\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cEverything about what they are doing is wrong,\u201d said CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates, whose three children are CPS elementary school students. \u201cTeachers, clinicians, paraprofessionals are all being backed into a corner because they want to provide guidance and support for safety, but CPS and the mayor have decided to go it alone, which means they\u2019re not centering the needs of our most vulnerable students because they refuse to engage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost a third of the more than 500 district-run school buildings have surfaced COVID-19 cases since September. Union representatives have fielded hundreds of complaints from school clerks and technology coordinators working in buildings about CPS safety failures, from dirty buildings and the lack of PPE, to inadequate ventilation, which is a known factor in the spread of the coronavirus. The district has refused to follow an independent arbitrator\u2019s binding decision allowing clerks and technology coordinators to work remotely at least four days a week, and many have become infected with the virus as a result.<\/p>\n
Last week, more than 1,000 CPS parents participated in a forum on school safety sponsored by the Union and the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, where topics of discussion ranged from how stakeholders can work collaboratively to keep students on track, to the impact of screen time, to specific demands educators need met to reopen school buildings safely. The CTU is committed to frontloading safety, equity and trust in calling for the schools our students deserve in battling COVID-19, which includes comprehensive support services for families, improving proposed hybrid learning plans, safety committees in each school and a joint CTU-CPS committee to oversee the verification of safety and ventilation upgrades. <\/p>\n
“This is not how the mayor should be leading in a pandemic,\u201d Davis Gates said. \u201cOur school communities and everyone in them need a unifying strategy that puts safety first.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that we\u2019ve had to resort to legal strategies to have a voice and agency regarding her reopening plan is beyond disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The IELRB denied the Union\u2019s previous request for an injunction against school reopening because CPS had not yet set a date for reopening. With that date now set, and management still refusing to bargain with the Union on vital safety issues, the CTU is asking the IELRB to revisit that decision and grant injunctive relief that bars schools from reopening until CPS has bargained in good faith with the Union over health and safety . The Union expects the IELRB to review the request later this month.<\/p>\n\n
This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2013 The Chicago Teachers Union\u00a0filed a request today with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board (IELRB) for an injunction\u00a0against Mayor Lori Lightfoot\u2019s arbitrary school reopening date. The\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1377,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1376\/revisions\/1377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}