This page includes:
- A synopsis of the District’s approach and strategy when it comes to these negotiations
- A list of 12 standing CPS and CTU subcommittees that will focus on specific topics
- Details on any bargaining sessions that will be held in public
- Various proposals provided by CPS throughout the negotiation process
We look forward to productive negotiations that will allow CPS and CTU to work together around addressing the challenges facing our District, and around our shared goal of providing all students with the robust, high quality education they need to be successful in college, career, and civic life.
We encourage you to visit this page regularly to learn more about our District’s approach to ongoing labor negotiations and to monitor the progress that is being made.
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Our District’s strategy throughout the negotiation process will be to remain fully student-centered, and to protect and build on the robust offerings that have led to CPS’ impressive academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. We want our educators to receive the compensation, tools, and resources they deserve, and our goal will be to achieve this in a way that is both sustainable and financially responsible for the District.
Our positions will reflect the values and priorities that will be outlined in the District’s new Five-Year Strategic Plan, and Continuous Improvement Data Transparency (CIDT) policy, both of which have been shaped by months of community engagement and are now being finalized by the District. We will also view every contract proposal through an equity lens, which means setting universal standards for every school, then using targeted supports to help students and school communities in every Chicago neighborhood achieve those standards.
This focus on improving equity can already be seen through this year’s new budgeting model, which provides all CPS schools with a District-funded clerk, counselor, and assistant principal, along with a set number of teacher positions to meet the unique needs of their students. These foundational resources are guaranteed across the board, no matter the size, type, or location of each school. Additional resources are then provided to schools based on need, which is measured largely by our District’s comprehensive Opportunity Index. This tool considers several economic, historical, and demographic factors to determine which school communities are furthest from opportunity.
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As part of the negotiation process, 12 standing subcommittees have been created to focus on specific topics. These sub-committees will review proposals from the District and CTU and work to reach a consensus recommendation that they can then bring back to their respective core bargaining teams. Below is the full list of the sub-committees and their topics below.
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Special Education/Itinerants
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Clinicians
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Students in Temporary Living Situations (STLS)
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Labor Management Cooperation Committee (LMCC)
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Bilingual Education
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Sustainable Community Schools
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Educator Evaluation/Educator Recruitment and Retention
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Green Schools/Climate Justice/Career and Technical Education (CTE)
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Class Size
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Early Childhood
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Article 10 Titles/Newly Accreted Groups
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Budget/Finance/TIF/Legislative
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July 30 Session
CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) will hold an upcoming public session focused on the student experience.
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Date: Tuesday, July 30
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Time: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
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Location: Mason Elementary, 4217 W 18th St
- Register: Registration will open on Friday, July 26, 2024, at 10 a.m. for those wishing to attend in person, limited to advance registration and room capacity.
- Watch: This session will also be broadcast on CPS’ YouTube channel.
June 14 Session
CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) held its first public bargaining session on Friday, June 14, 2024 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Marquette School of Excellence (6550 S. Richmond Street).
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Below are the District’s initial proposals to CTU. These proposals aim to comprehensively address several key areas, including:
- Streamlining the grievance process
- Mitigating the disruptive effects of mid-year teacher transfers on schools
- Clarifying distinctions between teacher-directed, principal-directed, and centrally-directed professional development
- Ensuring uniformity across schools in assessment and grading responsibilities
- Establishing baseline expectations for teachers and related service providers before, during, and after IEP meetings
- Revamping support for schools managing classes with a higher number of students
The following proposal represents the areas of proposed changes from CPS. The areas highlighted in blue represent CPS’ proposed changes. If an area is unmarked or unrepresented, no changes are proposed.
Additionally, CPS will post any CPS-created presentations and proposals discussed during public bargaining sessions for review by the public.
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Dear CPS Staff and Families,
We hope you are continuing to enjoy your summer, and that you’re beginning to get excited about our return to school on Monday, August 26!
We are reaching out to share the latest update on the ongoing negotiations between CPS and our partners at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), including details for two upcoming public negotiation sessions.
Tuesday, July 30:
- CPS and CTU will hold a public bargaining session at Mason Elementary School - 4217 W. 18th Street - from 5 - 7 p.m.
- The focus of this session will be “The Student Experience”, and will include presentations from both CPS and CTU on our values, vision, and approach to helping all of our students thrive.
Tuesday, August 13:
- This public negotiation session will be held at Morgan Park High School - 1744 W. Prior Street - from 5 - 7 p.m.
- The focus of this session will be “Finance”, during which CPS will outline our District's mission to ensure that every student has access to an equitable, high quality education while maintaining our commitment to fiscal responsibility.
How to Participate
For those who wish to attend the July 30 session in person, registration will open at 10 a.m. this Friday, July 26, and will close once the capacity of the school location is filled. You can access the registration form at this link once registration begins.
Note: The above registration link WILL NOT go live until 10 a.m. on Friday, July 26. Also, slots to attend in person are likely to fill up very quickly (i.e., in the first few minutes the registration form is open), so we strongly recommend logging on at exactly 10 a.m. if you’re hoping to attend the July 30 session in person.
All public negotiation sessions are also live streamed via the District’s YouTube channel.
An Update on our Progress
As we shared with you earlier this month, negotiation sessions are now increasing in both frequency and length, giving us the chance for more productive discussions on a range of important topics. Our July 10 session, for example, focused on the workload for CPS counselors, with CTU proposing what they consider to be an appropriate counselor to student ratio.
