Final Plans In Place For Friday's One-Day Chicago Teachers Strike
(CBS) – Hours before a one-day teachers strike took effect, Chicago Public Schools officials tried to reassure parents that they will take care of students Friday if parents cannot stay home with them.
There will be about 250 sites across the city where children can go, including school buildings, park district facilities and churches, CPS CEO Forrest Claypool said Thursday.
CTA transportation will be free to students from 5:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Claypool urged parents to register their kids with CPS for Friday so that staff will know how many young people to expect.
No child will be turned away, he added.
Other parents were trying to figure out how they would handle the teacher walkout.
Nine-year-old Miller Jackson was planning to work at his family's boutique. The student's mother, Julie, says she'll have things for the child to do.
Mario Reinoso will be taking his two daughters, Luca and Laiya, to the advertising firm where he works.
"We are lucky because where I work is very open, so you don't have to plan ahead so much," he says.
The backdrop to these alternate plans is the Chicago Teacher's Union one-day strike. The CTU has been without a contract since last summer.
The union's strike Friday is evolving into a larger protest against a budget stalemate in Springfield.
The CTU has a "full" day planned for members.
It starts at 6:30 a.m. Friday, with protests planned at every school in Chicago.
Among the many demonstrations after that will be a New Orleans-style jazz funeral symbolizing the death of education at 10 a.m. at Northeastern Illinois University; a noon rally at Chicago State University, which is facing massive layoffs; and a 4 p.m. rally and protest march that begins at the James R. Thompson Center.
