The Chicago Teachers Union said late Wednesday it intends to “step up resistance” if Chicago Public Schools doesn’t improve COVID-19 safety protections, calling current conditions “dangerous.”

       The union didn’t specify what form any resistance might take, saying only members will resort to “escalating actions if necessary.” But the language marked the CTU’s most pointed reference to a possible formal work action since school reopened Monday, and it suggested a deepening rift between Illinois’ largest school district and one of the state’s most powerful unions.

       Chicago Teachers Union members gather outside of Benito Juarez Community Academy Aug. 18, calling for more safety measures for students and staff in Chicago Public Schools. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune)

       The union Tweeted Wednesday evening that its House of Delegates was meeting to “discuss returning to buildings and next steps.”

       Leading up to Monday’s reopening, CPS leaders, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and city public health officials gave repeated assurances that schools would be safe and that students were better served through in-person classes. CTU agreed to start the new school year without a new safety agreement, with remaining issues to settle such as whether vaccinated students need to quarantine if they’ve had close contact with someone infected with COVID-19. But the union also cited CPS’s rollback of some of last year’s safety measures, like requiring health screenings at school entrances and reducing social distancing from 6 to 3 feet “where possible.”

       But since Monday, concerns have escalated: Photographs have circulated on social media of packed hallways; students have described lunchrooms where bands of mask-less youths crowded together; teachers have reported class sizes too large for even 3 feet of separation.

       And, inevitably, COVID-19 cases are beginning to crop up within the school system. CPS is reporting 28 adult and 11 student cases for the current week, and about 150 close contacts in quarantine, including 24 at Prosser Career Academy in Belmont-Cragin, 20 at Lara Elementary Academy in Back of the Yards and 17 at Ruggles Elementary in the Chatham area.

       Thirty-eight schools have reported at least one positive case this week, according to CPS data posted online Wednesday. Two schools — Lara and Johnson School of Excellence in North Lawndale — each have one pod in quarantine. A pod is defined by the district as a small class size of about 15 students.

       “One or more of those mitigations — social distancing, masking, testing, vaccines, working ventilation and more — have failed at schools across the city,” the CTU claims in a Wednesday news release. “Overcrowding, lack of testing, AC breakdowns, and other mitigation failures will drive needless infections and preventable harm, while Lightfoot continues to allow her CPS team to drag on landing safety agreements with the CTU and (SEIU) Local 73.”

       SEIU represents thousands of custodians, bus aides, special education assistants and other CPS employees, and its members joined CTU when it went on strike in October 2019, months before the pandemic struck.

       Then during the 2020-21 school year, the reopening of CPS schools was repeatedly delayed — and the first group of students to return had to revert for a time to full-time remote learning — as CTU pushed for broader safety protocols and members refused to return to in-person classes. As a result, CPS cut off computer access to some teachers and the district was brought to the brink of another strike before the sides reached a series of reopening agreements. Even then, the majority of CPS families chose to keep their children at home full time.

       Now, with the more-contagious delta variant fueling a surge in cases, the vaccine still not available to those under 12 and outbreaks reported at schools across the country, some parents groups are seeking a return to a remote learning option for all students; some families has gone to far as to say they’re not sending their children back.

       The Illinois State Board of Education, however, issued an order over the summer that all students must be in school full time this fall, with rare exceptions for students with serious medical conditions or who are in quarantine.

       Chicago Teachers Union warns of ‘escalating actions’ unless COVID-19 safety improves in CPS schools

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