This meeting was held in person. I arrived a few minutes late at 4:23 p.m. and the pre-meeting Question and Answer period had already begun.
Pre-meeting Q. and A.
-A delegate expressed her deep concern over the arrival of thousands of new immigrants and that the CPS did not have enough bilingual teachers to deal with them.
-One delegate said there has not been a vote by the faculty and staff in at least seven years about the bell schedule. He was told that his school has a number of students who get to and from school by bus. The transportation needs of these students requires the bell schedule that has been in effect for those years.
-Retiree Delegate Lou Pyster said that he doesn’t agree with the CTU’s process of transferring member’s dues to political donations. The contract already has provisions to voluntarily donate money to the Political Action Fund and that some members are totally opposed to make contributions to any candidates. He has no problem with that being used for lobbying, but endorsing candidates and making contributions are different.
-The Bell School delegate said the principal is using teacher prep time for meetings. It was suggested that this issue be taken up by the school’s PPC, but the principal can do this to a limited extent.
-A delegate was concerned that a meeting at her school went to 6:30 p.m. and there was no administrator there; that Board rules and the contract are unclear if there has to be an administrator present. She was told that Board rules require an engineer be present and an administrator if there is an emergency. Otherwise, a principal designee is all that is required.
The regular meeting convened at 4:52 p.m..
I. Officers/Administrative Reports A. Recording Secretary - Christel Williams-Hayes – If PSRPs are asked to cover a class, provide security or other actions outside of their job description, then those instances need to be documented as they are not legal.
B. Financial Report and Political/Legislative – Kurt Hilgendorf – Kurt reported that our revenues for the first six months are $475,606 more than expected while our expenses are $1,243,367 less than expected. That puts us about $1 million ahead of our budget.
Kurt is also our man in Springfield and he brought the following proposed Illinois legislation to the attention of the House:
HB 1120 – This bill requires charter schools to be neutral in any organizing action by their faculty and staff. It has passed the House and is now in the Senate.
SB 1646 – This would allow retired PSRPs to limited subbing without losing their pensions. Teachers have had this right for decades. It has passed the Senate and is now in the House.
-HB 3570 – This bill would require the State Board of Education to collect data on racial and socio-economic status of school employees. Chicago has done this for years and this bill would extend it statewide.
C. Financial Secretary – Maris Moreno – CTU membership is stable and stands at 27, 862, the highest it has been in years. Of that, 1,557 are retiree members.
Maria also weighed in on Brandon Johnson’s win. She said she thinks that there is a shift in attitude by the various CPS bureaucrats as they understand that a Mayor Johnson would want to be more collaborative rather than antagonistic in dealing with the CTU.
D. Grievance –Kevin Hough – 196 guest teachers were shorted $580 in their paychecks. CPS responded to correct this within 24 hours. Kevin hinted that the new administration coming into City Hall has prompted the bureaucracy to act quicker.
A grievance from 2018-19 from LaSalle II School that was approaching arbitration was also suddenly settled. Teachers who coached up to six soccer teams had been told that their coaching stipend would only cover two teams. The CPS gave in and agreed to give them all their pay. A P.E. teacher from LaSalle II said the CPS spent tens of thousands of dollars fighting this when just paying the teachers in the first place would have cost under $3,000.
Kevin reminded the delegates that votes in the schools on the 2023-2024 school schedule needs to take place. Things like the daily schedule, use of flex days, and the 15 minute prep times in elementary schools need to be discussed and considered.
Kevin also said that the transfer window is open from March 24 to May 8. Teachers do not need principal approval for transfers in this time frame. He added that PSRPs may transfer at any time without principal involvement.
REACH teacher evaluations observations must be done by May 19th. Any teacher that faces a layoff must be notified by June 9.
Lastly, Kevin reminded everyone that the teacher supply money must be spent before the end of the school year and reimbursement forms need to be submitted.
E. Charter Division –Jen Conant– Negotiations are ongoing in 12 charter networks. Teachers at the Acero school have authorized a strike vote, but no date has been set yet.
Last month, after the H.O.P.E. Learning Academy faculty and staff voted 47-0 to join the CTU, the H.O.P.E. Board immediately announced that they would close the school at the end of the year. Because they have aligned with the CTU, the CPS has agreed to make sure all of these teachers are guaranteed placement in the system. The parents there were encouraged to send their students to Brown Elementary next fall, which is located across the street from the H.O.P.E. facility.
F. Organizing report –Linda Perales– Linda reminded the delegates of the effectiveness and importance of the CTU’s Summer Organizing Institute for 2023. The institute will begin June 26 and end July 29. Deadline for applying is May 5 and PSRPs are encouraged to join in.
