Chicago Public Schools, teachers union reopen high schools in spite of growth of deadly new COVID-19 variant On Sunday, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) announced that a tentative agreement with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) was ratified by by union members by an 83 to 17 percent margin, paving the way for Chicago high schools to reopen for in-person classes today. The reopening comes amid a resurgence of COVID-19 nationally and internationally, fueled by new variants, such as the B.1.1.7 variant, which is infecting young people at higher levels. The current rolling average positivity rate in Chicago is 5.6 percent, according to the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). In February, when the CTU and CPS agreed to reopen classes up to the eighth grade, the rolling average positivity rate in Chicago was around 3.6 percent.