Labor Updates

Our District’s strategy throughout the negotiation process will be to remain fully student-centered, and to protect and build on the robust offerings that have led to CPS’ impressive academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. We want our educators to receive the compensation, tools, and resources they deserve, and our goal will be to achieve this in a way that is both sustainable and financially responsible for the District.

Our positions will reflect the values and priorities that will be outlined in the District’s new Five-Year Strategic Plan, and Continuous Improvement Data Transparency (CIDT) policy, both of which have been shaped by months of community engagement and are now being finalized by the District. We will also view every contract proposal through an equity lens, which means setting universal standards for every school, then using targeted supports to help students and school communities in every Chicago neighborhood achieve those standards. 

This focus on improving equity can already be seen through this year’s new budgeting model, which provides all CPS schools with a District-funded clerk, counselor, and assistant principal, along with a set number of teacher positions to meet the unique needs of their students. These foundational resources are guaranteed across the board, no matter the size, type, or location of each school. Additional resources are then provided to schools based on need, which is measured largely by our District’s comprehensive Opportunity Index. This tool considers several economic, historical, and demographic factors to determine which school communities are furthest from opportunity.

September 24 Session

• Time: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
• Location: Cameron Elementary School, 1234 N Monticello Ave
• Watch: This session will also be broadcast on CPS' YouTube channel.
• CPS Sustainable Community Schools Presentation
• CTU Sustainable Community Schools Presentation

August 13 Session

• Time: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

• Location: Morgan Park High School, 1744 W Pryor Ave.

• Watch: This session will also be broadcast on CPS’ YouTube channel

• CPS Finance Presentation [ ENGLISH | SPANISH ]

• CTU Budget and Finance Public Bargaining Presentation

CPS Investments and Student Success Video

July 30 Session

• CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) held an upcoming public session focused on the student experience.

• CPS Daily Student Experience Presentation [ ENGLISH | SPANISH ]

• CTU Daily Student Experience Presentation

June 14 Session

CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) held its first public bargaining session on Friday, June 14, 2024 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Marquette School of Excellence (6550 S. Richmond Street).

• Recap of June 14, 2024 meeting
• CPS' Green Schools presentation
• CTU's Green Schools presentation
• CTU Green Schools Proposal

As part of the negotiation process, 12 standing subcommittees have been created to focus on specific topics. These sub-committees will review proposals from the District and CTU and work to reach a consensus recommendation that they can then bring back to their respective core bargaining teams. Below is the full list of the sub-committees and their topics below.

• Special Education/Itinerants

• Clinicians

• Students in Temporary Living Situations (STLS)

• Labor Management Cooperation Committee (LMCC)

• Bilingual Education

• Sustainable Community Schools

• Educator Evaluation/Educator Recruitment and Retention

• Green Schools/Climate Justice/Career and Technical Education (CTE)

• Class Size

• Early Childhood

• Article 10 Titles/Newly Accreted Groups

• Budget/Finance/TIF/Legislative

Dear Families, Staff, and Supporters:

We hope that you and your families had a joyous and restful Thanksgiving and that you are enjoying the start of the holiday season.

Prior to the Thanksgiving break, we provided you with a detailed update regarding our ongoing negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). You can view that update here on the District’s labor updates page. We will continue to keep you updated throughout the negotiations process. 

Beginning this Monday, December 2, our team is now engaged in daily negotiations with the CTU. We continue to make progress toward a fair contract that:

• Rewards our talented educators
• Aligns to the values in our five-year strategic plan
• Ensures the District’s financial stability going forward, and
• Provides a rigorous, joyful, and equitable daily learning experience for our students.

Earlier this week on December 2nd, CTU presented us with a revised list of their major priorities. This effort was a positive step that allowed for productive conversations throughout the week. Though there is still more work to be done, CTU’s revised priority list moves us in the right direction. It includes revisions to several proposals regarding salary increases and additional staffing.

Salary Increases

• CTU proposal: On Tuesday, CTU submitted a new proposal in writing: a cost of living adjustment of 6 percent for the first two years, and 5 percent for the following two years; these raises would be at least 6 - 8.5  percent in year one after factoring existing step increases. This is down from CTU’s original proposal of a 9 percent increase every year for the next four years. CPS has calculated this proposed increase and updates to the step schedule with an estimated cost of $233 million for the first year and $2.1 billion over the course of the four-year contract.  This is down from our original cost calculation of $405 million in the first year, and $3.7 billion over the course of the four-year agreement.
  
  
• CPS proposal: We have maintained our current proposal of 4 percent raises in the first year and 4 - 5 percent raises in the next three years depending on inflation; these raises would total 4 - 7.5 percent in the first year and 4 - 8.5 percent in the following three years after factoring in step increases. CPS’ proposal would cost the District $120 million in annual costs in the first year and $1.3 billion over four years. We are proud of our record on teacher compensation, and this latest proposal would yield a pay increase of up to 32 percent over the course of the four year contract. 

While we are still working towards a final agreement on salary increases, we appreciate the movement that CTU has shown in this area.

Additional Staffing

On Tuesday, CTU submitted revised staffing proposals prioritizing the hiring of 5,000 new employees. If this proposal includes ALL new staffing being recommended by the union, the annual cost to CPS would be roughly $580 million, totaling $1.3 billion over the life of the four-year contract. 

We are encouraged that the CTU’s staffing request has been scaled back, but will be seeking assurances from the union that this is their final staffing proposal. We remain committed to protecting the nearly 7,000 teacher, paraprofessional, nurse, social work, and counselor positions CPS has added since 2019, as these staff have contributed greatly to our academic recovery from the pandemic, and to the record-breaking gains our students continue to achieve.

Student Learning Experience

Within the CTU’s revised proposals, there are additional non-financial priority areas that we would like to prioritize for further review and discussion. Specifically, four major areas are critically important to the quality of the daily student learning experience: teacher effectiveness, instructional time, high-quality curriculum, and principal autonomy and accountability. 

