“We are here to announce the very good news that our children will be learning to learn in person again this week,” Lightfoot told a news conference on Sunday.
“This agreement was to make sure that everyone in our school communities is not only safe, but also that they feel safe,” Lightfoot said. “And feel that their experiences and fears and frustrations have been heard.”
Officials from the city and the country’s third largest school district were in conflict with the teachers’ union over the reopening of Covid-19. Mayor Lightfoot and CPS officials, including CEO Janice Jackson, said personal pupils are safe with Covid-19 mitigation strategies. But the CTU insisted teachers and students remain at risk if they return to the classroom too early.
Following the news conference, CTU reiterated: “There is still no agreement between the Union and the Education Council. What we have is a framework that all our members must first review and evaluate, because it is our members who are asked to return to school buildings amid a global pandemic. ‘
The proposed plan includes phased return
Jackson said a phased return to personal learning would begin this week pending ratification of the agreement by the House of Representatives.
Under the proposed framework, students in the pre-K and group programs will return on Thursday, with K-8th teachers and students returning in phases in the next few weeks.
K-5th class will return on Feb. 22, Jackson said. Students will return a week later on March 1st. The sixth to eighth grade will return on March 1, and students returning on March 8.
In addition to Covid-19’s traditional mitigation strategies, Jackson said staff living in medically vulnerable homes will also be offered Covid-19 vaccinations this week. CPS will strive to vaccinate 1,500 CPS employees on their own vaccination sites each week.
The preliminary plan also includes agreed-upon criteria for returning the entire school district to online learning, Jackson said. “We will be prepared to do so if the criteria in this pandemic are met.”
On a reporter Sunday or she’s talking too soon, Lightfoot said no.
“We understand that the delegates have the right to say yes or no,” she said. But officials wanted to keep parents informed with a preview of the plan, “with the proviso that it is subject to ratification” by union representatives, she said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has designated category 1b teachers for vaccinations; and although in many countries this means that they can not yet be vaccinated, the director of the agency says it does not mean that students can not return safely.
CNN’s Madeline Holcombe and Theresa Waldrop contributed to this report.