Chicago high school staff will refuse in-person work starting Wednesday without movement toward a reopening agreement, teachers union announces

CHICAGO – The Chicago Teachers Union says high school staff members in Chicago Public Schools will refuse in-person work starting Wednesday without “adequate movement” toward a satisfactory reopening plan for high schools.

CPS has identified April 19 as the “target” to reopen high schools — the last group that has yet to have the option of in-person classes since the pandemic shut schools in March 2020. But a week ahead of that, the union cited what it called the district’s “chronic failure to provide reasonable accommodations to educators” in explaining its latest work action.

“Critical sticking points include accommodations, high school schedules that minimize virus transmission, remote work — particularly since the majority of students will remain remote — and vaccines for high school students and their family members,” the union said.

At a news conference early Monday, two CTU members — a teacher who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2018 and a clerk who uses a wheelchair after a 2017 spinal cord injury — discussed the difficulties they’ve experienced getting work accommodations.

“I feel like I’m just another mass email, another number,” teacher Veronica Dorado said.

CTU President Jesse Sharkey noted the rising number of cases and positivity rates in the city; the lack of availability of vaccines to those 16 and over in Chicago, despite their eligibility in the rest of the state; and the fact that about 70% of CPS students have so far opted out of in-person learning.

Sharkey said he doesn’t expect all high school students and their families to receive vaccines before high schools reopen but that CPS should make a good-faith effort by extending its four vaccine sites to students and families.

Last week, the union called for a one-week delay in the high school reopening.

In response, Chicago’s health commissioner said last the city’s public high schools do not need to delay reopening.

“Based on current data, we see no reason to delay the reopening of high schools,” Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said in a statement Wednesday evening.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS officials also stood by their target date of April 19 for welcoming high school students back to in-person learning for the first time in more than a year.

“After successfully opening elementary schools earlier this year, we are eager to provide our high school students with the same opportunity for in-person learning later this month,” CPS said in a message to the community Friday evening. “While our discussions with the Chicago Teachers Union are ongoing, we remain fully committed to welcoming back all interested high school students on Monday, April 19.”

Arwady said the district’s mitigation strategies align with guidance from public health agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and do enough to make in-person learning safe.

“The school reopening plan also includes detailed requirements for when to pause in-person learning, and we have not yet reached any of those thresholds,” Arwady said. “Elementary schools reopened safely last month and surveillance testing among staff and students has not uncovered signs of concern. Based on current metrics, there is no reason to believe CPS cannot also safely reopen high schools.”

The health department emphasized that recent cases have been driven by young adults 18 to 39. Average daily cases in that age range were up 13% from the prior week at 326, and its seven-day rolling average positivity rate was 5.6% as of April 3, according to the city’s COVID-19 dashboard.

But city data also shows cases among those age 17 and younger were on the rise, with a test positivity rate of 6.7% and average daily cases up 28% at 77. The citywide rolling positivity rate for all age groups was 5.2% compared with 4.5% the prior week.

As of Thursday, when its COVID-19 tracker was last updated with new cases, CPS had reported 1,024 adult and 103 student cases since last March, including 18 adults and 11 students last week following a week-long spring break. Most cases have been isolated, though some schools have seen multiple cases within the same week or had to ask dozens of people quarantine because of possible exposure. Based on available data for last week, at least 19 schools reported one case, three schools reported two cases and one school reported four cases, sending a total 180 close contacts and 18 learning pods into quarantine.

The CTU wants CPS to delay reopening high schools at least one week. The district’s target return date of April 19 marks the beginning of the district’s fourth academic quarter and is also when more elementary students will be able to resume in-person classes.

Since preschool, elementary and special education students started returning under an agreement with the CTU in February, fewer than a quarter of eligible students have attended class in person at least once, according to data CPS released last month. But more students, roughly 46% of elementary and 36% of high school students, responded to district surveys indicating they want the option to learn at school when the next wave is allowed back.

When in-person classes resumed for preschool through eighth-grade students, teachers for those grades were required to start in-person work a week early. But, similar to the union’s current action, members collectively declined to teach in person until a satisfactory reopening agreement was reached. Some teachers were locked out of access to remote teaching platforms and were docked pay, but the action resulted in the reopening being delayed and for a separate start date for sixth to eighth graders.