CHICAGO – Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students returned to school Monday after winter break, but the latest surge in COVID-19 has escalated a fight between the district and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) over security protocols that could disrupt classes in the nation’s third-largest district later this week.
CPS leaders have rejected a return to online learning across the district. But the Chicago Teachers Union has criticized the district’s security measures and planned votes Tuesday in support of remote teaching that could effectively shut down classes on Wednesday.
CPS Executive Director Pedro Martinez said he would be forced to cancel classes on Wednesday if the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) votes in favor of remote instruction.
CTU is expected to meet Tuesday night and vote on the measure between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Martinez added that he has been in constant communication with CTU leadership. He shared that in the talks he has asked for the vote to be postponed until an agreement is reached, but said he did not think it would be possible.
If classes are canceled on Wednesday, Martinez said that CPS will be working on a comprehensive plan focused on the district’s families for what it will follow in the future. However, he did not disclose what the plan would be about or what it would include.
During a similar debate last year, the district punished teachers who did not show up for work in person by blocking them from computer systems.
School and city leaders argue that the remote classes were devastating to the learning and mental health of students in the district of approximately 350,000 students. They insist that safety protocols including required masks, regular testing, better ventilation and vaccinations make schools safe for children.
District leaders said individual classes and outbreak schools can temporarily go online as they have for months, but the district will continue in person.
“We need to keep our children in school, which is what we are going to do in Chicago,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday on CNBC. She dismissed the concerns, saying they were “lip service from the teachers’ union leaders.”
Nationwide, schools have been grappling with the same issues and a handful of school districts have returned to online learning. In Illinois, Peoria Public Schools extended winter break by one week and schools in East St. Louis announced two weeks of remote learning after winter break.
CTU leaders argued that the current increase is making teachers and students more vulnerable and that the district has already messed up safety protocols, including a vacation testing program and data collection. The union’s demands had included requiring all students and staff to take a negative COVID-19 test before attending classes after the two-week winter break.
“I’m so angry that we have to continually fight for the basic needs, the basic mitigations,” Stacy Davis Gates, the union’s vice president, said Monday outside an elementary school where teachers planned to work from home.
The district distributed 150,000 home test kits during the break. But after the district extended a deadline to return them for processing, thousands were declared invalid due to the delay. CPS has said that it will work with test providers to address the issue.
The exchange between the union and the district comes amid unprecedented COVID-19 infections around the world. In Illinois, a record number of COVID-19 patients were being hospitalized. Governor JB Pritzker has already asked hospitals to pause elective and non-emergency procedures in anticipation of more COVID-19 patients and has beefed up staffing at vaccination centers.
Also starting Monday, the city of Chicago and surrounding Cook County began requiring testing of COVID-19 vaccines indoors, including in restaurants, gyms and museums.
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