Chicago Schools Reopening News: Where Negotiations Stand

Chicago IL

29 January, 2021

12:46 PM

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By Chalkbeat Staff, Chalkbeat Chicago Jan 28, 2021, 9:01pm CST 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. In early January, about 6,000 prekindergarten and special education "cluster" students who need moderate to intensive support were expected to return to campuses; about 1 in 5 actually did. Another 70,000 K-8 students are supposed to return Feb. 1. There's no date yet for high schools to reopen. Here's the latest. Where things stand Friday, Jan. 29. 8:45 a.m. — Chalkbeat Chicago reporter Yana Kunichoff has a helpful Twitter thread this morning that breaks down remaining stumbling blocks in negotiations between Chicago Public Schools and the teachers' union: VACCINATIONS: - CTU wants all staff to have the opportunity to be vaccinated before returning to work in school buildings - CPS offered to prioritize vaccines for staff at schools in hard-hit communities BUT is still waiting on vaccine doses from the federal gov — Yana Kunichoff (@Yanazure) January 29, 2021 Chicago cancels third day of in-person class; union says its demands still not met Thursday, Jan. 28, 8:52 p.m. — Chicago cancelled in-person classes for prekindergarten and special education students for the third day in a row Thursday evening as a deal with the teachers union remains out of reach. Students will continue to learn remotely on Friday. Some parents, meanwhile, began circulating e-mails calling for a student sickout on Monday, which is supposed to mark the return of Chicago's largest wave of students so far. The union released a chart to its members tonight that shows some movement, but little agreement, on key bargaining issues. There are only three days until Chicago's second wave of students is expected back in school buildings. In response to a union request to test all in-person staff weekly, the district has proposed testing half of all staff each week, along with 25% of students in the 10 Chicago zip codes with the highest COVID-19 rates. The district also has offered to allow 20% of staff with high-risk families to work remotely, which falls short of the union's request for all members with high-risk family members to be granted the accommodation. The district has also offered to allow all high-risk educators to work remotely. Pritzker won't say if he'll sign CTU bargaining rights bill Thursday, Jan. 28, 5:20 p.m. — Gov. J.B. Pritzker would not say if he would sign a bill that would repeal a section of state law that limits what the Chicago Teachers Union can bargain over. Since 1995, the state's education labor law has prohibited the teachers union from bargaining over issues like class size, school day and year length, and more. The legislature passed the bargaining rights bill during a lame duck session as labor tensions were ramping up in Chicago over reopening classrooms. When asked if he would sign the bill, Pritzker said during a press conference on Thursday that he's looking into it. "I campaigned on expanding bargaining rights for teachers, Chicago is the only place in the state that doesn't have those bargaining rights," he said. Pritzker said he has not made a final decision. If he does decide to sign the bill, it would put him at odds with Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who had urged legislators to make the bill effective in 2024 when the union is next up for contract negotiations. As written, the bill would go into effect immediately. Wiggle room on the vaccine question? Thursday, Jan. 28, 1:20 p.m. — In an interview our Chalkbeat colleague Kalyn Belsha conducted today with Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers reflected on the ongoing negotiations to reopen schools in Chicago, where she says she's been in constant communication with union leadership. Weingarten recently co-authored an op-ed in USA Today in which she said schools could reopen before vaccines were widely available, but strong mitigation measures needed to be in place. So what does she think about the Chicago's union call to delay reopening schools until teachers can get vaccinated? "The AFT position is that we need to have the mitigation tools completely in place. We need to have this testing, so that you can see asymptomatic spread and asymptomatic transmission, including good tracing. We need to have the reasonable accommodations for those who are at risk, including family members who are at risk. There has to be a plan that vaccinations should be aligned with school reopening," she said. "So what you're hearing from our leaders is that they're not getting any of these things put together, so they're defaulting to: Then at least protect people with vaccines. … You're hearing the fear because these other things are not in place and because they haven't been brought into real conversations about how to create a situation where we're going to trust that it's safe." Bottom line: There may be some wiggle room. The 72 hour countdown until Monday Thursday, Jan. 28, 11:00 a.m. — Asked Thursday on WBEZ Reset if it's still even a possibility that Chicago could reopen schools to a second wave of K-8 students Monday, schools chief Janice Jackson insisted it's still a go. "We expect students and staff to be in school on Monday," she said when asked if likelihood had dimmed as negotiations continue and the weekend approaches. Teachers originally were asked to report a week earlier to prepare for students. That timeline has shifted as the union has called for teachers to defy district orders and continue to work remotely. Chicago cancels classes a second day Wednesday, Jan. 27, 7:40 p.m. — Chicago will cancel in-person classes for prekindergarten and special education students for a second day as a deal with the teachers union remains out of reach. The decision affects about 3,250 students who reported to classrooms within the first two weeks. Remote learning will continue. In an email to