1/5/21 - Chicago Teachers Want to Switch To Remote Learning, Classes Canceled

Classes were canceled Wednesday after Chicago Teachers Union votes to refuse in-person schooling.

CTU voted to switch to remote learning and sited concerns about inadequate COVID-19 projections.  They voted to pause in-person learning and work remotely until at least January 18.  They also want to require negative tests before students and staff return to school. 

Chicago's Mayor, Lori Lightfoot, blasted the Chicago Teachers Union for the work action.                                                                                         CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and public health commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady held a news conference where they again insisted that, despite the current spike in cases, children need to be back in school and that it’s a relatively safety environment with proper mitigation.

Lightfoot also warned teachers who don’t show up Wednesday will be placed on no-pay status. She also accused union leaders of “politicizing the pandemic.”

“There is no basis in the data, the science or common sense for us to shut an entire system down when we can surgically do this at a school level,” Lightfoot said.

Beyond Wednesday, Martinez said the district will “have a plan specifically for parents that will come out (Wednesday) in a very timely fashion about what the path forward is. I am still committed, though, to coming up with an agreement with the CTU.”

Lightfoot also expressed concern that the delayed reopening would stretch on past the Jan. 18 date planned by CTU leaders.

The plan CPS has proposed to the teachers union battles the city’s coronavirus spike at a school level, Martinez said. The district said a school would move to virtual instruction if at least 40% of its classroom teachers are absent for two consecutive days because of infection and the school-wide teacher absence rate because of infection is 30% or higher with the use of substitutes or internal staff.

Under the CPS proposal, schools would resume in-person instruction after five to 10 school days unless the Chicago Department of Public Health said otherwise. Staff members of a school that starts learning virtually would be required to work in person unless they are told to quarantine or isolate.

CPS said it is also offering financial incentives to substitute teachers and letting principals restore the health screeners and reinstitute the temperature checks to allow entry into buildings. The district ditched these policies when schools reopened for full-time, in-person learning in the fall.

“The CTU has asked for the daily health screeners to come back. We are reactivating those, and what I’ve said is that it’s up to schools, because in the past, when the health screener was in place, it created significant backlogs of children being able to get into the buildings,” Martinez said before noting it is winter.