CHICAGO — The head of Chicago Public Schools said Tuesday he does not anticipate a teacher work stoppage from the upcoming removal of the districtwide mask mandate, even as the Chicago Teachers Union swiftly vowed to fight the decision.
During an online question-and-answer session, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez attempted to tamp down concerns of another heated labor dispute, in response to a question on whether lifting the CPS mask requirement violated the city’s COVID-19 safety agreement with the union.
In his characterization of ongoing CPS-CTU relations, Martinez said: “I feel there’s more agreement than disagreement.”
“We’re going to continue to work with CTU; they’re a valuable stakeholder for us, a valuable partner,” Martinez said. “I don’t anticipate more serious consequences in terms of work stoppages, but we will continue to work together.”
But CPS’ announcement this week that it will make masks optional for students and staff members starting Monday has already spurred not just an unfair labor practice complaint from the teachers union — which has decried it as an unilateral violation of its January COVID-19 safety agreement — but also outcry among some parents and an alderman who called the move racist.
Indicative of the union’s distrust of CPS leadership, CTU Vice President Stacy Davis Gates called Martinez’s claims that the parties agree more than disagree “a big, fat slap in the face when you unilaterally cancel an agreement that you just made.”
During Tuesday’s online forum, Martinez and public health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the decision to lift the mask mandate in CPS was based on the city’s success in beating back the omicron surge and landing at lower COVID-19 transmission risk in recent weeks.
Arwady said if the city returns to a medium level of community spread, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s newest three-tier system, the district will likely recommend masking for unvaccinated students. Should the city move up to the high level of risk, the school mask mandate would return.
Martinez also acknowledged that his reasoning for mask removal partly stems from a lawsuit filed by downstate attorney Thomas DeVore, who has won recent victories in his challenges of Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s COVID-19 school policies. Martinez said he feared if the district continued the mask mandate, they could get tangled up in the ongoing litigation and lose broader powers to respond to the pandemic.
“We were concerned about some of the legal challenges, that they could take that authority away from us,” Martinez said.
During an online event Tuesday morning hosted by the group Activate Chicago Parents, however, Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, called the lifting of the mask rule “irresponsible.”
“But more that,” he continued, “it is racist. When we see the levels of vaccination in our communities — and I’ll tell you, as someone who represents the vast majority of residents in Black and brown communities — less than 50%” of CPS students are fully vaccinated.
CTU’s governing body — the 600-member House of Delegates — is scheduled to meet Wednesday, a date that was already on the books before CPS’ masking announcement.
It’s unclear if the House of Delegates will take action in response to the CPS masking change.
“I don’t know. They just took action. Why in the hell do we have to keep taking action?” Davis Gates said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We’re not wrong. The only safety policies that we’ve had in this district are the ones our members sacrificed for. The mayor doesn’t have a safety plan. Her doctor doesn’t have a safety plan. The CEO doesn’t have a safety plan. Hell, the Board of Education just reaffirmed the use of face coverings in schools just two weeks ago. They don’t have a plan.”
Davis Gates said CTU members are “pissed off and exhausted” in the wake of the mask announcement.
“Monday, we will struggle. We have immunocompromised students. Are they going to open up the Virtual Academy for those kids? We have immunocompromised workers. Are they going to provide telework accommodations for them?” Davis Gates said. “People sacrificed for an agreement that they signed, and Thomas DeVore said, ‘Hold on for a minute.’ And the mayor of Chicago said, ‘Sure, Thomas,’ while ignoring Black parents and families, while ignoring Latinx parents and families. She did not privilege any community outside of Mount Greenwood.”
A minor dust-up during the parent group’s news conference Tuesday demonstrated how volatile the topic of masking can be.
Bridgett White, parent of two CPS students, decried the district’s decision as prioritizing the economy over public health.
