Voting kicked off today, and early results may be released as soon as this evening.

Saunders-Wolffe, a guidance counselor at Jesse Owens Elementary on the Far South Side, is waging an uphill battle to unseat Lewis, harnessing dissatisfaction among many teachers with the latest union contract.

Saunders-Wolffe has also criticized Lewis and the current leadership team for their tactics against the district and City Hall.

“We have to give [teachers] a voice from the table. We can’t just keep screaming from the streets,” Saunders-Wolffe told Catalyst Chicago in March. 

“We have done so many school visits. Teachers are really unhappy with the contract,” said Mary Ellen Sanchez, opposition candidate for recording secretary, who was outside Byrne Elementary in Garfield Ridge this morning. Sanchez teaches 3^rd grade at Byrne.

Candidates on Saunders-Wolffe’s opposition slate, the Coalition to Save Our Union, are pledging to focus more on member services, which they charge have fallen by the wayside as Lewis’ team, the Caucus of Rank and File Educators, focuses on organizing. Organizing is a major component of CORE’s strategy, as Lewis’ team led the CTU through a week-long teachers’ strike last fall, Chicago’s first in 25 years. Immediately after the strike, CORE switched gears to fight school closings through protests and partnerships forged with community and parent groups.

The Coalition also wants to rebuild the union’s bridges with district management, despite a relationship that has grown increasingly bitter in recent years.

At Byrne, teachers enumerated the issues that swayed them to support the Coalition, many of them boiling down to unhappiness with the contract: longer days and hours that the pay raise didn’t make up for, a cut to paid before-school prep time, and an agreement to drop litigation over the contractually promised 4 percent raises that teachers didn’t get during the 2011-2012 school year.

“People were getting scared [because] the strike was too long,” and thus gave in too much at the negotiating table, said librarian Mary Beth Corbin. She also complained that even though the contract ended up including incentives to participate in a wellness plan, and even teachers who are participating are being charged due to bureaucratic snafus.

Scott Worden, Byrne’s special education teacher, said he was undecided but also felt the contract left much to be desired. “With the strike, I don’t think we gained anything,” Worden said. “No matter who’s in charge, we always lose something as teachers. The board’s going to win, because they’re going to sneak something in.”

At Kenwood Academy High School in Hyde Park, many teachers said they supported CORE and cited Lewis’ handling of the strike.

 “I trust the leaders who led us through the strike to carry us through another year,” said science teacher Barbara Richter. Coreen Uhl, another staff member at the school, said Lewis “did a great job representing us during the strike, so I’ll be taking that into account.”

Added history teacher Shannon League: “I don’t think we could have asked for much more. In negotiations, you have to give a little.”

Strike or no strike, do we have enough excellent teachers? If the new teacher evaluation system that has fueled so much action and so much debate is used as planned to dismiss under-performing teachers, do we have the types of teachers that we want, and that so many Chicago students need, waiting in the wings?

Recent events have shown how questions about fairness—fairness for teachers, fairness for students, and fairness for parents—too often trump the raw economic question of supply and demand in teacher policies. That is, are the salaries and working conditions (inclusive of performance evaluations) in Chicago’s schools sufficiently attractive to talented professional people? Of course they are attractive for some, but are they attracting enough talented teachers to meet our city’s needs?

Do CPS teacher salaries and working conditions entice those excellent teachers already committed to the profession to stay in the classroom for the long-haul, and do they make teaching an attractive career option for talented men and women choosing between many career options available to them? Research conducted by McKinsey & Company on our younger generation of college students suggests that in fact, very few college students from the top-third of their class view teaching as offering them as appealing a career as their alternatives.

If teachers were behaving inappropriately by picketing and partying on Chicago’s streets, what would it take to recruit a more professional, and more highly effective, teacher workforce?

Taking a step back from the chaos of the strike to reconsider whether Chicago as a city is doing its part to secure enough of the kinds of teachers that can get all students reading, writing, and mathematically literate, while also developing their aspirational capacity, requires a comprehensive, systemic human capital approach that strategically addresses not only teacher evaluation but also teacher preparation, recruitment, hiring, induction and mentoring, professional development, working conditions, and compensation.