These areas are closely tied to the academic vision within the District’s five-year strategic plan. While CPS has led the country in post-pandemic academic recovery gains, we know that we still have much work to do, and it is critical that we continue to prioritize our values as follows:

• Protect student instructional time: CTU has proposed increasing planning time for elementary school teachers from 60 to 90 minutes within each seven-hour work day. CPS proudly leads large-city school Districts when it comes to time provided to teachers for lesson prep, so we understand the value of planning time. But it cannot come at the expense of instructional time for students. 
  
  Simply put, more time in the classroom often leads to greater academic gains. We saw this during the pandemic, when investments in strong classroom instruction and supplemental academic interventions — led to CPS students outperforming their peers in other large-cities in terms of academic recovery. Maintaining instructional time is also an important equity issue. More time in the classroom is essential for students who need assistance getting up to grade level. Therefore, CPS will remain committed to protecting student instructional time while maintaining robust teacher preparation time.
• Maintain strong teacher evaluations and accountability measures: Some proposals submitted by CTU would lower evaluation standards, thereby reducing accountability measures for our educators. Every student deserves high-quality instruction delivered by an effective teacher, which is why CPS will continue to support maintaining strong and fair teacher evaluations and accountability measures. Over the past decade-plus, CPS has worked productively with both teachers and school leaders to improve our District’s evaluation system and we remain committed to this process. 
• Maintain principal autonomy and accountability: Some proposals submitted by CTU could limit the authority our principals have to set the schoolwide instructional vision and maintain the day-to-day operations of their schools. But if we are going to hold our principals accountable for the performance of their schools, we need to empower them to ensure consistent quality across all classrooms and grade levels. Strong schools are only possible with strong leaders, and CPS will work to continue ensuring principals have the autonomy they need to support the students they serve.
• Provide all students with a high-quality curriculum: We know that if we want every student to succeed, every school must maintain a consistent, high-quality curriculum that is culturally-relevant and aligned to rigorous grade-level learning standards. When teachers collaborate to ensure that student learning is supported from one classroom to the next and one grade level to the next, students are more likely to retain concepts and knowledge as they progress from pre-k to graduation. This is why, in keeping with the goals outlined in our new strategic plan, CPS will continue advocating for 100% of schools to adopt evidenced-based, high-quality, and culturally-responsive curriculum.

These non-financial priority areas will require more in depth discussion as we build on the positive momentum we achieved this week. Our primary goal remains ensuring that the new contract meets the needs of our students and staff and aligns with the tenets of rigor, joy and equity outlined in the District’s five-year strategic plan.

Impact on Other Labor Partners

As always, our work with any group in our system impacts others, including our other labor partners. We value our labor partners tremendously and will continue to work collaboratively with every group to arrive at agreements that work for staff, families, and, most importantly, students.

Student and Family Protections

We also want to acknowledge the concern of many in the District about how the new presidential administration will impact CPS. I want to remind families that CPS has strong protections — outside of any labor agreement — for groups that the new administration may target. We have summarized these policies here for families to review. We also want to express our appreciation to the Board of Education for passing this resolution in November, reaffirming our commitment to protect students and their families. We will communicate additional Information to families on this front in the coming weeks.

Make Your Voice Heard on December 12, 2024

Throughout this process, through public negotiation sessions and regular updates to families, CPS has continued engaging school communities to ensure that the views of parents, students, and staff across the District are represented in any future agreement.

At 5 p.m. on December 12, 2024, the Chicago Board of Education will convene for their regularly-scheduled monthly meeting at the District’s Colman Office at 4655 S Dearborn St., where contract negotiations with the CTU will be discussed. We encourage parents, staff, school leaders, students, and supporters to make their voices heard by signing up to speak either in person or virtually. Individuals are also welcome to register to attend the meeting in person; no advanced registration is required to watch the meeting on our YouTube page. Advanced registration for speakers and observers opens December 10 and closes on December 11, after which speakers will be selected via lottery. Please find details of the meeting here.

Thank you for your attention and engagement as we work to reach a fair contract for our educators. We will continue to provide families and staff with regular updates throughout these negotiations. 

Sincerely,

Pedro Martinez 
Chief Executive Officer 
Chicago Public Schools 

Bogdana Chkoumbova 
Chief Education Officer
Chicago Public Schools

Dear CPS Families, Staff, and Supporters:

As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, we want to give you an update regarding a new contract with our partners at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). We know this message is long, but we encourage you to read it in full to get the clearest possible picture of where things stand.

Since April, CPS has been negotiating in good faith with the CTU, committed to reaching an agreement that is fair to our educators, true to our values, and right for our students. We have remained consistent that any agreement must be student-centered, equitable, aligned to our five-year strategic plan, and financially sustainable.

While CPS and CTU have made some important progress in many key areas, we have not yet reached agreement on the most costly proposals, namely CTU’s proposals of 10–12.5 percent annual raises for CTU staff and adding over 13,900 new staff positions — a 41.5 percent increase over the 33,491 CTU staff currently employed by CPS. These two proposals alone would cost the District $9.2 billion over the course of the four-year agreement. For context, CPS’ entire budget for the current school year is $9.9 billion.

In the aftermath of this year’s federal election, there have been concerns raised about the impact that the new administration will have on our District. We want to remind families that CPS has strong policies in place — separate from any union contract — to protect immigrant students and their families, LGBTQ students and staff, and other groups that may be targeted by the new administration. These policies were reaffirmed by the Board of Education in a resolution last week. 

However, we do share the concern that the outcome of the recent election could impact federal funding for CPS. This is all the more reason to ensure that our next contract with the CTU does not overextend the District financially — especially as we confront structural deficits in the coming years that will make it challenging to sustain our investments.

This proposed contract is incredibly important and incredibly complex — and we owe it to our families and staff to get it right. CPS will continue to follow the process and negotiate in good faith so we can arrive at a contract that rewards our talented educators, ensures the long-term financial health of the District, and delivers the high-quality, rigorous, and joyful education that each of our students deserves. 

