Sisters and Brothers:
An outpouring of rank-and-file support for common sense safety provisions empowered CTU’s bargaining team at Acero charter school to win some critical safety demands that will protect both high school and elementary educators.
CTU members at Acero have now overwhelmingly ratified a return to work agreement that meets and in some ways exceeds the safety provisions that CTU won from CPS for elementary schools.
Some lessons that CPS and other charter operators should learn from the agreement CTU members won at Acero:
- All educators are allowed to work from home every Wednesday unless there is testing.
- Whenever classroom students are not present, members can work remotely.
- There are no stakes for evaluations this year, with progress towards tenure unaffected.
- High school instructional day (synchronous) is 5 hours 15 minutes, and student in-person time is limited to 6.5 hours a day.
- High school students will be placed in cohorts, with instructors delivering virtual instruction from a different room in the building. Student cohorts are supervised by teachers during principal-directed preps.
- Rights pertaining to leaves and accommodations in the 4th quarter include childcare challenges, primary caregiver of high risk individual(s) and ADA.
As always, the solidarity, unity and action of our rank and file members made this agreement possible — along terms we’ll seek to expand across the charter landscape.
In solidarity,
Chris Baehrend
CTU-ACTS, Charter Division Chair
