The Chicago school district and teachers union are disagreeing on the safety conditions of schools amid the spread of the omicron variant.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) on Tuesday voted in favor of returning to remote learning until the recent COVID-19 case surge “substantially subsides” or until Mayor Lori Lightfoot “signs an agreement establishing conditions for return that are voted on and approved by the CTU House of Delegates.”
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) said Tuesday it would cancel classes Wednesday in response to the vote as the mayor and school district go head-to-head with the union, which held a press conference on Wednesday morning to answer questions from reporters and the public.
CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION VOTES TO RETURN TO REMOTE LEARNING DUE TO COVID-19 SURGE
“Our mayor and her doctor spent a lot of time yesterday talking about how COVID impacts young people. They’re not speaking specifically to the issue of how COVID is impacting staffing,” CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates said during the meeting. “…We don’t have enough grownups in the building, so instruction isn’t happening. We are warehousing children in large spaces with warm bodies.”
CPS told Fox News that 82% of staff showed up to work on Monday after a two-week holiday break. Public schools will only close if 40% of staff calls out sick. Additionally, 90% of CPS staff is vaccinated, according to the district.
Pre-kindergarten teacher Sarah McCarthy works with a student at Dawes Elementary in Chicago on Jan. 11, 2021. (Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, Pool, File)
The union also criticized CPS for 25,000 COVID-19 tests that were deemed “invalid” after the tests piled up at FedEx drop boxes. The tests must be processed within 48 hours to be accurate, but the testing vendor, COLOR, told parents that the tests were delayed because of “weather and holiday-related shipping issues.” The vendor told CBS Chicago it’s supporting extended testing dropoff hours and…