The Chicago Teachers Union is urging Chicago Public Schools to push back its planned April 19 reopening of high schools for in-person classes because of emerging COVID-19 variants and rising case counts.
Jesse Sharkey, the president of the union, expressed concerns on Wednesday surrounding the spread of COVID-19 among children and teenagers in states neighboring Illinois, saying, “This is precisely the age of people in this city who, in states around the country, … are driving the surge in other places,” the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“We need to answer those questions in order to understand if it’s safe to open schools right now for the high schools,” Sharkey said.
The union, which claims to represent 25,000 people, also seeks a plan to vaccinate all eligible students immediately. Illinois residents over the age of 16, except those in Chicago, are eligible on April 12, while those in the Windy City can get a jab starting April 19.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot dismissed the union’s position during a Wednesday press conference and reaffirmed that the district will maintain the April 19 reopening date for high school students, citing “multiple” daily conversations with city Health Commissioner Allison Arwady.
Cook County reported a seven-day average of 1,218 cases on April 7, and the average has been moving steadily upward since mid-March. The Illinois Department of Public Health released data on April 1 showing that 276 cases of the variant known as B.1.1.7, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom, had been reported in the state.
CTU said public health conditions are getting worse to a point where elementary schools might have to shut down again, citing an agreement with the district. Elementary schools have been open since early March. Two out of three conditions of the union and the district’s agreement have already been met for districtwide closures, with the third being a 10% average citywide test positivity rate for the duration of a week. On Tuesday, Chicago had a 5.2% positivity rate.
“As part of that negotiation, in writing, we set forth a plan for when schools would open, but also, if the conditions warranted, when we would close — by classroom, by school, and by district,” Lightfoot said.
So far, 20 elementary schools in the district reported virus cases last week, with a combined 163 people in quarantine due to close contacts, according to the district’s webpage. Since classes resumed for some students in March, there have been 100 adults and 62 students who have tested positive out of 15,000 staffers and 50,000 students who have returned to in-person learning.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to CTU but did not immediately receive a response.
