September 14, 2012|By Bridget Doyle, Jennifer Delgado and Joel Hood, Chicago Tribune reporters
Striking Chicago schoolteachers gather Thursday afternoon on Wacker Drive on their way to a rush-hour rally on North Michigan Avenue. A major rally is set for Saturday. (E. Jason Wambsgans, Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union began the day saying they were close to a deal that could return teachers and students to the classroom Monday, but gave little information subsequently as negotiations to iron out details extended well into Thursday evening.
CPS Board President David Vitale, who emerged from talks about 12:45 a.m. Friday, said the two had “another good day” of work Thursday and that there had been progress. The two are moving past work on evaluations and focusing on data related to recall, he said.
“We’ve got some number crunching to do overnight and we’re going to be back here tomorrow and see if we can’t finish this up,” Vitale said.
Vitale said getting the deal inked by 2 p.m. before CTU’s House of Delegates meeting was “realistic.”
Chicago Teacher’s Union President Karen Lewis said both sides planned to go back to their respective shops in the morning and do some number crunching.
Lewis described the negotiations as an “ebb and flow.”
“There were some creative ideas passed around but we still do not have a deal,” Lewis said. “If you are at that this point and I’m at this point, we have to figure out a way to move together. So that takes a little bit of creativity.”
Lewis said she wasn’t sure if Monday school was realistic.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I certainly hope so.”
Talks are scheduled again at 9 a.m. Friday and the union's House of Delegates is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. Friday to discuss the district's latest proposals. The delegates' approval is needed to end the strike and put teachers back on the job, but the union did not say whether the body will vote at Friday's meeting.
If a tentative deal is reached and the strike is called off, a contract would still need to be ratified by the union's full 25,000 members, likely in the next two weeks.
The union is inviting other labor organizations to join it at a rally at noon Saturday at Union Park on the Near West Side, which could be a final show of force and solidarity before the walkout ends.
Before talks started Thursday at the Chicago Hilton and Towers on South Michigan Avenue, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who has consistently downplayed progress at the negotiating table, rated her confidence "a 9" on a scale on 1-10.
Her confidence buoyed teachers, but like parents the optimism of many educators was tempered with caution.
"We're most optimistic that the union leadership will make sure our demands are met," said Michelle Gunderson, a fourth-grade teacher at Nettelhorst elementary school in Lakeview. "We can't just do this again. This has to be the finish line."
With the union saying early on its members wouldn't be returning to school this week, the city's first teachers strike in 25 years moved into its fifth day Friday. Some 350,000 students who remain out of the classroom and will have to make out the loss of a week at some point during the school year.
Under the deal put on the table by CPS Tuesday, teachers would receive on average a 16 percent raise over the next four years. That figure includes both cost-of-living salary bumps and the so-called step increases for working another year in the district.
CPS estimates the cost of those raises will begin at $80 million the first year and increase by that amount in each of the contract's next three years. The union calls those projections exaggerated and says its own analysis puts the cost at $60-$100 million less.
The district and union continue to haggle over how teachers will be evaluated and a framework for recalling teachers who've been laid off because of school closings, consolidations and turnarounds.
Job security has emerged as a critical issue during these contract talks as CPS considers closing between 80 and 120 sparsely enrolled and under-performing public schools to cut costs and conserve resources. Union leaders worry about the jobs that could be lost during such a dramatic downsizing.
Stay-at-home mom Elsa Shalaveyus, 41, stood beside teachers on the picket line at Walt Disney Magnet School in Uptown, advocating for smaller class sizes and better classroom conditions. Even though the union has her support, she's hopeful her two sons will be back in their desks come Monday.
"It would be great if it happens soon," she said. "They had just gone back to school and were already getting back to the routine of getting up early. Now we have to do that all over again."
Teachers picketing at Disney and elsewhere in the ctiy said they liked the direction contract talks were going, but would continue to hold out for the demands teachers have been making since talks began.
Irene Jackson, 42, a librarian at Funston Elementary said one of her top concerns getting more money for classroom supplies —she said she has had to spend her own money to buy supplies to paint the library wall.
