Jan HOD

Report of the Meeting of the House of Delegates, January 11, 2023

By George Milkowski

I. Officers Reports

A.  Recording Secretary - Christel Williams-Hayes – Christel’s report was very brief.  She announced that the CTU will be hosting a rally for Brandon Johnson on Monday, January 16, at the CTU building.  The building will open at 9:00 a.m. and a continental breakfast will be provided.  The rally will start at 10:00 a.m. and at 11:00 participants will engage in door knocking and phone banking.  To register, go to: www.ctulocal1.org/mlk

B. Organizing report –Chris Baehrend – Chris urged the delegates to set up union meetings in their schools.  They can contact the CTU to ask Union organizers to attend those meetings.

Chris said the CTU has been supportive of the three day strike by health care workers at Howard Brown Services.  He also mentioned the UIC workers may be on the picket lines next week and we will be backing them, too.  He also said that CPS has billions of unspent dollars that are available for school repairs and we need to be vigilant in pressuring the Board with our Green Schools campaign to use them.

Chris reported that the Grassroots Collaborative is planning a mayoral forum at the New Mt. Pilgrim Baptist Church, 4301 W. Washington on January 26.  This is a Peoples’ Unity Platform event. To register to attend and to be a part of the CTU contingent, go to: www.ctulocal1.org/pup.

C. Financial Report – Kurt Hilgendorf – Kurt said that we are now getting a steady revenue stream and that an unexpected deficit of just over $389,000 is due to a problem in getting some money rebated from the AFT and the IFT.  This should be corrected by next month.

D.  Financial Secretary – Maria Moreno - Union membership is at 28,783, up over last month and retiree membership is up to 1,691.

Maria announced there are some vacancies in Citywide positions and there will be a Zoom meeting on February 22 for members in the various Citywide groups to nominate members to fill those positions.

The Executive Board Retiree Vice President’s position will be filled by an election by retirees.  Ballots will be mailed to your home starting January 17 and need to be returned by February 14.

E. Charter Division – Stacy Davis Gates – Due to an illness Stacy Davis Gates and Jen Johnson made the report.  They lauded the involvement of charter teachers in a tailgate party before a Bears game in December.   They also said that bargaining sessions with the different unionized charter schools is increasing as their contracts will be expiring soon.  They are seeking improved pay and benefits but also more special ed teachers and 12 weeks of paid family leave.  The paid leave was something the CPS was planning on giving to everyone but apparently Lori Lightfoot stepped in and put a kibosh on it.  Remember, the charter school accomplishments will be a precedent for our bargaining that will begin next year.

F.  Vice-President – Jackson Potter – Jackson lauded the teachers at McClellan School who refused to back down when they discovered lead in paint that was chipping in many parts of their building.  They were able to compel the CPS to spend $35,000 to take care of the problem over the winter break.  It is estimated that about 80% of the schools have this problem and problems with asbestos, leaking water pipes and so on.  The CTU will distribute Lead Testing Kits on January 19 thanks to the work of the CTU Climate Justice Committee.  As mentioned earlier, the CPS has billions of dollars in money available for the remediation of problems like this.

Jackson said the CTU is working to get students involved in violence prevention.

Regarding 12 weeks paid family leave Jackson gave details on the turn of events that has temporarily stopped the CPS from extending this benefit to everyone.  The Mayor had unilaterally extended it to City workers, 25% of whom are women, but she said the CTU, which has about 75% of its members being female and in more need of this perk, has to bargain for it.  

Since the CPS doesn’t always live up to the law regarding special ed students, the CTU will conduct a training session on January 12 on how to file a complaint with the Illinois Board of Education on this issue.

We still need to be aware of the COVID pandemic.  A new, more transmissible variant, XBB1.5, is on the East Coast and so far has not appeared in Chicago but that will only be a matter of time.  

G. Political/Legislative – Hilario Dominguez – CTU member said endorsed mayoral candidate Brandon Johnson is tied for first in the most recent polls.  He and two other CTU members/candidates, Liz Torres (36th Ward) and Muize Bawamy (50th Ward) were on the CTU’s recent podcast. Go to; www.ctulocal1.org/podcast to hear what they had to say.  Early voting at the supersite begins January 19 and in the Wards it begins February 13.

H. Grievance – Jim Staros – More than a year and a half ago the CPS ordered school clerks to go into their buildings while teachers stayed out.  Some refused to do so and lost pay.  The CTU took their cases to arbitration and the arbitrator ruled that they are to be treated equally as teachers.  Those who had been penalized where made whole.  One received a check for $32,000

I. Honoring Teachers – Georgia Wallace – The CTU honored two guest teachers; Sir Daniel Lee of Hammond School and Letitia Salamone of Sauganash School.

II. President’s Report –Stacy Davis Gates– Stacy spoke about the National Board Certified Teachers program.  She said about half of the current enrollees in the program are people of color.

Stacy spoke at length of the need for everyone to get Brandon Johnson elected to the Mayor’s office.

III. Items for Action

A.  The CTU endorsed four more people for alderperson.  They are: Victoria Alvarez (15th Ward), Ronnie Mosley (21st Ward), Denali Dusgupta (39th ward) and Nick ward (48th Ward).  I voted “yes” on this

B.  The House voted to approve a “Resolution in Support of National Paid Family Leave”.  It passed 99%-1%.  I voted “yes” on this, too.

        C.   The Executive Board proposed a change in the schedule for the upcoming House meetings.  In August we approved a proposal to meet in-person except in January, February, and March.  The E Board proposal would have us meet in-person in February and March and via computer in May and June.  The rationale given was that we need to be in-person for our meetings around the City elections.  (Eboard members) Karen Soto (Waters School) and Bessie Tsitsopoulus (Citywide) argued in favor of this.  Marissa Sidler, Beth Eisenhower (Citywide) and Doris Zughoul, an immuno-compromised delegate, argued against it.  I also had a chance to speak and I argued against it, also.  Besides the obvious arguments about the generally bad weather in the winter and the increased contact with COVID, flu, and RSV still a being problem I pointed out that CTU budget is presented in May and then voted on in June.  It would be difficult to approve a budget if delegates could not meet face to face a to discuss aspects of it.  It is true that we have approved previous budgets via computer in the past few years, but that was because we faced the emergency of the COVID pandemic and that situation has improved.  I voted “no” and the measure failed 60%-40%;

IV. New Business/Questions and Answers

Jasmine Eisner (Armstrong School) motioned to have the March meeting be in-person.  One delegate, Natasha Carlson, (Cameron School) argued against it preferring that we have a hybrid meeting.  I voted in favor of this amendment, but it failed 56%-44%.

Natasha Carlson also expressed concern over the elimination of sanitation wipes  from the schools that occurred over the winter break.  This was an issue the CTU is aware of and has already approached the Board about it.  They expect to receive an answer as to why this happened tomorrow.

The meeting adjourned at 7:39 p.m..