It’s time to take the bird’s-eye perspective—creating a world-class Chicago teaching force—rather than the worm’s-eye perspective of striking a deal and getting students back in the classroom. At a national convening of state departments of education, Arne Duncan’s teacher quality advisor, Brad Jupp, called for statewide conversations among citizens about what the teaching profession ought to look like and how teacher evaluation reforms can serve as a launching point to help schools and the public to realize that vision.

Chicago researchers at American Institutes for Research, with colleagues from Public Agenda, have created a model and free online resource to help teachers spark these conversations in their schools (see www.EveryoneAtTheTable.org). Let’s start this conversation in Chicago—book clubs, community groups, and most importantly educators, should use this historic strike to spark a renewed conversation to shape the future of our teaching force and the future of our city.

The national wave of teacher evaluation reforms are playing out differently across the country, with the New York Times publishing an article on New York City’s “worst teacher,” and a Los Angeles teachers’ suicide even attributed to the outing of his students poor test scores. What mark does Chicago want to have on the nation—the largest strike, or the largest, most collaborative conversation about how to advance this most important of professions? 

Ellen Behrstock Sherratt is a researcher and policy associate at the American Institutes for Research in Chicago. An expert in teacher quality, she is a coauthor of Improving Teacher Quality and the forthcoming Improving Teacher Evaluation—With Everyone at the Table.

Allison Rizzolo is the senior communications associate for Public Agenda, a national research and engagement organization. She is also a coauthor of Improving Teacher Evaluation—With Everyone at the Table.

Both of us work with Everyone at the Table: Engaging Teachers on Evaluation Reform, a nationwide initiative to encourage teacher voice in the teacher evaluation policy dialogue.

But as educators deeply invested in the success of Chicago’s schools, we come away with very different lessons. We argue that teacher unions have in the past proven to be an essential voice in improving public education; that the recent strike has preserved that voice for Chicago’s teachers; and that unions must continue to serve as the teachers’ voice into the 21st century.

Throughout a century of disagreements with mayors over patronage, segregation, and unequal resources, organized teachers in Chicago have used their collective power to foster improvement in the public schools. The recent strike reflects this legacy, with the CTU taking a stand against charter schools and high-stakes testing. The spread of charters, on which Mayor Rahm Emanuel staked his position, has had exactly the same mixed results in Chicago as elsewhere:  Research consistently shows that overall, charters perform the same as, or worse than, comparable neighborhood schools while also increasing segregation along racial and class lines. Now, CPS plans to close up to 120 public schools and welcome 60 charters anyway.

Another central issue in this dispute was the use of student test scores to evaluate teachers. The rush to use standardized test scores, despite documented significant flaws, has been compared to early 20th Century IQ testing and the minimum-competency exams of the 1970s, both of which are now recognized by historians as having been racially discriminatory and bad for children and learning.

Many backers of these so-called reforms--including Rauner, CPS board member Penny Pritzker and the Gates Foundation--are politically connected and wealthy, and they are also generous donors to both local and national campaigns. Organized teachers provide a vision of public schooling grounded in the daily realities of children, communities, and schools that offsets this unequal distribution of power. Only one of the seven appointed members of the CPS Board of Education has any education experience. Unions support continued education and the sharing of best practices grounded in empirical research. In fact, the only research-based proposal to come out of this recent contract fight came from the CTU, which argued against the narrowing of the curriculum, more charters, and value-added evaluations.

It’s time to start trusting educators again. Teachers unions of the 21st Century can evolve to become as dynamic and diverse as learning.  Unions should collaborate with districts to put new tools of education, such as mobile computing, in the hands of all students. Teachers’ collaborative power will also be enhanced by bringing charter and “virtual school” educators into unions.  And, as we have seen too many smart people leave this profession out of frustration, unions can carve out new career ladders based on peer-certified mastery: mentor for aspiring and new teachers, master teacher to coach colleagues, online educator, and so on.

