HOD April

Report on the Meeting of the House of Delegates on April 7, 2021

By George Milkowski

Please note:  Normally, I have a chance to look over the agenda, proposed resolutions and other items that will be considered at House meetings a few hours beforehand.  However, for some unknown reason, that material was not available to me today and so I was often trying to read and take notes at the same time so I probably missed a lot more information than normal.

Because of the COVID 19 pandemic, this meeting was conducted as a webinar via a video conference

The meeting began at 4:36 p.m..

I. Officer Reports

A. Recording Secretary Christel Williams-Hayes – The AFT is conducting a conference for PSRPs on April 23-24.

Christel lauded Whitney Young as that school raised over $3,000 for the GoFundMe site which has raised money for those Union sisters and brothers who were denied their pay for refusing to go into the school buildings in January.

B. Financial Report Kathy Catalano – Kathy said that our income is about $1 million dollars more than expected due to the increased membership.  After “pass throughs” to the IFT and the AFT, the CTU has $453,256 more than what was budgeted.  There were some additional costs due to the pandemic and the legal arguments with the CPS over re-opening but we should end the fiscal year with some surplus.

C. Recording Secretary Maria Moreno – Our membership is up again, this time by 37 members and currently stands at 28,348, of which 1,782 are retiree members.  

    Maria announced that there are three vacancies on the Executive Board and nominations to fill those positions will be taken at the May House meeting and voting to fill them will take place at the June House meeting by delegate members of the respective functional groups.

D. Vice President Stacy Davis Gates  - Stacy said that Gov. Pritzker signed the legislation to fully restore our bargaining rights which have been constrained since 1995.  She lauded the Lewis-Sharkey administrations for developing strong ties with communities that helped us get pressure on the CPS and politicians to successfully work around the constraints,

II. President’s Report – Jesse Sharkey

Pres. Sharkey said that the pandemic has made things hard for the CTU.  He said that the restoration of our bargaining rights through repeal of the 4.5 Amendatory Act was due in part to a smart legislative strategy that showed our influence in the political arena.  We didn’t always win, but we were able to get the attention of the politicians even when we lost.

As to the re-opening of the high schools, Jesse reported the CTU received its first written proposal from the CPS right before the spring break.  He stressed that high schools cannot have “pods” as in grammar schools so no one should expect every school to have all students attending every day.  Also, in a few cases, there are schools with no students attending so he wants those faculty and staff members to continue to work from home.  He is concerned about a new COVID 19 surge and new variants of the disease.  He has asked for a one week delay in the proposed April 19 re-opening that the CPS wants.  The Memorandum of Agreement already reached regarding the grammar schools cites conditions as to what the infection rate is, how long it has been going up and the percentage increase in the COVID.  As of now there is no agreement between the Union and the CPS.

III. Item for Action

A. Resolution calling for Anti-Racism and Culturally Sustaining Curriculum as a school priority to be sought by LSCs and PPLCs.  It passed 93% to 4% and about 4% abstaining.  I voted yes on this.

B. Another resolution passed expressing CTU Solidarity with all Asian Americans.  This passed with 98% and I voted yes on this, too.

C. The next resolution, Support for Empowering Communities for Public Safety Ordinance, also passed 89%-7% with 4% abstaining.  I spoke in favor of this and voted for it,

D. A resolution on High School Bargaining passed with a 75% “yes” vote.  I was part of that 75%.  This set our formal position asking for a delay in the re-opening of the high schools and also would help gather information and demands for re-opening of schools in the fall.  

E. A resolution listing Union Wide Special Education, Pre-K, Itinerant and Clinicians Re-opening Priorities passed with a 97% vote.  I voted “yes” on this, also.

IV. Department/Committee Reports

A1. Organizing – Rebecca Martinez – The CTU has trained 400 delegates in how to serve on the new school safety committees.

B. Grievance report – Thad Goodchild – Thad is one of the CTU lawyers.  He said the CPS will extend remote teaching for faculty and staff who are pregnant or nursing.  He added that teachers in high risk categories are expected to return to the school two weeks after they get their second vaccination shot.

C. Political/Legislative - Kurt Hilgendorf – Kurt happily announced that, after a 26 year lapse, the CTU’s bargaining rights have been fully restored when Gov. Pritzker signed the bill on April 2.  He said there is still more work to be done.  HB 2908, the bill to establish an elected representative school board in Chicago passed out of committee and is now on the House floor for a vote.  The same is true for HB 114, the Charter Schools Neutrality Agreement Act.

Kurt also announced that 91% of the Cook County Democratic ward and township committeepersons voted to support the elected school board bill.

D. CTU-ACTS – Chris Baehrend – Chris reported that re-opening agreements have been reached with the Acero and Passages schools; all based on the Agreement reached by the CTU and the CPS.

Chris also said that the CTU membership will grow as the teachers at Christopher House, Intrinisic, and Association House charter schools have signed cards to join the CTU.

E. Testing – Paula Barajas – Paula reminded the delegates that there are only a handful of standardized tests that are required by law.  She said the CPS’ move to add more needs to be resisted, especially with so much lost learning time caused by the pandemic.

V. New Business/Questions and Answers

Frank MacDonald, Washington High, motioned that members who serve on safety committees be paid at least two extra hours per week.  He said that they would have to do their safety committee work on their own time.  Jesse referred the motion to a committee.

Moselean Parker was told by her principal that teachers must return to the buildings for report card pick up although there will be no parents or students there.  Jesse will contact the CPS about this.

Wendy Weingarten, LaSalle II, said that some pods at her school are larger than 15; that their size is determined by the amount of space in a room.

Shemeka Elam, Grimm School, said that the principal is using Wednesday’s for professional development instead of it being used for prep.  Jesse said that it should be brought up with the PPC and that unless the principal is banking the prep time, this is a violation of the Agreement.