'We Need A Deal Done Today' Mayor Lightfoot Tells Teachers Union

Chicago IL

04 February, 2021

12:43 PM

Description

CHICAGO — Frustrated over the lack of a deal to resume in-person learning at city public schools, Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Thursday sent a message to a defiant teacher's union: "Time's Up." "My patience with delays from the CTU leadership is over," Lightfoot said during a morning news conference heaping blame on Chicago Teachers Union leaders for stalemated talks standing in the way of allowing parents the option of sending kids back to classrooms. While CTU and CPS have agreed on many safety protocol issues, the negotiations remain stalled over teacher vaccinations, allowing teachers living with people who have pre-existing conditions to teach remotely and establishing coronavirus metrics that determine when in-person learning would be permitted. Lightfoot, Chicago Public Schools chief executive Janice Jackson and city public health commissioner Dr. Alison Arwady said coronavirus safety protocols already in place, compounded by the lowest COVID-19 positivity rates since October is evidence that it's safe for students to return to school buildings. "This decision, being supportive of school reopening, based on the science, with the appropriate mitigation plans in place, is not a hard decision and has not been a hard decision for months," Arwady said. Jackson put it another way: "At this point finding a public health expert who opposes in-person learning would be like finding a scientist that doesn't believe in climate change." On Monday, Lightfoot backed off her threat to lock teachers out of remote-learning access in the absence of a deal with CTU, instead calling for a 48-hour "cooling-off period" that she hoped would lead to resolution on bringing kids back to class. That didn't happen. Instead, CTU officials have been slow to respond to negotiation efforts, the mayor said, while organizing press conferences and sending letters. Lightfoot described CTU negotiators as taking "a series of steps backward that were simply not productive." Hours after Lightfoot announced the cooling-off period, a political action committee controlled by CTU Vice President Stacey Davis Gates sent robotexts lobbying Gov. J.B. Pritzker to intervene by signing a bill that would clear legal hurdles that standing in the way of a teachers strike. The mayor said the "ball is in the CTU's court" and "time is running out." "Today is the day. My patience is up. I understand what the concerns are. We have been bending over backwards. I have been personally involved in trying to craft solutions, and partly why we've had the movement that we've had this week. But we can't keep taking steps back. We can't wait hours and hours and hours and have no response other than we're working on it. It's not good enough anymore," Lightfoot said. "No more excuses. Let's get it done and get it done today." Thursday morning, CTU leaders published an open letter to parents pointing a finger back at Lightfoot for the lack of a deal. "Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS leadership have unilaterally tried to impose a plan to return educators and students to in-person learning without involving our members, principals, students or parents. Unlike school districts across the country, and unionized charter schools in Chicago, CPS for a long time refused to bargain regarding its reopening plan. Yes, we have had 70 meetings, but for 10 months, we never had a willing partner on the other side of the table," the letter states.