All of this takes time, and we have heard over and over again that our most disadvantaged students don’t have it. But we also need to stop treating education as if it is in crisis. The patient is not bleeding out; she has a chronic illness. There is a big difference between doing something—whether to please those demanding that something be done, or out of desperation for a solution—and finding the right thing to do.

It’s time to do the right thing for the children of Chicago and the United States.

Charles Tocci is a clinical assistant professor in the School of Education at Loyola University Chicago. Melissa Barton is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago as well as a teacher and union delegate in the Chicago Public Schools.

While boredom is a perennial student complaint, emerging research shows it is more than students' not feeling entertained, but rather a "flavor of stress" that can interfere with their ability to learn and even their health.

An international group of researchers argues this month in Perspectives on Psychological Science that the experience of boredom directly connects to a student's inability to focus attention.

Some physicians are prescribing stimulants to struggling students in schools starved of extra money — not to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, necessarily, but to boost their academic performance. Also, some experts note that as wealthy students abuse stimulants to raise already-good grades in colleges and high schools, the medications are being used on low-income elementary school children with faltering grades and parents eager to see them succeed.  (The New York Times)

According to federal data, more than 40 percent of students are nonwhite, compared to just 17 percent of teachers, and that mismatch appears to be on the rise. A California program aims to take on that  "teacher-diversity gap." (Education Week)

About 70 students marched out of Compton High School in Southern California Tuesday to protest recent budget cuts that have led to a failing school system that graduates students who can barely read and write. Topping their list of demands: hire more teachers and reduce class size. Some students report that the teacher student ratio is 60-to-1. (Southern California Public Radio)

Florida Gov. Rick Scott continued his new-found focus on education Tuesday, announcing that he would seek $2 million from next year’s legislature to finance a teacher training program. (Palm Beach Post)

Some of the best-looking Chicago schools these days have been the charter campuses built—with surprising frequency, as of late — by the United Neighborhood Organization, says architecture critic Lee Bey. (WBEZ)

Chicago Teachers Union officials are set to start counting the ballots that its members cast on whether they want to accept a proposed contract. (AP)

IN THE NATION
Education Secretary Arne Duncan made a careful effort Tuesday to smooth relations with teachers, saying the Obama administration understands that many educators feel besieged by the national push for new evaluations and faster improvements in student achievement. “I know some educators feel overwhelmed by all of this change,” Duncan said during a wide-ranging speech at the National Press Club in Washington. (The Washington Post)

Chicago teachers voted on a tentative contract agreement Tuesday as the battle over the future of the city's public schools ratcheted up with a large and boisterous rally in support of privately run charter schools. (Tribune)

CTU President Karen Lewis chose to vote on the teacher contract at Dyett High School, which is being phased out amid intense community resistance. Lewis refused to say how she voted and refused to call the contract a good one. (Catalyst)

Chicago public school teachers began voting on Tuesday on whether to ratify an agreement that suspended a seven-day strike. The union has urged its 29,000 members to ratify the proposed contract, which calls for an average 17.6 percent pay raise for teachers and some improvements in benefits. Union President Karen Lewis declined to say whether members would ratify the deal. "I don't have a crystal ball," she said. (Reuters/Tribune)

CORE membership urges 'Yes' vote on proposed CTU contract. (Substance News)

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke at the National Press Club Tuesday and addressed the Chicago teachers’ strike. Duncan, who was CEO of Chicago public schools from 2001 to 2009, declared the union’s action a success.
“I honestly think everybody won. No one wanted the strike, teachers didn’t want that, the administration didn’t want that,” he said.

Mayor Emanuel is making a $4 million investment in after-school and summer programs tailor-made to keep older kids occupied, off the streets and out of trouble. (Sun-Times)

They touted solutions favored by Advance Illinois and the state P-20 council, many of which are already under way: Expanding early childhood education and implementing a new state kindergarten assessment, improving teacher and principal training and evaluation, expanding community schools and career education, and improving struggling schools.

But questions about Rahm Emanuel's post-strike ad campaign -- as well as the effectiveness of Senate Bill 7, which was supposed to help prevent strikes, particularly in Chicago -- lingered over the gathering.

