CTU members vote in favor of CPS contract as alderpersons demand transparency from school district
A Chicago City Council committee passed an ordinance demanding more accountability and transparency from Chicago Public Schools.
CHICAGO (WLS) -- As Chicago Teachers Union members approved a four-year contract, a Chicago City Council committee passed an ordinance demanding more accountability and transparency from Chicago Public Schools.
From teacher mentoring to more librarians and case managers, contract win posters hang in the CTU lobby on Monday after union leaders boasted about a record 97% contract approval from its 30,000 members.
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This is the first CTU contract without a strike in more than a decade.
The deal includes pay raises, increased staffing, new class size limits, more funding for sports, and additional staff positions like librarians, nurses, and social workers.
"What we're fighting for community schools, places where families have an opportunity to have agency with the teachers, the administrators, the students the community," said CTU President Stacy Davis Gates. "We tripled more than triple that in this contract because we are rebuilding what was stripped away through closings and consolidations and privatization. This contract is a rebuild."
After more than 11 months of bargaining, CPS says it offers teachers the highest annual raises in more than 13 years and offers transformational advancements for its students.
The union says the deal is the "next step toward transforming our schools."
"You make us ashamed for saying we need libraries in school. 'Who is going to pay for it?' Who paid the West Loop? Who paid for that nice Google building?" Davis Gates said.
The CTU president said she is tired of hearing questions about how the union's four-year contract will be paid for. She says if schools are to thrive, everyone, including the private sector, must pitch in.
Transparency and accountability related to CPS finances is something Alderpersons Jeanette Taylor and Andre Vasquez have been pushing for since CPS was given close to $2 billion in federal COVID-19 pandemic funds a few years ago.
"There were no conversations about accountability, what happened with that money, or what students were taken care of. There's no data. There's not any of that. And so, we can't do that again," said Taylor, who chairs the Committee on Education and Child Development.
A proposed ordinance introduced by Vasquez requiring the CPS leadership team to appear before city council four times a year unanimously passed the Committee on Education and Child Development on Monday.
"Clearly there's financial entanglements that are happening between the city and CPS, so it behooves us and the public to have regular hearings to be able to hear what they're doing, what's going well," said Vasquez, who represents the 40th Ward.
The ordinance calls for the city to withdraw any city funds to CPS if district's leadership team fails to show up at the quarterly hearings. CPS is against that section of the proposal.
"It's important for the legislation to have teeth, not just for the current leadership, but for every future person who sits in that seat and on the fifth floor," said 26th Ward Ald. Jesse Fuentes.
There is similar ordinance demanding quarterly city council appearances from the Chicago Transit Authority leadership team. The CPS ordinance goes before the full city council on Wednesday, and the Chicago School Board is expected to approve the CTU contract next week.
