CHICAGO – The Chicago Teachers’ Union approved an agreement with the nation’s third largest school district to bring students back to school during the coronavirus pandemic, union officials announced on Wednesday.
The vote of some 25,000 union members does away with the possibility of an immediate blockade of teachers or a strike. The deal follows months of negotiations – which have intensified in recent weeks – with plans that included more teacher vaccinations and measures to allow schools to close when Covid-19 infection increases.
The union said 13,681 members voted to approve the agreement and 6,585 voted against it. In a statement, the union described the agreement as “the absolute limit that the CPS was willing to go to the negotiating table to guarantee a minimum number of guardrails for any appearance of security in schools”.
Union president Jesse Sharkey also criticized the deal in an email to members released by the union.
“This plan is not what any of us deserves. We do not. Not our students. Not their families, “said the email.” The fact that the CPS could not delay reopening by a few weeks to increase vaccination and school preparations is a shame. “
The first wave of students, in pre-K and special education, should return Thursday. Other K-8 students will return in the coming weeks for limited classroom instruction. No plan has been defined for high school students, who will continue with online learning.
Talks about resuming teaching in the classroom since he left completely last March have been heated amid debates around the world over the reopening of schools. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot warned teachers that they would be excluded from district systems if they did not report for service. The union responded by threatening to strike.
Chicago Public Schools officials insisted that it is safe to take face-to-face classes with protocols in place, such as wearing face covers and a $ 100 million safety plan that includes thousands of classroom air filters. District officials and Lightfoot said remote education is leaving many behind, mainly black and Latino students, who make up the majority of the district’s approximately 340,000 students.
The union says the district’s plans are insufficient to protect teachers and that there are not enough students interested in returning to the full picture of more than 600 schools. The union previously voted to challenge back-to-school orders and continued to teach remotely.
The first surveys with parents showed that about 77,000 students were interested in going back to school. When face-to-face classes were briefly resumed last month for special and pre-K education students, students attended approximately 19% of eligible students.