Robin Steans, executive director of Advance Illinois, said that the strike restrictions were just one small part of the overall reforms included in Senate Bill 7. Steans said the goal of the law was to encourage districts and unions to avoid strikes. But, she added, "there's a million reasons why strikes happen. It's bigger and deeper than only one piece of legislation."

When asked whether Advance Illinois would back legislation banning strikes outright, Steans said "it is too soon to have any thoughts or discussions about that."

[View the story "Education reformers set post-strike agenda" on Storify]

On Monday, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Peter Flynn declined to hold a hearing on the city’s motion for an injunction to “immediately” get students back in school, questioning why a hearing couldn't wait till Wednesday, when the strike could be over.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Sunday night that he was directing city lawyers to file for an injunction after union delegates decided to take a day to review the proposed contract. He called the strike "illegal" because of state law that prohibits Chicago teachers from striking over matters other than pay and benefits.

Meanwhile, delegates went out to their schools and talked to teachers about the deal that was presented to them Sunday afternoon. Several delegates say they were hearing from teachers that they felt comfortable going back to work on Wednesday and letting union leadership hammer out the details of the contract.

Susan Hickey, a delegate for clinicians, says the emphasis is on suspending the strike, not canceling it. “We trust the union leadership,” she says. 

When teachers went out on the picket line on Monday, some teachers were worried that the community would peel back support, says David Stieber, the delegate for Team Englewood High. But instead, a lot of people let the teachers know they are still behind them. 

After picketing, Stieber and his teachers went to a local library and gathered in a room to discuss the contract. At times, they even called union officials to ask specific questions. 

By the end, Stieber says he felt comfortable letting the process go forward, meaning he will vote Tuesday to suspend the strike and let the union leadership finish hammering out the details. Once the contract is written in full, all members will vote on whether to approve it.

Some delegates say they used the online service Survey Monkey to gauge the opinions of their colleagues, while others took formal votes. Jay Rau, a delegate from Benito Juarez Community Academy, says that he is going to leave his decision on Tuesday up to the staff.

“I will bring a ballot box Tuesday morning at the picket line,” Rau says. “I don't know how other people are going to operate, but that's what I am going to do. I am going to let the staff decide if they want me to do it or not.”

Adam Geisler, the delegate from Batemen Elementary, won’t take a formal vote or survey. He says he talked to his colleagues and told them that if they had any specific concerns or points he should bring up, they should call him. 

Adam Heenan, who is the delegate for Curie High School on the Southwest Side, says he spent Monday morning talking to his colleagues about what was won and what was given up.

He says one of the “clean” victories was the ability of teachers to file a grievance over their evaluation. Yet Heenan says teachers were upset that the union couldn’t win more of the items that would improve schools for students. 

“Nothing was in there as far as [smaller] class size for students, and they are still worried about the impact of testing on the school day,” he says.

Yet there is some recognition among teachers that the contract dispute might not be the right place to resolve these issues. 

“Some of them must be taken to Springfield and some to the Department of Education in Washington D.C.,” Heenan says. 

Stieber also says his teachers were disappointed that there was no promise of lowering class size and providing more services for students. On Tuesday evening, he will participate in community meeting in an attempt to get residents more engaged in fighting for these things for students.

Geisler, a delegate from Bateman Elementary, says members at his school were concerned about the wellness plan.  In the deal, CPS agrees to freeze health care contributions, which they originally attempted to increase.  In exchange, employees have to sign onto the city’s wellness program or pay $600 to opt out.

Move for injunction “not surprising”

The delegates say the move for an injunction will not sway them one way or the other. Yet they are upset about it. 

“It just shows we have a mayor who will do everything possible to fight against better teaching and learning conditions for students,” Heenan says. “Teachers will decide what is best for teachers and students.”

Dunbar Academy delegate Shari Nichols-Sweat agreed, saying “[The mayor] does what he does, we do what we do.”

Hickey says that the injunction was “not surprising.” “I think the CTU was half-expecting it,” she says. “They have been very careful about what we were striking for.”

