Schools To Open Monday Despite No Deal With CTU: Mayor Lightfoot

CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot late Friday told Chicago Teachers Union leaders they can eithr reach an agreement to return to in-person learning Monday or face consequences.

Lightfoot said that after months of negotiations CTU bosses have refused to agree to any compromises standing in the way of a deal to allow parents to choose to send their kids back into classrooms. They have left public school families with a "big bag of nothing."

"CTU has not agreed to anything," Lightfoot said. "Our students and parents got nothing.”

Still, the mayor said voluntary in-person learning for students in prekindergarten through eighth grade are set to return Monday. "The teachers need to be there to greet their students and teach them in-person," Lightfoot said.

"If the CTU continues to not show up .... we will have no choice but to take further actions," the mayor said. Lightfoot didn't elaborate on what those actions would be.

During the news conference, the mayor laid out the school system's case for reopening schools citing the opinion of public health experts — Dr. Anthony Fauci, among them — who have said schools are not locations that fuel community spreading of COVID-19, which pandemic metrics show has slowed in Chicago.

Chicago schools chief Janice Jackson said CTU leaders have "chosen to disregard the science on reopening schools and instead replace CDC guidance with their own gut instincts."

Lightfoot said the district had proven that safety protocols were effective during the past few weeks when some prekindergarten and special education students attended in-person classes.

The mayor accused CTU bosses of ordering teachers who had been working in school buildings to teach classes remotely as a bargaining strategy.

It is "hard to argue for more when the status quo of safety in our buildings where people have been all year round has been working. So why not just blow it up and create chaos?" Lightfoot said.

While Lightfoot spoke, CTU officials on Twitter accused Lightfoot of blocking the deal: "Let's really be clear: The educators in the room were working toward an agreement. The politician is blowing it all to pieces."

Lightfoot said she believes the district must give parents the option of in-person learning because remote learning is failing students. She said school system enrollment has declined while and absenteeism and failing grades, particular among minority students, has spiked during nearly a year of all-remote learning due to the coronavirus crisis.

The mayor called on rank-and-file teachers to push for a compromise from union leadership she accused of not bargaining in good faith. "Tell your leadership to meet us at the table. Let's get a deal done," Lightfoot said. "Let's get it in writing because our students lives are hanging in the balance."

The mayor Chicago Public School officials will continue to negotiate with CTU leaders through the weekend to reach an agreement.

"It is doable. ... We need to get it done. Our children deserve nothing less," she said. "And if we do not it is totally on the CTU leadership."