parents, the district said it made the decision because the union has continued to direct its members to stay home. "We regret any distress this situation has caused, especially for children who have been learning happily and safely in their classrooms for the past few weeks." The email said the district still hopes to reopen schools Monday for a larger group of kindergarten through eighth graders, but prospects are dimming of making that a reality, since teachers have not been in school buildings for nearly a year. New CDC analysis Wednesday, Jan. 27, 3:00 p.m. — Among the data discussed at Wednesday's meeting of Chicago's Board of Education: New analysis released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found little evidence of coronavirus spread within 17 Wisconsin schools during the fall. (Since the schools didn't conduct regular random testing, the study notes that it is "unable to rule out asymptomatic transmission within the school setting.") The three CDC researchers concluded in this opinion piece published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that "the preponderance of available evidence from the fall school semester has been reassuring insofar as the type of rapid spread that was frequently observed [elsewhere] has not been reported in education settings." CPS unveils readiness dashboard Wednesday, Jan. 27, noon — Chicago Public Schools published a readiness dashboard intended to track school-level preparations, from whether air purifiers and face masks have been delivered to updates on the number of custodians hired. Chicago Public Schools' new web tracker to monitor how prepared schools are for reopening shows about 60% of the 400 additional custodians the district said would be hired by Feb. 1 have been brought on board so far.https://t.co/g3rdcn3TfV — Mila Koumpilova (@MilaKoumpilova) January 27, 2021 Principals' group proposes staggered reopening Wednesday, Jan. 27, 11:00 a.m. — With in-person school stalled amid an ongoing labor dispute with teachers, the head of Chicago's principals association proposed a new approach to reopening schools Wednesday: a pilot program with a staggered expansion. Unlike teachers, principals have seen first-hand the district's plans for reopening, and have raised serious concerns about staffing and safety, said Troy LaRaviere, who leads the Chicago Principals & Administrators Association, speaking at a morning press conference. "Principals ... were in person before march, they were in person after March, they'll be in person today and they'll be in person tomorrow," said LaRaviere. A pilot program of 100 to 150 schools (about one-fifth of district-run campuses) would allow the district to focus its financial and staffing resources on a smaller group of schools, argued LaRaviere. He also referenced a survey, taken earlier in January, of 377 principals and assistant principals on school reopening. Nearly half, or 48.3%, said they did not get sufficient guidance from the district on reopening. Slightly more than half said they had they did not have the staffing they needed to reopen safely. Chicago principals and administration staff at many schools have been working in-person since March, in part to help steward the district's widespread free meal program run out of school buildings. Chicago cancels in-person learning Tuesday, Jan. 26, 5:30 p.m. — It's official: There's no agreement between Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union — and no in-person school Wednesday for the 3,200 or so prekindergarten and special education children in Chicago's first reopening wave. In announcing plans to defy district orders to report to campuses, the union forced the school district to suspend in-person learning. The move throws Chicago's efforts to reopen schools to more students into disarray. Chalkbeat Chicago reporters Yana Kunichoff and Mila Koumpilova break down where two sides are at disagreement and what could come next here. Union tells Chicago teachers to prepare for picket lines this week Tuesday, Jan. 26, 1:00 p.m. — All Chicago teachers should prepare to work from home Wednesday and, if locked out of their online classrooms for refusing to go into school buildings, get ready to report to picket lines Thursday, according to a Monday night union communication to members. "Our efforts at the bargaining table will be reinforced by the unity you're showing through actions," the email said. The move comes as the clock is winding down on two extra days of negotiations between the school district and union, with few signs of an agreement in sight. Kindergarten through eighth grade teachers were initially expected to return to school buildings Monday. The district pushed back their first day of in-person work to Wednesday to allow for more time to come to an agreement, but have yet to announce a deal. Among the sticking points, according to a union presentation shared with members, are on what basis teachers would get accommodations for high-risk family members, the start date for a broader return of students, and a mutually agreed-upon COVID-19 metric for opening or closing schools. Still, the union's message was not wholly negative. They said they had seen "more movement at the bargaining table in the last few days than there was over the last few months." Speaking yesterday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot also struck a positive tone on negotiations, saying she was optimistic the school district and its teachers union will come to a school reopening agreement after what she described as a weekend of "very productive negotiations." Two takes on Joe Biden's comments Monday, Jan. 25, 3:30 p.m. — The ongoing dispute over school reopening in Chicago hit the national stage Monday when a reporter asked President Joe Biden whether Chicago should delay bringing teachers back until vaccines are widespread. Biden, who has made reopening schools a core part of his agenda, said teachers should feel safe — "I believe we should make school classrooms