Getting the injunction is not a straight forward issue. Emanuel and CPS are accusing the CTU for striking on issues that the state law does not allow them to strike on: job recall rights and teacher evaluation. They also say the strike poses a health and safety risk to students.

In a statement, CTU leadership says they believed CPS’ attempt to get an injunction was misdirected. Rather than the courts, CTU leadership says the district must file a complaint with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.  

John Brosnan, special counsel to the IELRB, says that the issue is not clear-cut. The law specifies that an employer can ask a judge to file an injunction if there is a clear and present danger to the public health and safety. Count two of the complaint asking for the injunction is based on CPS’ opinion that the safety of students is compromised by the strike. 

However, count one of the complaint alleges that the CTU is striking over issues that the law says they cannot strike over, and Brosnan says that complaint is under the jurisdiction of the IELRB.

Why is this relevant? The lack of air-conditioning in some schools is just one of the issues that have been raised by teachers in the current strike. In Track E schools, students were in non-air conditioned schools during several days of over 100 degrees and weeks of over 90 degrees. Were the kids there to actually learn, or to make the Board of Education feel good that they’re providing extended school hours for them?

The extended school day is another issue.  It's fine to say we need longer school days to meet current educational standards. It's not fine if you have no curriculum for those extended days-- no art, no music, no physical education, no recess.

Plus, everyone agrees that teachers should be evaluated. Teachers want evaluation so they can improve their teaching skills. But how do we know if a teacher is good? If kids like the teacher? Some kids don’t like good teachers because they enforce discipline and make them work. If the principal likes the teacher? Some principals play favorites, or penalize teachers who have spoken up about things that aren't going well. If the test scores go up? Surely test scores are unbiased data points, right?

Well, let's examine that. My kid’s school has great test scores. It also has great teachers, kids who are motivated, parents who are supportive, a new building, textbooks, computers, art and music classes, and PE. But take the same school, the same teachers and principal, and plop them down in a violent neighborhood, take away the selective enrollment, and what happens? Test scores go down. Are the teachers suddenly less qualified, less talented, less caring, and worse at teaching? No. The environment has radically changed. Introduce factors like poverty and crime, and suddenly it becomes very difficult to teach and for students to learn at the same rate.

Then what happens when a school “fails?” It's shut down, and likely re-opened as a charter school with non-union teachers. Undoubtedly, some charters are better than the schools they replaced—but overall, charters are no better.

Why disrupt neighborhoods, close schools and fire teachers just to open charter schools that perform no better?  Seems like the answer is 1) to bust the union -- the trend these days is very much towards blaming public sector unions for all our financial ills; and 2) turning public money into profit centers for individuals and corporations.

However, if you fire all the teachers, who will be left to teach? If you fire just the bad teachers, can you replace them all with good teachers? Or will you find mediocre teachers, compliant teachers, disengaged teachers, and call it an improvement? Who will go into teaching if the Board of Education and the mayor routinely put down the entire teaching profession and call into question their honesty, their commitment to their students, their quality as teachers? Who will go into a profession that demands constant continuing education if you are just told that your education and your degrees are worthless and you are paid too much?  And why is a middle-class income too much money to pay our teachers?

Failure of leadership, not teachers

When you talk to teachers, what you find is a deep anger over cuts in education funding and the feeling that the children are not being served well by the system. They argue that every school needs a social worker and a school nurse, and text books on the first day of classes, not six weeks in. They argue that the emphasis on testing forces them to teach to the test and to teach students how to fill in little circles on a form—not to teach them critical thinking, or creativity, or love of learning.  They argue that kids need art, because it unleashes creativity. They argue that kids need music and physical education, because these are lifelines for students who are otherwise drowning in the stress of their daily lives. They argue that no one should be expected to work 24% more per day and then take a pay cut. They argue that cutting health benefits means more sick days for teachers, more disruptions in the classroom. They note the major disrespect they feel from the mayor and his hand-picked Board of Education. They've been made to feel that they are at fault for everything that is wrong in the schools.

Meanwhile, Illinois is 50th in the nation in education funding. Let that sink in. And TIFs have been a major force in siphoning off money from education and into the hands of private developers, with little accountability for how those TIF dollars have been spent.

