CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- Thursday marks another day of remote learning for all Chicago Public School students, as CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union try to iron out a reopening agreement.
CPS announced the decision Wednesday evening, making it the second day in a row for pre-kindergarten and special education students, who have been going for in-person learning, were told to stay home.
“Chicago Teachers Union leadership continues to direct their members who support pre-k and cluster programs to remain at home. Therefore, we must ask parents to continue keeping your children home as we are unable to guarantee adequate staffing levels to cover in-person learning,” a CPS message to families read.
“We regret any distress this situation has caused, especially for children who have been learning happily and safely in their classrooms for the past few weeks.”
CPS said only 14 percent of the more than 12,000 kindergarten through eighth grade teachers, who were supposed to return in-person to school buildings Wednesday did so. And, despite ongoing talks with the teachers union about a reopening plan, disciplinary warnings continue to go out.
Letter to teachers state, "Without an approved accommodation or leave of absence, all K-8 staff members are required to report to work in-person on January 27th as previously directed by CPS. Consequently, you are not approved to continue remote instruction... If you do not report for in-person instruction as directed, your absence from the school building will be unauthorized and CPS may take appropriate next steps, including cutting off your access to CPS systems and discontinuing your pay.”
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During Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting, board president Miguel del Valle said remote learning is not working for everyone.
"We need to find a path back to in-person instruction for more students," he said.
“It’s been 10 very long months since we stopped in-person school for most of our students and we find ourselves at an inflection point. The board sincerely wants to come to an agreement with CTU on in-person instruction. A strike would be devastating for our students, our parents, our communities, who have already endured so much over the last 10 months. We believe our teachers truly want to continue to deliver high quality instruction to our students and that they know how debilitating a strike would be for students whose progress and well-being has already been impacted by COVID.”
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Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey addressed the Board on Wednesday, stating despite conflict, they all share a priority of students returning to school safely.
"I hope you believe that no teacher likes to connect students to the screen and I believe the mayor and CPS do not want students or staff to suffer illness or death. I hope we can both acknowledge that this thing got off on the wrong foot. I would argue that the Board of Education never intended to reach an agreement on whether and when to do reopening," Sharkey said.
The absence of Mayor Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janic Jackson at the bargaining table does not help them prove good faith efforts, he said.
“You cannot accomplish a safe reopening with force when you failed to do so with persuasion,” Sharkey said. “And for my part I’ll say that I wish that I had been able to see how traumatic this current situation would be and if I had, if I could go back in time, I would have been more insistent on reaching small agreements to build some track record prior to us getting where we are.”
He said reopening should be phased in to allow members to get vaccines before returning and said the plan can be phased in to keep everyone safe.
"We can’t see why you can’t phase in a reopening that allows our members to be vaccinated," Sharkey said.
"I would ask the board, please do not stay silent on this. If you do, I will consider it a stain on your credibility."
CPS plans to bring more than 75,000 elementary school students back to in-person learning starting Monday, though it’s unclear if a reopening agreement can be reached with the CTU before then.