Where the two sides stand

Click/tap a question to explore the issue.

A darker yellow means the issue is more contentious.
A lighter yellow means it's less contentious.

Date	Chicago Public Schools	Chicago Teachers Union
Starting offer	Status quo. Currently, advisory contract guidelines call for 28 students for primary grades; 31 in third to eighth grade; and 25 to 28 in high school, depending on the subject. In the last contract, CPS agreed to pay for teaching assistants for kindergarten, first and second grade classes with 32 or more students.	Lower class size maximums to 18 for pre-K; 20 for kindergarten; 24 in primary grades and 28 in middle school. Make these maximums mandatory rather than advisory.
Oct. 4, 2019	Will add a teaching assistant for one more grade, offering a teaching assistant for third grade classes with 32 or more students.	CTU President Jesse Sharkey called this proposal "inadequate."
Oct. 11, 2019	CPS offers $1 million annually to address overcrowded 4th through 12th grade classes.	CTU proposing to phase in its demand for lower class sizes and enforceable remedies for overcrowded classes. CTU wants the neediest schools to get lower class size caps first.
Oct. 18, 2019	CPS offers more than $9 million to address overcrowded 4th through 8th grade classes. Though the details still need to be worked out, the school district is open to having a joint committee make the decision about how the money would be spent, targeting the 20% of schools with the greatest needs first.	No formal response.

Date	Chicago Public Schools	Chicago Teachers Union
Starting offer	CPS says it will address these demands in future budgets, but will not put any promises in the contract.	Demanding that the school district meet ratios recommended by national associations. For social workers and counselors, that's one for every 250 students. CTU is also demanding a nurse in every school. Currently, there's one social worker for every 700 students; one counselor for every 500 students; and 349 nurses employed by the school district for its 520 district-run schools. CPS also contracts out to add additional nurses to cover students who need nursing services at some other schools.
Sept. 16, 2019	CPS is pledging to hire 250 more nurses, 200 more social workers and more special education case managers over the next five years. They’re also pledging to end hiring any privatized staff, most notably nurses. This would be in exchange for CTU dropping all proposals for extra staff and accepting a five year contract, according to a Sun-Times report.	The CTU remains set on getting language in the contract regarding staffing levels. The latest iteration, based on a Sept. 16 letter to Mayor Lori Lightfoot: Language that creates “hiring goals, a pipeline and a mechanism to enforce such an agreement.” CPS in a Sept. 13 letter to the union interpreted that to mean CTU wanted to hire 4,025 employees over five years, a proposal CPS said was “not credible.”
Oct. 11, 2019	CPS offers an additional $400,000 a year ($2 million over five years) to build a pipeline for nursing, social worker and case manager positions.	CTU proposing to phase in its demands around staffing so the neediest schools get these resources first.
Oct. 18, 2019	CPS for the first time agreees to put in writing staffing commitments for more nurses, social workers, case managers and other support staff. The details are under negotiation.	No change.

Date	Chicago Public Schools	Chicago Teachers Union
Starting offer	Five years	Three years
Oct. 11, 2019	CPS says its existing offer is its final offer.	No change.

Date	Chicago Public Schools	Chicago Teachers Union
Starting offer	Proposing that principals direct all five teacher prep periods each week.	Demanding that all prep time be teacher directed.
Sept. 26, 2019	The school district’s current proposal is for three teacher prep periods to be directed by their principal and two to be teacher directed.	CTU President Jesse Sharkey said CPS’ current proposal is making an “outrageous” proposal, “slightly less outrageous.” He has said teachers are not willing to give up any teacher-directed prep time. He calls principal-directed prep time a non-starter.
Oct. 4, 2019	The discussion about teacher vs. principal directed prep time continues. Mayor Lori Ligthtfoot says the school district will not shorten the school day to make room for more prep time.	Wants to add 30 minutes of teacher-directed prep time before school for elementary school teachers. This may result in shortening the school day for students, but union leaders say there are ways to implement this while keeping the length of the school day intact.
Oct. 11, 2019	CPS says it will withdraw its proposal on principal-directed teacher prep time if the CTU withdraws its proposal on teacher prep time.	No formal response.
Oct. 18, 2019	No change.	CTU says their proposed 30 minutes extra of prep time wouldn't result in a shorter day for students. But it would result in a longer day for teachers and they'd have to be paid for that extra time.

Date	Chicago Public Schools	Chicago Teachers Union
Starting offer	Offering 2.5% salary increases for the first three years of a contract and 3% the last two years. Increase health care costs .5% in the final three years of contract.	Demanding 5 percent raises in each year of a three year contract; no increase in health care costs and rolling back of increases implemented during the last contract.
Aug. 26, 2019	The city accepted the terms recommended in a fact finder's report, which means its offer now stands at 3% per year for the first three years and 3.5% in the last two years. That totals 16% over five years, with a 1% increase in health care contributions.	The union rejected the fact finder's report and still wants 5% raises each year.
Sept. 26, 2019	No change	The CTU is demanding that its clerk and teacher aide members get extra pay for additional degrees and years of experience. Teachers already get this. The union argues that the children of low-wage staffers will continue to live in poverty with the current compensation offer.
Oct. 4, 2019	Same salary offer for teachers of 16% over five years; lowered the increased health care contribution from 1.5% to .75%. All health care contribution increases will come in the last two years of contract. For workers known as PSRPs (including teacher aides and office clerks): increased base pay by 1.5% and additional raises for years of experience and additional education. CPS says this will result in some workers getting as much as 14% immediately.	For teachers, demand of 15% over three years has not changed. Also still looking for higher raises for workers called PSRPs (including teacher aides and office clerks). CTU says average salary increase for PSRPs should be 22% immediately.
Oct. 11, 2019	CPS says its existing offer is its final offer.	No change.

Date	Chicago Public Schools	Chicago Teachers Union
Starting offer	CPS wants to negotiate this during contract talks.	Demanding more substitute teachers be hired full time with benefits and assigned to networks of schools so they can be readily available. They also want subs to get lunch periods and not be assigned extra duties that teachers they are replacing aren't required to do, such as monitoring recess.
Sept. 26, 2019	The school district is offering to pay substitutes who take jobs in hard-to-staff schools above the regular daily rate of about $200. The school district started doing this last year as it acknowledged problems finding substitutes.	The CTU, which also represents substitutes, wants more teachers hired as cadre substitutes, who work full-time with benefits and are sometimes assigned to individual schools.
Oct. 4, 2019	Guaranteeing substitutes get time to eat lunch. Also guaranteeing professional development for substitutes on special education and bilingual education, among other things.	CTU says the two sides have reached a tentative agreement on the lunch and professional development issue but other demands related to subsitutes are unresolved.

Date	Chicago Public Schools	Chicago Teachers Union
Starting offer	No	No
Oct. 11, 2019	CPS says the two sides have reached a tentative agreement.	Tentative agreement.