So perhaps the current situation isn’t all the teachers’ fault. Perhaps it is a major policy failure on the part of every single politician who has ever voted for a budget in the state, city, and county. Perhaps the appointed Board of Education is at fault for applying business models to education, with no basis in any research in education that has ever been done.

Perhaps the failure comes from the leaders, not the teachers.

Meanwhile, CPS parents have routinely seen their concerns dismissed by that same Board of Education. CPS parents have attended public hearings to argue forcefully against having their neighborhood schools closed, against sending their kids to other public schools and either placing them in unsafe environments or forcing them to travel through unsafe environments.  The board has consistently gone ahead with their predetermined plans for school closures, teacher dismissals, principal dismissal and the labeling of schools as “failures” even as significant improvements were being made.

For all these reasons, I think the mayor is just plain wrong and at fault for the current strike. I think he set out to demonize the teachers, imply they were overpaid and under-performing.  I think he wants to break their union so he can stop paying middle-class wages to public employees, and instead create profits for his friends in the charter industry.  I think he’s a Democrat in name only-- just like Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker, he wants to break all public unions, and the police and fire-fighters unions are next on the list.  He thinks he can get away with it—but here’s hoping that he doesn’t.  

Do non-union schools perform better? Richard D. Kahlenberg, writing for the New Republic, notes otherwise:

“The theory that a non-union environment, which allows for policies like merit pay, would make all the difference in promoting educational achievement never held much water. After all, teachers unions are weak-to-nonexistent throughout much of the American South, yet the region hardly distinguishes itself educationally. Indeed, the highest performing states, such as Massachusetts and New Jersey—and the highest performing nations, such as Finland—have heavily unionized teaching forces.”

Thank you to the Chicago Teachers Union for teaching us all this past week about what the real issues are, and what the "education reform" movement is all about.  We don't need Democrats who mimic Republican talking points on education or fiscal policy.

Melissa Lindberg is a CPS parent.

The teachers’ strike interrupted classes for a second week on Monday, days after teachers’ union leaders and public schools officials reached a tentative agreement that won only modest support among the union’s members during a weekend meeting. (The New York Times)

A statement from the Mayor's office said the strike is illegal because the union is striking over issues that are not strikable under state law and because it "endangers the health and safety" of children. (WBEZ)

Within an hour after CTU’s House of Delegates refused to vote to suspend the weeklong teachers’ strike, Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued a statement saying he has told city lawyers to ask a judge to force teachers to go back to work. (Catalyst)

With Chicago Teachers Union delegates voting to stay on strike at least through Tuesday, Mayor Rahm Emanuel Sunday accused the union of using children as “pawns’’ and vowed to seek a court order to halt the walkout. (Sun-Times)

Parents of Chicago Public Schools students have mixed reactions to a continuing strike in the nation's third-largest district. (AP/Sacramento Bee)

“We are still on strike,” teachers and their union president cried Saturday at a massive Chicago Teachers Union rally in Union Park, as negotiators hammered out the language of a possible contract a few miles away in the Loop.

NBC Chicago is reporting that union infighting lead teachers back to the picket line because one faction saw the tentative agreement as a "back room deal."

The city’s robust community-organizing movement has been a potent sister act for the CTU, writes Laura Washington in today's Sun-Times.

IN THE STATE
Lake Forest High School students are being told to report to school Monday morning despite an ongoing strike that has 150 teachers on a picket line. (ABC7News)

IN THE NATION
Tucson schools overhaul a program to help struggling Hispanic students. (The New York Times)

Last week, Emanuel had called the strike one of “choice” and hinted that he believed the union could not call a strike over teacher evaluation and recall rights—the two major sticking points in negotiations. 

A provision added to the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Act last year says Chicago teachers can strike only over pay and benefits. 

Emanuel also cited health and safety concerns for children as a factor in asking for an injunction.

“While the union works through its remaining issues, there is no reason why the children of Chicago should not be back in the classroom,” Emanuel said.

