As Strike Averted, CTU Affirms Rights and Contributions of School Teachers
This blog will take a short fall break. Look for a new post on Monday, October 24.
Late Monday night, after two years of negotiations, Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union reached a tentative agreement to avert a strike only minutes before a midnight deadline.
Emma Brown and Kari Lydersen summarize the terms of the tentative agreement for theWashington Post: “It calls for a four-year contract good through June 2019, including salary increases based on teachers’ experience and education—which had been frozen during contract negotiations—and cost-of-living raises in the final two years. The agreement also includes a cap on privately run charter schools and would require the school system to provide a teaching assistant in early education classrooms—kindergarten through second grade—with 32 students or more. And in a victory for the union, it requires the school system to continue its contribution to current teachers’ pensions, though new hires will lose that benefit… The total cost of the tentative agreement, and the school system’s plan for footing the bill, was not immediately clear.” Chicago’s WBEZ and a local publication, DNA Info, speculate that the cost of the agreement will be covered through special Tax Increment Financing district funds.
The Chicago Teachers Union emphasizes that improving support for children is part of the tentative contract—the above-mentioned addition of an assistant in primary grade classrooms of over 32 children, and an additional $10-$27 million to hire more clinicians, wrap-around supports and restorative justice coordinators. Teachers also won promises for two additional 15 minute preparation times per week beginning in 2017 and a reduction in required testing and excess paperwork.
The Chicago Teachers Union’s 800 member House of Delegates must ratify the agreement As Strike Averted, CTU Affirms Rights and Contributions of School Teachers | janresseger:
