Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates with fellow union members (Photo Courtesy of the Chicago Teachers Union).
The Chicago Teachers Union’s House of Delegates has overwhelmingly approved a historic tentative contract agreement with Chicago Public Schools, clearing the way for a full union membership vote next week.
Roughly 700 elected delegates reviewed the proposal in a special meeting earlier this week. Their approval sets up a major decision for CTU’s 30,000 members, who will now vote to either ratify the deal or send it back to the bargaining table. The in-person paper ballot vote is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, April 10 and 11. A final tally is expected by Monday, April 14.
“Everyone wins with this contract: students, educators, and all Chicagoans,” said Vicki Kurzydlo, a delegate from Sauganash Elementary. “Educators get the raises that will help keep experienced teachers in the district long-term and students finally get recess, more access to sports, arts, music. It upholds Chicago values of protecting Black history, creating LGBTQIA Safe Schools, and reinforcing our schools as a sanctuary not just for immigrants but for anyone facing discrimination.”
A Long Road Without a Strike
This agreement comes after more than 11 months of bargaining, a full school year without a contract, and—remarkably—without a strike or even a strike vote. That marks the union’s first in more than 15 years.
The CTU’s Big Bargaining Team, which comprises rank-and-file members, reached the deal earlier this week. It now represents what union leaders are calling a transformational step forward after decades of austerity and school closures under previous city leadership.
According to CTU leadership, the contract counters “Project 2025-style” disinvestment that closed over 200 public schools between 2002 and 2018. The agreement is designed to build on gains made in the union’s previous contract wins in 2012, 2016, and 2019.
What’s in the Contract
The agreement promises expanded support for students, major staffing boosts, and protections that touch nearly every corner of school life.
Key provisions include:
- Doubles the number of libraries and librarians for schools
- Enforceable and smaller class sizes for all grade levels
- Ensuring social workers and nurses serve students in every school, every instructional day
- Doubles the bilingual education staffing supports for students
- Additional staffing, curricular and enrollment supports for Early Childhood Education students and programs
- Creates 215 more case manager positions district-wide to support students with disabilities
- A cost of living adjustment of 17-20% compounded (tied to inflation) over the four years of the contract
- Provide new steps that compensate veteran educators for their experience
- Increases in prep time for clinicians and elementary and special education teachers so students arrive at classrooms ready for them
- Expanded benefits for dental, vision, infertility and abortion care, gender-affirming care, hearing aids, speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, chiropractic services
- A more than tripling of the number of Sustainable Community Schools, from 20 to 70, throughout the agreement
- Provides CTU, CPS, City and sister agency coordination for the first time to provide housing support, section 8 vouchers, rental assistance and affordable units to CPS families in need
- Enshrines 12 weeks of paid parental leave, equal parental, personal illness, and supplemental leave rights for PSRPs to teachers
- A Green Schools initiation of additional resources and collaboration to remediate lead, asbestos and mold in aging school buildings while upgrading to green energy with environmentally sustainable technology, materials and practices
- Protections for academic freedom, Black history, and culturally relevant curriculum for the first time in the contract
- An additional $10 million annual investment in sports programming
- Protections for academic freedom that enshrine educators’ ability to teach Black, Indigenous, and other history
- Continuation of Sanctuary School procedures
- A new article that creates LGBTQIA+ safe schools
Full details of the tentative agreement can be found on CTU’s website.
A Broader Vision of Equity
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates called the tentative agreement a bold step away from the era of cuts and closures and toward a more inclusive and supportive school system.
“Our union is bargaining for what every parent wants for their child in our school communities,” said Davis Gates. “It shouldn’t be a fight for children to get access to arts, sports, wrap-around supports, and libraries. It’s what should already exist. We’re proud to have landed a transformative contract that turns away from decades of disinvesting in Black children and turns toward creating the world-class education system for every single student in CPS no matter their zip code.”
Support—and Resistance
The proposal aligns with the broader vision of Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teacher and CTU organizer, who included many of the contract’s themes in his transition plan focused on equity in Chicago’s schools.
However, the path to this tentative deal hasn’t been without friction. CTU officials say the district’s CEO played an “unprecedented role of obstruction,” even filing a restraining order against the Board of Education in an attempt to control contract negotiations. That CEO has since been dismissed but was allowed to serve an additional six months.
Despite pushback from conservative think tanks like the Illinois Policy Institute and Liberty Justice Center, CTU members remain optimistic that the contract will usher in a new chapter for public education in the city.
For now, all eyes turn to next week’s union-wide vote. If approved, it would mark a major milestone in CTU’s decades-long campaign for a more just and fully funded school system.
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