“A pandemic does not go away just because you want it to, just because you’re tired of it. The numbers were rising just after Christmas break. We were at the highest that we were almost at the beginning of the pandemic,” White said. “The numbers began to go down, and we are just a few weeks out from that. You don’t pull the masks just because people are tired of wearing the masks.”
Several parents echoed White’s concerns during the virtual event for Activate Chicago Parents, a group that has been calling on the district to increase COVID-19 safety protocols and to institute a student vaccine requirement for the upcoming school year. But one woman who identified herself as a CPS substitute teacher worried that in light of the change in the masking policy, CTU members would again refuse in-person work, as they did in January, which prompted the district to cancel classes for five days.
“We are causing fear in our children that’s (misplaced), and the parents are doing it to the kids, and the teachers are doing it to the kids,” she said. “It’s wrong. There’s nothing wrong. If you want to go to school wearing a mask, wear your mask. If you want to have remote learning, you have an option, homeschool.”
Dr. Howard Ehrman, a medical professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and former city health official, criticized CPS’ COVID-19 mitigation strategies, including its weekly testing program that weathered many delays. He said the district’s vaccination efforts have been poorly organized.
“Don’t make this soundbite either the pandemic’s over or this is a mild disease. This is not a mild disease,” Ehrman said.
The substitute teacher interjected as Ehrman spoke, and then she disappeared from the call.
“I don’t split hairs. Let me be clear, and I’m sorry this woman left,” parent Jesù Estrada said. “We cannot control when the CTU goes on strike. What we’re calling for are specific days where we have sick outs. This is the only time that the mayor has actually sat with parents, is when we had the one sick out.”
As for the CTU’s unfair labor complaint, a representative for the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board said an investigator has been assigned to look into it. It’s possible the investigation could be completed this week, and the complaint could land on the agenda for the board’s monthly meeting, scheduled for March 16.
Meanwhile, DeVore said Thursday’s hearing on his request for a temporary restraining order against CPS with regards to masks will no longer be necessary since the district is relaxing its rules. His litigation against scores of Illinois school districts is still pending, and he said he is prepared to take action if the children of his clients are forced to stay home from their CPS schools because they tested positive for the virus or if they are unvaccinated and came in contact with an infected person.
“As soon as they try that, we will absolutely drag them back into court,” said DeVore, who represents about half a dozen CPS parents, with 100 to 120 more CPS parents prepared to join his efforts.
Martinez and Mayor Lori Lightfoot defended the district’s lifting of the mask mandate Monday by pointing to declining CPS and Chicago case numbers and low test positivity.
The Chicago Board of Education reaffirmed CPS’ mask mandate just two weeks ago, at its February board meeting, saying the student vaccination rate varies widely between the hundreds of CPS schools. About half of age-eligible CPS students and more than 91% of district staff are fully vaccinated, according to CPS data.
For students who are medically vulnerable, Martinez said the district will “find ways” for them to learn with accommodations, such as remote learning.
Illinois recently ended its statewide school mask mandate to align with guidance from the CDC, and Chicago lifted the requirement for most public spaces as well.
During Tuesday’s “Ask Arwady” session, the city’s top doctor also chimed in with her views on the relationship between the city and teachers union, delivering a pitch for cooperation and to “follow the science.” She said she was “worried” about society’s fraying trust in certain professions such as doctors, government officials — and teachers.
“We’ve also seen trust of teachers drop a lot and that just hurts me,” Arwady said. “It’s so critical that we together are rebuilding the trust that society has in our workforces, in the people who educate our kids. … What does that mean? That means working, I hope, together.”
Bob Bruno, a University of Illinois labor professor who wrote a book about the 2012 CTU strike, said the union has a “pretty good case” before the state labor panel because of the January safety agreement.
The two sides will “fight in front of the board, but I think they will continue to figure out how to get into this next phase (of the pandemic) in a way that works for both parties,” Bruno said. “Now whether or not it contributes to further long-term grudges? Well, I guess that remains to be seen, but I think they’ll figure it out.”
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