[h=3]By STEPHANIE BANCHERO[/h]CHICAGO—The Chicago teachers union was expected to vote Sunday night on whether to call off a strike that has disrupted classes for students and catapulted the city into the national debate over how best to evaluate teachers and fire the low performers.
The union's House of Delegates, the group's governing body, was slated to meet and look over the tentative contract hammered out between the union and city officials on Saturday. They have the power to end the work stoppage that has shut 350,000 students out of classes in the nation's third-biggest district. It is the first teachers strike in the city in a quarter century.
Associated PressStriking Chicago school teachers march after a rally on Saturday.
"We believe this is a good contract, however, no contract will solve all of the inequities in our district," Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said in a statement released late Saturday night.
It isn't completely clear who triumphed in the tentative deal because the full contract hasn't been released. Neither the district nor Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office have made public statements and didn't respond to repeated requests for details.
But the Chicago Teachers Union sent out a statement late Saturday night trumpeting their gains made in the new contract, including scaling back the mayor's attempt to base 40% of teachers' evaluations on student test scores. The tentative deal would base only 30% on student test scores, a ratio already dictated by state law.
The union also said it won an agreement that half of all new teachers hired in the district must come from a pool of teachers recently laid off, according to the statement. The job guarantee, common in many union contracts, hasn't been part of Chicago's since the office of mayor took control of the schools in 1995.
During the negotiations, Mr. Emanuel repeatedly said he didn't want to constrain principals by making them hire from a specific pool of educators.
According to the union statement, the new contact is for three years, instead of the previously proposed four. Teachers would get a 3% raise the first year and 2% the following two years with an option to extend, by mutual agreement, to a fourth year with a 3% raise.
The plan also would continue to award teachers pay increases for additional years of service and for added credentials, such as master's degrees, the statement said. Mr. Emanuel has tried to replace these automatic pay bumps, known as "step and lane," with merit-based pay raises.
The union also said the city had agreed to hire 512 art, language, physical education and other specialty teachers to help staff the longer school day that Mr. Emanuel instituted this school year. The city agreed earlier this summer to hire 477 more teachers, so it isn't clear if the 477 are part of the 512.
It also isn't clear where the city will get the finances to pay for the raises and the additional positions. The district faces a $665 million deficit this school year, and officials predict the system will face a $1 billion deficit in the 2014-15 school year.
The union statement also said they city agreed to hire more nurses, counselors and social workers if it "gets new revenue."
During the five-day work stoppage by 26,000 teachers and support personnel, thousands of teachers picketed schools and poured into downtown Chicago, clogging streets and disrupting traffic. On Saturday, the union staged a massive labor solidarity rally to express displeasure with the negotiations and Mr. Emanuel.
Write to Stephanie Banchero at [email protected]
The union's House of Delegates, the group's governing body, was slated to meet and look over the tentative contract hammered out between the union and city officials on Saturday. They have the power to end the work stoppage that has shut 350,000 students out of classes in the nation's third-biggest district. It is the first teachers strike in the city in a quarter century.
Associated PressStriking Chicago school teachers march after a rally on Saturday.
"We believe this is a good contract, however, no contract will solve all of the inequities in our district," Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, said in a statement released late Saturday night.
It isn't completely clear who triumphed in the tentative deal because the full contract hasn't been released. Neither the district nor Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office have made public statements and didn't respond to repeated requests for details.
But the Chicago Teachers Union sent out a statement late Saturday night trumpeting their gains made in the new contract, including scaling back the mayor's attempt to base 40% of teachers' evaluations on student test scores. The tentative deal would base only 30% on student test scores, a ratio already dictated by state law.
The union also said it won an agreement that half of all new teachers hired in the district must come from a pool of teachers recently laid off, according to the statement. The job guarantee, common in many union contracts, hasn't been part of Chicago's since the office of mayor took control of the schools in 1995.
During the negotiations, Mr. Emanuel repeatedly said he didn't want to constrain principals by making them hire from a specific pool of educators.
According to the union statement, the new contact is for three years, instead of the previously proposed four. Teachers would get a 3% raise the first year and 2% the following two years with an option to extend, by mutual agreement, to a fourth year with a 3% raise.
The plan also would continue to award teachers pay increases for additional years of service and for added credentials, such as master's degrees, the statement said. Mr. Emanuel has tried to replace these automatic pay bumps, known as "step and lane," with merit-based pay raises.
The union also said the city had agreed to hire 512 art, language, physical education and other specialty teachers to help staff the longer school day that Mr. Emanuel instituted this school year. The city agreed earlier this summer to hire 477 more teachers, so it isn't clear if the 477 are part of the 512.
It also isn't clear where the city will get the finances to pay for the raises and the additional positions. The district faces a $665 million deficit this school year, and officials predict the system will face a $1 billion deficit in the 2014-15 school year.
The union statement also said they city agreed to hire more nurses, counselors and social workers if it "gets new revenue."
During the five-day work stoppage by 26,000 teachers and support personnel, thousands of teachers picketed schools and poured into downtown Chicago, clogging streets and disrupting traffic. On Saturday, the union staged a massive labor solidarity rally to express displeasure with the negotiations and Mr. Emanuel.
Write to Stephanie Banchero at [email protected]