Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file
Staff at public high schools across the city stayed home Wednesday, protesting Chicago Public Schools’ reopening plan.
Even so, Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said that a “fairly limited set of issues” remain and he described bargaining between the union and administration as “fairly productive.” Negotiations continued into Wednesday evening, and it wasn’t yet clear whether teachers would work from home again Thursday or return to schools.
Sharkey later clarified his remarks while talking to reporters on an online news conference, saying, “There has been progress, but not adequate.”
He added: “It’s our feeling CTU is making very reasonable demands.”
Sharkey said the union is calling for very reasonable demands in negotiations. We re making demands that deal with the ability to limit capacity in high schools to safe levels. High schools cannot make pods, Sharkey said. We re dealing with demands that have to do with the Board making reasonable accommodations for members and their ability to telework in certain situations. We re making demands that have to do with. vaccinations, especially in the context of increasing transmission, and those are a fairly limited set of issues right now.
CPS spokesman Michael Passman said in a statement on Monday that the district was firmly committed to welcoming high school students back on April 19, saying, tens of thousands of high school students and their families are counting on us to open high school classrooms.
The third wave of COVID-19 in Illinois is putting pressure on the health care system in some parts of Illinois, while the statewide positivity rate continues to trend upward. The seven-day positivity rate for cases as a share of total tests was 4.4% as of Sunday, the highest level since a rate of 4.5% was reported Jan. 27, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Meanwhile, the .
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