we got some clues from the mayor and the teachers union not too long ago. we know some of the major sticking points come from metrics to take schools to remote. mayor light foot confirmed that agreement is part of what got things at least to the end and the teachers union said it would constitute 30% of a student population to be absent because of covid during cdc designated periods of high transmission and 50% during other times. now, another major point of contention was of course, trying to increase the capacity for testing and one important note there is that in recent days, saturday, governor here in illinois secured 350,000 tests to bring to chicago public schools and his office confirmed not too long ago this evening that all 350,000 of those tests were delivered so that likely had an impact on trying to bring the two sides together. and then of course, one of the final metrics was from remote learning itself. the teachers union wanted to stay remote until january 18th or covid
things. so far she has refused to say yes to some things. again, this is not about whether or not to have school. this is about opening schools safely, maintaining a safe school so you don t have to close it. this is about stability for everyone in the school community. reporter: now, the mayor is meeting some of these demands. the teachers union wanted more masks so she said that k n95 masks will be available to all teachers, staff and students who want one. she also understands that it is important to have more testing, but the nonstarter here is when the teachers union says that they will returning to in-person learning on january 18th when they believe that the surge in the city with omicron will subside. the mayor says, no, that s unacceptable. she wants these teachers back in class now and she says she s not going to relent on that. so, again, steph, here we are day week two, rather, of negotiations that continue while students are out of class for
members of the teachers union said their target date to return to the classroom is january 18th, if not sooner. all of this on top of the district reporting a record number of new cases. i want you and our viewers to take a look at this number. six the break, cps is reporting more than 422 new cases among its students and more than 270 cases amongst staff. as you know, this is the third straight day school has been canceled for students in the chicago public schools. it all started on tuesday. that s when members of the chicago teachers union voted refusing to show up in person, requesting to switch to remote learning citing covid concerns. in response, the district canceled. now, the city s public health commissioner says she is in favor of more testing. that s one thing members of the union are requesting.
they point the fingers at the district, then they point the fingers to the teachers. i m pointing the finger at my child, you know, because he s the one that end up losing out in this whole argument. every time i go to my room, it gets harder than in person. i didn t want this to to happen, so that s why i want to get my school open. reporter: now, casas, noberto casas wants people to go back in person. while not every parent feels that way, one sentiment they appear to share is they want consistency in where they will be sending their kids every day. now, moving forward some of the dates we are keeping an eye on is january 18th is when the teachers union said they intend to continue refusing to go in person until or at least until they reach an agreement on this. the teacher or the school district just said moments ago they want teachers back in the classroom on friday, but, of course, in the meantime we are in a standoff where bottom line
out testing so everyone was being tested no matter what but the city said we want opt in testing that way we can get parental consent for students to be tested they also wanted basically to stay remote until january 18th. the city said no, we re not doing remote. it s too detrimental to education and being in person is safe. so it will be interesting to see the details that got them over the edge and it was earlier this evening that the ceo pedro martinez said he was cautiously optimistic they would get to the finish line and today it seems to have played out. i m gld youad you had detail. i understand ood kids would be tomorrow, they won t. today was the fourth day clunlts were out of the close room. what is the holdup? it will be five days, a legit