Chicago Public Schools “is not ready” for hundreds of thousands of students to return Monday for full-time in-person learning, the leader of the Chicago Teachers Union said Friday as negotiations over fall reopening plans continued.
“While (CPS’s) public relations campaign tries to paint everything as a success, the mayor’s team in bargaining is stripping away several health and safety protocols that were in place in the winter and spring — mitigations that even they said kept people safe,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey said in a Friday emailed bargaining update.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot countered Friday that schools can reopen safely “based on everything we learned from last year and over the course of this summer.”
This week CPS unveiled more COVID-19 safety plans, which call for axing temperature checks and health screener questionnaires that were required for entry into school buildings. In its place, parents should be checking their students for COVID-19 symptoms at home before sending them to school. Four times a year, parents have to sign a form saying they are performing these screenings.
Sharkey also raised issue Friday with CPS’s promise to institute 3 feet of social distancing “whenever possible.” CPS says it will have some students eat in classrooms and others in their cafeteria to allow for distancing during mealtimes. Classrooms will also be set up with these guidelines in mind, CPS said.
“We are unwilling to sign off on an agreement that fails to include firm social distancing guidelines. Three feet of distance ‘where possible’ is unacceptable,” Sharkey said in his note. “And we must maintain a rigorous health screening process to identify potentially infected students before they walk through the door.”
CPS and city officials have reiterated that their plans for the new school year protect the health and safety of students and staff. Protocols include an indoor mask mandate, regardless of vaccination status; an employee vaccination requirement and weekly testing availability for students and staff.
The new school year will likely begin without an agreement between CPS and CTU. After contentious negotiations, the two sides reached a deal earlier this year that allowed for students to return to classrooms in stages. CTU leaders said they hoped to build on that agreement from last year.
They said some progress has been made. School safety committees will document conditions and enforce standards in buildings, while the cleaning and disinfecting protocols from the previous agreement will also continue.
The state is requiring all Illinois schools resume in-person learning with limited exceptions. Monday’s start of school comes as the delta variant sparks an uptick in coronavirus cases in Chicago and around the country.
Lightfoot, appearing at a news conference Friday to celebrate the opening of John Hancock High School’s new building on the Southwest Side, said CPS will follow a “similar protocol” as last year for testing students for COVID-19. CPS CEO José Torres said testing would be offered weekly. He noted that testing isn’t being mandated for students except for athletes. He wouldn’t say how many students or faculty the district expects to test on a weekly basis.
Lightfoot also expressed concerns about the effect e-learning has had on some students, noting that thousands of them didn’t connect remotely. It’s a disservice to those students if CPS doesn’t provide “a safe and nurturing environment for our kids to learn,” Lightfoot said, adding schools are more than a place where people learn their ABCs.
CPS employees are required to be vaccinated by Oct. 15. Those with a documented exemption for medical or religious reasons must take a weekly test.
Parents should talk to their principals if they have questions and also tour their local schools to see the mitigation protocols in person themselves.
More to come
tswartz@tribpub.com
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August 27, 2021 at 10:57PM
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Chicago Teachers Union says 'CPS is not ready' for Monday's start of school, has rolled back COVID safety measures - Chicago Tribune
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