Chicago Schools Reopening News: Teachers Weigh Their Options, Including A Strike

Chicago IL

20 January, 2021

4:51 PM

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By Chalkbeat Staff, Chalkbeat Chicago Welcome to our blog about Chicago's school reopening. We're tracking developments as the nation's third largest school district reopens campuses after 10 months of closures. Last week about 6,000 prekindergarten and special education "cluster" students who need moderate to intensive support were expected to return to campuses. Another 70,000 K-8 students have said they will return Feb. 1. There's no date yet for high school students to return. Here's the latest. Redefining the word 'strike' Tuesday, Jan. 19, 3:00 p.m. — The Chicago Teachers Union is taking the first of several steps it would need to move towards a teacher walkout. An emergency House of Delegates meeting is now planned for Wednesday. The move signals ongoing labor tensions in Chicago ahead of a district plan to bring thousands more teachers back for in-person learning next week. But it's not yet a green light for a teachers strike. The union must meet several legal standards before moving ahead with a strike or "unified job action," as delegates say their potential labor action is termed. That includes holding an all-membership vote during which at least 75% of members vote in favor of a walkout. On the table for discussion at Wednesday night's meeting is a labor action where union members could refuse to work in buildings, but continue working online, which would not exactly fit the definition of a traditional strike. In a Monday evening virtual town hall, union leadership urged members to vote in favor of a unified action. "The vote has to be yes, otherwise we're voting to walk back into unsafe buildings," union president Jesse Sharkey said. A tentative timeline for teacher vaccines Tuesday, Jan. 19, 12:15 p.m. — The city's chief health officer, Dr. Allison Arwady, offered a few new details on the city's vaccination plans today, confirming that Chicago will launch the next phase — 1B — on Jan. 25 and prioritize seniors. Educators, too, will be prioritized starting in February, she said during her weekly "Ask Arwady" appearance. Arwady encouraged residents to sign up for the city's "COVID coach" text messaging service to receive updates on vaccination phases and plans. Arwady: All educators are going to be prioritized, with planning, a little bit later in February. That is well underway.Health care workers/school nurses in school settings are being vaccinated now and will be doing vaccinations. — Kelly Bauer (@BauerJournalism) January 19, 2021 A focus on parent choice Tuesday, Jan. 19, 9:00 a.m. — As the district's second week of in-person learning for students dawned on Tuesday, schools chief Janice Jackson held a roundtable with parents at a West Side elementary school to highlight a key argument in the district's push to reopen: parent choice. "The parents' request comes first," said Jackson, who acknowledged that there were no fully COVID-19 free environments during the pandemic, and that teachers were worried about their health. Still, she said it was the district's responsibility to give families a chance to learn in-person. Rosario Anacleto, who has two children at Belmont-Cragin Elementary, said during the roundtable that her son, in third grade, had developed blurry vision in his eye from staring at a computer, and had trouble concentrating. Reela Garcia, who also has two children at the school, said the decision to return had been difficult. She had been worried about teachers' health, but had struggled to ensure her children were learning. "I'm just thankful that my kids even had a choice at this point," said Garcia. The school board convenes Friday, Jan. 15, 3:30 p.m. — The Chicago Board of Education convened a special meeting Friday to hear public testimony. The number of public speaking spots was limited to five, and the board convened a closed session shortly after. Three speakers urged the board to delay reopening buildings. One speaker asked the district to stay the course and offer parents a choice to send children back, and one asked the district to narrow the scope of the next phase of the rollout and focus on a smaller group of younger elementary students. Chicago is supposed to bring back K-8 students on Feb. 1. Read more coverage here. A look at statewide numbers Friday, Jan. 15, 2 p.m. — Statewide numbers this week compiled by the Illinois State Board of Education show an uptick in students with an option for "blended learning" — that is, attending a district that offers remote learning and in-person instruction. More than 950,000 Illinois students, or roughly half, have a blended learning option as of Jan. 12, with 800,000 Illinois students currently continuing to attend school remotely and nearly 200,000 have the option of a full return to school. How that breaks down by district: Out of 846 districts that reported figures, 364, or 43%, are currently deploying a hybrid plan; 223 school districts, or 28%, are completely remote; and 249 school districts, 29%, are fully back to in-person learning. Whether numbers shift as the state distributes more vaccination will be closely watched. Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced Friday that the phase 1B for vaccinations — which is supposed to include teachers — will begin on Jan. 25. This phase of vaccinations will prioritize residents ages 65 or older. This EdWeek tracker shows where teachers land in vaccination queues across the different states. Kicking off a car caravan Friday, Jan. 15, 10 a.m. — Union President Jesse Sharkey says this week has brought "better conversations" with district leadership about reopening. The union continues to push for an agreement and has added another demand to the list: It wants Chicago to reinstate the 100 or so teachers who were "locked out" of their remote classrooms this week after they did not report to buildings. First-week fireworks Friday, Jan. 15, 8:30 a.m. — Chicago's schools reopened this week to students after 300 days of closures. The week will end as it began — with some teachers protesting the decision. Some teachers have been encouraged to call in sick, and a union-organized car caravan is starting in Union Park on the Near West Side. Today also brings a twist: a hurriedly called afternoon meeting of the city's Board of Education. Check back with us later today for updates. In the meantime, Chalkbeat Chicago reporter Yana Kunichoff spent the week having in-depth conversations with parents and educators. Her reporting reveals a range of emotions, from shock to anxiety to joy. Find it here. Nurses run around City Hall Thursday, Jan. 14, 4:30 p.m. — As anyone who has visited Chicago's City Hall building knows, it's a massive structure with many doors — and the pandemic has strictly limited access to which of those doors the public can use. So what started as a union-organized press conference held by a group of school nurses ended up with a sprint around City Hall as security guards pointed the group to different locked doors. The nurses ultimately were let in and delivered the letter to a member of the mayor's communications staff. "Nurses who work in schools have not been asked to formulate CPS's plan, but we are expected to carry it out — despite our objections," the letter reads. (Find it in full here.) "As the undersigned nurses employed by Chicago Public Schools (CPS), we wish to go on record as being opposed to the current plan of resuming in-person learning on January 11, as we do not believe it is safe for students, their families, or the wider community." COVID letters stir anxious conversations Thursday, Jan. 14, 11 a.m. — Chicago schools are beginning to report their first coronavirus cases since some students returned to campuses this week. Parents have received notifications and have begun anxiously discussing the cases on social media. The teachers union has highlighted cases to buttress their argument against the district's reopening plan. The district has reported positive COVID-19 cases among staff members working in its buildings for months. So far, the weekly counts remain below a November peak of 87 employee cases, even as thousands of teachers and teaching assistants returned to campuses last week. As of this week, the district reported 23 employee diagnoses. How well the district is able to rein in transmission of the virus in its buildings as students return to classrooms is a crucial test of its reopening plan as some 70,000 additional elementary students are slated to go back Feb. 1. At McCutcheon Elementary in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood, additional staff are in quarantine after educators had reported cases there earlier in the week. The school remains open. Block Club has a report on the situation there. Vaughn Occupational High School — the first Chicago public school to close after a coronavirus case last spring — notified families Wednesday evening of an employee COVID-19 case as well. The note, widely shared on social media, said parents do not need to take any further steps. "All relevant areas of our school will be thoroughly cleaned and sanitized," it said. The Chicago Teachers Union said its members are reporting they were notified about student cases in at least two schools. The union said a student tested positive on Monday at Otis Elementary and exposed staff members were directed to quarantine for two weeks. The district has not confirmed these cases, and its online tracker does not list any student cases this week. New York begins vaccinating teachers Thursday, Jan. 14, 9:30 a.m. — New York officials have prioritized vaccines for a wide swath of education workers — including teachers, day care workers, and bus drivers — putting them in the second wave of eligibility after frontline health care workers and nursing home residents and staff. That rollout, which began this week, could help speed the return of in-person learning, as teachers are more likely than students to become seriously ill from the coronavirus. The vaccine is not yet approved for children. But even as thousands of teachers sign up for shots, our Chalkbeat New York colleague Alex Zimmerman reports that questions remain about how much supply New York will have on hand and how quickly officials can manage to vaccinate large numbers of people. The vaccine rollout has been sluggish and there have been early glitches and confusion with the online process for scheduling vaccine appointments. Speaking Thursday from a Chicago vaccination site, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Chicago