CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Sunday delivered a stern warning to Chicago Public Schools teachers: come to school on Monday or face the consequences.
CPS officials said they expect all pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade teachers to report to school on Monday after talks with the Chicago Teachers Union stalled Sunday. Students would return on Tuesday.
“We expect all of our teachers who have not received a specific accommodation to come to school tomorrow. And those who do not report to work — and I hate tp even go there — we’ll have to take action,” Lightfoot said during a press conference she and CPS CEO Janice Jackson held on a Sunday evening.
Jackson said teachers who don’t report for in-person learning will have their access to Google Suites, which CPS uses for virtual classrooms, cut off by the end of business Monday.
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When asked the other consequences teachers who don’t return would face, Lightfoot said she hopes that it doesn’t get to that point.
“That’s not something we should even be forced to talk about…. We should get a deal done,” Lightfoot said. “Teachers we need you to come back.”
Fears about contracting COVID-19 are the primary reason why teachers are hesitant to return to physical classrooms. CTU sent CPS a list of four concerns teachers have about returning that include health and safety protocols, ventilation, contact tracing and health committees, Lightfoot said.
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Lightfoot reiterated several times that the city’s public schools are safe for in-person learning since officials studied how the city's private and parochial schools handled their return to classrooms and learned from their successes and mistakes.
Part of the delay with reaching an agreement has been with getting Chicago Teachers Union leaders back to the table.
Jackson said the bargaining session that was expected to happen between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday didn’t because CTU leaders told them they weren’t ready.
“We need them at the table. We have to get a deal done,” Lightfoot said.
The mayor said CPS has participated in more than 70 formal meetings with the CTU since June.
Both sides had been meeting every day for the past two weeks but when it came to Sunday’s bargaining session, CTU leaders said they weren’t ready and didn’t participate in a planned Zoom call, Jackson said.
However, attorneys for both sides spoke, and Lightfoot said she spoke with CTU President Jesse Sharkey.
“We hope teachers do come back. We need them to come back. We’ve been asking them to come back every single day. They need to come back. Tomorrow. Without fail,” Lightfoot said.
More than 70,000 CPS parents said they want to bring kids back to in-person learning, with nearly 75% of those parents being Black or Latino, Lightfoot said.
“Remote learning is failing too many of our kids. We have to think about their presence but also their future,” Lightfoot said.
This story is developing. Check back for an update.