safe and secure" — but suggested that widespread testing was the way to do that. Chicago Public Schools and the city's teachers union each seized on the statement. The district shared a video of Biden's comment on Twitter with the tagline "we couldn't agree more." The union held an impromptu press conference thanking the president for his support. — Chicago Public Schools (@ChiPubSchools) January 25, 2021 The response shows, more than anything, that the intractable nature of the Chicago conflict is becoming a symbol of the roadblocks and complications of reopening schools in the era of COVID-19. Meanwhile, with only 24 hours until kindergarten to eighth grade teachers are expected to report back to school buildings, neither the district or union has shared a draft agreement. Again, differing accounts of progress in reopening talks Monday, Jan. 25, 3:30 p.m. — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday she is optimistic the school district and its teachers union will come to a school reopening agreement after what she described as a weekend of "very productive negotiations." Her confident posture stood in contrast with a more measured update from leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union that morning. They suggested the talks have made headway, but they said the two sides are unlikely to resolve remaining issues before Wednesday, when the district now expects educators in kindergarten through eighth grade to return to campuses. The union says the negotiations are "hemmed in" by a Feb. 1 reopening date for students in those grades, from which the district will not budge. Roughly 61% of the union's members voted to back collectively refusing to report to in-person work. Lightfoot insisted the city is determined to reach an agreement. "I have every confidence that we'll get something done at the bargaining table," she said. She added, "We made a lot of progress over the weekend." She did not offer specifics on issues the two sides might have resolved. CTU officials said among the remaining sticking points are two of their demands: that the district allows every teacher who lives with someone at an elevated risk of COVID-19 to work from home, and that it sets a public health metric to specify when it's safe to keep school buildings open. The two sides have disagreed over conditions such as high blood pressure, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say might lead to elevated coronavirus risk, but the data is too limited to say definitively. Teaching assistant Shavon Coleman said her daughter has a respiratory issue and her mother has high blood pressure. But she was denied an accommodation to work from home even though all students in her classroom chose to continue working remotely. Parent physicians warn of toll on children Monday, Jan. 25, 9:00 a.m. — Eleven parent physicians from Coonley Elementary School have written a letter sharing their own experience with the epidemic and urging the reopening to proceed as planned. "We will have positive cases in our school after reopening, but this does not mean the system has failed. Based on a multitude of data, the rate of cases and the rate of spread in school will be no higher than in the general population, and with strict implementation of control measures, it may even be better," they write. "In the last 11 months, we have gained much knowledge both in hospitals and from other schools – specifically that basic measures such as masks, hand washing and social distancing work to prevent COVID transmission." The letter warns of the toll of prolonged remote learning on students' mental health and academics. "We are seeing this mental health crisis play out in their practices everyday. We see it in our own kids. Those of us contributing to this letter have kids ranging in age from PreK to high school and the problems are not limited to one age group. Children are suffering from loneliness, fear, anxiety, stress, hopelessness, depression, and behavioral issues that did not exist before this isolation. In addition, many children are struggling academically and those of us who have to go to work everyday cannot be home to help them." "Having kids out of school is more than just a burden. It is a short and long-term danger to our children's mental and physical health." To view the letter in full, go here. Behind the scenes, teachers sit with uncertainty Sunday, Jan. 24, 6:00 p.m. — Uncertain what could unfold over the next two days, Chicago teachers expressed their concern and frustration in a union tele-town hall tonight, held just hours after the results of a union vote showed a slim majority of teachers rejected the district's plan to return to school buildings. "How can they have us come in if my doctor says it's not safe?" asked one educator. "When will we know if we return?" asked another. One prekindergarten teacher who has already begun reporting to her campus said she was upset that she would have to continue working in person (the district said pre-K and special education teachers who have already started reporting to school buildings should continue, even as it delayed the report-to-work date for educators in kindergarten to eighth grade.) "It doesn't sound like solidarity if I'm still going back to what I'm going back to," she said. Union leaders, who had been in negotiations with the district earlier that day, said there were several ongoing sticking points in discussions: when K-8 students would return, planned right now for Feb. 1, and agreement on a reopening metric. These are among the issues Chicago school officials flagged earlier this week. With 48 hours to go before teachers are now supposed to return to school buildings, CTU President Jesse Sharkey said union leadership wouldn't agree to teachers walking in without an agreement. "We are going to keep bargaining," said Sharkey. "A precondition to going back into schools is going to be an agreement. One way or another we are going to get an agreement." The next 48 hours are worth