is still working its way through the first vaccination phase of health care workers and long-term care facility residents. Supply continues to be an issue, she stresses. "We need more first doses all around the country," she says. "We need that to happen and need that to happen soon." She says again that 1B — a phase that is supposed to include teachers — will start "very soon" and that Chicago will rely on an appointment-based system, but there are no more details shared about specific timelines or process for educators. Asking experts Wednesday, Jan. 13, 5 p.m. — The second installment of a joint series on school reopening organized by UIC and Chicago Public Schools takes place Thursday. Dr. Kenneth Fox, the district's chief health officer, will be there. The series is virtual and intended to answer questions from parents. Details here. Fox was among the CPS officials who testified this week at a marathon City Council hearing about school reopening. Today, 19 City Council members made public a letter pushing for a second hearing before K-8 students are set to return Feb. 1. This time, aldermen are asking for principals and teachers be invited to testify. This is urgent, as @ChiPubSchools brings punitive action against teachers who are simply trying to serve our children AND protect their health. @J1Ramann, I and 17 other Alders have sent a letter to Chair Michael Scott requesting a second hearing before the end of the month. pic.twitter.com/kXybmhEE8y — Alderwoman Hadden (@ChiAlderwoman) January 13, 2021 Elected school board push fizzles Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2:00 p.m. — A tumultuous lame-duck legislative session has come to a close. The Illinois House has a new speaker to end Michael Madigan's history-making run and an omnibus education bill that would revise graduation requirements is heading to the governor's desk. But it is curtains — for now — for the elected school board bill. Chalkbeat Chicago's Samantha Smylie reports more here. Teacher COVID-19 rates: It's complicated Wednesday, Jan. 13, 10:50 a.m. — Our national desk colleague Matt Barnum reports on some limited data available that examines COVID-19 infection rates among teachers and other staff who have returned to school buildings in New York, Texas, and other places where slices of data are available. The numbers show that teachers and other staff where school buildings are open have higher COVID-19 infection rates than their surrounding communities. But critically, the data does not show whether teachers caught the virus in schools, or offer definitive answers about the risks of school reopening. It's possible the results reflect more widespread testing among teachers, and the evidence that remote teachers have lower infection rates is mixed. But the latest data complicates our understanding of the risks of school reopening. Here's the full story. Spotlight on the school board Wednesday, Jan. 13, 7:00 a.m. — Replicating a strategy employed during the 11-day strike in 2019, the Chicago Teachers Union held a press conference this morning outside of Chicago Board of Education President Miguel del Valle's home in the Belmont-Cragin neighborhood on Chicago's West Side. Several pre-K and special education teachers who spoke have refused to report to school buildings and been locked out of their remote classrooms as a result. Sol Camano, a second-year pre-K teacher at Jorge Prieto Math and Science Academy, was among them. In two years in the profession, she described what it's like to experience a strike and now reopening discord between the union and district leadership. She's currently among the more than 100 teachers locked out of remote classrooms and e-mail this week. "My students are 4 and 5. They have no idea what's going on. They know their teacher wasn't there yesterday," said Camano. One teacher knocked on del Valle's door, but there was not an immediate answer. Members of the school board have not addressed reopening in public since teachers returned to classrooms Jan. 4. The next board meeting is Jan. 27. The digital divide is still a reality Tuesday, Jan. 12, 4 p.m. — Chicago schools are reopening to students this week, but remote learning isn't going away: Most students are sticking with it, and even most of those slated to return in person on Feb. 1 will continue learning from home three days a week. Today reporter Mila Koumpilova takes a look at Chicago's ambitious program to attempt to close the digital divide for low-income families. The program has now enrolled just over half of the 100,000 students it set out to connect — a goal officials say they are still on track to hit by the school year's end. Other cities are embracing the model. But some serious stumbling blocks remain. Read more here. What happens when there are COVID-19 cases at schools? Tuesday, Jan. 12, 10:30 a.m. — Since March 2020, Chicago Public Schools has reported 643 cases among employees who were working in meal programs, cleaning campuses, supervising remote learning daycare sites, and working on administrative teams while schools were closed to students. (Nine student cases have been reported in the same timeframe.) Now that nearly 400 schools have reopened to a first wave of students, families and school staff will be following closely how many cases are