Striking Chicago schoolteachers gather Thursday afternoon on Wacker Drive on their way to a rush-hour rally on North Michigan Avenue. A major rally is set for Saturday. (E. Jason Wambsgans, Chicago Tribune)
Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union began the day saying they were close to a deal that could return teachers and students to the classroom Monday, but gave little information subsequently as negotiations to iron out details extended well into Thursday evening.
CPS Board President David Vitale, who emerged from talks about 12:45 a.m. Friday, said the two had “another good day” of work Thursday and that there had been progress. The two are moving past work on evaluations and focusing on data related to recall, he said.
“We’ve got some number crunching to do overnight and we’re going to be back here tomorrow and see if we can’t finish this up,” Vitale said.
Vitale said getting the deal inked by 2 p.m. before CTU’s House of Delegates meeting was “realistic.”
Chicago Teacher’s Union President Karen Lewis said both sides planned to go back to their respective shops in the morning and do some number crunching.
Lewis described the negotiations as an “ebb and flow.”
“There were some creative ideas passed around but we still do not have a deal,” Lewis said. “If you are at that this point and I’m at this point, we have to figure out a way to move together. So that takes a little bit of creativity.”
Lewis said she wasn’t sure if Monday school was realistic.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I certainly hope so.”
Talks are scheduled again at 9 a.m. Friday and the union's House of Delegates is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. Friday to discuss the district's latest proposals. The delegates' approval is needed to end the strike and put teachers back on the job, but the union did not say whether the body will vote at Friday's meeting.
If a tentative deal is reached and the strike is called off, a contract would still need to be ratified by the union's full 25,000 members, likely in the next two weeks.
The union is inviting other labor organizations to join it at a rally at noon Saturday at Union Park on the Near West Side, which could be a final show of force and solidarity before the walkout ends.
Before talks started Thursday at the Chicago Hilton and Towers on South Michigan Avenue, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis, who has consistently downplayed progress at the negotiating table, rated her confidence "a 9" on a scale on 1-10.
Her confidence buoyed teachers, but like parents the optimism of many educators was tempered with caution.
"We're most optimistic that the union leadership will make sure our demands are met," said Michelle Gunderson, a fourth-grade teacher at Nettelhorst elementary school in Lakeview. "We can't just do this again. This has to be the finish line."
With the union saying early on its members wouldn't be returning to school this week, the city's first teachers strike in 25 years moved into its fifth day Friday. Some 350,000 students who remain out of the classroom and will have to make out the loss of a week at some point during the school year.
Under the deal put on the table by CPS Tuesday, teachers would receive on average a 16 percent raise over the next four years. That figure includes both cost-of-living salary bumps and the so-called step increases for working another year in the district.
CPS estimates the cost of those raises will begin at $80 million the first year and increase by that amount in each of the contract's next three years. The union calls those projections exaggerated and says its own analysis puts the cost at $60-$100 million less.
The district and union continue to haggle over how teachers will be evaluated and a framework for recalling teachers who've been laid off because of school closings, consolidations and turnarounds.
Job security has emerged as a critical issue during these contract talks as CPS considers closing between 80 and 120 sparsely enrolled and under-performing public schools to cut costs and conserve resources. Union leaders worry about the jobs that could be lost during such a dramatic downsizing.
Stay-at-home mom Elsa Shalaveyus, 41, stood beside teachers on the picket line at Walt Disney Magnet School in Uptown, advocating for smaller class sizes and better classroom conditions. Even though the union has her support, she's hopeful her two sons will be back in their desks come Monday.
"It would be great if it happens soon," she said. "They had just gone back to school and were already getting back to the routine of getting up early. Now we have to do that all over again."
Teachers picketing at Disney and elsewhere in the ctiy said they liked the direction contract talks were going, but would continue to hold out for the demands teachers have been making since talks began.
Irene Jackson, 42, a librarian at Funston Elementary said one of her top concerns getting more money for classroom supplies —she said she has had to spend her own money to buy supplies to paint the library wall.