CPS believes deeply in the value of school counselors, which is why our new budget model not only centrally funds counselors in all buildings, but includes additional centrally funded counselors based on the needs of the student population. Over 200 CPS schools already meet the 1:250 student-to-counselor ratio proposed by CTU, with about half of these meeting an even lower ratio of one counselor for every 200 students.
Other topics of negotiation over the past few weeks have included assessments and grading, as well as teacher recruitment, retention, and evaluation. In addition to listening to CTU present on these topics, CPS has actively shared our own vision around each issue, including:
- The need for balanced, high-quality assessments that provide information about student progress and also identify early on if additional support is needed, thereby empowering our teachers to effectively advance student learning.
- Fair, consistent grading practices that provide students with the feedback they need along their academic journey, and that create opportunity for reflection and dialogue among students, parents, and educators.
- \Our strategy around attracting, developing, and retaining high-quality educators who reflect the rich diversity of our student population\
- Our desire for a teacher evaluation system that is fair, transparent, equitable, and efficient, and that recognizes and rewards teaching excellence while identifying those areas where teachers need support
CPS will continue negotiations the same way we began them - with a commitment to equity, and by ensuring that all decisions are made with the needs of students at the center. Our goal is to work together with our CTU partners to provide educators with the contract they deserve, all while staying true to our core values of academic excellence, continuous learning, and community partnership, and while embracing the duty we all have to manage our District’s funds responsibly.
I thank you for your interest in our negotiations process and encourage you to participate in the upcoming bargaining sessions outlined above. We will continue to provide you with updates on our progress, as well as important back-to-school information as we prepare for the first day of school on Monday, August 26.
Sincerely,
Pedro Martinez
Chief Executive Officer
Chicago Public Schools -
Dear CPS Staff and Families,
We hope you are having a safe and enjoyable summer! As we begin looking toward the new school year, we want to share an update regarding the ongoing negotiations between CPS and our partners at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).
Throughout the summer, we have been actively working with CTU in and beyond our formal negotiation sessions. A prime example is the support CPS is providing to teacher assistants whose positions were eliminated at the end of the 2023-24 school year. This was a personnel adjustment agreed to by CTU in a Memorandum of Understanding (i.e., a written agreement) with the District. However, CPS knows that these employees bring huge value to our schools, so has guaranteed that every teacher assistant impacted by this change will have a job with the District next school year.
Building on Our Recent Success
This support of our teacher assistants shows that CPS can do right by our employees while staying true to our values of equity, fiscal responsibility, and a rich, student-centered learning experience. We saw this again a few months ago, when our District reached a fair contract agreement with our partners at SEIU Local 73. Despite our severe financial challenges, CPS was able to provide fair pay raises to SEIU Local 73 members across the board, including historic salary increases for our lowest-paid employees. This milestone collaboration gives us great optimism about achieving similar success with our CTU partners.
Our Negotiation Timeline
Our contract negotiations with CTU began in April of 2024, which is when CPS first received more than 700 initial proposals from union leadership. Our previous collective bargaining agreement with CTU expired on June 30, 2024, and negotiations around a new contract would typically have started about a year in advance of that date. What this means is that our teams have a lot to get done on an accelerated timeline.
A timely, collaborative negotiation process is a top priority for CPS. Toward that end, we have assigned more than 60 staff, including principals, subject-matter experts, and leaders at all levels of the District to play a prominent role in these discussions.
CPS is also devoting an unprecedented number of hours to these negotiations. When this process began, CTU leadership suggested meeting once a week for two hours, with those meetings focused primarily on them presenting new proposals to the District. CPS agreed, and also recommended taking things a step further.
CPS proposed that our core bargaining teams host all-day negotiation sessions scheduled in July. Our CTU partners have agreed to this updated meeting schedule, which also includes moving to twice-weekly meetings beginning in August.
In addition, 12 subcommittees are also meeting to dive more deeply into specific negotiation topics, including bilingual education, budget and finance, special education, and green school initiatives. This structure of 12 standing subcommittees was proposed by CTU as part of this year’s contract negotiations, and was readily agreed to by the District.
The role of these sub-committees is to review proposals from both CPS and CTU, then reach a consensus that they can bring back to the core bargaining teams. These sub-committees have been meeting regularly, and are scheduled to provide a status update on their work by mid-August.
Update on Public Negotiation Sessions
When last we reached out to you, our teams were preparing for their meeting on June 14, which was the first-ever negotiation session to be held in public. This was a historic moment of collaboration between CPS and CTU, and a huge step forward in transparency for everyone who is invested in the success of our schools.
CPS remains open to additional public bargaining sessions, and we are continuing to work with our labor partners to finalize the details. To make sure we are bargaining in good faith, CPS has proposed a future schedule of public meetings that aligns with major initiatives being presented to the Chicago Board of Education this summer, including our FY2025 budget and our District’s new Five-Year Strategic Plan.
We are currently awaiting a response from CTU on protocols around future public bargaining sessions. CPS will provide another email update when those details are final, including information on how you can participate in these public negotiation sessions.
Our educators are our most valuable resource. They deserve fair compensation, along with an environment where both they and their students can thrive. Our goal is to create this environment in every CPS school. To be successful, though, we will need to come together around solutions that put the needs of our students first, and that are equitable, sustainable, and fiscally responsible for the long-term success of our District.
Thank you for your interest in this process. We want you to have a clear understanding of the work being done between the District and our labor partners, so will continue providing you with timely updates, including all details on future public negotiation sessions.
I hope you will continue to enjoy your time this summer, and I look forward to seeing everyone back in class on Monday, August 26!
Sincerely,
Pedro Martinez
Chief Executive Officer
Chicago Public Schools