reported and whether classrooms, and even campuses, have to close. On the second day of reopening, five employees at McCutcheon Elementary, including the principal and assistant principal, are in quarantine following a confirmed coronavirus case, reports Block Club Chicago. The school is not pausing work or reopening, the district said; the quarantine went into place before the staff member had any contact with students. But the situation raises questions about how schools communicate to staff and educators when cases arise. Locked out of classrooms Tuesday, Jan 12, 6:30 a.m. — As the first round of disciplinary measures took effect against teachers who didn't report to in-person work, the Chicago Teachers Union angrily fired back in a press conference Tuesday morning, calling it "cruel and illegal" and again saying educators have the right to refuse to work in conditions they deemed unsafe. District figures released Monday evening estimated 145 educators would be locked out of their virtual classrooms and have their pay docked Tuesday for refusing to report to school buildings during school reopenings. One of those educators is Linda Perales, a special education "cluster" teacher at Corkery Elementary in Little Village, who said at the press conference that she had been locked out of her Google classroom Monday night. "My students will not have a familiar face that knows them there [online] to follow their routine," said Perales, who said she was not returning to in-person learning because her young students were not able to wear masks or social distance. CPS takes hard line on work return Monday, Jan. 11, 7:00 p.m. — Chicago Public Schools said Monday night it will move to dock pay and block access to email and Google Classroom for 145 "AWOL" — or absent without leave — teachers beginning Tuesday. "The district will continue to monitor staff attendance and take steps to hold employees accountable who are not reporting to work in-person without valid reasons," spokesman James Gherardi said in a statement Monday night. The teachers represent a fraction of the nearly 3,500 educators and paraprofessionals expected to report to buildings this week. The district also provided a daily count of educators who did not clock in that day; on Monday that number was 678, a slight decrease from daily counts last week that ranged from 700 to 800 per day. The total does not include the number of employees who were granted an accommodation based on a health or family reason, the district said. Earlier in the evening, teachers began circulating on social media a notice from the district. A marathon City Council hearing Monday, Jan. 11, 4:00 p.m. — Chicago's aldermen spent the day grilling a panel of Chicago Public Schools officials about the reopening plan, a discussion some said they'd wanted to have for months. As the hearing passed the five-hour mark, aldermen continued to press for particular details on everything from the number of air purifiers and substitute pools to staffing accommodations, custodian counts, and personal protective equipment. Aldermen at times seemed surprised by some aspects of the plan, such as prohibitions on allowing parents in school buildings. And more than once, district and city health officials said they weren't aware of the level of frustration expressed by aldermen. In one particularly pointed exchange, South Side Alderman Jeanette Taylor — who participated in a 2015 hunger strike to save Walter Dyett High School from a wave of school closings — pressed officials on staffing data. "70% of principals said that they are not ready (to reopen schools), 90% percent of teachers said they weren't ready. Did you all take in consideration that data?" Taylor asked. Frank Bilecki, the district's chief of public policy, responded: "Teachers were surveyed; principals were surveyed. Principals have had multiple meetings with staff in regards to reopening. On Friday, about 71% or so of school staff did return —" Taylor interrupted. "Not returned. They filled out a first survey to say that they were not ready or they didn't feel it was safe. Ya'll making people choose between whether they're going to have somewhere to live and eat and coming back to your building." Hours into the discussion, Kenneth Fox, the district's chief health officer, put his position plainly: "Talking about fears, this is something that frightens me: That kids are out of school and missing their opportunities for learning. And for what? Because we were too afraid to do what all the other Archdiocese and private schools have been doing for months? What kids have been doing all over the world for months? There are over a billion children back in school now." A bargaining bill gets a lift in Springfield Monday, Jan. 11, 2:00 p.m. — All eyes may be on Chicago's school reopening, but Springfield just gave the city's teachers union some momentum. The Illinois Senate just passed House Bill 2275 by a 38-16 vote, effectively sending it to the governor's desk. If Gov. J.B. Pritzker signs it, House Bill 2275 could give the union more leverage in the reopening debate. The bill repeals a section of labor law, known as Section 4.5, that limits what's up for discussion at the negotiating table. Most of the opposition to the bill comes from Senate Republicans. On Sunday, Chicago Public Schools' general