CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Chicago Public School teachers have agreed to a deal to return to in-person instruction, but their union is still not happy about the plan.
The Chicago Teachers Union's rank and file members voted Tuesday night to approve a tentative agreement on a path to reopening school classrooms safely.
According to CTU, 68 percent of voting members — 13,681 of 20,275 — favored the deal, surpassing the simple majority needed; while 6,585 voted no. But the tally was even closer than it appeared, with more than 5,000 members not voting at all.
Following the vote, the Chicago Teachers Union said in a statement, the tentative agreement "represents the absolute limit to which CPS was willing to go at the bargaining table to guarantee a minimum number of guardrails for any semblance of safety in schools. The mayor's hand-picked board of education made clear that they would not offer any additional movement at the bargaining table and would lock out thousands of rank and file educators who'd remained teaching remotely. That move would have derailed remote education for hundreds of thousands of CPS students."
CTU President Jesse Sharkey emailed a letter to his 25,000 rank and file members telling them the final agreement should have been the *starting* point for talks months ago. He calls it a stain on the record of the mayor and CPS leadership.
"Let me be clear. This plan is not what any of us deserve. Not us. Not our students. Not their families. The fact that CPS could not delay reopening a few short weeks to ramp up vaccinations and preparations in schools is a disgrace. Yet the mayor and CPS leadership were willing to do even further harm to our school district to maintain that posture. That's how much they care about real safety for students, their families and the educators and school staff who support them," Sharkey wrote.
"This agreement represents where we should have started months ago, not where this has landed. That is a stain on the record of their administration. In a humane system, we would have used this as a beginning to build out real equity for school communities that had been starved of resources and equity decades before the pandemic hit."
He also noted the agreement puts members in a "vastly better position" than they were in November, when even after months of struggle, "CPS' planning and preparation would have been laughable were it not also so dangerous." Sharkey said the agreement also lays out gains on accommodations, vaccinations, delayed re-opening, school closing metrics, and more.
Additionally, Sharkey reiterated the no-confidence vote on Mayor Lightfoot and CPS leadership.
"Be clear: Basic safety shouldn't even be a negotiation, let alone a privilege – yet it is in Chicago, under this mayor. It's time for mayoral control of our public schools to end," he wrote. "We know that educators have not been standing in the way of reopening. A pandemic that has taken millions of live across the world has. In Chicago, the pandemic has collided directly into our students' lives, into the very Black and Brown neighborhoods that CPS and the city have starved of resources for decades. Thousands of students have lost at least one loved one to COVID. Those children – our students – deserve safety."
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Despite the no-confidence vote on Monday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and district leaders had a sigh of relief as a second teachers strike was avoided.
"The vast majority of CPS families have been separated from their schools for nearly a year, and the ratification of our agreement ensures families have options to choose in-person learning and make a plan that is best for them. We look forward to welcoming students as they return to their classrooms in the days ahead," Mayor Lightfoot and CPS leadership wrote in a statement. "This vote reaffirms the strength and fairness of our plan, which provides families and employees certainty about returning to schools and guarantees the best possible health and safety protocols. Our schools are fully prepared to safely welcome back students beginning tomorrow, and we are eager to provide additional support for the families who need more than remote learning can provide."
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Nearly 70,000 students are set to return to classrooms for two-days a week in the coming weeks. Beginning Thursday, preschool and special education cluster students will return.
Kindergarten through 5th grade staff will return Feb. 22, followed by their students March 1; 6th to 8th grade staff will go back March 1, and their students return March 8.
High school students are not currently scheduled to return in person.
Most students are expected to remain in remote learning.
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Additionally, under the plan, at least 2,000 vaccine doses are being offered to preschool and special education cluster program staff this week. The city is also offering 1,000 vaccines this week to staff who asked to continue working from home, because they live with a medically vulnerable household member. Those workers will be required to return two weeks after their first dose.
The city’s broader schools vaccination plan includes immunizations for 1,500 CPS workers each week at four district sites later this month. Priority will be given to employees returning to work sooner, as well as those who are at higher risk due to age or demographics.