About 40% of Chicago Public Schools teachers and staff who were due to report to schools on Monday for the first time during the pandemic did not attend personal work, officials said on Tuesday, accusing the Chicago Teachers Union of pressure its members to challenge district orders.
In all, about half of the teachers and three quarters of the school support team in pre-school and special education cluster programs returned to classrooms as expected, representing 60% of the 4,400 employees scheduled to return to specific schools, announced the District. Authorities did not immediately provide data on an estimated 1,400 other employees who were due to return, but work in more than one school. In the first two days after the winter holidays of the past school year, about 83% of employees were present.
In a sign of the growing tension between the school system and the teachers’ union, CPS CEO Janice Jackson said on Tuesday that the number of employees who reported working was “significant, considering the fact that they were pressured by the union. not to come back “.
Those who did not attend and chose to continue teaching remotely received emails saying their absence was unjustified. Jackson said that those who continue to ignore his orders will face progressive discipline under the union contract, but that it is not in anyone’s interest to fire teachers.
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“We are optimistic that more employees will come to work in the next few days,” said Jackson, although the team’s indications suggested otherwise.
CTU: Unsafe buildings
At a morning press conference with reporters, Troy LaRaviere, president of the Chicago Board of Directors and Administrators, said that directors are looking for more information about the district’s reopening plan. A survey of 300 directors and assistants conducted this week found that only 29% felt they had received sufficient support from the district, and only 17% agreed that opening in January or February was the right decision, LaRaviere said.
CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in the same call that “there are a lot of concerns and many of our members are not feeling safe, they are more anxious and scared than ever”. Those who did not show up on Monday cited health and safety concerns and a lack of confidence in the school district’s coronavirus mitigation protocols.
In a survey conducted by the union, 69% of returning members reported conditions at schools that “were not adequate,” said Sharkey. Among the team’s concerns, Sharkey said, are “unclean” buildings, those in “various states of degradation” and missing or inadequate air purifiers.
But at a separate press conference on Tuesday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot asked those outside the school system to see for themselves what measures were put in place.
Lightfoot said the CPS, working with the Chicago Department of Public Health, “examined and overcame” what has been done at local private, public and Catholic schools.
“We cannot cancel the school year, as some in particular told me, which ignited me,” said Lightfoot. “To cancel the school year is to cancel the children’s lives.”
She also said that she understands the concerns of teachers, which is why, she said, there were “49 meetings and counts” with union leadership.
But Sharkey said the reopening will not work if “the district just continues to impose on us”.
He called for solutions that include the availability of mass coronavirus tests; have a ventilation pattern and a way to test it; a “clear” mask policy, telling teachers what to do if a student does not bring a mask or refuses to wear it; consider postponing the start of classes and “let vaccinations go on and then find a way to extend the school, with a robust summer program or an extended year”.
City official: ‘Things are looking up’
Dr. Marielle Fricchione, medical director of the Chicago Department of Public Health’s COVID office, said at the CPS press conference that the department “fully supports the reopening plan.”
“We encourage teachers to ask as many questions as necessary, but we also have to recognize that going out the door is not a zero-risk proposal in a pandemic, and things are generally improving for our city,” said Fricchione.
“Things are improving and the option for public education is the right thing for children and families right now. And as we engage in this new year together, we have more and more data each day that we will continue to share with the district. “
Jackson, the head of the school, also defended himself against claims that the district plan would deepen existing racial and socioeconomic inequalities.
Although Jackson and Lightfoot said that the reopening of schools is to offer a better option for black and Latino students who have had more difficulty accessing remote education, only a third of blacks and Latinos and a third of low-income families have chosen to return to classrooms. while two thirds of white families chose to return.
The result, educators and families said, is that teachers will have to divide their focus between the classroom and students who are still in e-learning, where most black students will still be.
“Let’s start with the fact: the majority of the nearly 80,000 returning students are black and Latino,” said Jackson, before a reporter interrupted her to note that 83% of the district’s 340,000 unlicensed students in general are black and Latino.
“That’s why this white parenting issue is fascinating to me,” continued Jackson. “First of all, white parents opting for a higher rate of personal education does not negate our obligation to respond to the data we are seeing and how it is impacting black and Latino families.
“We cannot sit back and allow a generation to simply waver because of invented reasons why we cannot reopen,” said Jackson. “A year from now, there will be a reckoning about what happened to those students who are sitting at home, not being properly cared for because many of them have families who have to be essential workers.”
CPS CEO retaliates councilman critics
Jackson ended the press conference with more heated comments on “the intentions behind” a letter sent to her and Mayor Lori Lightfoot this week by 36 councilors – the majority from the City Council – who said they were “deeply concerned” about the plan district.
“There are schools operating in every district, in every community across the city,” said Jackson, referring to the private schools that were opened. “So why the worry now? Do they care more about the lives of CPS teachers than about Catholic school teachers who have been going to school since August?
“I also think it is important to challenge the hypocrisy of some of them who have children who attended school. They have children in Catholic schools who have access to this, but are still making decisions or influencing other people’s decisions. … When it is purely political, or just a distraction, I think people need to be called for this hypocrisy. “