counsel, Joseph Moriarty, said that passage of the bill could impact the city's school reopening plan. If the bill passed, he said during public testimony before a Senate executive committee, "We will be back before the Illinois Educational Relations Labor Board and CTU will be seeking injunctive relief. CPS will not have 4.5 to rely on." Speaking Monday, Sen. Robert Peters (D-Chicago, 13th District), urged senators to vote in favor of the bill so that Chicago would no longer be an outlier with other school districts. Chicago is the only school district that has such limitations. "We have a system where every other school district has these bargaining rights, except CPS. I think it's simple. It's not complicated. And after so long of hearing about Chicago's, it's so different from the rest of the state. Well, here's an opportunity for it to be with the rest of the state." The official restart Monday, Jan. 11, 10:00 a.m. — At a morning press conference at Dawes Elementary on the South Side, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and schools chief Janice Jackson described a smooth start. "We started school today successfully," Jackson said. But city officials said they would not be able to provide student attendance numbers until next week and an updated number for employees reporting to work until later this week. Most recently, 71% of teachers and support staff expected to report to work did so on Friday, Jackson said, though she stressed some of those who did not come to their school buildings were following safety protocols after failing a daily health screener or traveling out of state during the holidays. "The majority of our teachers are doing exactly what they are supposed to," Jackson said. Jackson said again that teachers who did not receive an accommodation to work from home and continue to resist returning will have access to their Google Classroom accounts blocked and their pay docked — after receiving several warnings from the district. The district's teachers union has questioned whether the district can legally take those steps. Jackson also said the district launched last week its voluntary rapid testing program for school employees, and it will post the results in real time on its website as teachers are randomly tested monthly. About a fifth of school-based employees declined to participate in the voluntary program last week. Asked about her decision to extend the city's stay-at-home advisory even as schools reopen, Lightfoot said that she sees no contradiction: Schools are considered an essential service, and she said, "From the very beginning, schools were exempt from the stay-at-home advisory." Scenes from an atypical first day Monday, Jan. 11, 8:00 a.m. — The first day back to school for students at Bateman Elementary in Albany Park started with an old standby: the school photo. One parent snapped a picture on the front steps of Bateman's imposing, multi-story brick facade. Another had their child stand next to a colorful sign with the school's name, the school playground in the background. But this year isn't like any other. As families line up outside the door of Bateman, with the recommended distance between them marked by orange traffic cones, the young students, bundled up in hats, coats and masks, hopped and skipped with barely suppressed energy. "We can't wait to learn together today," said an educator who, holding a digital thermometer, welcomed families into the building one-by-one. Dressing for work in 2021 Monday, Jan. 11, 7:50 a.m. — One Chicago preschool teacher weighs in on dressing for the first day of work. 'The choice is yours' Monday, Jan. 11, 7:00 a.m. — Preschool teacher Kate O'Rourke joined in a Chicago Teachers Union rally outside of Davis Elementary, a school in Brighton Park's neighborhood, before sunrise. O'Rourke said three of her preschool students were signed up last week to return to campus, but by Monday, their parents had all reversed course. "They all pulled out (of in-person learning)," she said. O'Rourke, who was granted a last-minute accommodation to work from home on Sunday after multiple requests, said preschool teachers still have a lot of unanswered questions. "Teachers are confused about whether we can have books," she said. She's worried children will have to sit in their desks all day and that centers aren't allowed. She said she's also concerned about the teachers' assistants and special education assistants, who generally earn less than teachers, who may choose to return because they feel like they have no option. (The district has said staff who refuse to report to work and do not have accommodations will start facing consequences.) The school's union delegate, Erin Kelley, a sixth grade teacher, said that teachers are trying to support each other, even if some choose to return. "What I've been saying is that the choice is yours. You have to do what's best for you." The first day back Monday, Jan. 11, 5:30 a.m. — About 6,000 pre-kindergarten and special education students are expected to report to school today after nearly 10 months of closures amid the COVID-19 pandemic. There will be a lot to watch: A visit by Mayor Lori Lightfoot to one campus, a parent picket line scheduled at another, teachers union rallies, and a 10 a.m. City Council committee hearing about the reopening