Working Towards an Agreement

CPS and CTU have already made major progress in many key areas, despite a shorter-than-usual negotiation period (this year’s negotiations began just three months before the expiration of the previous contract, rather than the customary 10–12 months). 

Over the past several months, CPS has responded to all 748 initial proposals from CTU, and dozens of counter-proposals in the last several weeks. We have conducted more than 47 bargaining sessions, and have devoted dozens of staff members and hundreds of hours to contract negotiations. In October, the CTU requested a process called “fact-finding” to get a clearer picture of the District’s ability to fund any future agreement. In December, CPS and CTU will participate in fact finding hearings, and the fact finding report will be released in January. CPS will continue to negotiate in good faith throughout the fact finding process and afterwards to arrive at the best possible agreement. For more information on the negotiation timeline and process, click here.

Progress Made Across Key Areas

CPS and CTU have either reached agreement or are close to agreement in several key areas, including:

• Expanded medical and dental insurance benefits at no additional cost for employees making under $90,000 annual salary
• Expanded flex time and prep time
• In every elementary and middle school, a minimum of three centrally-funded elective/holistic teachers (for example: art, dance, music, foreign language, drama, physical education, and more)
• At least one centrally-funded counselor in every school with additional counselors allocated by school size and school needs
• Protecting special education teachers from being asked to cover unrelated classes
• Additional support for teachers to earn new certifications (Bilingual, ESL, NBCT)
• More funding for athletic programming
• Three religious holiday benefit days per year

Position-Specific Proposals

In addition to proposing universal benefits and protections that will apply to all CTU members, CPS is also offering additional commitments for specific categories of CTU positions, including:

• Classroom Teachers & Other Teacher Categories
• Special Education Teachers 
• Paraprofessionals and School-Related Personnel (PSRPs)
• Athletics and Physical Education Positions
• Nurses and Clinicians
• Counselors

Click here to view the current proposals for each category of CTU staff.

Major Outstanding Issues

There are still major areas where CTU and CPS have yet to reach agreement, mainly around the size of yearly raises for CTU staff and adding over 13,900 additional CTU positions. These measures alone would cost more than $1.8 billion in annualized costs at the start of the contract, and more than $9.2 billion over the full agreement. For more information on these major proposals, click here.

Yearly Salary Increases

CTU teachers currently receive salary increases in two ways: through annual cost of living adjustments (COLAs) and step increases that are based on a teacher’s level of experience. In the previous contract, COLAs were between 3–3.5 percent per year, and after factoring in step increases, the average teacher has been receiving annual raises of between 6 and 7 percent.

CPS is proud to offer some of the most competitive salaries and benefits in the country. Among the largest districts in the U.S., CPS teacher salaries are the highest at almost all levels of the salary schedule; only New York City Public Schools have a comparable salary schedule for teachers. Regionally, the median CPS teacher earned approximately $95,000 in 2023, while the median teacher in suburban Cook County earned $78,000 and the median teacher in other Chicago suburbs earned $76,000.

CPS proposal:

CPS has proposed a 4 percent COLA for CTU members in the 2024–25 school year, and a 4–5% COLA for the following three years. After factoring in step increases, most teachers will see a raise of 4–7.5 percent this current school year, and raises of 4–8.5 percent for the next three years. This means that the average CPS teacher would earn over $110,000 by the 2027–2028 school year.

Click here to see examples of how these substantial pay increases would benefit teachers based on length of service.

Right now, CPS is working with our partners at all levels of government to identify $120 million to pay for the first year of our proposed salary increase for CTU staff. This is the amount of funding often cited in news stories about CPS-CTU negotiations.

CTU Proposal:

By contrast, CTU has proposed a 9 percent raise for all CTU members for all four years of the agreement. For most teachers, these annual raises would grow to 10–12.5 percent per year after factoring in step increases and a CTU proposal to make step increases more frequent. The CTU’s proposal would ultimately cost the District $405 million in the first year, and $3.7 billion over the total length of the agreement. 

Additional CTU Staff

Over the past five years, CPS has invested an additional $1 billion directly in our schools, supporting historic increases in school-based staff. There are now more licensed educators in front of our students than ever before, with nearly 7,000 more staff in CPS schools than in 2019. This includes 2,500 more teachers, over 4,000 more special education classroom assistants (SECAs) to support our students with disabilities, and hundreds of additional nurses, counselors, social workers, case managers, restorative justice coordinators, coordinators to assist students in temporary living situations, and more. Please visit cps.edu/schoolstaffing for a school-by-school breakdown of CPS’ recent staffing investments.

Furthermore, under CPS’ new and more equitable school funding model, the District provides a baseline of resources and staff to each school regardless of size, and then additional resources and staff to schools with the greatest needs, especially in communities that have been historically underserved. We also maintain flexible discretionary funding for schools so principals can hire additional positions based on each school’s unique needs.

This school year, CPS was able to sustain these staffing levels and incorporate our new, more equitable school funding model into our District’s currently-balanced budget for the 2024–25 school year. In the coming years, however, CPS is projecting structural deficits, and it will be a challenge to sustain our current level of staffing in future years without additional revenue.

As part of their contract proposals, our partners at CTU have proposed that the District hire more than 13,900 additional staff members across several categories of positions, a 41.5 percent increase over the 33,491 staff currently employed by CPS. These additional positions would cost an annualized $1.4 billion at the onset of the contract, and $5.5 billion over the total length of the four-year agreement. For a full breakdown of these additional positions, click here. 

Furthermore, these additional CTU-proposed positions would be based on a school’s enrollment or staff-to-teacher ratio, not based on each school’s unique needs. 

Given that the District faces annual structural deficits for the near future, CPS has proposed sustaining recent staffing gains, and directing additional staff and resources to schools where they are most needed. This will ensure long-term financial stability for the District while ensuring that students who are farthest from opportunity are prioritized in the budget.

Next Steps

Thank you for staying engaged throughout this process. CPS will continue to negotiate in good faith with the CTU so we can have an agreement that rewards our educators, ensures the ongoing fiscal health of the District, and most importantly, delivers on our mission to provide a high-quality education for every student that prepares them for college, career, and civic life.

