A group of parents, students and Chicago Teachers Union organizers braved the grey, rainy morning to put forward a message about what is at stake for children and educators with their five identified “sticking points” they say Chicago Public Schools must satisfy to settle on a new, four-year contract.
Union members marched into Minnie Minoso Elementary holding umbrellas Tuesday morning, chanting, “Whose schools? Our schools!” At a press conference outside the Bridgeport-based school, officials said on Wednesday, they plan to deliver a stack of petitions outlining those demands to the Board of Education.
The American Federation of Teachers initially called the press conference to protest President Donald Trump’s education policies. Instead, it focused on what has become a highly public, nearly 11-month bargaining process for a school district under significant financial constraints.
The “must-have” demands the union officials and leaders outlined Tuesday are: increased preparatory time for teachers; enforceable smaller class sizes; an equitable educator evaluation system; closing gaps in compensation for veteran teachers and adding more secondary teaching staff positions such as teacher’s assistants, librarians, nurses, clinicians and counselors.
“Special education teachers spend a tremendous amount of unpaid time getting to the social and emotional needs of our students,” said Lakisha House, a teacher who has been with CPS for over a decade. “The district knows how to provide us with that time.”
On Feb. 4, Martin H. Malin, an arbitrator and emeritus professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, released a fact-finding report with recommendations for a “path to settlement” between the two sides at the bargaining table.
The report sided with Chicago Public Schools on its offer for salary raises and staffing proposals. It sided with CTU on its demands for more school librarians and increased pay for veteran staff. Left unaddressed in the report were teacher preparatory time, evaluations and decisions on teachers assistants or nurses — issues that were front and center at Tuesday morning’s press conference.
“Without a full-time nurse, I worry about what happens when a child has an asthma attack, when a student with diabetes needs monitoring, or when injury goes beyond a band-aid,” said Marcea Brown, the parent of a 3rd-grader at Miñoso Elementary, where the group gathered. “No child’s health or safety should be left to chance.”
With negotiations nearing the year mark, union members and CPS officials are meeting daily to reach an agreement. It’s unclear how negotiations will fare over the final months of CPS chief Pedro Martinez’s tenure with the district. The school board fired him without cause in December, but he will remain in his role as chief executive officer until June.
Stacy Davis Gates, CTU’s president, said Tuesday the union has repeatedly tried to meet CPS halfway in negotiations and that the five sticking points are what union members find most important.
“CEO Martinez says we are close. It’s time to prove that by finding a ‘yes’ in order for us to provide our students with the public schools they deserve,” Davis Gates said.
When released last month, the teachers union immediately rejected Malin’s report, citing state law’s limits on the issues the third-party fact-finder can address and make recommendations. Meanwhile, Martinez said he “(couldn’t) even imagine the need” for a teachers’ strike as both sides are getting closer to an agreement.
This week marks the required 30-day “cooling-off” period since the “fact-finding” report was released, so the union could call for a strike. However, CTU said it does not have immediate plans to vote for a work stoppage.
CPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about how close the two sides are on the five points outlined by CTU Tuesday morning, or if it agrees that those points are the most important.
Veteran teachers provide invaluable leadership and mentorship and should be compensated appropriately, said Vicki Kurzydlo, who has been a teacher for 31 years, in an interview with the Tribune. The fact-finding report showed that CPS has the money to meet the union’s demands, Kurzyldo said.
“CPS needs to demonstrate that they value their veteran teachers, they value our expertise and they value the contributions that we make to our school communities,” she said.
Elected school board member Jitu Brown said the second Trump administration adds urgency and importance to the union’s demands.
“Now is not the time to mourn. Now the time to organize,” he said. “They may run D.C., but they don’t run Chicago.”
