Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Dr. corona pandemic.
The Chicago Teachers Union has told teachers to keep their distance over safety concerns during the pandemic. That’s why the Chicago Public Schools said sufficient staff cannot be guaranteed, so students will still learn remotely Monday – with preschool, special education, and K-8 students expected to return to face-to-face learning on Tuesday. , according to CBS Chicago.
The mayor said all teachers from pre-K through 8th grade should return to class on Monday unless they have been given special accommodation. If they don’t comply, “we’ll have to take action,” Lightfoot said, but he didn’t go further.
Lightfoot said several times on Sunday that “our schools are safe” and said CTU leadership should return to the negotiating table. The mayor also said that “distance learning is failing too many of our children” and accused the CTU of lacking the sense of urgency to return students to personal learning.
“We absolutely have to make a deal,” she said. She promised that she and her team would stay up all night until a deal is reached. “CTU, please come back to the table — today.”
Jackson said that without an agreement between CPS and CTU, access to the distance learning programs offered through Google Suite will be cut from the end of the workday on Monday.
Lightfoot said the public school system and union have had 70 formal meetings since June. The mayor also described that the safe personal learning model follows the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Public Health of Illinois and Chicago, and is supported by health experts Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases , as well as local health officials.
“Our schools are safe. Our schools are safe. We know that because we have studied what has happened in other school systems in our city – more than 40,000 archdiocese, charter and other public schools that have had some form of personal learning since then. Autumn, ”said Lightfoot.
According to CBS Chicago, CPS and the CTU made preliminary agreements on Saturday in four areas: health and safety protocols, ventilation, contact tracing, and health and safety committees.
On Sunday, Lightfoot said $ 100 million has been invested to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in its schools, including health screenings, temperature checks, hand sanitizer, PPE, disinfection, social distance and contact tracking.
Jackson appeared on CBS ‘”Face the NationEarlier Sunday, he said it is safe to reopen schools in Chicago with proper precautions and health safety protocols.
“We think we need to reopen schools. We’ve been closed for almost a year now. And as a school system, we’re starting to see some of the effects of closing schools,” Jackson told Face the Nation. moderator Margaret Brennan. “Many of our students don’t log in. We see mostly African American and Latinx students being hit particularly hard. And our goal is to really give every parent an option.”
“At the moment, we expect 77,000 students, that’s about a third of the students here in CPS, to be eligible for personal instruction. That’s twice the size of the second-largest school district here in Illinois. And so reopening of it. Chicago Public Schools are extremely important, ”Jackson said. make sure we had a solid plan. for reopening. “
Many parents have since been torn apart.
Bridgett White’s dining room doubles as a classroom – and she said she is “very frustrated” with the current situation between CPS and CTU. Her daughter Brianna is in the seventh grade and her son Tristan is in the fifth. Neither has returned to school since March 2020.
“You have this one side that says one thing, you have this other side that says something else, and you’re in the middle,” White told “CBS Weekend News” Saturday.
This week, the CDC said in-person classes can be held safely, and President Biden said he wants all schools in the country to reopen in the next three months. But what’s happening in Chicago shows how difficult that can be.
“As a parent, you wait every day,” White said. “Is this the day my child won’t learn anything at all?”