Sincerely,

Pedro Martinez
Chief Executive Officer
Chicago Public Schools

Bogdana Chkoumbova
Chief Education Officer
Chicago Public Schools

Dear CPS Colleagues, Families, and Partners, 

Thank you to everyone who attended or viewed Tuesday night’s public negotiation session! 

The topic of this session was our plan for the expansion of our District’s Sustainable Community Schools (SCS) Initiative, where neighborhood schools partner with community-based organizations to provide additional support for students, their families, and the surrounding community. It was encouraging to see how aligned we are with our labor partners around the value of this model and the desire for more SCS schools in our city. CPS has committed to expanding the number of SCS schools in our District from 20 to 65 over the next four years, which would be a significant milestone for this program.  

If you were unable to join in real time, you can watch Tuesday night’s public negotiation session via the District’s YouTube channel.

Our Progress at a Glance

I’m pleased to report that CPS has now responded to all of the initial 700+ proposals our partners at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) presented to us in April of this year. While I am the one to provide the negotiations updates to our CPS community, I want everyone to know that working through these proposals has been a team effort on the part of our District.

Hundreds of CPS professionals, from our Network leaders, to our support staff, to the leaders of our academic and operations teams, have come together as part of this effort. They have spent countless hours discussing and analyzing CTU’s proposals so that we could provide our labor partners with thoughtful, well-researched responses. This dedicated team has also invested much time and effort into shaping District proposals designed to reward the hard work of our teachers while always keeping the needs of our students at the center. 

I feel proud to be leading such a dedicated team, and I want to thank them for the insight and professionalism they have brought to this process. I’m sure that our CTU leaders feel similarly about their support team, who have also spent a great deal of time on this important work. 

The CPS team has offered several substantial proposals to our CTU partners, most recently:

• Lowering class sizes in kindergarten and grades 4–8 
• Providing ALL teachers with more teacher-directed professional development
• Dedicated release time for our special education teachers to work on Individualized Education Programs (IEPs)
• Centrally funding a minimum of three holistic teachers (such as arts, P.E., library, STEM, world language, media arts, etc.) for every CPS elementary school, with our larger schools receiving funding for as many as 12 holistic teachers.
• Providing a minimum of 10 District-funded core teacher positions for every school, regardless of the school’s size or the salary of the teacher 

This fact sheet provides more details on these and other CPS proposals, including:

• Substantial salary increases every year for the next four years
• Expanded health and dental benefits
• No increase in employee healthcare contributions
• Adding more counselors and case managers in the schools that need them most
• Enhanced support for our English Learners and their teachers
• Strengthening connections with our pre-k and kindergarten families
• Developing and investing in Green School Initiatives

We want our educators to receive the salary and benefits increases they deserve. We also want all students to continue receiving a robust, high-quality education that is rigorous, joyful, and equitable and aligns with the vision outlined in our new Five-Year Strategic Plan. 

CPS will continue coming to the bargaining table in good faith, with the goal of rewarding our educators for their exemplary work while making financially responsible decisions in the best interest of our most important constituents—the children of Chicago Public Schools. 

I thank you for your continued interest in this important work. In addition to receiving these regular email updates from the District, be sure to visit cps.edu/laborupdates for the most current information on CPS/CTU negotiations. 

Sincerely, 

Pedro Martinez
Chief Executive Officer
Chicago Public Schools

Dear CPS Colleagues, Families, and Partners, 

We hope that everyone is settling into the school year well.  

Today, we want to take a moment to let you know where things currently stand with negotiations between CPS and our partners at the Chicago Teachers Union. 

To date, our District has responded to more than 450 of the 700 proposals presented to us by CTU. In addition to these responses, CPS has also provided substantial, comprehensive proposals to CTU, covering everything from increases in salary and benefits for teachers to adding more counselors to our schools and improving supports for our Pre-k students and English Learners.  

Here are highlights from those proposals:

Increases in Pay:

• A 4% salary increase in SY25 (our current school year)
• A 4 to 5% salary increase for the following three years, depending on the Consumer Price Index (CPI)

*Under this proposed pay increase, the average CPS teacher would earn in excess of $110,000 per year by the 2027–28 school year. Also, if we factor in “step” increases that most teachers will receive for the current school year, nearly 70% of CPS teachers would see a pay increase of between 5–7.5% this school year alone.

Improvements to Healthcare Coverage:

• Enhanced dental coverage on all plans effective January 1, 2025, including:
  • moving from 80% to 100% coverage on all preventive and diagnostic services (Cleanings, Exams, Sealants, Radiographs, Fluorides, etc.)
  • increasing annual maximum coverage from $1,500 to $2,000
  • adding orthodontic coverage at 50% coinsurance to a lifetime maximum of $2,000 for adults & dependents up to age 26.
• Access to bariatric surgery in all medical plans
• Expanded coverage for physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and chiropractic therapy.
• Access to abortion coverage in all medical plans

*These and other expansions to medical and dental coverage would come with a 0% increase to employee healthcare contributions.

Improvements to Employee Leaves of Absence:

• Expansions to parental and supplemental leave and job protection for full time Paraprofessionals and Related School Personnel (PSRPs)
• Paid leaves of absence for certain prestigious teaching awards and fellowships

Beyond these proposed increases to teacher salaries and benefits, our other key advancements include:

• Transforming 45 additional CPS schools into Sustainable Community Schools (SCS) over the next four years;
• Adding more than 200 additional counselors to the schools that need them most;
• 100% tuition reimbursement for up to 300 educators interested in obtaining their bilingual education or English as a Second Language endorsement;
• Decreasing the student-to-staff-ratio for English Learner Program Teacher positions;
• Devoting a full school day at the start of each year to welcome parents and guardians into our pre-k classrooms and repeating this process at the end of each school year;
• Providing two release days per school year for special education teachers to work on IEPs;
• Moving tenured teachers in the top half of exemplary end-of-year ratings to a three year evaluation cycle;
• The creation of a green schools/climate committee to focus on capital improvement efforts, green spaces, and securing grant funding;
• Expanding flex day participation to include clinicians and itinerant teachers;
• Expansion of religious holiday benefits to all employees.

