Mayor Lori Lightfoot says she has lost patience with the Chicago Teachers Union and wants an agreement to reopen schools “today”, setting a right or a bad day in negotiations with the Chicago Public Schools in order to bring students from back to classrooms next week.
“The ball is in the CTU court,” the mayor told reporters on Thursday morning. “Despite a series of productive exchanges between the CPS and the CTU leadership on Monday and Tuesday that should have led to a comprehensive agreement, we are deeply disappointed to announce that we have not yet reached an agreement. Yesterday, there were a series of setbacks that were simply not productive. “
Lightfoot said that after “more than 80” meetings between the two sides “we are off track”, with the CPS “bending over backwards” to accommodate CTU’s health and safety concerns.
“We waited for hours last night – hours – and we still haven’t received a proposal from the leadership of the Chicago Teachers’ Union,” said Lightfoot. “And as of this morning, we are still waiting, but to be clear, not patiently – not anymore.”
The mayor and head of schools, Janice Jackson, said in a subsequent statement that she had not yet received a proposal from CTU until 12:30 pm.
The union said in its own statement that it is the city’s fault that these negotiations have dragged on so far. CTU said it “pleaded for serious talks with the CPS leadership for months”, but the district “repeatedly said it did not need to negotiate a safe reopening” and did not take the negotiation seriously until the union threatened to challenge the reopening of the flat district .
“But these conversations are taking place now [the] the parties are in constant communication and we are here, at the 11th hour, working towards a full agreement ”, said the union.
“Our goal is, and always has been, a mutually agreed safe reopening plan for our schools. These decisions, however, cannot be made unilaterally in a vacuum. They require the participation of all stakeholders in our school communities, and we will continue to elevate democracy by soliciting feedback from educators and families in negotiating the safe return that our students deserve. “
As a background to the negotiations, Lightfoot noted that the positivity rate for COVID-19 across the city has dropped to about 5%, the lowest in the city since the peak of infections in October. She said that schools functioned safely when they opened for preschoolers and bundled special education programs for a few weeks last month, until “CTU exploded that success and created the chaos that we are now enduring”.
“Today is the day when we need a definitive answer on all outstanding issues,” she said.
Under a provisional agreement reached earlier this week and made public on Wednesday, all teachers and staff at 134 schools in the neighborhoods most affected by COVID-19 will be tested for the virus weekly. And the two sides also seemed closer to an agreement on a vaccination plan. The resolution of one of the biggest disagreements between the district and the union represented progress at the negotiating table – but clearly it was not enough for Lightfoot.