"Our schools are safe": Chicago mayor orders teachers to be in the classroom starting Monday - CBS News

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Peter Martinez

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Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Dr. Janice Jackson insisted on Sunday that due to a heated debate between the CPS and the union that represents thousands of educators, teachers will return to the classroom on Monday.

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The Chicago Teachers League has been telling teachers to stay away from the pandemic because they are worried about their safety during the pandemic. As a result, Chicago Public Schools stated that they could not ensure adequate staffing, so students will continue to study remotely on Monday-it is expected that before kindergarten, special education and K-8 students should return to study in person on Tuesday. , According to 

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The mayor said that all teachers from kindergarten to eighth grade must return to the classroom on Mondays unless they get special accommodation. Lightfoot said that if they do not comply, "we will have to take action," but did not elaborate.

Lightfoot stated on Sunday that "our school is safe" and told the CTU leadership that they need to return to the negotiating table. The mayor also said: “Distance learning has failed many of our children” and accused CTU of lacking a sense of urgency in getting students back to face-to-face learning.

She said: "We absolutely need to reach an agreement." She promised that she and her team will stay overnight until an agreement is reached. "CTU, please come back to the table today."

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (Lori Lightfoot): "We hope that all teachers who have not received special accommodation will go to school tomorrow. She continued: "Those who don’t go to work, I don’t even want to work there, but we Will have to act"

Jackson said that if there is no agreement between CPS and CTU, access to distance learning programs offered through Google Suite will be cut off at the end of business on Monday.

Lightfoot said that since June, the public school system and trade unions have held 70 formal meetings. The mayor also described a safe face-to-face learning model based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Illinois and Chicago Departments of Public Health, and was supported by health experts from Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institutes of Health. Allergies and infectious diseases, and local health officials.

"Our school is safe. Our school is safe. We know that because we have studied what is happening in other school systems in the city-more than 40,000 archdiocese, charter schools and others have been conducting since then Some kind of public school fall for personal learning." Lightfoot said.

According to the Chicago CBS report, CPS and CTU reached on Saturday

In four areas: health and safety regulations, ventilation, contact tracing, and health and safety committees. 

Lightfoot said on Sunday that it has made a $100 million investment to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in its schools, including health checks, temperature checks, hand sanitizer, personal protective equipment, disinfection, social evacuations and contact tracing.

Jackson

"Earlier Sunday, it was safe to reopen Chicago schools through proper precautions and health and safety protocols.

Jackson said to "Face the Country": "We think we must reopen the school. We have been closed for almost a year. As a school system, we are beginning to see certain effects of school closures." Host Margaret Buo Margaret Brennan. "Many of our students are not logged in. We have seen African American and Latino students being hit particularly hard. Our goal is to truly provide every parent with choice."

"Currently, we expect to have 77,000 students, which is about three times the number of CPS students who can teach face-to-face. This is twice the number of Illinois' second university districts. Therefore, it is very important for Chicago to reopen public schools." Jackson said. "We should also note that the city's private and private schools have been open since August. We have learned a lot from its implementation plan and look forward to the guidance of public health officials and CDC to ensure that we have developed a reliable plan to reopen. "

At the same time, many parents were torn up.

Bridgett White's dining room is twice the size of the classroom, and she said the status quo between CPS and CTU made her "very frustrated." Her daughter Brianna is in seventh grade and son Tristan is in fifth grade. Since March 2020, neither of these two schools have gone to school.

White told the CBS Weekend News on Saturday: "You let one side say one thing and the other side say another thing, and you are in the middle."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that you can attend classes in person this week, and 

 He said he hopes that all schools in the country will reopen in the next three months. However, what happened in Chicago shows how difficult this can be.

White said: "As a parent, you are waiting every day." "Is today a day when my child has no learning at all?"

Peter is a digital writer and homepage editor for CBS News based in Southern California. Please contact him

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