CTU spokeswoman Stephanie Gadlin responded: “They said the Montgomery bus boycott was illegal, too.”

CTU leaders have said they believe teacher evaluation and recall are linked to pay and are thus fair game for a strike. The  union also sought to insulate itself against a court injunction by filing an unfair labor practice complaint, just days before the strike. 

The basis of that complaint was the union’s charge that CPS started illegally implementing provisions that had not been negotiated in the contract, such as failing to pay teachers step increases and implementing a new teacher evaluation system. 

Filing an injunction is a risky move for Emanuel. If he loses in court, he would further anger teachers and make them more suspicious of the deal.  If he wins, forcing teachers to end their strike could anger members of other unions.

The emergency injunction will likely be filed Monday and could be heard immediately.

Vetting the deal

At the same time, teacher delegates will be meeting with their colleagues to gauge their opinion on the deal hashed out by the school district and union last week. The House of Delegates will come back together Tuesday afternoon where they will either vote to suspend the strike or reject the deal.

CTU President Karen Lewis had suggested the delegates would vote to end the strike on Sunday evening. But instead of the usual chants and cheers emanating from the union hall, a booming “no” could be heard several times.

Lewis emerged to say that delegates wanted to wait until Tuesday to vet the deal with members. Team Englewood Delegate David Stiber said the decision was made by having those in favor of waiting stand up and, while it wasn’t everyone, a clear majority rose. 

Stiber said he will talk to his colleagues and then survey them to see how they feel about the deal.

Lewis, who has come out of delegate meetings in the past strident or jovial, seemed subdued on Sunday night. At one point, she called the deal a “bad” one, but later she defended it, saying “it was the deal we could get.”

She noted that the district has financial problems and that curtailed the ability to push for certain things. The union had demanded more social workers, lower class sizes and air conditioners in every school, but the deal leaves these things out.

“They are not happy,” she said of the delegates. She said they aren’t satisfied with the agreements on teacher evaluation and recall and they wonder if they can win more concessions.

The “elephant in the room,” as Lewis has said, is the realization that CPS officials may well close 80 to 100 schools over the next few year—a move that could result in layoffs of thousands of teachers.

The deal hammered out provides some extra protections for teachers. Yet Lewis said her members are skeptical.

“There is no trust, by our members, of the board,” she said. “So you have a population who are frightened that they will never be able to work again.”

Further complicating the situation, both CPS and CTU have offered up their versions of the detail, which are not exactly the same.

Compensation and length of contract

CTU and CPS agree that the deal provides a 3 percent raise for teachers in the first year and 2 percent for the second and third year. The contract would be for three years, with an option for a fourth year by agreement, with a 3 percent raise.

CPS will keep paying step and lane increases for education and seniority. But the step structure will change to give greater value to those with 14 thru 16 years of experience. This will also save the district money.

CPS says paying for these raises will cost the district $74 million per year, considerably less than for the salary increases in the last two contracts.

CPS also dropped its attempt to increase contributions for health care. However, CTU agreed to have its members participate in the city’s wellness program. If someone opts out, he or she will have to pay $600 per year.

Recall

The union’s big win in this area is getting CPS to agree that half of its new hires will be displaced teachers. “This is the first time in history that CPS guaranteed jobs for displaced teachers,” says CTU lawyer Robert Bloch.

CPS emphasizes that principals will maintain the ability to hire whomever they want to teach in their school. “Principals will not be restrained by this goal,” according to a CPS fact-sheet.

So how will this work? Bloch says that on a given date of each year, there will be a determination of how many displaced teachers there were and how many were hired. If it is less than half, then CPS will make up the difference by taking the most senior teachers and putting them to work as long-term substitutes. Bloch points out that CPS will have a financial incentive to put these teachers to work.

Another win for the union is that teachers of closed schools will get to follow their students to the receiving school, if there vacant position.

However, CPS also would claim victory in this area, should the deal be approved. Layoffs would be based on performance first, then on status, with probationary teachers laid off before tenured. Also, teachers only get five months in the displaced teacher pool, not the 10 months they previously had.

Teacher Evaluat