Union objects to Chicago schools reopening
District’s safety plan lacking, teachers say
CHICAGO — Chicago ditched plans Tuesday for thousands of teachers to report to schools this week ahead of students after the teachers union said its members wouldn’t comply and were prepared to picket over coronavirus safety concerns.
The reversal in the nation’s third-largest district also meant roughly thousands of pre-k and special education students who started in-person classes this month as part of gradual return would shift back to online learning. The district went remote last March, but district officials say it’s not working, particularly for many low-income Black and Latino students who make up the majority of the district.
“This is a great disappointment,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at an evening news conference. “There is no question that students are persevering. But there is also no question that there is no substitute for in-person learning.”
The battle to reopen schools in the roughly 355,000-student district has waged for months as schools worldwide have grappled with a start-andstop approach amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Chicago Teachers Union argues the district hasn’t gone far enough in its safety plan, despite installing thousands of air filters, deep-cleaning schools and offering limited COVID-19 testing. The union wants widespread vaccinations, better metrics and more testing to protect teachers.
Thousands of pre-k and special education students began attending in-person classes this month over the union’s objections. Dozens of teachers and staff who didn’t show up were docked pay and locked out of CPS systems, unable to teach remotely.
Teachers and staff for K-8 were due in class this week for students’ Feb. 1 return, but the union overwhelmingly voted to reject in-person learning over the weekend. Even after the district pushed its in-person start date to Wednesday, an agreement couldn’t be reached. District officials haven’t set a date for high school students’ return.
CTU told its roughly 25,000 members Tuesday that “short of some late-breaking” agreement with the district, all teachers and staff would defy plans to teach in person and continue online. If the district were to punish teachers, all teachers, including high school, would protest starting Thursday.
“If CPS retaliates against members for exercising their right to a safe workplace, all CTU members will stop working on Thursday and set up picket lines at schools,” the union email read.