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CPS aims to reopen high schools April 19 pending ‘ongoing’ CTU negotiations
Pat Nabong/Sun-Times file photo
Chicago Public Schools officials will aim to reopen high schools at the start of the fourth academic quarter on April 19, the district announced Tuesday, even as ongoing negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union leave that target date unsettled.
A mid-April reopening would resume in-person high school classes for the first time in over a year and would match plans several suburban districts have set out over the past few weeks.
“Providing high school students the option to safely return on April 19 is a top priority for the district, and we will continue meeting regularly with CTU representatives as we strive to reach a consensus that provides the smoothest possible transition for our families and staff,” schools chief Janice Jackson wrote in a letter to families and staff.
Discussions with the teachers union have been productive, Jackson said, and the April date is one of “several concepts the parties have discussed.”
But in a statement Tuesday evening, the union said “we have no agreement,” criticized the district’s announcement as “more unilateralism” and accused CPS of distorting the status of negotiations.
“The mayor and CPS cannot set a date for return, then inevitably blame educators if any problems meeting that deadline arise. Instead, the district must work with parents, students, educators and all stakeholders in crafting a safe plan for high school return to in-person instruction,” the union said.
Read the full story from Nader Issa here.
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12:08 p.m. Will work from home outlast virus? Ford’s move suggests yes
DETROIT — It’s a question occupying the minds of millions of employees who have worked from home the past year: Will they still be allowed to work remotely — at least some days — once the pandemic has faded?
On Wednesday, one of America’s corporate titans, Ford Motor Co., supplied its own answer: It told about 30,000 of its employees worldwide who have worked from home that they can continue to do so indefinitely, with flexible hours approved by their managers. Their schedules will become a work-office “hybrid”: They’ll commute to work mainly for group meetings and projects best-suited for face-to-face interaction.
Ford’s announcement sent one of the clearest signals to date that the pandemic has hastened a cultural shift in Americans’ work lives by erasing any stigma around remote work and encouraging the adoption of technology that enables it. Broader evidence about the post-pandemic workplace suggests that what was long called tele-commuting will remain far more common than it was a year ago.
A report this week from the employment website Indeed says postings for jobs that mention “remote work” have more than doubled since the pandemic began. Such job postings are still increasing even while vaccinations are accelerating and the pace of new confirmed COVID cases is declining.
“If job postings are a guide, employers are increasingly open to remote work, even as some employees return to the workplace,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Indeed.
9:15 a.m. Trump Tower workers wrongly vaccinated by West Side hospital
The Loretto Hospital wrongly vaccinated 72 workers at Trump International Hotel & Tower last week at the request of West Side residents who work there and could not leave their jobs to get the vaccine, according to a hospital memo released Tuesday.
Hospital President & CEO George Miller also said in the memo that the Austin hospital was, at the time, “under the impression that restaurant and other frontline hospitality industry workers” were eligible for the vaccine in Chicago.
“I now understand, after subsequent conversations with the Chicago Department of Public Health, that we were mistaken,” Miller wrote.
Hospitality workers won’t likely become eligible for the shots until March 29, when the city expects to expand who can get the shots.
Miller made clear in his memo that the vaccines used at Trump Tower came from Loretto’s allotment and were not taken from an allotment that is part of the Protect Chicago Plus program. That program targets residents in 15 communities on the South and West sides identified as “high-need” based on the city’s COVID vulnerability index.
Loretto spokeswoman Bonni Pear also confirmed Tuesday that Loretto Chief Operating Officer Anosh Ahmed owns a unit in Trump Tower. However, she said she was told by Miller that the decision to administer vaccines in the building was “his and his alone.”
Ahmed couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Read the full story from Jon Seidel and Stefano Esposito here.