Awaiting CTU Responses on CPS Proposals:

CPS's responses to CTU proposals represent significant progress toward enhancing our educational environment. We look forward to CTU’s feedback on our counterproposals and are eager to receive their responses to our proposals we submitted in May. Our proposals aim to address several critical areas, including: 

• Revamping support for schools managing classes with a higher number of students
• Ensuring uniformity across schools in assessment and grading responsibilities
• Clarifying distinctions between teacher-directed, principal-directed, and centrally-directed professional development
• Establishing baseline expectations for teachers and related service providers before, during, and after IEP meetings
• Mitigating the disruptive effects of mid-year teacher transfers on schools and students
• Streamlining the grievance process

Our District’s priorities throughout the negotiation process remains the same—student centered, and to protect and build on the robust offerings that have led to CPS’ impressive academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. We remain committed to providing our educators with the salary and benefits increases they deserve while ensuring our students continue to receive a robust, high-quality education. CPS remains committed to advancing these negotiations and is ready to meet more frequently and use time more efficiently in longer sessions with CTU, working to finalize an agreement that benefits our students, educators, and the entire school community. 

We thank you for your continued interest in this important work. In addition to receiving these regular email updates from the District, be sure to visit cps.edu/laborupdates for the most current information on CPS/CTU negotiations. 

Sincerely, 

Pedro Martinez
Chief Executive Officer
Chicago Public Schools

Dear CPS Colleagues and Families,

I hope that the new school year is off to a great start for everyone!

There is much to celebrate this week, from the successful return of our students to their classrooms, to a contract proposal that rewards our teachers for their talent and dedication.

Earlier today, CPS presented our partners at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) with a proposal that would increase teacher salaries significantly over the next four years. It would also expand both medical and dental coverage, with a 0% increase to employee healthcare contributions. 

Our Proposal at a Glance

The proposal presented by CPS today calls for:

• A 4% salary increase in SY 25 (our current school year)
• A 4 to 5% salary increase for the following three years, depending on the Consumer Price Index (CPI)
• Expanded medical and dental coverage with a 0% increase to employee healthcare contributions

What this means is that by the end of this contract, the average CPS teacher will have stronger medical and dental coverage, and earn in excess of $110,000 per year. 

A Fair and Responsible Proposal

We hope that our CTU partners will see this proposal for what it is - a strong indication of how much we value our teachers, and a sincere desire to provide them with the compensation they deserve. 

Naturally, the next question for all of our stakeholders will be how CPS plans to fund these salary increases amidst our continued financial challenges. We are reviewing all possible options now, and will provide more information in the days ahead on our planned approach. What we know for certain, though, is that CPS will maintain our commitment to providing all students with the rigorous, joyful, and equitable learning experience they deserve.

I thank you for your interest in this important matter and wish all of you a safe and successful school year!

Sincerely, 

Pedro Martinez
Chief Executive Officer
Chicago Public Schools

Dear CPS Colleagues and Families,

As we prepare to begin a new school year, I’m pleased to share an encouraging update on contract negotiations between CPS and our partners at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). 

CPS has now provided responses to 330 proposals presented to us by CTU. More than 200 of these responses were shared with the union just this week, thanks in large part to the work of our sub-committees.

Earlier this summer, we let you know that 12 standing CTU-CPS sub-committees would be a part of our negotiations process. These committees have spent months discussing and reviewing proposals and counter proposals on everything from bilingual education, to early childhood programs, to educator recruitment and retention. They recently completed this work, returning to our core bargaining team with solid recommendations that we used as the foundation for our responses to CTU’s proposals.

Finding Common Ground

Several of our responses address points that are top priorities for CTU:

• 65 Sustainable Community Schools. Our District has committed to  strengthening our 20 existing Sustainable Community Schools (SCS), and transforming 45 additional CPS schools into SCS over the next four years. This model prioritizes schools in historically underserved communities, harnessing will, dedication, and resources to forge strong connections between schools and communities and make schools true anchors in their neighborhoods.  
• More School Counselors. CPS commits in the contract to provide MORE THAN 200 ADDITIONAL COUNSELORS to the schools that need them most. This goes beyond our previous commitment to provide one counselor for every CPS school. And in keeping with our commitment to equity, it will mean greater support for not just larger schools, but smaller schools where students have the greatest need, and schools in communities that have experienced historic disinvestment. 
• Tuition Reimbursement for Bilingual Teachers. To better support our District’s growing number of English Learners, including our newcomer students, CPS will now cover 100% of tuition costs for up to 300 educators interested in obtaining their bilingual education or English as a Second Language (ESL) endorsement. 
• Increased Staffing to Support English Learners. The District has also committed in the contract to decrease the student-to-staff ratio for English Learner Program Teacher (ELPT) positions. These professionals are dedicated solely to coordinating the high-quality instruction and targeted supports our English Learners need to reach their full potential. 
• Engaging the Families of Our Youngest Learners. As many will see this Monday, our pre-k students AND their families experience a mix of emotions when they first start school. To help ease that transition, and to build strong connections with our early childhood families, CPS will devote a full school day at the start of each year to welcoming parents and guardians into our pre-k classrooms. We will repeat this process at the end of each school year to help these students and families successfully enter their next CPS chapter. 

Moving Forward Together

There are plenty of conversations ahead, and lots we still need to work through before a contract agreement is reached. But we are proud to have addressed so many CTU proposals with thoughtful responses that speak to the needs of both our students and our educators, and that are grounded in our commitment to a rigorous, joyful, and equitable experience for every child. 

We thank you for your partnership and will continue providing you with updates as negotiations continue. In the meantime, we look forward to starting a new school year with you this Monday, August 26!

Sincerely,

Pedro Martinez
Chief Executive Officer
Chicago Public Schools

Dear CPS Families and Staff,

We want to thank everyone who watched or attended the public negotiation session earlier this week between CPS and our partners at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). For those who were not able to participate in real time, this session is now available via the District’s YouTube channel. 

