CPS CEO says contract talks with the teachers union have not stalled: 'In fact, it's just the opposite'

Chicago schools chief Pedro Martinez pushed back Friday against the teachers union’s claim that contract negotiations have stalled in the two weeks since he was fired.

“The urgency has never been higher,” Martinez said, who, due to a provision in his contract, will stay at the helm of the school district for six months. “There is no evidence at all (that progress has stalled). In fact, it's just the opposite.”

The back and forth Friday underscored the highly unusual situation the district is in as it tries to settle a contract with the union and avoid a strike. Just days after Martinez was terminated, some school board members showed up at contract negotiations, hoping to move forward on making a contract deal.

But Martinez said they shouldn’t attend without his permission as CEO, and a court granted a temporary restraining order, preventing them from attending.

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates has since started calling Martinez the “supreme being” and said she is frustrated that seemingly one person holds the keys to getting a contract deal.

“I think the greatest threat to our bargaining momentum is, quite frankly, the supreme being of the Chicago Public Schools that's basically in control of everything,” she said at a news conference Friday.

A big part of the conflict between Martinez and Mayor Brandon Johnson — who appointed the board members who fired Martinez — is over Martinez’s insistence that the school district can’t afford many of the CTU’s contract demands.

Again on Friday, Martinez repeated that the school district must be fiscally responsible as it works to land a “fair” contract. He said the school district is facing a $500 million budget deficit next year.

Still, he said the school district has offered teachers and staff 16% raises over four years, which is better than past deals, and even agreed to some of the staffing increases demanded by the union.

Martinez has not said how he expects the school district to pay for the current offers. He said the new partly elected school board, which will be sworn this month, will have to amend the budget.

The union is nervous that Martinez is planning layoffs or furloughs to balance the budget.

Davis Gates stressed on Friday that the union has made numerous compromises and offered a phased in approach to many of the staffing demands as it tries to land a deal.

At two news conferences this week, she has brought up the prospect of a strike. Davis Gates said she had not thought a strike was on the table with CTU ally Johnson serving as mayor, but now she is accusing Martinez of wanting a “confrontation with the union, rather than collaboration and compromise.”

The union initiated this summer the legal process that it needs to undertake before a strike, but paused hearings before an independent factfinder – one step in the process – as it pushed to get a contract deal by Christmas. Union officials were not clear Friday if they will unpause it due to recent developments.

Still, even if factfinding were restarted, it would be at least two months before a strike can be called so that the legal process can play out.

Martinez said his team worked throughout the winter break in earnest and confidently said there will be a settlement. He also acknowledged Friday that the teachers union has narrowed their demands.

Both sides say there has been some progress made over the eight months of talks. Among the agreements: More staff for bilingual and special-education students, whose numbers are increasing in the district; class size caps for preschool and primary grades; teachers assistants for preschool classes; 30 additional librarians; and four technology coordinators for each geographic region.

“We are reaching the end of our financial capacity to add more positions to our books,” CPS Chief of Talent Ben Felton said at the news conference Friday. “We've made that clear to our partners at CTU at the negotiating table.”

Some of the stickiest outstanding issues are not economic. They include asks for more preparation time for elementary school teachers, flexibility for teachers to choose what curriculum they use in their classrooms and adjustments to the teacher evaluation system, which CTU says has proven to be biased against teachers in schools serving predominantly Black students.

Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova made it clear Friday that she was standing firm against many of these proposals.

“There are several areas where we feel very strongly about protecting and preserving the successful academic vision that we have laid out,” she said.