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CHICAGO (CBS) — Chicago Public Schools students will soon return to in-person, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Sunday. The “tentative” deal reached with the Chicago Teachers Union would mean pre-kindergarten, cluster students and kindergarten through eighth grade students would return to classrooms.
However, Sunday morning CTU said the offer by CPS “merits further review” and still needs to go through their voting process before an agreement is reached. Sources told CBS 2’s Dana Kozlov that vote was expected Sunday afternoon.
We do not yet have an agreement with Chicago Public Schools. The mayor and her team made an offer to our members late last night, which merits further review. We will continue with our democratic process of rank-and-file review throughout the day before any agreement is reached.
— ChicagoTeachersUnion (@CTULocal1) February 7, 2021
“There is no agreement yet between the Union and the Board of Education. What we have is a framework that all of our members must first review and assess, because it is our members who are being asked to return to school buildings in the midst of a global pandemic,” the union said.
CPS CEO Dr. Janice Jackson said the return to in-person learning will be a gradual transition. Pre-kindergarten, cluster, and special education students will return to in-person learning Thursday. Kindergarten through fifth grade staff will return to work Feb. 22, and those students will return March 1. Sixth through eighth grade staff will return to work March 1, and those students will return to class March 8.
CPS CEO Dr. Janice Jackson announces a phased-in return, something the #CTU wanted. Pre-K and cluster students return Thursday. K-5 students return 3/1. 6-8th graders return 3/8. Grade school staff return one week prior to students. @cbschicago
— Dana Kozlov (@DanaCBS2) February 7, 2021
A joint task force will also be formed to address the issue of safely reopening high schools, but high schools are not presently scheduled to resume in-person learning.
As part of our tentative agreement with CTU leadership, we will form a joint task force to address safely reopening high schools. Unfortunately, HS classes are not currently scheduled for in-person learning. Full update here: https://t.co/OqIpactPSd https://t.co/8rb03cRLPF
— Chicago Public Schools (@ChiPubSchools) February 7, 2021
As part of our tentative agreement with CTU leadership, we will form a joint task force to address safely reopening high schools. Unfortunately, HS classes are not currently scheduled for in-person learning
Jackson said 2,000 staff will be vaccinated this week, and there are plans to vaccinate 1,500 staff members each week through the system’s own vaccination sites, exclusively for employees. Jackson said they are prioritizing vaccinations for employees who requests accommodations due to health issues, including high risk members of their homes.
Jackson said vaccinations will not be mandated.
This development comes after Friday night Lightfoot and CPS Chief Executive Officer Janice Jackson told the Chicago Teachers Union they had made their “last, best, and final offer” in the stalemate over reopening schools.
In a letter just sent to CPS parents and staff Friday evening, school district leaders explained that there still was no agreement, and said they were calling on pre-kindergarten and special education cluster teachers to show up to school buildings on Monday unless they’ve been approved to work remotely. Those who failed to report would be considered absent without leave, and locked out from CPS systems at the end of the day.
The union has said such a move could trigger a district-wide strike, if a majority of the CTU House of Delegates approved one.
As the two sides released details and objections, CBS 2 learned a lot about the fine print on what’s keeping them apart.
CPS is offering 1,500 vaccinations for CPS staff per week, but the union feels that is insufficient.
Another sticking point is what would trigger future school closings if there’s a COVID outbreak in schools. The city’s offer would close schools again only if a 2.5% rate is detected from select schools, rejecting a more stringent CDC closing plan.
The two sides also have yet to agree on how to accommodate teachers who wish to continue working remotely. The union has said the CPS has rejected 75% of requests by members to work from home because of heightened COVID risks personally or in their household.
The mayor tried to reframe their requests in a video released Friday afternoon on social media.
“In order to implement CTU’s plan, we would have to stop vaccine distribution across the entire city for everyone else. Literally,” she said.
Until Friday, neither side had gone into great depth in public about where they fell on the remaining sticking points.
Meanwhile, CPS has offered a new schedule for returning students to classrooms. Their proposal would have pre-kindergarten and special education students back on Tuesday, with their teachers back Monday. Kindergarten through 5th grade students would go back on Feb. 22, with their teachers back on Feb. 16. Grades 6 through 8 would return March 1, with their teachers back on Feb. 22.
The announcement came hours after Lightfoot and CPS announced they had made their “last, best, and final offer” on reopening plans, and CTU had accused them of walking away from negotiations.
“We’re deeply disappointed that the mayor has chosen to stop negotiating and instead move to lock out educators and shut down schools rather than work out our differences,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in a statement Friday afternoon.
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