Classes are set to resume Wednesday at Chicago schools as leaders of the city’s teachers union on Monday night approved a plan with the district over COVID-19 protections.
The two sides had been locked in a bitter fight that canceled classes for four days in the nation’s third-largest district.
Details weren’t immediately disclosed on the deal, which still requires approval from the union’s full 25,000 members.
“We know this has been very difficult for students and families,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said at Monday night press conference. “No one wins when students are out.”
School’s in the Windy City have been closed since last Wednesday when the union voted to switch to online instruction and told teachers not to show up in person as negotiations continued.
Key issues in the bitter fight revolved around metrics to close schools amid outbreaks and expanded COVID-19 testing.
District officials have argued that schools are safe and a return to remote-only learning is detrimental to students and their parents.
Rhetoric on the standoff grew testy over the weekend ahead of the district’s fourth day without classes on Monday.
Lightfoot blasted the union over their decision that forced the school closures.
“They abandoned their posts and they abandoned kids and their families,” Lightfoot said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday.
Chicago Teachers United president Jesse Sharkey countered with his own choice words, calling Lightfoot “relentlessly stupid,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
There are roughly 350,000 students in Chicago public schools.
With Post wires