Jesse Sharkey, the president of the Chicago Academics Union (CTU) that just lately went head-to-head with Chicago Public Faculties over distant studying, has introduced he won't search re-election.
Sharkey launched an announcement on Wednesday night time, explaining that he'll end his tenure as president when his time period ends in June. The assertion comes practically a month after the CTU publicly battled with Chicago Public Faculties over the shortage of distant studying sources and entry. The battle resulted in a week-long negotiation section that closed Chicago faculties. In his assertion, Sharkey thanked his colleagues for the work they'd put in throughout instances like this.
"We had seen the enjoyment of instructing fall underneath assault by moneyed pursuits and company hacks, and we needed to guard faculties and honor school rooms by making our union extra responsive and more practical," Sharkey wrote. "Within the eyes of many round our metropolis, and our nation, we succeeded."
He elaborated on what the union has completed because the starting of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Over the last two years, as all of us collectively struggled to outlive COVID-19, our union secured a moratorium on college closings, historic security agreements, the restoration of our bargaining rights, an elected consultant college board and a multi-million greenback settlement for Black educators impacted by racist turnaround layoffs," Sharkey wrote.
"We may have a nurse and a social employee in each college by 2024. Now we have college students recognizing the ability of their voice, and their motion, to battle for the faculties and town they deserve."
The bargaining rights have been crucial through the union's negotiations with Chicago Public Faculties in early January. The union voted with 70 p.c approval to renew on-line studying through the metropolis's COVID-19 surge. What ensued was a number of days of negotiations for a "protected return to school rooms," in addition to accusations towards Chicago Public Faculties for locking lecturers out of the system's distant studying platform. Sharkey and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot additionally exchanged barbs, with the union head calling the mayor a liar.
"We all know the mayor lies, a apply that has sadly rolled downhill to the CPS CEO who serves her," Sharkey mentioned on the time. "They proceed to falsely declare that we're participating in an unlawful strike, once we wish to educate however can not as a result of they've locked us out."
On the finish of Sharkey's Wednesday assertion, he thanked union members for his or her laborious work and dedication, saying that he was "assured in the way forward for" the CTU. He additionally welcomed ongoing change in management throughout the union.
"I'm immensely pleased with our union's work, and the dedication that our educators convey to their school rooms day by day," he wrote. "Actions have to vary as folks change, with new leaders and new imaginative and prescient stepping to the fore."
As soon as Sharkey's tenure is full, present Vice President Stacy Davis Gates will assume the position.
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