CTU leader says Trump presidency adds urgency to contract negotiations

The Chicago Teachers Union is ramping up pressure to get a contract deal, insisting it needs to be done before President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January, and expressing doubt that the current school district leadership can make it happen.

“We have a real, clear and present danger staring at us,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said about Trump’s administration. “The responsible thing to do is to figure out how to settle a contract that protects, supports and builds a force field, and then figure out how we begin to work together to secure our district.”

The union held a packed rally downtown Thursday.

In a letter to staff, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez dismissed Trump’s presidency as a source of urgency for the CTU contract, saying the district has strong policies in place that protect immigrant, LGBTQ and other groups of students.

CPS officials also held a briefing Thursday in which they said they were working diligently to reach a deal. They emphasized that thousands more teachers and support staff are in schools now than four years ago, and that CTU’s demands would cost CPS $10 billion at a time when the district is facing hundreds of million dollars in deficits.

CTU officials disagree with the calculation of their current proposals. But they also say previous administrations have agreed to contracts and later figured out how to pay for them.

There is some pressure to resolve this: The union has called for an independent arbitrator, called a factfinder, to intervene. That’s a step in the process toward a strike, which can be called in February at the earliest.

Behind the scenes, the union and the school district have reached agreement in some areas, but there are still a lot of unresolved issues.

School day and planning time

One big dispute between CPS and CTU is over planning time for elementary school teachers. CPS argues that more planning time would cut into instructional time, something that officials are not interested in doing. CPS officials argue that Chicago teachers get more preparation time than teachers in other big city districts.

The CTU sees giving elementary school teachers more time to prepare as an opportunity for the school district to offer more enrichment for students. They say it is about making the school day better for students by providing more art, world language and after-school activities. The only area where there appears to be solid progress is CPS’ proposal to provide more money for sports programs. In terms of providing more enrichment teachers, CPS officials say they are providing more positions to schools, but they don’t want to specify who principals should hire, whether it be an art or a French teacher, a technology coordinator or a librarian.

Staffing

The CTU is asking for thousands of new positions that they say will support students.

There’s one big discrepancy around teacher assistants: CPS says CTU has proposed hiring more than 7,000 additional teacher assistants, spanning over 60 staffing proposals. The CTU says that figure is inaccurate and that the ask is far less.

Aside from that, CTU wants every school to have a librarian and a functioning library. There are only 107 school librarians citywide right now. CPS has offered to create a pipeline to get more librarians, but the district won’t guarantee a librarian in every school.

CTU and CPS have made progress toward a ratio of one counselor for every 250 students district-wide, though some differences remain on how to achieve that. CPS has hired hundreds of additional counselors the past few years.

The union has also proposed one teacher for English language learners in schools with 50 to 300 students in those programs and another for every additional 300. CPS has offered one for 50 kids and up, and a second for schools with 600 students learning English.

Other staffing proposals from the CTU, which CPS has not agreed to, include hundreds more reading specialists and interventionists, restorative justice coordinators, technology coordinators and liaisons to help newly arriving immigrant children.

Class sizes

Class size is an issue that’s not only of interest to teachers, but also parents. It has big educational implications, as well as financial ones.

The question being asked in negotiations is: How many students need to be in a class for the school district to provide additional support, which could include hiring a teacher assistant or providing a whole new class. CTU wants to cap preschool classes at 17 students, kindergarten through 3rd grade at 20; and 4th through high school classes at 25. They also want CPS to put aside $45 million a year, up from $35 million, to lower class sizes when issues come up.

So far, CPS has refused that $10 million increase. It also is proposing higher caps — 20 students for preschool, 25 in kindergarten, 30 in fourth through 8th grade and 28 in high school courses. CPS officials argue that current class sizes are much lower at an average of 22 for elementary schools and 20 for high schools students. But setting lower limits for class sizes is a difficult proposition, especially with the district facing deficits in the future.

Salaries and benefits

There appears to be general agreement on how much CTU members will be paid.

CPS has offered 4% raises this school year followed by 4-5% for the next three years depending on inflation. That would cost $120 million this school year and about $1.3 billion for the whole four-year contract, according to CPS.

In an update to members this week, union leadership said there were some details left for negotiation, but the district’s offer “exceed[s] the raises in any CTU contract in decades.”

There’s also progress on health insurance, including no increases to health care premiums and expanded coverage for various types of therapy, abortion, infertility and gender-affirming care.