watching Sunday, Jan. 24, 5:00 p.m. — The results of a union vote are in, and the majority of Chicago's teachers, clinicians and paraprofessionals have voted to defy district orders to report to school buildings on Monday. The vote, which the union said passed with 71% of those voting in favor, throws the school district's reopening efforts into disarray. It's not clear yet if the school district will challenge the legal grounds of the vote. Chicago Public Schools has said the decision to not report to campuses constitutes an "illegal strike," Union leaders have rejected that idea, noting that teachers plan to continue teaching virtually. The next 48 hours will be closely watched. After the vote results were tallied and announced, the school district quickly responded, saying they would push back the date teachers return to buildings until Wednesday, giving the two sides more time to negotiate. Officials on both sides have said negotiations are progressing, with talks resuming this afternoon. Read more of our coverage here. Vaccinations coming, with a caveat Friday, Jan. 22, 9:00 a.m. — Could vaccinations change the tone of the school reopening conversation in Chicago? On Friday, district officials said that they were launching a plan to start vaccinating employees at school sites starting in mid-February. They said they do not plan to hit pause on the plan to reopen K-8 classrooms in the interim. The process could stretch out over months unless the state's federal vaccine shipments increase, Chalkbeat Chicago's Mila Koumpilova reports. A view from another district Thursday, Jan. 21, 3:00 p.m. — Reopening school buildings during a pandemic has raised questions both practical and philosophical: Who gets to decide whether a school is safe to reopen? When is a strike, in the era of remote learning, legal or illegal? Those issues are at the heart of a tense dispute between the teachers union and school district in Chicago, but we're far from the only city grappling with them. The districts in Elmhurst and Cicero, two cities west of Chicago, are at loggerheads with their unions over similar issues. On Thursday, they both took their cases to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, the state body tasked with overseeing education-related labor disputes. Last winter, the board rejected an appeal from the Chicago Teachers Union to delay school reopening until, they argued, the school district began bargaining in good faith. In a sign of the length of labor practice suits, the board didn't take a vote on the Elmhurst case, but heard oral arguments in two separate complaints against the district, one from the union and one from a paraprofessional group. Cicero's discussion Thursday struck similar tones to the one in Chicago. "We've given them metrics [for safety] they don't like," said Kimberly Jannotta, an attorney representing the school district. "They want to tell us what metrics to use." In contrast to Chicago, the Cicero teachers union won injunctive relief on Thursday. The board's legal counsel, Ellen Strizak said, the district had not offered clear information on what COVID-19 metrics it was using to determine when school reopening was safe. Cicero schools opened to teachers for the first time last week, but nearly half of its teachers refused to return to in-person learning. The school district insists agreement is within reach Thursday, Jan. 21, 11:00 a.m. — In a letter to teachers sent Thursday morning, Chicago Public Schools warned that refusing to report to school buildings next week would constitute an "illegal strike" and insisted that an agreement with the teachers union is "within reach." "We remain committed to continuing negotiations in good faith with union leadership," the letter from the district's chief talent officer said. "We are meeting every day and will continue to do so. An agreement is within reach, so long as we continue working hard together." The district also outlined where, in its view, it had reached agreement with union demands and where differences remained. Read more here. Setting the stage for a strike Wednesday, Jan. 20, 6:45 p.m. — A Wednesday night meeting of teachers union delegates has set in motion a series of events that could lead to walkouts next week, just as thousands more K-8 teachers are expected to return to school buildings. Teachers have until Saturday at midnight to vote on a resolution that would start with walkouts and lead to a possible strike if district leadership and union officials can't reach a reopening agreement. Chalkbeat Chicago's Yana Kunichoff explains the next steps, and what's at stake, here. Clinicians write a letter Wednesday, Jan. 20, 7:00 a.m. — Hundreds of Chicago Public Schools clinicians — social workers, speech pathologists, and other specialists who work primarily with children with disabilities — have signed a letter to the district about working conditions at reopened school buildings. In it, they argue the reopening plan does not factor in their "unique logistical considerations," such as traveling between multiple schools and hands-on work with students with moderate to severe disabilities. In a Wednesday morning press conference organized by the teachers union, the clinicians said they are concerned about the risk of traveling between schools to provide services and about poorly ventilated offices. "Prior to the pandemic, obtaining a consistent, private, ethical space to work with students was a significant challenge," the letter reads. "We have no confidence that this will be resolved upon our return to our school buildings." The clinicians say they are surprised by the denials for accommodation requests, including those for child care — an issue that Chalkbeat Chicago's Cassie Walker Burke explores further in this story about work-from-home request data and where the numbers stand so far. 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 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 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.