Chicago students are expected to return to classrooms later this week, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced on Sunday after the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools reached an “interim agreement”.
“We are here to announce the good news that our children will return to personal learning this week,” Lightfoot said at a news conference. “The past 11 months have been a whirlwind for our entire city, pushing us to the limits countless times. We have lost jobs, we have lost loved ones … We have all been on an uninterrupted emotional roller coaster that we individually and collectively try to navigate.”
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Under the provisional agreement, the start of face-to-face classes, gradually by grade, was postponed from the district’s initial plans. Classes for some students would start at the end of the week.
But the deal still depends on broader approval from the union and it is unclear when or if voting for its 25,000 members will be held, the Chicago Tribune said.
“We still don’t have an agreement with the Chicago Public Schools,” tweeted the Chicago Teachers Union on Sunday, while the press conference was still going on. “The mayor and her team made an offer to our members last night, which deserves further review. We will continue our democratic process of general review throughout the day before any agreement is reached.”
The union and the district have been fighting for months for a plan to gradually reopen the student district of some 340,000, with negotiations being halted in recent days. The main problems included generalized vaccinations for teachers, measures to assess school infections and accommodation for teachers who have a person in their home who is more susceptible to coronavirus.
“This agreement aims to ensure that everyone in our school communities is not safe, but also that they feel safe,” said Lightfoot.
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CPS officials said that opening schools is safe and that distance learning is not working for all students, including many black and Latino students who make up the majority of the district. Union officials argued that the district plan, which included classroom air filters and volunteer COVID-19 teacher tests, did not go far enough
Pre-K and special education students returned briefly last month, but stopped in the midst of a growing fight with the union, which voted to continue distance learning and reject the district’s plans. Elementary and high school teachers and students were due to return on February 1 for the first time since they became totally remote last March. The district offered elementary and high school students two days of face-to-face classes. No return dates have been set for high school students.
The union had said that if the district blocked teachers, as it did earlier, teachers would picket. Such a move would have cut virtual learning for all students. The union went on strike for the last time in 2019.
About 77,000 students from pre-elementary to elementary school up to the 8th grade expressed interest in returning to classes in a survey conducted in December. While pre-K students and some special education students received face-to-face classes five days a week, K-8 students received face-to-face classes two days a week, with remote classes on other days. The frequency was less than expected.
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Approximately 6,500 of the nearly 17,000 eligible preschool and special education students said they would like to return, but only about 3,200, or 19% of those eligible, attended after the January reopening, said the CPS.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.