The Chicago teachers strike enters its fifth day as "number crunching" apparently delayed a deal that both sides had hoped would be reached on Thursday.
Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union began the day saying they were close to a deal that could return teachers and students to the classroom on Monday, but officials left marathon negotiations early today saying they were still ironing out details.
CPS Board President David Vitale, who emerged from talks around 12:45 a.m., said the two sides had “another good day” of work and there had been progress. The two were moving past work on evaluations and focusing on other key issue, the recall of laid-off teachers, 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.
He said getting the deal inked by 2 p.m. when the CTU’s House of Delegates meets was “realistic.” That could mean the district's 350,000 students could return to the classroom Monday if the delegates vote to end the strike.
Chicago Teacher’s Union President Karen Lewis said both sides planned to go back to their respective shops this morning and go over calculations from the latest proposals. 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 to resume at 9 a.m. today.
If a tentative deal is reached and the strike is called off by the House of Delegates, 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.
Elizabeth Chapin-Palder, a CPS psychologist who showed up at school headquarters this morning, said teachers are cautiously planning their return to classrooms Monday.
“(Yesterday) was the first time anyone talked about the strike ending, not what they going to do during the strike,” Chapin-Palder said. “We’re talking a lot about what we’re going to do when we get back. That’s what a lot of the conversation is."
Chapin-Palder said she has already identified some of her most vulnerable students who she will need to visit first. “We want to be with our students,” she said. “We’re upset that public education wasn’t better valued.”
Under the deal put on the table by CPS earlier this week, 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.
Tribune reporter Naomi Nix and Ellen Jean Hirst contributed
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Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union began the day saying they were close to a deal that could return teachers and students to the classroom on Monday, but officials left marathon negotiations early today saying they were still ironing out details.
CPS Board President David Vitale, who emerged from talks around 12:45 a.m., said the two sides had “another good day” of work and there had been progress. The two were moving past work on evaluations and focusing on other key issue, the recall of laid-off teachers, 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.
He said getting the deal inked by 2 p.m. when the CTU’s House of Delegates meets was “realistic.” That could mean the district's 350,000 students could return to the classroom Monday if the delegates vote to end the strike.
Chicago Teacher’s Union President Karen Lewis said both sides planned to go back to their respective shops this morning and go over calculations from the latest proposals. 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 to resume at 9 a.m. today.
If a tentative deal is reached and the strike is called off by the House of Delegates, 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.
Elizabeth Chapin-Palder, a CPS psychologist who showed up at school headquarters this morning, said teachers are cautiously planning their return to classrooms Monday.
“(Yesterday) was the first time anyone talked about the strike ending, not what they going to do during the strike,” Chapin-Palder said. “We’re talking a lot about what we’re going to do when we get back. That’s what a lot of the conversation is."
Chapin-Palder said she has already identified some of her most vulnerable students who she will need to visit first. “We want to be with our students,” she said. “We’re upset that public education wasn’t better valued.”
Under the deal put on the table by CPS earlier this week, 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.
Tribune reporter Naomi Nix and Ellen Jean Hirst contributed
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