plan. We'll be reporting all day. Keep checking back for updates. Over the weekend, there was a flurry activity. The district sent e-mails and social media messages in an aim to clear up last-minute questions and "misleading" information about aspects of the plan, such as care pods for sick students. Meanwhile, a state legislative committee debated a bill Sunday that would expand the bargaining rights of Chicago Teachers Union members, and several Local School Councils weighed decisions to draft advisory resolutions asking the district to delay the plan. The teachers union expanded a crowdfunding campaign for educators who might lose wages from opting to not report to buildings. Is withholding pay legal? Friday, Jan. 8, 5:00 p.m. — A deputy general counsel for the Chicago Teachers Union said Friday that it is "illegal" for the school district to withhold pay from teachers who don't report to work on Monday as assigned. In an afternoon press call with educators and clerks, Thad Goodchild responded to a warning from district leaders that pay would be withheld from pre-K and special education teachers who don't return. Earlier in the day, district officials said about 65% of teachers were reporting as requested, an increase from the start of the week. "Employees have a right to decline an unsafe work assignment and to make themselves available to continue working in the same manner as they have the past 10 months," Goodchild said. "Educators who exercise their rights to continue to work remotely are entitled to be paid for that work. It is illegal for CPS to withhold their pay as they are threatening to. It doesn't sound like equity to me and it doesn't sound legal." Forging ahead Friday, Jan. 8, 9:00 a.m. — In strongly worded remarks Friday morning, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and schools chief Janice Jackson said schools would be fully operational Monday for the 6,000 preschool and special education students who've selected to return. Despite decisions by some teachers to not report to campuses this week, Jackson said the district had seen an uptick in teachers who returned to schools as the week progressed. Read more here. Parents questions' on pre-K Thursday, Jan. 7, 5:30 p.m. — Contrary to fears that COVID-19 will strip early learning classrooms of everything but desks, preschool children will still find plenty of play items when they return to classrooms Monday, Chicago Public Schools' early learning chief, Bryan Stokes II, said Thursday afternoon. Stokes was the first district official in the spotlight in a new "Ask an Expert" series on reopening coproduced by the school district and University of Illinois at Chicago. (Next week is the district's chief medical officer Kenneth Fox.) He did so as thousands of pre-K students are expected to return. He said that stuffed animals, sand tables, and other play elements that cannot be easily sanitized on a daily basis will be removed from classrooms. But teachers can still make use of centers, book nooks, and other regular features of preschool classrooms. Some Power Point presentations circulating around social media to Chicago parents show rooms stripped bare of everything but a desk. He described a different setup. "There will be blocks, there will be puzzles, there will be all of the activities that teachers create," he said. "There will be differences — but at the same time kids have already adapted to many of those differences. In a classroom setting, being able to engage with a teacher will be hugely beneficial." In response to parents' questions about whether their children's classroom teachers may get shuffled midyear, Stokes said it's up to individual schools. There are many variables, from how many students at a particular school choose in-person learning to how many teachers at a school are granted accommodations. Could vaccines change the conversation? Wednesday, Jan. 6, 1:10 p.m. — With the city's teachers union now putting vaccinations on its demand list, where will Illinois teachers fall in line for vaccinations — and when? In a news briefing, Gov. J.B. Pritzker shared more details about the next phase of the state's vaccination plan, called 1B, which is to include educators and child care workers as well as adults age 65 and over. There's still no exact forecasts on timing, but he said that phase 1B should launch within the next few weeks and that the City of Chicago — which controls its own vaccine distribution — will have authority to set up sites particularly for teachers. Supply is currently the biggest hurdle, with the state about a quarter of the way through its first phase (1A) of health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. So far, Illinois has administered 207,106 vaccinations. A citywide debate Wednesday, Jan. 6, 12:30 p.m. — The reopening conversation is spilling over into new venues, with word that Chicago City Council's education committee will host a reopening hearing at 10 a.m. Jan. 11, opinion pieces in the Chicago Tribune taking aim at the union and urging for reopening to proceed as planned, and a flurry of resolutions calling to delay reopening from the school district's Local School Councils. At least 19 councils have passed resolutions asking the district to delay reopening. The letters are symbolic because the representative bodies, made