The focus of our August 13 public negotiation session was “Finance,” and CPS was excited to share our vision for providing all students with an equitable, high-quality education while maintaining our commitment to financial responsibility. 

You can view our full presentation at the CPS labor updates web page. Here are a few highlights:

• An overview of the new CPS budget model, which allocates resources and positions based not on a school’s population, but on the needs of its students;
• A look at the substantial increases in both school-based funding and positions since 2020, including more than 2,000 new teachers;
• Our commitment to sustain and build on the investments that have propelled CPS students to their impressive academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic; and
• An explanation of the proactive steps CPS is taking to secure funding from outside the District.

Going to Court to Support our Students

One of these proactive steps is the legal action CPS is taking against corporations and financial institutions that have harmed our District, and therefore our students. 

At this week’s public negotiation session, CTU raised the idea of taking legal action against big banks whose predatory lending practices have harmed CPS. Well, that is already happening.

The District is currently tracking and responding to inquiries made by the parties in multiple legal actions involving this issue. Much of that litigation is ongoing, and the process can take time. But CPS has already been awarded nearly $2.9 million as a result of these suits.  

Finding Common Ground

The proof of a successful negotiation session is when we are able to find common ground, and we saw plenty of that on Tuesday night. For example, a guest from the Economic Policy Institute was invited to speak as part of the CTU presentation. We appreciated her comments, which praised the District for the investments CPS has made in staffing since the COVID-19 pandemic—including more teachers, counselors, social workers, and paraprofessionals—and pointed to our students’ outstanding academic gains as proof that these investments are paying off.

We are also in agreement with CTU that the State of Illinois is not keeping up with the needs of our students, and that we must work together to advocate for more equitable state funding. CPS has been in lockstep with our union partners on this issue for many months, standing alongside CTU last spring for a day of action at the state capital in Springfield. 

Along with Board of Education President Jianan Shi, I was proud to participate in this moment of shared advocacy, and hope it was the first of many opportunities for CPS and CTU to come together and put the needs of our students first. 

I greatly appreciate your interest in our negotiations process and will keep you updated on any future sessions that will be held in public. In the meantime, CPS and CTU will continue working toward an agreement that fairly compensates our educators for their excellent work while making decisions that are fully student-centered, and that maintain our District’s commitment to financial responsibility. 

I wish everyone a safe and successful school year, and look forward to seeing all of our students back in class on Monday, August 26!

Sincerely, 

Pedro Martinez
Chief Executive Officer
Chicago Public Schools

Dear CPS Families and Staff, 

The new school year is less than three weeks away, and we are looking forward to seeing everyone in class on the first day—Monday, August 26!

Much has been happening at CPS throughout the summer, including ongoing negotiations with our partners at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). So far, we have held two negotiation sessions publicly, and are preparing for a third public session on Tuesday, August 13. 

The focus of this session will be “Finance,” and we look forward to sharing our vision for providing all students with an equitable, high-quality education while maintaining our District’s commitment to financial responsibility.  

The August 13 session will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. at Morgan Park High School, 1744 W. Pryor Avenue. You can register here beginning this Friday, August 9 at 10 a.m. to attend this session in person. And as always, you can watch this public negotiation session live or after the fact via the District’s YouTube channel.

PLEASE NOTE: The above registration link to attend the August 13 public negotiation session in person WILL NOT go live until Friday, August 9 at 10 a.m.

Sharing the Facts

We want to thank everyone who participated in our last public negotiation session on July 30. The focus of this session was the “Daily Student Experience,” and CPS was proud to share our vision for how to achieve rigorous, joyful, and equitable learning for every student. We were also able to outline the practices and supports we think are critical to student success, and that should be standard in every CPS school. You can access the CPS presentation from our July 30 public negotiation below.

To continue our goal of being fully transparent, there are a few points we want to clarify from this last public negotiation session:

Class Size

We did not get to fully discuss this topic during our last public bargaining session, but CPS is proud to share that our average class size for the 2023–24 school year was 22 students per classroom in elementary school, and 20 students per classroom in high school. 

Under our new budget model, which allocates foundational teaching positions to schools based on both enrollment and need, we expect to see class sizes reduced even more in our highest-need schools. This model will be re-shared in detail during our August 13 public negotiation session. 

High-Quality Curriculum in Every Classroom

Every student deserves access to a high-quality curriculum that is:

• On grade-level
• Aligned within/across grade-levels
• Culturally responsive
• Responsive to students’ social and emotional needs 

A lot was shared in our last public negotiation session about Skyline—the high-quality digital curriculum that is available to all CPS schools should they CHOOSE to use it. But we want to be clear—Skyline is just ONE of several options when it comes to curriculum at CPS. 

If schools are using a different curriculum that meets the high-quality standards set by CPS, they can continue using it. Schools can also choose to improve their existing curriculum so that it meets our high-quality standards.

As of last school year, 90 percent of CPS schools have not only made the choice to adopt Skyline, but have worked with the District to make Skyline an even better resource. This engagement with our educators is ongoing, with hundreds of teachers working with our Skyline design team each year to ensure this curriculum continues to be driven by both research and classroom experience.  

It was stated by CTU in our last public negotiation session that building and implementing Skyline has cost the District $360 million. The actual dollar amount is LESS THAN HALF of that, with an initial investment of $135 million in 2019, and a supplemental investment of $24 million in 2022, for a total of $159 million. And given its rigor, its responsiveness to the diverse identities of our students, its wide range of content areas for every grade level, and our ability to additionally fund and distribute 1.9 million new, contemporary, and culturally-relevant books, many of which are designed to support English learners and striving readers, we feel strongly that it’s been worth every penny.

To see all content areas where the Skyline curriculum is available, click here.

Variance in the Student Experience

Curriculum is one key ingredient to ensuring a more consistent learning experience, not just across the District, but within each individual school. That’s why we must set strong expectations that ensure all schools have high-quality curriculum, instructional practices, and assessment plans. It’s also why we’ve adopted a budget model that provides EVERY school with a foundational number of positions and resources, and then adds additional supports based on student needs. These can include funding for out-of-school time programs, as well as additional counselors, instructional coaches, interventionists, restorative justice coordinators, and other clinicians.

