Chicago Teachers Union addresses school safety concerns

CHICAGO - Monday is the first day back to school for Chicago Public Schools teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union addressed its ongoing safety concerns within CPS this morning.

The union says just 25 percent of new safety agreements are now complete.

Now, a coalition of city and state elected officials have issued a letter to the Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS leadership urging them to reach a comprehensive safety agreement with CTU.

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Teachers and union members flagged their concerns about ongoing safety and stability as the Delta variant evolves.

"We've made some progress. We have. We think we're close to an agreement on safety committees, which are the committees in each individual school that allows people to enforce building conditions to keep us safe in our schools," said CTU President Jesse Sharkey. "But there are a number of broader issues that have to be addressed by the mayor. Local schools cannot address a citywide metric, for example."

"We're happy to be here, we'll be happy to be going back into school, but we need a commitment from the mayor and CPS to reach a completed safety agreement so that public and teachers can have confidence that we're going to be able to stay in school."

CPS students return to class next Monday.