up of parents, teachers and community members, don't have authority to change how instruction is delivered. But they are a sign of the increasingly politicized spaces that councils have held in the last year in the wake of the votes on whether to retain school police. In a letter to council members, Guillermo Montes de Oca, head of the council office, said it was important that schools "allow each family to decide if they are ready to return to their schools." Parent advocacy group Raise Your Hand is collecting council letters here. Some schools have held council meetings to discuss the resolutions. More than 100 people logged into a virtual council meeting Sunday at McPherson Elementary in Ravenswood, reaching participant restrictions on Zoom. The discussion included a parent representative asking other parents not to send their kids into school to protect the health of teachers, and the principal explaining where sick students would wait in the school, if necessary. The council passed its resolution. New demands from CTU Tuesday, Jan 5. 5:35 p.m. — The Chicago Teachers Union said Tuesday afternoon that it wants to delay the start of in-person school until staff can receive at least one dose of the vaccine. In a new list of demands, the union said it would also consider moving forward on a reopening agreement if the district offered teachers a voluntary return to in-person learning and provided weekly testing for in-person educators. If the district agrees to delay school reopening for a vaccine, the union said it would suggest extending school until the summer. It's not clear yet when teachers will be vaccinated. The union previously had called for the city to establish a 3% positivity threshold for reopening decisions. Union attorney Thad Goodchild said the proposals shared Tuesday offer Chicago Public Schools an alternative path toward an agreement on school reopening. Chicago's COVID-19 rate is currently 10.6% but district officials said they are using a different reopening metric that considers "case doubling time" — the number of days it takes the number of newly diagnosed cases to double. As the first wave of teachers returned to school this week, the district and union said they had increased the number of bargaining sessions, even as both sides have continued to criticize the other. Who's coming back? Tuesday, Jan 5. 8:30 a.m. — District officials presented staffing numbers showing that half of the Chicago Public Schools pre-kindergarten and special education teachers and about 70% of support staff who were expected to return to school buildings Monday did. Schools chief Janice Jackson called the turnout significant given what she described as pressure from the district's teachers union not to return to work — and she said she believes more employees will start coming to school buildings in the coming days. Jackson insisted a written accord with the union is within reach, a statement that Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Stacy Davis Gates challenged. Read more here. Principals in the middle Tuesday, Jan 5. 6:30 a.m. — In a first joint appearance of the two groups, Troy LaRaviere, the head of the Chicago Principals & Administrators Association, joined a morning press call with Chicago Teachers Union leadership to critique the city's reopening plan. He urged school district leadership to consult principals before moving forward. "We're the ones who have to implement the plan," said LaRaviere, a former principal. "Ask any hospital administration who has been successful at keeping doors open safely, they'll tell you they brought in anyone involved," from administrators to custodians. A Monday survey by the association of 300 principals and assistant principals, a fraction of its larger membership, showed that 22% of respondents said they had the staff they needed to reopen safely" and 17% said reopening in January and February was the right decision, with 64% saying the district timing was wrong; 19% of survey respondents did not answer that question. LaRaviere said his membership wants to see joint bargaining between the district, its principals, and its teachers; a differentiated return timeline based on school readiness; a pool of cadre substitutes and staff dedicated to each school to fill absences and help with administrative tasks; and a public metrics threshold for when schools should be opened or closed. They also want a reconsideration of simultaneous instruction — when the district asks educators to teach remotely and in-person at the same time, similar to the city's Catholic schools. Anecdotally, principals' reactions were mixed, he said. "Principals are not a monolith," said LaRaviere. "For the most part, you have a big group of folks in the middle who are very frustrated and upset but not quite frustrated or upset enough to risk their employment." In the joint call, Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said that during a Monday evening call of 2,400 pre-K and special education cluster teachers who were asked to report back to work that day, 49% said they did not report to buildings. The district has not yet said how many teachers reported to work Monday. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat, a nonprofit news organization covering public education. Sign up for their newsletters here.