Chicago Public Schools backs down on threat of locking teachers out, while union says it's 'winning'
By: Greg Norman
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) has backed down on its threat to lock K-8 teachers out of their remote learning tools if they failed to show up at its facilities this week to prepare for the return of in-person classes.
The withdrawal was announced in a joint statement issued Monday night by Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson -- and, for now, appears to avert a potential strike from the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).
Both sides are in a dispute over how to reopen schools safely during the coronavirus pandemic. The union previously threatened that its members would picket if they were denied access to programs they have been using to instruct students remotely.
"We have reached another important milestone today in our efforts to provide in-person learning for our students in the Chicago Public Schools system. We have secured agreement on one other open issue and made substantial progress on a framework that we hope will address the remaining issues," the statement said. "We are calling for a 48-hour cooling off period that will hopefully lead to a final resolution on all open issues.
"As a result of the progress we have made, and as a gesture of good faith, for now, teachers will retain access to their Google Suite," it added. "Students will remain virtual Tuesday and Wednesday and we will update the CPS school community as there are further developments."
The district previously had planned on resuming in-person classes for K-8 students Monday.
The statement didn’t elaborate on what open issue was resolved, but both the district and union are still negotiating over teacher vaccinations, a health metric to determine when schools could close again if coronavirus cases rise, a testing program for staff and faculty and working-from-home arrangements, according to the Chicago Sun-Times .
CTU President Jesse Sharkey, in a message to its members , hailed the school's decision to stand down on its threat of locking out teachers.
"We are not currently locked out because of your unity, your commitment to your school communities, and your fearless solidarity," he said.
"We are literally working to steer CPS to a more responsible path to reopen schools safely, and we are winning," he said. "We want to keep working remotely as we bargain an agreement to return to our classrooms safely."
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Another episode in the saga of the all powerful Teacher's Union.
What other occupation provides for an employer to beg employees to come to work while they get paid to sit at home.
Does anyone think that the Union is not negotiating in good faith?
Biden again did as instructed - he backed the union!
maybe if there hadn't been a delusional jag-off in the white house 3 months ago, that was more interested in subverting the constitution than dealing with a pandemic, all the teachers would be vaccinated by now and kids would be back in school. since that wasn't the case, vaccinate the teachers now or be prepared to provide free healthcare and massive insurance settlements if they get sick and/or die from covid. sad that some people don't realize it's always less expensive to be proactive than reactive.
and we should kiss their asses too!
I have a better idea. Let's replace all of them. Catholic schools are open and functioning. So let's hire new non-union teachers!
Poor Joe. Let's get him a seeing eye dog.
BINGO!
I suppose that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines my wife and I received in the past 3 weeks miraculously passed stringent testing (etc) after January 20, 2021! LOL!
Indeed he is. In his first two weeks, he's invented, tested, and distributed hundreds of millions of Covid vaccines, destroyed/eliminated tens of thousands of 6-figure American jobs, and removed our southern border to allow illegal aliens from all over the world to freely walk in and spread even more Covid-19.
Doing everything they can to create another generation of dependent Democrats.
Congress and the Trump administration appropriated 13 billion dollars to states to deal with Covid in March 2020.
State departments of education have spent 3 billion, total.
You missed the 4.5 billion that was given out, huh?
Instead of looking at "lobbying" look at what actually happened.
I have mixed emotions about this. I totally agree that students are struggling with the virtual learning. In person is definitely a better learning environment. On the other hand there are teachers who would be putting themselves at risk by entering the classroom. I can understand that fear.
My son and daughter-in-law are both teachers. They have been doing face to face in school since August. It finally happened. A week ago they tested positive for COVID. They are both young and healthy and will no doubt come through this but there are many teachers who are not so young and healthy. My daughter in law is also pregnant with their first child and is understandably concerned.
I think states should be moving to get high risk teachers vaccinated. We definitely need the students back in the classroom but those teachers shouldn’t have to possibly risk their lives to do that.
Jane - you're right. My wife is a teacher in High School and they've announced that the students will be going back to school for two days a week - A-M one day and N-Z the other day. However, she's gonna hafta be there four days - two for each division since she has 246 students (Spanish I, II, III, Medical Spanish).
Her fear, and I agree with her, is that - these high school kids, for the most part, will not abide by the "Safety" rules - Face mask, social distancing, sharing foods, loving on each other in the hallways and other places - and she, and the other teachers, are going to be exposed to the Virus.
The kids, for the most part, really don't care because they're all too "tuff" to catch the virus and think that the virus is a hoax - 'cept for the 56 students who have had family members pass away from the virus.
The teacher's union and Board of Education are opposed to this new plan because, # 1, there haven't been enough vaccines given in the state to all needing them (elders, first responders, etc..), and # 2, because they were not involved in the planning of the hybrid making decisions.
The teachers and all support staff are going to be really walking on eggs out of fear of being a number from the virus scythe wielder.
Sadly her fear is reality. My son teaches 11th and 12th grade history. He has been telling me since day one that the kids just won’t follow the guidelines. They high five, hug, gather in groups, never have the masks on right etc...
My daughter-in-law teaches 2nd and 3rd graders and they seem to follow the rules much better.
I hope everything goes well for you and the wife. I totally understand her concerns.