide equity and minimally you come to the table with trust.’”
Dawn Kelly, a teacher at Bond Elementary in Englewood, said educators like herself are under immense pressure fighting for greater access to vaccines in Black and Brown communities.
She said returning to classrooms in these communities — some of the hardest-hit by the pandemic — will not be safe until there is a comprehensives vaccination plan in place and accommodations for staff and teachers with medically vulnerable household members.
“We know this virus is decimating our community,” Kelly said. “We know there are two different Americas. We know there are two Chicagos. When white America has a cold, black America typically has pneumonia. So I’m asking everyone … to take a step back … because one life lost is too many.”
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