Mayor Rahm Emanuel seemed shocked at the decision, as he has described the negotiations between the two warring factions, the Teachers Union and the Chicago Public Schools as “close.”
CTU President Lewis concedes that there had been progress: “Talks have been productive in many areas. We have successfully won concessions for nursing mothers and have put more than 500 of our members back to work. We have restored some of the art, music, world language, technology and physical education classes to many of our students. The Board also agreed that we will now have textbooks on the first day of school rather than have our students and teachers wait up to six weeks before receiving instructional materials.”
However, teachers desired a better evaluation system as the current one will lead to scores of fired teachers Karen Lewis said. “Another concern is evaluation procedures. After the initial phase-in of the new evaluation system it could result in 6,000 teachers (or nearly 30 percent of our members) being discharged within one or two years. This is unacceptable.”
Mayor Emanuel called a news conference late Sunday at the Harold Washington Library to address the strike he deemed “not necessary.”
“I believe this is avoidable because this is a strike of choice,” Mayor Emanuel said.
Mayor Emanuel and Karen Lewis have had a difficult time seeing eye to eye as the talks dragged on, thus Mayor Emanuel had a representative sit in on the negotiations on his behalf. Just last week, Mayor Emanuel was delighted about the first day of school, he said, “…now have a full school day and a full school year that measures up to their full potential.”
