CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Mayor Lightfoot said the process of getting Chicago Public Schools students back into the classrooms also has to be a time of healing.
At a West Side school Thursday morning, Mayor Lightfoot said the long—sometimes bitter—negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union to reopen CPS classrooms was, at its heart, about the children. But, she agrees it was also about health and safety and now it must be about putting the rancor behind and focusing on recovery.
"There have been losses. There's been sorrow and frustration and anger, but we need to make sure that we are focused on supporting our children to shrink the educational losses and gaps that have developed over the course of this pandemic," she said.
"This path forward must be one of recovery and healing. Not just for our businesses and our economy, but also for our kids, who we all know have been dramatically impacted."
The Mayor did complain about what she called propaganda during the negotiations, though she did not mention the Chicago Teachers Union by name.
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Schools CEO Janice Jackson admitted many parents are still choosing to keep their children home, and remote learning will continue; but she made it clear the priority is getting the students back in class where learning is best.
"Our teachers have been extremely creative, I've said this time and time again at this podium. Things that I didn't even think were possible, people have been able to do in a remote environment. But our focus has to be on engaging our students throughout the day, and it is very difficult to do that in a remote environment," Jackson said.