Our new budget model also allows for plenty of decision making at the school level. This is because we trust the people who know our school communities best—our educators, principals, and Local School Council (LSC) members—to make the schoolwide resourcing, staffing, and programming decisions that will best meet the unique needs of their students and families.

We look forward to discussing much of this in more detail during the upcoming public negotiation session on Tuesday, August 13. Please continue to have a safe and enjoyable summer. We look forward to seeing everyone back in class on Monday, August 26!

Sincerely,

Pedro Martinez
Chief Executive Officer
Chicago Public Schools

Exciting Updates on Next Year’s Budget and Our Next Public Negotiation Session

Dear CPS Families, 

We are excited to share that the Chicago Board of Education has now approved our District’s $9.9 billion budget for the 2024-25 school year!

This is a budget like no other in CPS history, because we have dramatically changed the way we fund our schools. Rather than focusing on how many students are in each school (a concept known as Student-Based Budgeting), we are now providing resources based on the needs of the students in each school.

Said Board of Education Board Member Michelle Morales of this change: “This budget starts with equity, not enrollment. We have now moved away from budgets based on the number of students attending a school, which often shortchanged neighborhood schools in our most disinvested communities.” Board of Education Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland added, “That historic shift makes this the most equitable budget I’ve voted on in my five plus years with CPS.”

This new budget model also sets a standard for certain positions that every school will have, no matter their size. These include:

• An assistant principal

• A school clerk

• At least one school counselor

• A foundation of core classroom teachers, and AT LEAST three “holistic” teachers to provide instruction in areas like the arts, Physical Education, world language, STEM, and many other content areas.

As you may be aware, CPS is facing some challenging times financially. In fact, in order to balance our budget for next school year, we needed to close a funding gap of $505 million. 

I’m proud to say that we were able to accomplish this WITHOUT cutting funds from next year’s school budgets, which actually have MORE overall funding than they did a year ago. Our budget for next year also includes 270 more general education teachers and 243 more special education teachers, resulting in smaller class sizes for many of our students.

Our District has committed to making all decisions with equity at the core, which is why this budget also includes increased funding for our highest-need populations, including our English Learners, our students with disabilities, and our students in temporary living situations. Equally important, this budget doubles down on the investments that have our students leading the country in academic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“This is what we mean by investment,” said Board of Education Member Tanya Woods after voting to approve this year’s budget. “Allocating the financial resources necessary to create environments where students don’t just learn, but thrive. This is what happens when we make a commitment in word and in deed to achieve a better, brighter future for all children and their families.”
  
We thank all of the students, families, educators, and community partners who offered valuable feedback to help shape this budget, and we look forward to watching these investments continue propelling our students towards even more monumental gains. 

Details on Tomorrow’s Public Negotiation Session

CPS is now preparing for our second public negotiation session with our partners at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), which will be held tomorrow - Tuesday, July 30 - from 5 - 7 p.m. at Mason Elementary School. The topic of this session will be “The Daily Student Experience”, CPS’ Vision for Rigorous, Joyful, and Equitable Student Learning.

• Rigorous: Every student needs a high-quality curriculum that challenges them academically, and that is responsive to their identities and lived experiences. They also need excellent teachers and support staff who motivate and empower them, and who give them the feedback, attention, and well-rounded learning environments they need to reach their full potential.

• Joyful: Learning can and should be fun! This starts with creating environments where students feel like they belong, and where they know there are adults who care about them and want to see them succeed. We can achieve this by providing our students with opportunities to pursue their interests and passions in every classroom and beyond the school day, and by taking care of not only their academic needs, but their social and emotional wellbeing.

• Equitable: CPS has made great strides in this area, especially with our new funding model that provides resources based on student need. But this is only one piece of the puzzle. We also need consistent standards across every school, especially when it comes to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and grading. This is how we make sure every student has equitable access to a high-quality education, no matter the size, type, or location of their school.

How to Participate

You can sign up to attend tomorrow’s session in person by completing the registration form at this link, or watch tomorrow’s public negotiation session live via the District’s YouTube channel. You can also click here to view the complete presentation that we will be sharing with our CTU partners and the public. 

With our budget now approved, and negotiations with our labor partners moving forward, we feel optimistic about the school year ahead. We thank you for your interest in these topics and look forward to seeing all of our students and staff back in school on our first day of classes - Monday, August 26.

Sincerely,

Pedro Martinez
Chief Executive Officer
Chicago Public Schools

Dear CPS Staff and Families,

We hope you are continuing to enjoy your summer, and that you’re beginning to get excited about our return to school on Monday, August 26!

We are reaching out to share the latest update on the ongoing negotiations between CPS and our partners at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), including details for two upcoming public negotiation sessions.

Tuesday, July 30: 

• CPS and CTU will hold a public bargaining session at Mason Elementary School - 4217 W. 18th Street - from 5 - 7 p.m.
• The focus of this session will be “The Student Experience”, and will include presentations from both CPS and CTU on our values, vision, and approach to helping all of our students thrive.

Tuesday, August 13: 

• This public negotiation session will be held at Morgan Park High School - 1744 W. Prior Street - from 5 - 7 p.m.
• The focus of this session will be “Finance”, during which CPS will outline our District's mission to ensure that every student has access to an equitable, high quality education while maintaining our commitment to fiscal responsibility.

How to Participate

For those who wish to attend the July 30 session in person, registration will open at 10 a.m. this Friday, July 26, and will close once the capacity of  the school location is filled. You can access the registration form at this link once registration begins.

Note: The above registration link WILL NOT go live until 10 a.m. on Friday, July 26. Also, slots to attend in person are likely to fill up very quickly (i.e., in the first few minutes the registration form is open), so we strongly recommend logging on at exactly 10 a.m. if you’re hoping to attend the July 30 session in person.

All public negotiation sessions are also live streamed via the District’s YouTube channel.

