Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Mayor of Chicago, and dr. Chicago CEO Janice Jackson on Sunday demanded that teachers return to the classroom on Monday amid the dire situation between CPS and the union representing thousands of educators over the debate over the resumption of personal learning amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Chicago Teachers Union has urged teachers to remain remote, out of concern for safety during the pandemic. Therefore, the Chicago Public Schools said that adequate staff cannot be insured. Students will therefore still be learning at a distance on Monday – with the expectation that students in the nursery school, special education and K-8 students will learn again on Tuesday after their own learning. , according to CBS Chicago.
The mayor said all pre-K to eighth grade teachers should return to the classroom on Monday unless they have received special accommodation. If they do not comply, “we will have to act,” Lightfoot said, but did not elaborate.
Lightfoot said several times on Sunday that “our schools are safe” and said the CTU leadership should return to the negotiating table. The mayor also said that “distance education is failing too many of our children” and accuses the CTU of not having a sense of urgency to have students re-learn in person.
“We absolutely have to make a deal,” she said. She promised that she and her team would stay awake all night until an agreement was reached. “CTU, please come back to the table – today.”
Jackson said that without an agreement between CPS and CTU, access to the distance learning programs offered by Google Suite will be cut off from Monday.
Lightfoot said the public school system and the union have had 70 formal meetings since June. The mayor also described the model for safe personal learning according to guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the departments of public health in Illinois and Chicago, and is supported by health experts from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and infectious diseases, as well as local health officials.
“Our schools are safe. Our schools are safe. We know this because we have studied what has happened in other school systems in our city – more than 40,000 archdiocese, charter and other public schools that have had some form of personal learning since then. the fall, ‘said Lightfoot.
According to CBS Chicago, CPS and the CTU on Saturday reached preliminary agreements in four areas: health and safety protocols, ventilation, contact detection and health and safety committees.
On Sunday, Lightfoot said there is $ 100 million in investments to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 at its schools, including health examinations, temperature checks, disinfectants, PBM, disinfection, social distance and contact tracing.
Jackson appears on CBS ” Face the Nation ‘said earlier Sunday that it is safe to reopen Chicago schools with the necessary precautions and protocols for health safety.
“We believe we need to reopen schools. We’ve been closed for almost a year now. And as a school system, we’re starting to see some of the consequences of schools closing,” Jackson told Face the Nation. moderator Margaret Brennan. “Many of our students do not sign up. We see African-American and Latinx students in particular being hit hard. And our goal is to really give every parent an option.”
“Right now, we expect 77,000 students, which is about a third of the students here in CPS, to be eligible for personal tuition. It’s twice the size of the second largest school district here in Illinois. And so Chicago reopens. “Public schools are extremely important,” Jackson said. “We should also note that private and parochial schools in the city have been open since August, and we have learned a lot from their implementation plans and are looking at guidance from public health officials, as well as the CDC. to make sure we have a thorough plan for reopening. “
Meanwhile, many parents are torn apart.
Bridgett White’s dining room also serves as a classroom – and she said she was ‘very frustrated’ by the current situation between CPS and CTU. Her daughter Brianna is in seventh grade and her son Tristan is in fifth grade. None of them have been back since March 2020.
“You have this one side saying one thing, you have the other side saying something else, and you’re in the middle,” White told CBS Weekend News on Saturday.
This week, the CDC said personal classes can be kept safe, and President Biden said he wants all schools in the country to reopen in the next three months. But what is happening in Chicago shows how difficult that can be.
“As a parent, you wait day by day,” White said. “Is this the day my child does not learn at all?”