Chicago teachers bargaining team to review contract deal

CHICAGO — Monday, a team of Chicago teachers will review a proposed contract deal, and decide whether it should go through the union’s approval process.

Chicago Public Schools and the union both reported Friday, they’ve reached a tentative agreement. It includes a four-percent cost-of-living increase in each of four years. And there’s money to hire more librarians and teaching assistants.

If the bargaining team accepts the deal, it’ll send it to the union’s house of delegates. From there, it would go to the union’s 30,000 members for a vote.

Talks have taken nearly a year. The negotiations began with more than 700 union proposals and the two sides have spent the past week on a few remaining sticking points, including teacher evaluations, elementary school teacher preparation time and veteran teacher pay.

Sources familiar with the negotiations told WGN-TV that the veteran teacher pay system has been overhauled in the potential deal.

Other points of focus are a Green Schools Initiative and Kindergarten class sizes.