(WTTW News)
Members of the Chicago Teachers Union are reviewing the framework of a deal that would allow in-person learning to resume at Chicago Public Schools for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close in March 2020, sources told WTTW News on Sunday morning.
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Any tentative agreement must be approved by union delegates, who were reviewing the framework Sunday after negotiations lasted until 11 p.m. Saturday.
Sources on both sides of the negotiations confirmed that an agreement on the outstanding issues had been reached in principle by the bargaining teams but that it had yet to be ratified by the union’s leadership.
However, the fact that the union’s bargaining team presented something to its membership indicates the two sides were much closer than they had been at any point since negotiations began in earnest after elementary teachers refused to report to schools Jan. 25 in anticipation that 70,000 students in kindergarten through eighth grade would return to classes Monday.
Without a tentative agreement, school district officials threatened late Friday to lock out pre-kindergarten and special education cluster program teachers from their remote education suites, potentially triggering a strike.
Agreements between the sides have been made on safety protocols, ventilation, testing for COVID-19, contact tracing and a joint safety committee. But the union is pushing for a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-based health metric for closing schools in the event of an outbreak, accommodations for educators with medically vulnerable family members and addressing “real equity needs.”
In that “last best and final offer,” provided by a source to WTTW News on Friday afternoon, CPS would shut down in-person learning if 50% of schools have COVID-19 outbreaks, which are defined as three or more positive cases found at a school within a 14-day period.
That decision could also come if the district’s rolling seven-day positivity rate among staff and students reaches 2.5%. At that point, a COVID-19 safety committee would convene and decide on a recommendation to either enhance mitigations further or shut down schools in specific city regions or across the district.
CPS has tentatively agreed to test all symptomatic students and staff, as well as all in-person employees at the 134 schools in neighborhoods with high COVID-19 case counts on a weekly basis. Half of in-person employees in all other neighborhoods would also be tested weekly.
CPS is also increasing the number of accommodations provided to school employees allowing them to continue working remotely. But the union says CPS is still denying those accommodations to 75% of educators with household members at high risk for COVID-19.
Under the latest offer, pre-kindergarten and special education cluster programs students and staff would resume in-person learning Monday. CPS on Friday evening pushed that back to Tuesday.
Kindergarten through fifth grade teachers and employees would report on Feb. 15, with students in those grades returning Feb. 22.
Teachers in grades six through eight would also report back on Feb. 22, followed by those students on March 1.
CPS in its offer said it will provide vaccines to no fewer than 1,500 employees per week, but under that timetable, the union said some teachers could be waiting until June for vaccinations through the district.
Check back for updates.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
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February 08, 2021 at 12:00AM
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CTU, CPS Reach Framework to Allow In-Person Learning to Resume: Sources - WTTW News
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