CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Mayor Lori Lightfoot made an important announcement Sunday concerning a possible “tentative agreement” between Chicago Public Schools and teachers.
“We are here to announce the very good news that our children will be returning to in-person learning this week,” Lightfoot said during an afternoon press conference.
But the Chicago Teachers Union took to social media to remind parents that there is not yet an agreement with CPS and that the offer from the mayor and her team will need to be reviewed by a democratic process of rank and file members before any agreement can be made.
Immediate effects of a tentative agreement may prevent a forewarned strike by the CTU if teachers refusing to return to class Monday were locked out of online instruction. CPS previously had plans to return to in-person learning Monday morning for pre-kindergarten and some special education classes.
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The mayor said accepting the offer, which would reopen pre-kindergarten through eighth grade in-person instruction, will be in the city’s best interest.
“We need to do this for our city, for our communities, for our families and, most importantly, for our children,” Lightfoot said.
Some CPS parents said they’d like to see CPS and the CTU join forces when communicating reopening plans.
“I’d like to see a joint press conference next time,” Ryan Griffin of the Chicago Parents Collective, a new grassroots group of CPS parents committed to representing students' interests regarding in-person learning options, told WBBM.
Griffin said he feels Lightfoot’s agreement announcement may possibly be a purposeful and public way to put pressure on the CTU whose membership still has to vote to ratify the agreement.
“And, again , I’m not sure if that’s a strategy on the city’s side, If that is intentional,” Griffin said.