“The mayor is being relentless, but she’s being relentlessly stupid, she’s being relentlessly stubborn," Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said Monday.
Sun-Times/Ashlee Rezin Garcia
Chicago Public Schools is taking its biggest step toward a return to normalcy Monday, a full 349 days after the pandemic closed schools and upended education as families and educators knew it. But school, for the foreseeable future, will still look nearly unrecognizable.
The vast majority of the 421 elementary and middle schools welcoming students back over the next week more than 92% will be less than half full, and 42% will be less than a quarter full.
Teachers across the city are expecting single-digit students per class, including some with no children returning at all. Schools have split their returning students into Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday cohorts, with Wednesdays reserved for school cleaning and remote learning for all.