Mayor: Chicago teachers must report to schools or be deemed AWOL

CHICAGO — Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Chicago Public Schools will move forward with plans to reopen schools on Monday, despite ongoing objections by the teachers union and a large group of aldermen.

Further, CPS CEO Janice Jackson said staff members who don’t show up — as about half failed to do this week — will be deemed absent without leave “and ineligible for pay going forward.”

“This is not a measure we take lightly,” Jackson added.

Remote learning “is not sustainable, not over the long term, because it does not serve every student equally, especially those students who are younger, who require additional help and support and simply don’t have access to a sustainable learning environment,” the mayor said Friday, emphasizing the safeguards in place for students and staff.

“We are doing everything we can to place safety in this pandemic at front and center of what we are doing ... but we need to forge forward,” Lightfoot said.

CPS schools have remained closed for in-person learning since the coronavirus prompted Gov. J.B. Pritzker to shut down schools statewide in March.

But after delaying reopening several times amid strong opposition from the Chicago Teachers Union, the state’s largest school district announced plans to begin bringing its first students back on Monday, including pre-kindergarten and some special education students.

Parents were given the option, and about 35% of parents of students eligible to return Monday, or about 6,500 children, chose the in-person option, according to CPS.

“What’s gotten lost in a lot of the noise here is that it’s an option ... we have an obligation to support that selection, that choice,” the mayor said. “To deny parents this option is irresponsible and wrong. It just is.”

The plan calls for the bulk of remaining students — virtually all kindergarten through eighth graders — to begin in-person classes on Feb. 1, with a hybrid of remote and in-school classes. Of that group of students, about 77,000 have chosen the in-person option.

No return date has been set for high school students.