Chicago teachers to strike Thursday
Classes canceled in the nation’s third-largest school district
CHICAGO — Chicago parents and community groups are scrambling to prepare for a massive teachers strike set to begin Thursday, prompting the city to preemptively cancel classes in the nation’s third-largest school district.
The Chicago Teachers Union confirmed Wednesday night that its 25,000 members would not return to their classrooms Thursday after months of negotiation between the union and Chicago Public Schools failed to resolve disputes over pay and benefits, class size and teacher preparation time.
The strike is Chicago’s first major walkout by teachers since 2012 and city officials announced early Wednesday that all classes had been canceled for Thursday in hopes of giving more planning time to 300,000 students’ families.
During the 2012 strike, the district kept some schools open for half days during a seven-day walkout. District officials said this time they will keep all buildings open during school hours, staffed by principals and employees who usually work in administrative roles.
Breakfast and lunch will be served, but all after-school activities and school buses are suspended in the district serving more than 300,000 students.
June Davis said that if teachers strike, she would likely send her 7-year-old son, Joshua, to his usual elementary school — Smyth Elementary on the city’s South Side — where almost all students are low-income and minority.
Davis, 38, said she would otherwise have to take her son to his grandmother’s in a southern suburb, requiring an hourlong trip on a regional bus line.
“Everybody’s hoping they will come to some kind of agreement, find some compromise,” Davis said.