Chicago school officials say close to deal to avert strike

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago Public School officials said late on Saturday they believed they were "very close" to reaching an agreement with teachers to avert what would be the biggest U.S. labor strike in a year over Mayor Rahm Emanuel's demand for sweeping school reforms.

Some 29,000 teachers and support staff have threatened to strike on Monday, setting up an awkward confrontation between Emanuel, President Barack Obama's former top White House aide, and organized labor in the president's home city.

A protracted stoppage could sour relations between Obama's Democrats and national labor unions, who are among the biggest financial supporters of the Democratic Party and will be needed by the party to help get out the vote in the November 6 election.

Both sides in the dispute expressed some optimism at the end of negotiations on Saturday evening - with school officials sounding more hopeful than the union. The two sides will resume talks on Sunday morning.

"This is a proposal that we believe is very close to what is needed to do a deal," said school board president David Vitale.

"We have listened. We have moved dramatically on almost all of these issues to try to accommodate them and to respect our teachers."

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said the offer was improved, but she would not call it "dramatically" improved. Union officials departed from union headquarters singing "Solidarity Forever."

While Emanuel did not attend the talks, he and Lewis have clashed. She has accused him of being a bully and using profanity in private meetings.

When talks adjourned on Friday, the union described the latest offer from the school district as "totally unacceptable."

The union opened its strike headquarters on Saturday, where more than 100 teachers, students and parents rallied in support. Many wore red T-shirts sold by the union.

People at the rally shouted, "Teachers, yes! CPS, no," referring to Chicago Public Schools management. There was a barrage of honking from passing cars in support of the union.

"Teachers want to be in the classroom but we need to stand up for our rights," said Albert Delgado, a technology teacher at the Whittier School, where he has taught for 17 years.

At issue are teacher pay and school reforms including tougher teacher evaluations that are at the heart of the national debate on improving struggling urban schools.

Emanuel is offering a 2 percent pay increase annually over the next four years, while the union wants substantially more.

LAGGING PERFORMANCE, BIG CLASSES

Both sides agree the city's public schools need fixing. Chicago fourth-grade and eighth-grade students lag national averages in a key test of reading ability, according to the U.S. Department of Education. One union complaint is that class sizes are far too big.

"One of my teachers has 39 students in his classroom and that's unsafe," said Adam Heenan, a social studies teacher at Curie Metro High School.

Emanuel, who has a reputation as a tough negotiator, is demanding that teacher evaluations be tied to standardized test results, a move the union is resisting.

Only about 60 percent of high school students in Chicago graduate, compared with a national average of 75 percent and more than 90 percent in some affluent Chicago suburbs.

More than 80 percent of the 402,000 students in Chicago public schools qualify for free lunches because they are from low-income families.

Until Emanuel pushed through a longer school day this year, Chicago elementary school students received fewer hours of instruction a year than any of the 30 major city school districts studied by the National Center on Time and Learning reform.

The city has little room to sweeten the pot in the negotiations because the school district has already drained its budget reserves and levied the highest property tax allowed by law to finance schools.

It also faces a crushing burden of pensions promised to retiring teachers, and an independent watchdog has said the city can no longer afford to pay those benefits.

Major credit rating agencies have downgraded the Chicago Public Schools debt rating, meaning it may have to pay higher interest rates if it issues bonds.

"I can only say that the teachers I spoke with believe we will be on the picket line (on Monday)," teacher Delgado said.

(Additional reporting by Michael Hirtzer and Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Peter Cooney and Todd Eastham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chicago-school-officials-close-deal-avert-strike-035837863.html

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