memo to the Chicago Mayor
As you are aware, the CTU-CPS contract expired on June 30. CTU submitted a comprehensive proposal to CPS and CEO Pedro Martinez on April 16. The union’s proposals align with both the report on education issued by your mayoral transition committee last year and with the 5year strategic plan adopted by the Chicago Board of Education earlier this year. Our contract proposals are a blueprint for how those plans can be implemented and how the following shared goals are realized: (1) every child in Chicago should be able to attend a fully-staffed, fullyresourced neighborhood school that provides them with the same education, enrichment, and extracurricular opportunities as if they lived in a suburb 10 miles to the North, South, or West of the city; and (2) CPS must be a district that can develop, attract, recruit, and retain a diverse workforce of educators, reflective of the district’s school communities, who are provided the resources necessary to sustain a career in service to Chicago’s students.
Never before have Chicago’s teachers union, Board of Education and mayor held such a shared vision for Chicago Public Schools. Despite these commonalities, CEO Martinez has slowwalked negotiations, and Chicago’s educators have been without a contract for 5 months.
We are now at a critical juncture that requires your intervention to ensure that the Board of Education enshrines the commitments to transform public education that the people of the city. of Chicago elected you to carry out.
The CTU has been heartened to see the current, newly appointed Board of Education members take courageous stands to help the school district course correct on a number of issues. At its November 14 meeting, the Board adopted a resolution calling on Acero Charter schools to maintain the seven (7) campuses that earlier this fall it proposed to close. Up until the November Board meeting, CPS leadership had appeared content to allow Acero to go ahead with its plans, continuing a long history of prioritizing the “rights” of charter corporations over those of the students and families, despite the devastating impacts it would have on 2,000 predominantly Latine students, their families, and nearly 250 educators.
