Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat, and town public school officials walked out of the negotiating table again Friday amid a standoff on strategies to reopen the country’s third-largest district to peer learning after coronavirus shutdowns.
“Obviously we are deeply disappointed that the mayor has chosen to finish discussions and instead proceed to lock educators and shut down schools instead of work out our differences would be a understatement,” Sharkey composed in a announcement about the union’s site after depriving Lightfoot’s offer.
Lightfoot said separately that her strategy follows scientific and healthcare guidelines below the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the town’s Department of Public Health.
“We have to honor the tens of thousands of CPS parents — many of them Black and Black Latinx — that believe that their children need in-house schooling,” Lightfoot tweeted Friday. “Our strategy, endorsed by top public health specialists, gets children AND team back .”
She explained reopening schools had been”a moral duty.”
Chicago Public Schools were assumed to partially reopen for children between kindergarten and eighth grade Monday — but union leaders have urged educators to keep on working remotely before a deal has been reached.
Jackson noted Friday that the district spent over $100 million on health checks and personal protection gear, yet the marriage still won’t go back to work.
“Families want to return to college,” she tweeted. “CDC, CDPH, WHO, Academy of Pediatricians, Dr. Fauci, along with other major public health experts have said we could reopen schools together with mitigations in place”