An Update on our Progress

As we shared with you earlier this month, negotiation sessions are now increasing in both frequency and length, giving us the chance for more productive discussions on a range of important topics. Our July 10 session, for example, focused on the workload for CPS counselors, with CTU proposing what they consider to be an appropriate counselor to student ratio. 

CPS believes deeply in the value of school counselors, which is why our new budget model not only centrally funds counselors in all buildings, but includes additional centrally funded counselors based on the needs of the student population. Over 200 CPS schools already meet the 1:250 student-to-counselor ratio proposed by CTU, with about half of these meeting an even lower ratio of one counselor for every 200 students. 

Other topics of negotiation over the past few weeks have included assessments and grading, as well as teacher recruitment, retention, and evaluation. In addition to listening to CTU present on these topics, CPS has actively shared our own vision around each issue, including:

• The need for balanced, high-quality assessments that provide information about student progress and also identify early on if additional support is needed, thereby empowering our teachers to effectively advance student learning.
• Fair, consistent grading practices that provide students with the feedback they need along their academic journey, and that create opportunity for reflection and dialogue among students, parents, and educators.
• \Our strategy around attracting, developing, and retaining high-quality educators who reflect the rich diversity of our student population\
• Our desire for a teacher evaluation system that is fair, transparent, equitable, and efficient, and that recognizes and rewards teaching excellence while identifying those areas where teachers need support

CPS will continue negotiations the same way we began them - with a commitment to equity, and by ensuring that all decisions are made with the needs of students at the center. Our goal is to work together with our CTU partners to provide educators with the contract they deserve, all while staying true to our core values of academic excellence, continuous learning, and community partnership, and while embracing the duty we all have to manage our District’s funds responsibly.

I thank you for your interest in our negotiations process and encourage you to participate in the upcoming bargaining sessions outlined above. We will continue to provide you with updates on our progress, as well as important back-to-school information as we prepare for the first day of school on Monday, August 26.

Sincerely, 

Pedro Martinez
Chief Executive Officer
Chicago Public Schools

Dear CPS Staff and Families,

We hope you are having a safe and enjoyable summer! As we begin looking toward the new school year, we want to share an update regarding the ongoing negotiations between CPS and our partners at the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). 

Throughout the summer, we have been actively working with CTU in and beyond our formal negotiation sessions. A prime example is the support CPS is providing to teacher assistants whose positions were eliminated at the end of the 2023-24 school year. This was a personnel adjustment agreed to by CTU in a Memorandum of Understanding (i.e., a written agreement) with the District. However, CPS knows that these employees bring huge value to our schools, so has guaranteed that every teacher assistant impacted by this change will have a job with the District next school year.

Building on Our Recent Success

This support of our teacher assistants shows that CPS can do right by our employees while staying true to our values of equity, fiscal responsibility, and a rich, student-centered learning experience. We saw this again a few months ago, when our District reached a fair contract agreement with our partners at SEIU Local 73. Despite our severe financial challenges, CPS was able to provide fair pay raises to SEIU Local 73 members across the board, including historic salary increases for our lowest-paid employees. This milestone collaboration gives us great optimism about achieving similar success with our CTU partners.

Our Negotiation Timeline

Our contract negotiations with CTU began in April of 2024, which is when CPS first received more than 700 initial proposals from union leadership. Our previous collective bargaining agreement with CTU expired on June 30, 2024, and negotiations around a new contract would typically have started about a year in advance of that date. What this means is that our teams have a lot to get done on an accelerated timeline. 

A timely, collaborative negotiation process is a top priority for CPS. Toward that end, we have assigned more than 60 staff, including principals, subject-matter experts, and leaders at all levels of the District to play a prominent role in these discussions.

CPS is also devoting an unprecedented number of hours to these negotiations. When this process began, CTU leadership suggested meeting once a week for two hours, with those meetings focused primarily on them presenting new proposals to the District. CPS agreed, and also recommended taking things a step further. 

CPS proposed that our core bargaining teams host all-day negotiation sessions scheduled in July. Our CTU partners have agreed to this updated meeting schedule, which also includes moving to twice-weekly meetings beginning in August. 

In addition, 12 subcommittees are also meeting to dive more deeply into specific negotiation topics, including bilingual education, budget and finance, special education, and green school initiatives. This structure of 12 standing subcommittees was proposed by CTU as part of this year’s contract negotiations, and was readily agreed to by the District. 

The role of these sub-committees is to review proposals from both CPS and CTU, then reach a consensus that they can bring back to the core bargaining teams. These sub-committees have been meeting regularly, and are scheduled to provide a status update on their work by mid-August. 

Update on Public Negotiation Sessions 

When last we reached out to you, our teams were preparing for their meeting on June 14, which was the first-ever negotiation session to be held in public. This was a historic moment of collaboration between CPS and CTU, and a huge step forward in transparency for everyone who is invested in the success of our schools.

CPS remains open to additional public bargaining sessions, and we are continuing to work with our labor partners to finalize the details. To make sure we are bargaining in good faith, CPS has proposed a future schedule of public meetings that aligns with major initiatives being presented to the Chicago Board of Education this summer, including our FY2025 budget and our District’s new Five-Year Strategic Plan. 

We are currently awaiting a response from CTU on protocols around future public bargaining sessions. CPS will provide another email update when those details are final, including information on how you can participate in these public negotiation sessions. 

Our educators are our most valuable resource. They deserve fair compensation, along with an environment where both they and their students can thrive. Our goal is to create this environment in every CPS school. To be successful, though, we will need to come together around solutions that put the needs of our students first, and that are equitable, sustainable, and fiscally responsible for the long-term success of our District. 

Thank you for your interest in this process. We want you to have a clear understanding of the work being done between the District and our labor partners, so will continue providing you with timely updates, including all details on future public negotiation sessions.

I hope you will continue to enjoy your time this summer, and I look forward to seeing everyone back in class on Monday, August 26! 

Sincerely, 

Pedro Martinez
Chief Executive Officer
Chicago Public Schools