The House of Delegates adopted this resolution at its April 4, 2022 monthly meeting.
WHEREAS our Technology Coordinators have always provided essential services to students, educators, staff and families in our school communities and their roles were proven even more integral during the COVID pandemic and subsequent shift to remote learning, and
WHEREAS while the number of Technology Coordinators has increased in the last five (5) school years, our schools are still burdened by Chicago’s persistent racial digital divide, which was made more apparent during the COVID pandemic, and
WHEREAS for the coming budget year, CPS announced to principals that it will move to a “central device management model” – raising the concern that it will expand inadequate and ineffective private vendor services and force a decline in Technology Coordinator positions at schools, and
WHEREAS CPS has a deplorable record of transferring work to ineffective, profit-driven private contractors like Aramark and Sodexo with track records of failed services and financial waste and mismanagement, and
WHEREAS despite receiving $2.8 billion from the federal government to provide pandemic relief to our schools, CPS is choosing to cut school budgets by more than $40 million for the coming school year, and
WHEREAS principals have frequently chosen to cut Technology Coordinator positions when faced with budget cuts, and
WHEREAS our schools need additional expert and school-based Technology Coordinators, and not an expansion of disconnected, drop-in vendor services to build a 21st, century school system for students whose world requires increased engagement and skill with technology, therefore, be it
RESOLVED that the Chicago Teachers Union will embark on a public campaign to “Protect Our Tech Coordinators” through all necessary organizing activities to protect their positions from cuts from bargaining to petitions to Board meeting actions and more; and
RESOLVED that the CTU President will form an ad hoc committee to reaffirm the importance of Technology Coordinators to demand more, not less, Technology Coordinators, and to drive this public campaign to support, retain, and expand positions so that every CPS school has at least one (1) Technology Coordinator; and
RESOLVED that the CTU calls on delegates and members to engage administration and inform parents and Local School Council members of the threat to our Technology Coordinators, and encourage LSC’s to urge CPS to protect these critical support staff and not let them be cut; and be it finally
RESOLVED that the CTU calls upon all members to celebrate Friday, April 29, 2022 as “Technology Coordinators Appreciation Day” and implement a social media campaign to send photographs and testimonials to CEO Pedro Martinez and Board of Education President Miguel del Valle about the critical need for more, not less, Technology Coordinators.
