The Chicago Teachers Union is accusing school district leadership of rejecting compromises presented Monday that they said could have landed a contract before Thursday — the day that the Board of Education is set to vote on a contentious budget amendment to set aside money for the teacher’s contract, as well as a controversial pension payment.
In a letter dated Monday evening sent to school board members, the union says, “In refusing the Union’s efforts at compromise, CPS leadership would be precipitating more disruption and chaos for all school district stakeholders.”
Sources say the union is now “barreling toward an escalated conflict instead of the stability of a landed contract.” The CTU has completed the legal process and can take a vote at any time that would give 10 days notice of a strike.
CPS Chief Talent Officer Ben Felton said late Monday that district negotiators were “working tirelessly” to try to land a deal but acknowledged there were still differences on key issues.
Sources said CTU bargaining team members floated an offer Monday to resolve the thorniest of remaining issues — elementary school planning time — but the idea was shot down within an hour by school district leadership. This, according to sources, left many of them wondering if school district leadership really wants to make a deal.
The union would have liked to land a contract deal before the budget amendment vote Thursday. At the moment, the school district does not have the money to pay for all the new expenditures included in the budget amendment.
The mayor’s office is urging the school board to take out a loan or refinance debt so the district can afford the pension payment — which the city desperately needs — as well as this year’s costs included in the teachers contract. It is unusual for the board to approve a budget amendment before a deal is landed, but the city wants CPS to reimburse it for the pension payment by March 30.
More than half of City Council members also sent a letter to the school board urging it to move forward with paying the pension.
But the partly-appointed, partly-elected board appears split on whether to approve the amendment. There’s some concern that approving the budget amendment before the teachers contract is landed could result in the school district not having money for this year’s contract costs.
The school district and the CTU have been bargaining since last April, and both sides say they are close to a deal, coming to agreements on hundreds of issues. But three big issues remain.
Elementary school teachers have been emphatic that they have needed more planning time ever since former Mayor Rahm Emanuel took away 30 minutes in order to make room for a longer school day. The union started out by asking for that 30 minutes back and suggesting that art teachers and librarians could be hired to fill that time.
But CPS leaders pushed back, saying they don’t have the money for extra staff and therefore extra planning time would cut into instructional time.
CTU has already reduced the ask to 20 minutes a day. On Monday, the bargaining team suggested that it could be phased in, starting with schools that already have the staff to cover extra planning time. The CTU also suggested that CTU and CPS would work together on a committee to phase it in.
CTU sources called planning time the union’s “sacred cow.”
But so far CPS has only offered 10 minutes additional planning time during the day.
The other big unresolved issues are providing additional pay for veteran teachers and allowing proficient teachers to have longer time between evaluations.
Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on X @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter.