Elected officials demand more from CPS reopening plans, say families have ‘great trepidation about returning to schools this fall’
Sharing many concerns of the Chicago Teachers Union, dozens of elected officials from Chicago and Illinois sent a letter over the weekend to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago Public Schools leaders and the Board of Education listing their demands about remote learning and an eventual return to school.
“We are deeply concerned about how Chicago Public Schools' students and staff will safely return to school buildings for the remainder of the current school year and the foreseeable future,” began the letter, signed by City Council members, state lawmakers and three Cook County commissioners.
Though wary of in-person learning until convincing safeguards are in place, the letter details ongoing problems with remote learning such as inadequate internet access, shortages of computers for students and a lot of screen time.
The letter comes after Friday’s announcement that CPS plans to bring students in preschool and some special education clusters back to schools during second quarter, and would like to phase in other grades early next year.
Lightfoot addressed the letter during a Monday morning press conference.
“I always appreciate engagement, and I encourage those elected officials to also take advantage of the many, many ways in which we have been engaging with their colleagues,” Lightfoot said.
But Lightfoot said the city needs to rely on facts and data.
“We are not seeing in looking at the examples of schools that have already been open since September in Chicago — in the same neighborhood where Chicago Public Schools are — we are not seeing the schools as a source of spread,” Lightfoot said. “Archdiocese, charter schools, other private schools, we look at their experience very, very closely. It’s not an apples to apples comparison, obviously, but we look at that data very very closely."
Rather than considering the district as a whole, letter asks the mayor and CPS to make a plan addressing the way COVID-19 is affecting the city’s various communities.
“Not every community has experienced the pandemic in the same way,” the letter states. “As such, making a decision based on a citywide measure for transmission may mean higher risk of spread in areas with high populations of essential workers, multigenerational families, and those at higher risk of serious complications, thus putting students and families at risk.”
The letter asks for any plan involving in-person learning to include a remote-only option that doesn’t penalize students who choose it. It also asks CPS to “revamp” its screen schedule and improve opportunities for offline learning, stating that “seven hours a day is simply too much.”
“We recognize that the current remote learning system is difficult for students, working families, and the educational staff committed to them,” the letter states. “At the same time, we also don’t want to put students in harms' way, especially as other cities have encountered real difficulties in returning to in-person learning.”
Before bringing students back to schools, the letter demands ventilation and filtration improvements and a strong program for testing, tracing and isolation.
Though its plan doesn’t include rapid testing at schools, CPS officials have said they’re making sure anyone who has symptoms or was in close contact with someone who tested positive “has access” to a free test. The district has also hired staff to help with contact tracing.
Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady on Friday said COVID-19 transmission has been rare among children in public settings such as day cares, athletic events and summer programs, and that Chicago students who have returned to parochial and private school classrooms have a lower rate of COVID-19 than what has been detected among children who have not been learning in-person.
The Chicago Department of Health has not provided data on where youth transmission or cases have been traced, and a spokesman said they may be unable to produce “granular data” on day cares and other settings. The infection rate for Chicago children from Aug. 17 to Oct. 4 was 0.4%, with 2,147 cases among population of 548,999, and Archdiocese schools “are seeing roughly half that rate,” according to CDPH.
But at some public districts in the suburbs where in-person learning had resumed, positive cases have prompted schools to close again. And citing a sharp rise in the number of daily COVID-19 cases in recent weeks, Lightfoot on Monday threatened tighter restrictions on businesses if the numbers keep going up.
The letter from elected officials states that "with regard to testing and tracing, we believe that the City’s current approach is insufficient. The experience of several universities is instructive: rapid testing, backwards tracing to prevent ‘super spreader’ events, and clear isolation protocols. The City must have the same resources in place for a return to in-person learning at CPS.”
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, called the district and Lightfoot “tight-lipped on the specifics of how they plan to return to in-person instruction, cutting students, parents, Aldermen and other elected officials, and our labor partners out of this very necessary planning process."
Sigcho-Lopez and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson both called for collaboration in a news release promoting the letter.
“The families we represent have great trepidation about returning to schools this fall, just as they did prior to the September start of classes,” Johnson said. "What they want is remote learning to be better until students and their teachers can safely transition back into school buildings. We know remote learning and COVID has been difficult for our communities, but so are the risks of bringing students back, and we have yet to see anything from CPS that gives us confidence in its current plans.”
hleone@chicagotribune.com
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