CTU Welcomes Back Delegates at HOD Aug. 30 Meeting
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) welcomed back the delegates at the first House of Delegates meeting August 30, 2023 for the new school year.
The beginning of the meeting is always a question and answer period in which delegates from all over the city fire questions at the officers who address each one. Their questions included addressing class size issues, health care insurance that does not cover flu or other vaccinations, and when to complete safe school trainings.
I perked up (full disclosure: I am a delegate from Hammond School) when the delegate from Whitney Young High School asked if there was a provision in the teacher’s contract that would address abusive parents harassing teachers, including filing lawsuits (not clear who was suing whom). President Stacy Davis Gates referred the delegate to the nearest field rep.
Gates said the Professional Problems Committee (PPC) is a very important democratically elected body the schools have to work out problems in the schools before filing a grievance if the contract is violated.
Many teachers and other CTU members, including myself, read the names and remembrances of teacher colleagues who passed away over the summer, including a 53-year-old kindergarten teacher and a few students. This was one of the longest number of names read that I can remember. CTU Director of Organizing Rebecca Martinez spoke with tears in her eyes about the passing of Solario High School teacher Rigoberto Padilla Perez, an activist who fought valiantly for migrant rights, started a Dreamer’s Club to support undocumented students and was himself fighting deportation. Like former CTU President Karen Lewis, Perez died from brain cancer. “He pushed the boundaries of what’s possible,” Martinez said. “Our hope is we can live up to the vision he set.”
Gates said it is important to acknowledge the land the CTU headquarters is standing on which represents the Council of 3 Fires, the sixth largest Indian community in Chicago.
Political Director Kurt Hilgendorf made the budget report short and sweet - the CTU is $1.1 million over budget.
CTU Director Grievance Dept. Ziedre Foster said there was a Dunbar High School teacher who has taught for 40 years and just successfully fought an unsatisfactory rating in 2017, which included the principal taking over 5 months to file the post-conference evaluation results. I remember when I first started teaching at Holmes Elementary Schools seeing Ms. Trybula, a 40-year teaching veteran, who would discuss each morning with a sparkle in her eyes her students like it was her first year.
The CTU said teachers can donate up to 10 sick days to a colleague who has used up all their sick days when they are on an extended medical leave.
Over 200 new teachers were hired to address overcrowded classrooms, including one class of 39 kindergarteners. Class size is limited to 28 in the primary grades and 31 in the upper grades.
The Charter Chair Jen Conant said the union is currently negotiating a series of contracts that included elevating teacher pay to be the equivalent of CPS teachers, but there are 4 more charter schools that are not settled, including ChiArts, which cut 30 percent of its arts programming and layed off many teachers. The programming was restored, but a strike could come in September if an agreement is not reached.
Hilgendorf said in his legislative report that CPS employees cannot run in the upcoming School Board elections to be a trustee. He touted a bill that mandates charter schools will have to be nuetral when workers talk about organizing a union (Amazon among others are notorious for holding anti-union meetings and pressuring its workers to not vote for a union).
CTU Vice President Jackson Potter said it is important to decrease the dependance on outside vendors who are “ripping off the public” and said the city plans to hire unionized bus drivers and engineers. He also mentioned the increase in the number of CTU members, from 25k a few years ago to 31k today. Potter pushed the delegates to talk to their legislators to be the first state to kill a voucher bill (Invest in Kids) that former Mayoral candidate Paul Vallas supported where parents could take CPS money earmarked for a school and spend it on a private school that could discriminate against certain students.
“We’re inheriting a damaged system,” Potter said, referring to a period of time when the rulers united to destroy public education and teachers unions via Ren2010 and Race to the Top that culminated in closing a whopping 50 schools in 2013 under Mayor Rahm Emanuel (Mr. 1%). He said it is important to foster an anti-racist curriculum, and although there are problems with the Skyline curriculum, there are good parts teachers can use.
CTU attorney Robert Bloch said a judge ruled in the union’s favor by finding Lisa Schneider Fabes, a Wilmette-based consultant, and her fake Chicago Teachers United illegally interferred in the CTU’s internal elections. The judge ruled that this group created under Mayor Lori Lightfoot must disband and no longer interfere in union elections, plus pay CTU’s legal costs.
President Gates told delegates that the upcoming contract campaign can “transform Chicago” and the potential is limitless. She also said there were 13 new migrant students enrolled at Nicholson Elementary School in Englewood, yet no one on staff speaks Spanish. (My note: The city should coordinate the migrant students to fill under-enrolled Hispanic schools on the Southwest side with full bilingual services!)
“Things we don’t need, Skyline, things we do need, a TA,” Gates said as a loud cheer arose in the ranks of more than 400 delegates. She also mentioned the Sterling Bay controversy when the CTU had six members arrested protesting the unfair TIF tax dollars supporting a wealthly private development. The Chicago Teachers Pension Fund just announced that they will not invest in the Sterling Bay Lincoln Yards development!