UNO charter deal avoids strike, but it’s $ 1.5 million short
A tentative agreement reached between UNO Charter School Network administration and staffers at 3 a. m. Wednesday morning — three hours after a strike deadline passed — still depends on finding $ 1.5 million the charter operator doesn’t have yet.
UCSN schools opened Wednesday morning for its 8,000 students, who came within hours of bearing wit- ness to the first charter school strike in the country. That’s despite the funding gap as well as “some small details” still being worked out on Thursday, as the United Educators of UNO described them.
On the final day of negotiations — which were joined by Randi Weingarten, president of the national American Federation of Teachers — management and the teachers reported being “very close,” but still $ 1.5 million short.
“After much discussion, we all agreed that the most important thing is to keep schools open while we investigate ways to bridge that gap,” UCSN CEO Richard Rodriguez told reporters.
He said that UCSN will ask Chicago Public Schools for help in identifying additional sources of revenue to fill the gap that represents less than 2 percent of UCSN’s budget.
That’ll include determining whether a portion of $ 88 million in tax- increment financing just released to Chicago Public Schools “will be shared with all public schools, including charters,” Rodriguez said, adding that the charter chain also will “look for ways to reduce costs and operate as efficiently as possible across the organization.”
CPS could not immediately be reached for comment.
“We think our rank and file will be satisfied with this agreement, it’s certainly a vast improvement over what management was originally prepared to offer,” UEU spokeswoman Christine Geovanis said.
The union will return to the bargaining table on Thursday “to work out some small details” and will then have something to present to their membership for review, Geovanis said.