Chicago mayor, teachers still at odds over COVID protocols

Chicago mayor, teachers still at odds over COVID protocols

SeattlePI.com

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CHICAGO (AP) — Closed-door negotiations resumed Saturday to resolve a standoff between Chicago school officials and the city's teachers union over COVID-19 precautions that canceled three days of classes this week, but the public war-of-words between union leaders and Chicago's mayor showed little sign of an imminent resolution.

In a written statement, Mayor Lori Lightfoot flatly rejected the union's latest proposal that softened its prior demand for mandatory testing but wouldn't put kids back in classrooms until mid-January.

“CTU leadership, you’re not listening," Lightfoot said. "The best, safest place for kids to be is in school. Students need to be back in person as soon as possible. That’s what parents want. That’s what the science supports. We will not relent.”

The blunt response came less than an hour after leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union unveiled their latest proposal to resume remote instruction Wednesday and in-person instruction on Jan. 18. The union also backed a random screening program that students could opt out of, rather than mandatory testing.

CTU President Jesse Sharkey said Lightfoot's opposition to an opt-out testing program and remote learning districtwide doesn't “compute.”

“We'd like to see the mayor make a compromise as well,” Sharkey said. “I mean what the mayor is essentially offering instead is no instruction in schools at all, no services. She's offering schools as warming centers where arts and crafts and open gyms can take place.”

The union, which voted this week to revert to online instruction, told teachers not to show up to schools starting Wednesday while talks took place. The move just two days after students returned from winter break prompted district officials to cancel classes in the roughly 350,000-student district for...

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