(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The new head of Chicago Public Schools says he wants to get to the bottom of the problems that led to thousands of at-home COVID testing kits not being processed before students returned from winter break Monday.
Pedro Martinez told WBBM Newsradio that the effort to send at-home testing kits to students was part of his larger push to increase COVID testing of students and staff.
He said the CPS COVID-testing plan that was in place when he arrived late last year was lacking. He did not elaborate, other than saying, "We were almost starting at ground zero.”
Martinez said he hopes lessons learned from the testing trouble lead to better plans in the future.
"We need to do these types of initiatives with the schools open. It is very difficult to do something like this without the schools,” he said. “We have quite a few unused tests, and really my goal is that we really leverage our schools, and that is why they need to remain open.”
The Chicago Teachers Union has told members that the labor organization could force a return to remote learning. The CTU advised members to report for classes in person Monday.
Martinez said nearly 3,000 staffers called in sick on the first day back. The number of people calling in sick has never been that high, he said
"We looked at prior years and we haven't seen this high of a number. It's something we need to understand. But it varied significantly by school," Martinez said.
He added that the district will be reimbursed for the tests that were not processed.
Related