Over the Memorial Day weekend the CTU is planning programming with community organizations. Schools that already have some things planned include Austin, Carver, Michelle Clarke, Farragut, Dyett, and Roosevelt.
With the influx of asylum seekers into the City the CTU is asking for donated items. Contact: ctulatinaxcaucus@gmail.com if you would like to help.
At this point Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson showed up and addressed the audience. Among other things he said, “I am so glad that our movement is on the 5th floor of City Hall” and he thanked the officers of our Union for their help. He also said that now that we have gained some power there is great responsibility that has to be lived up to.
G. Vice-President – Jackson Potter –Jackson said the election of Brandon has had a direct affect on the bureaucracy of the CPS. He and a few others were invited to sit on a CPS committee to evaluate some possible health care and pharmaceutical plans. He also said the Board agreed to a new sick day rule for new hires. Before, they would earn one sick day for every month they worked until the end of their first year. Now, they will be credited with ten days from the beginning of the year.
Jackson also announced that there will be a Climate Justice Freedom School for students in June from June 12-23.
II. President’s Report –Stacy Davis Gates– Stacy kept her remarks very short and lauded Jared Scheinkier, CTU Field Rep, and Jordan Reeves, a Christopher House teacher, for the outstanding work they have done.
III. Items for Action
Presentation of the proposed 2023-2024 CTU budget.
Pres. Davis Gates said that for more than ten years the CTU has been guided by a “strategic plan” and that the proposed budget is based on that concept. She said a lot of our budget, 46%, is for constitutionally required “pass through” payments to the IFT, AFT, and so on. We usually get some of that returned in services from our affiliates but a lot is used to try to strengthen AFT locals in anti-union states like Florida and Texas.
The budget (always conservative) has expected revenues of $37, 290,404 and expected expenses of $34,056,663. The difference is hoped to be a surplus of $434,771. The remainder, $2,800,000, will be used for our strategic goals which include, money for the 2024 school board elections, $300,000 for the Sustainable Green Schools campaign, CTU New Organizing campaign, $300,000 for Education Revenue Campaign, $400,000 for the CTU Contract and a Hardship Fund, and $500,000 for the CTU Sustainability Fund.
Stacy also spoke about our current dues structure. Annual dues are 1% of a teacher’s salary on Lane 1, Step 6 and PSRPs pay 60% of that. She said the dues structure is inequitable and the CTU will look into re-structuring it next year which would require a constitutional amendment.
Almost all of the delegates who spoke on the proposed budget supported the idea. Frank MacDonald, Washington High, said that having a new “tiered” dues structure may lead to widely varying incomes over the years. If a larger than expected number of teachers, who theoretically would be paying higher dues, retired and are replaced by a larger number of new teachers paying less, the CTU could experience a large shortfall.
Another delegate from Ash (?) school said that we need to reconsider our dues as there has not been a dues increase in 20 years.
IV. New Business/Questions and Answers
Wendy Weingarten (LaSalle II) said that in upcoming contract negotiations we should consider getting the same deal as police and firefighters who can retire a lot sooner then we can.
Retiree Delegate Lou Pyster said that the CTU must explain its Strategic Plan in the proposed budget to make it more clear to the rank and file.
The Associate Delegate from Marquette strongly criticized those CTU members who filed an Unfair Labor Practice complaint against the CTU. They object to the Union taking some of the dues for the last three months of this fiscal year and putting it into the Union’s Political Action Fund. They lost before the Illinois Labor Board but now are in court still arguing about it, using a lawyer who was part of the (anti-union) Bruce Rauner administration. Pres. Davis Gates said this is dangerous as it may lead to a Supreme Court decision that may hurt us and other unions.
Quentin Washington (Sadlowski School) asked for the names of those individuals. As their names are part of the public record, the CTU lawyers read them out to the assembly. It was hard to hear but I believe two of the three are Phillip Weiss, a CTPF Board member, Mary Esposito and Froy Jimenez.
Jack Silver, Pension Committee Chair, said that he hosts a webinar every two months for retirees and active teachers.
The delegate from Englewood STEM is concerned that a PSRP feels that she doesn’t get much from membership in the CTU and perhaps should join SEIU instead. Christal Williams-Hayes, Recording Secretary and a PSRP, spoke of the direct benefits the Union has gotten for PSRPs and suggested that the CTU should set up some meetings for PSRPs to hear their concerns and inform them of what the Union has achieved on their behalf.
The meeting adjourned at 7:47 p.m..