CHICAGO — Classes are canceled in Chicago Public Schools on Thursday after district officials and the teachers union again failed to come to terms on COVID-19 safety measures.
It will be the second day of what Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday angrily called an “unlawful, unilateral strike” by the Chicago Teachers Union — a reference to the union’s vote earlier this week to refuse in-person learning until its demands for enhanced coronavirus mitigations are implemented.
“If you care about our students, if you care about our families, as we do, we will not relent. Enough is enough. We are standing firm and we are going to fight to get our kids back to in-person learning. Period. Full stop,” Lightfoot said Wednesday, again insisting schools are safe despite spiking case numbers in the city. “We owe that to our children who suffered learning loss.”
As for the prospect of in-person classes Friday, the district said that’s going to be determined on a school-by-school basis.
“Some schools have enough staff reporting to work to return to in-person instruction as soon as Friday,” CPS said in a letter released late Wednesday. “Other schools have more limited capacity, and may provide learning packets and other materials for students to use during this illegal work stoppage.”
Individual principals will communicate those plans with families, the letter said. Officials noted absenteeism is already high because of students and staff members who have COVID-19 or are quarantining because of a close contact, and that some schools may need to make a full return to remote learning depending on their numbers.
District officials had canceled Wednesday classes after the union endorsed the work action Tuesday to refuse to work in person during a city spike in infections.
The union, using the hashtag #LoriLockout, tweeted Wednesday that it’s been “inundated with calls and emails this morning from educators” who say they’ve been unable to log into their CPS accounts to teach remotely, as was the CTU’s stated intention.
CPS have not confirmed whether staff members have been locked out or how many, though Lightfoot had warned late Tuesday that teachers who did not show up will be docked pay. Until Wednesday evening, it remained unclear if classes — in person or otherwise — would take place Thursday.
In an impassioned speech late Wednesday, Lightfoot said she opposes any plan that closes Chicago schools systemwide and that she wants to focus on handling outbreaks classroom by classroom.
She also ripped the teachers union for the dispute, which she said is hurting families, and vowed to get students back to in-person learning. Lightfoot also said the union isn’t bargaining with enough urgency, a recurring criticism she’s made of the union — and vice versa — during the district’s labor disputes.
Lightfoot has also accused the union, which supported her opponent in the 2019 election, of politically motivated opposition.
“I will not allow them to take our children hostage. ... Why are we here again when we know that the safest place for our children is in school? Why are we here again when we know that our schools are safe?” Lightfoot said, citing the school district’s spending on COVID mitigation strategies.
The stalemate made national news Wednesday, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki saying the nation is “more than equipped to ensure schools are open ... including in Chicago.” Former President Donald Trump said that “what is happening in Chicago with all the school closures is devastating.”
“Educate our children in person or give every dollar spent on education directly to the students so they can get out of these failing government schools!” Trump said in a statement.
At a virtual news conference Wednesday morning, CTU President Jesse Sharkey said negotiators were headed back to the bargaining table.
“We are going to talk to them as much as we need to, around the clock when necessary,” he said.
The CTU measure, which won 73% of the vote, is to work remotely from Wednesday to Jan. 18 unless a safety agreement with CPS is reached or the omicron-fueled COVID-19 surge subsides. Sharkey said nearly 20,000 of the union’s 25,000 rank-and-file members submitted an electronic ballot Tuesday.
CPS and CTU did not negotiate a safety agreement for this school year after having one in place last year. The sides have yet to come to terms on a metric that would move an individual school to remote learning; expanded testing in schools; and the distribution of N95 masks.
CTU’s proposal submitted last week called for a negative test result to return to buildings and an expansion of the in-school weekly testing program that’s mandatory for unvaccinated staff members and voluntary for students. About 33,000 tests were administered the last week of school before winter break, with district officials promising for months that capacity would reach 40,000 weekly tests. CPS CEO Pedro Martinez expressed frustration again Wednesday that the testing program has not grown faster.
Lightfoot said Wednesday that the CTU wants the program mandatory for all, unless parents opt out, a plan she opposes because it’s “morally repugnant” to take the decision out of parents’ hands. COVID testing, she said, is a “quasi-medical procedure.”
As of late last month, 41,690 students and 24,933 staff members were registered for the testing program, according to the district. CPS officials said some students may have registered before getting vaccinated in the fall and decided later not to show up for weekly testing.
The union also asked for N95 or equivalent masks to be provided to students and staff members and an increase in vaccination opportunities at schools. Short of that, the CTU demanded the district transition to remote learning for two weeks.
CPS submitted a proposal to the union Tuesday promising to provide 200,000 KN95 masks to staff members, and Martinez said Wednesday students will receive similar masks as well. Under the CPS proposal, the district would offer at least 30,000 screening tests in schools per week; and transition a school to virtual instruction if 40% or more of a school’s classroom teachers are absent for two consecutive days because they tested positive for COVID, among other scenarios.
“What I’m trying to understand is, how many adults need to be in the school building in order for education and supervision to be adequate? All this week we have been getting reports of classes being doubled up, tripled up in large spaces, cafeterias, auditoriums with a warm body. We don’t have staffing,” CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said at Wednesday’s news conference.
“Their proposal still falls short, to be perfectly honest with you, because it says that you could be missing 40% of grown-ups in the school building and you can still be in session. How does that work? That’s almost half.”
CPS students and staff members returned to school buildings Monday after a two-week winter break. District representatives said 82% of teachers reported to work Monday and 84% of teachers on Tuesday. Martinez said 200,000 children attended schools on Monday, with that number “rising quite a bit” on Tuesday.
Martinez said about 10% of teachers came to buildings Wednesday.
A survey of 225 schools by the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association determined more than half the kids were absent Monday at 24 of these schools. The district runs around 515 schools.
The principals group recommends the district go remote for one or two weeks this month to ensure a safe return to in-person learning. More than 20% of staff was absent at 61 of the surveyed schools, with one school reporting 85% of its staff absent.
Martinez on Wednesday drew attention to Park Manor Elementary School, a South Side school that struggled with COVID-19 cases just before winter break. Some teachers vowed not to work in person early this week as part of a CTU press event. Martinez said 20 out of 21 teachers did not show up to work, and nearly all of the school’s 250 students were absent. Five kids in kindergarten was the largest Park Manor class at one point, he said.
“Imagine if that kind of power was used to help our children get vaccinated,” Martinez said about the union’s strength at Park Manor.
As of Wednesday evening, about 9,000 CPS students and a record 2,300 staff members were in isolation because they tested positive for COVID-19 or quarantine because they came in close contact with someone who had. Fully vaccinated, asymptomatic staff members and students are not required to quarantine.
About 11% of the 11,000 people who participated in the in-school testing program this week have tested positive, according to district data, a much higher percentage than usual.
CPS says about 91% of its staff is fully vaccinated. Just over half of CPS students aged 12 and older are fully vaccinated, according to the district, with about a quarter of the students 5 to 11 years old having received at least one dose. More than 330,000 students are enrolled in CPS, the nation’s third-largest school district.
The Illinois State Board of Education says school districts may not pause in-person learning without first consulting with their local health department. Remote learning days must be offered for the duration. City public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said Wednesday that CPS has taken a conservative approach to COVID-19. The risk of in-school transmission remains low and few Chicago kids are hospitalized with COVID-19, she said.
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