A victory for Chicago Teachers. 


News Thursday October 20th, 2011, 2:32pm

Labor Board Seeking Injunction To Halt CPS Longer School Day Program

The Illinois Education labor Relations Board voted 5-0 in favor of seeking an injunction to stop the Chicago Public Schools Longer School Day Pioneer Program from continuing this academic year. If Attorney General Lisa Madigan, whose office will now receive the case, convinces a circuit court judge to grant an injunction, the program would end for the rest of the school year and the nine schools currently taking part would go back to their original schedules.
CTU President Karen Lewis responded to the ruling with the following comments, released in a statement:

This is a victory for labor and a victory for the law. CPS’ scheme to get schools to convert to a longer school day this year is illegal and today the IELRB found the CBE will irreparably injure labor relations unless it is stopped from implementing its scheme. Today’s ruling says the CBE cannot break the law no matter what its intentions are.
We have repeatedly asked them to settle this case; to sit down and discuss this process; and to help us plan for a longer, better school day next year when this program goes system wide for the 2012/2013 school year. Instead they engaged in illegal, immoral behavior that threatened the future of collective bargaining and of our union. I commend the teachers and school employees who took a stand against this behavior. Today, organized labor won.

CPS responded to the decison with the following statement, stressing that the program will remain in place until a final decision has been made by a circuit court judge:

This is a disappointing decision that is not consistent with either the law or the labor contract between CPS and CTU. CTU’s request would only take time away between teachers and the 4,000 students in longer day pioneer schools today benefitting from 90 additional minutes in the classroom during a time when they are in desperate need of more instructional time. We think this is wrong as do the parents of CPS students who have voted in overwhelming support for a longer school day.
Until this case is taken before a circuit court judge, the principals, teachers and students at schools that have added 90 minutes of instructional time to their day will continue on as is. Students at pioneer schools will receive the additional time they need for math, reading, science, music and art that will help prepare them for success in college and life. We will rigorously defend a longer school day on behalf of all children in our system should this go before a court.
The IELRB will have to make a request to the Attorney General on today's decision. A judge will then have to be petitioned and the case won before that judge in circuit court in order for the Pioneer Schools to roll back the time they've added.

Lewis also refuted the notion that CTU's complaint will negatively impact CPS students.
“What harms our students is 160 schools without libraries; hundreds of schools without air conditioning or heating ventilation; a scaled down curriculum that mandates rampant standardized testing and rote learning; and, a school board that fires its most experienced teachers and disrupts their current school year with a political campaign rather than an a education plan,” Lewis added.