After ‘significant progress’ was made on Monday in the negotiations between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union, it was announced that teachers will not be excluded from Google Suite on Monday night, while virtual learning will continue for students for at least the next day. two days.
According to an email from CPS, students will be learning by distance learning on Tuesday and Wednesday as negotiations continue, with the exclusion of a teacher from the table for the time being.
“We have reached another important milestone today in our efforts to educate students in Chicago’s public schools,” said Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS Director Dr. Janice Jackson, said in a statement. ‘We have agreed on one other open issue and have made significant progress with a framework that we hope will address the remaining issues. We are asking for a cooling-off period of 48 hours which will hopefully lead to a final decision on all public matters. ‘
The news comes after an ultimatum on Sunday issued by Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who said CPS would be willing to “take action” if teachers did not report to their classrooms on Monday.
Amid the often tense negotiations, teachers voted in January to return to distance education, even if students were already in the classroom before the K and cluster learning. The vote was done in response to CPS calling on teachers to return to K-8 classrooms on January 25, with the students returning to the classrooms on February 1.
CPS officials said at the weekend that if teachers did not return to schools on Monday, they would be considered ‘absent without leave’ and that they would not be authorized to conduct distance education before re-enrolling in their classrooms.
“All teachers, pre-K to eight and cluster teachers must report,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told a news conference Sunday. ‘If you do not have an approved accommodation, we expect to see you in class again. Those who do not report to work … we will have to act. Let’s avoid it. ”
CTU’s leadership said at a virtual press conference late Sunday that outstanding issues include a clear vaccination process and a health measure for coronavirus problems for teachers.
“People’s lives … depend on us achieving maximum security amid a pandemic,” said Stacy Davis Gates, CTU’s vice president.
Both sides pointed fingers in a series of social media posts earlier Sunday, with CTU officials saying Lightfoot and CPS leadership told them not to attend a negotiation unless union members willing to make ‘big concessions’.
In response, CPS said their negotiating team “was told by the CTU leadership that they were not available to meet until they could develop an answer to our most recent offer.”
CTU responded to this statement by criticizing Lightfoot for referring ‘negatively’ to the ‘hyper-democratic’ nature of CTU ‘and that the union was looking for its full members for leadership during the current impasse.
The news comes after both parties reported progress in negotiations over the weekend. The two parties have been discussing for months the safety of teachers and students returning to classrooms amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with issues surrounding vaccinations, criteria and safety procedures all on the negotiating table.
Lightfoot insists that the CPS plan to return to schools thoroughly by medical experts, including the Chicago Department of Public Health, dr. Allison Arwady, and that it has been worn since the fall in the city’s charter and archdiocese classrooms, as well as in pre-K and cluster classrooms that returned last month.
Lightfoot appeared on “Morning Joe” on Monday to make the claim and put the blame on the union again.
“We have invested more than $ 100 million in ventilation, other safety protocols, making sure we have masks, health checks, temperature checks, all the things you would expect, what the CDC leadership told us, what we know it “it makes sense to alleviate problems in schools,” she said.
“We had three weeks to implement our plan safely until the teachers’ union blew it up,” Lightfoot continued. “We are doing everything in our power to address what the teachers are saying to us, but we need them to meet us halfway. As you all know, you need to take steps in each other’s direction. There needs to be a compromise.”