Despite optimism from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Chicago Public Schools have canceled classes for Monday as negotiations continue with the Chicago Teachers Union.
Lightfoot reiterated on Twitter Sunday, the fourth day of the teachers strike, that some progress with the Chicago Teachers Union has been made since Saturday, remaining hopeful CTU will "bring this process to a fair and responsible end," and alluding to a a deal being reached in the near future.
"While we continue to bargain in good faith and have made progress, we still have not received full, written counteroffers on class size or staffing – the two core issues that CTU has identified as being essential to resolve in order to reach an agreement," she tweeted Sunday afternoon.
Lightfoot said the city received a partial counteroffer on class size, after having updated their end of the offer on Thursday, "and we have yet to receive a counter to our updated offer on staffing, which we put forward on Friday," she went on to say.
"We are hopeful that CTU will meet that pace today so we can bring this process to a fair and responsible end," she added.
Chicago parents leaned on family, friends and community groups as 25,000 teachers in the nation's third-largest school district went on strike this past week, canceling classes for more than 300,000 kids.
Lightfoot on Saturday however, said that she would be "very surprised" if school resumed on Monday. Classes were canceled on both Thursday and Friday as a result of the strike.
Among the topics on the table up for negotiation involve pay and benefits, class size, and school staffing.
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CTU Vice President Stacy Davis-Gates also said Saturday evening at a news conference that both sides had reached tentative agreements on eight different items, including two key issues: retention of teachers of color and a moratorium on charter schools.
The CTU also reported that the city put forth proposals regarding class size and staffing, but it remained unclear how exactly the policies would be enforced.
"We want something that provides infrastructure for the change that 30,000 thousand people are marching on the streets for right now, and that will require us to make sure we're sure," Davis-Gates said.
Jesse Sharkey, the CTU president, said that the issues of class size and staffing have received a lot of attention, but the union also remains focused on three other priorities: pay and benefits, teacher preparation time and the length of the contract.
Davis-Gates said a "collection of things" have to come together for an agreement to be reached.
"Today we got a little further than we were yesterday," Davis-Gates, the union vice president, said on Saturday. "I'm good with that. We're going to keep doing that until we get it right."