COVID Safety Negotiations in Chicago Leave Classes Canceled for Fourth Straight Day
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Opening schools during the COVID pandemic has been no easy task in Illinois, where talks between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools have led to the fourth day of canceled classes.
The two sides are negotiating COVID protocols ahead of a return to in-person instruction. Classes in the city have been canceled since Wednesday, and no agreement was made on Monday, according to WLS-TV.
"Out of fairness and consideration for parents who need to prepare, classes will be canceled again Monday," CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said in a statement posted over the weekend.
"Although we have been negotiating hard throughout the day, there has not been sufficient progress for us to predict a return to class tomorrow," he explained. "We will continue to negotiate through the night and will provide an update if we have made substantial progress."
The class cancelation has affected more than 340,000 students, according to CNN.
The teachers union hopes to begin remote learning on Wednesday, and return to in-person classes on Jan. 18, WLS-TV reported.
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Members are also asking CPS to randomly test 10 percent of staff and students every week at every school (students can decline to participate). In the event that COVID cases in the city rise to a certain threshold over a seven-day span, or if COVID cases lead to an increase in absences for students and staff, the union wants CPS to return to virtual learning.
"I mean, if you say school is open ... and half the students don't show up, you're not doing any learning for half the students, right?" union president Jesse Sharkey told CNN. "And so if remote learning is half as good, it's the same difference, isn't it?"
But their efforts have been rejected by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, whose administration has "categorically" rejected a return to remote learning, the Chicago Tribune reported.
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"To be clear, what the Chicago Teachers Union did was an illegal walkout," Lightfoot said on NBC's Meet the Press, according to Politico. "They abandoned their posts and they abandoned kids and their families."
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COVID cases in the United States have increased in recent weeks, with the country averaging more than 678,000 news cases over the last seven days, according to a New York Times database.
As of Jan. 7, Chicago is averaging 5,260 new cases, 90 hospitalizations, and 11 deaths a day, the Chicago Department of Health announced.
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