Sun-Times: CTU and CPS at impasse as reopening stalled

 The Chicago Sun-Times reports that the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) and Chicago Public Schools (CPS) failed to reach an agreement around reopening physical school buildings by a Wednesday deadline.

As a result, CTU told members to continue working from home as the potential of a work stoppage mounted.

The two sides bought more negotiating time and education will continue at a distance for the remainder of this week, an attempt by CPS to cut off remote teaching and a forced return to the classroom could cause picket lines to pop up across the city according to an email CTU sent to its membership Tuesday night.

The move to full remote learning moves special education and preschool students back to online classrooms after returning to in person learning earlier in January.

A move by CPS to lock teachers out of virtual learning accounts, however, would result in education completely shutting down for all students in the CPS system. With CTU and its members unwilling to go back into the classroom under current conditions they feel are unsafe, such a lock out would, in effect, trigger a teachers strike.

The CTU and its members are concerned that reopening school buildings at this point would put its members and the larger Chicago community in danger in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. A concern made all the more real by the news of several new strains of COVID-19 appear to be more contagious and more likely in infect children than the strain first identified in late 2019. Some indications in the United Kingdom may also point to at least one of these strains being more deadly as well. One of these strains originating in the United Kingdom is expected to become the dominant United States strain my March.

From the perspective of CTU, it makes more sense to wait the remaining weeks before teachers are able to be vaccinated rather than rush people back into buildings and risk infecting teachers and staff, families, and the wider Chicago community.

Education Week, NBC: Chicago Teachers vote to continue remote teaching, CPS pushes back return date

 Over the weekend members of the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) voted to refuse to return to their classrooms until after vaccination against COVID-19. Chicago Public Schools (CPS), which had been calling such a vote an "illegal strike" has responded by moving the return to classroom date from Monday, January 25th to Wednesday, January 27th.

Education Week has information on the vote. Per Education Week, CTU saw 86% of its membership vote with 71% of participants voting to continue teaching from home. According to CTU, when kindergarten and special education teachers were ordered back on Jan 4th, only 19% of the students whose families had indicated they would send their students back actually showed up.

Discussions between CTU and CPS remain ongoing, however CPS announced that K-8th grade teachers who had been scheduled to report on Monday would have that date back until Wednesday according to a 5 Chicago, the cities' local NBC affiliate, report. Students are still expected to return to classrooms on February 1st.

CPS has said that it will be able to begin administering vaccinations in February for staff who are not eligible for the state's larger 1A or 1B role-out. This, of course, raises the question why schools would be opening up with vaccination so close?

Sun-Times: Chicago Teachers Union to collectively refuse in-person assignments

 As the COVID-19 pandemic heads into the new year with more contagious varients expected to become the dominant strains by March, Chicago teachers are voting on a collective action to refuse orders to return to full in person teaching Monday, the Chicago Sun-Times has reported.

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has noted the action would not constitute a strike as teachers would continue teaching from home. This has not stopped Chicago Public Schools (CPS) from labeling the action as an "illegal strike." 

Meanwhile, elected officials from local and state government gathered in support of the CTU in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, pointing out that President Biden was calling for an end to recklessness in the national approach to COVID-19 they argued that teachers shouldn't be forced back into schools until they were able to get vaccinated.

Chicago Teachers Union Holds One-Day Strike

Teachers, librarians, and educational support staff at Chicago Public Schools held a one-day strike yesterday, closing schools as they held a massive demonstration amid ongoing funding and contract negotiations. School administration have filed a complaint against the Chicago Teachers Union, arguing that the strike was illegal.

For more articles, photographs, and commentary on yesterday's events, check out #CTUStrike on Twitter.

Teachers on strike in Chicago

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), which includes many school librarians, is in the third day of a massive strike that has shut down the public school system in Chicago.  The union is out for the first time in 25 years and so far the strike has been successful, with unionized school janitors even threatening to strike in solidarity in order to prevent crossing picket lines.  This is a huge strike with the potential to affect education policy nation-wide.  The situation is sure to develop rapidly so stay tuned.