Welcome back! 2020 will be a year full of parent advocacy! 

Teachers voted to ratify the contract last week which officially ended the strike. The CPS Board of Ed approved the strike make up days and the CTU and SEIU contracts yesterday at their monthly meeting. 

Some more press coverage on the strike & contracts below: 

WBEZ: Teachers Strike Remakes 25 Years Of Bargaining in Chicago

Chalkbeat Chicago: Budgets, school ratings, charter schools: Side agreements to Chicago teachers contract reach for big changes

Revised CPS calendar is here. 

CPS announced the five proposed make up days for the 11 day CTU/SEIU strikes: Wed, Nov 27; Th, Jan 2; Fri, Jan 3; Wed, June 17; and Th, June 18. 

Please note that these are proposed make up days. The CPS Board of Education (CPS BOE) must vote to approve these days. You have two opportunities to express your opinion before the CPS BOE vote: 

1️⃣ There will be a hearing on the revised calendar and budget on Tues, Nov 12, 2019: 4-6pm (in person sign up to speak: 3-4pm); 6:30-8:30pm (in person sign up to speak: 5:30-6:30pm) ; CPS, 42 W. Madison. Here are the details on these hearings. Speakers have 2 min to speak.

2️⃣ The calendar and budget revisions require approval from the mayor appointed CPS BOE. The next CPS BOE meeting is Wed, Nov 20, at 10:30am. Online sign up to speak or attend this meeting begins on Mon, Nov 18, at www.cpsboe.org, 10:30am sharp.

On October 29, CPS mom and Raise Your Hand board member, Andrea Tolzmann, spoke at the #CTUSEIUStrike rally at the Hide Out, across the street from Fleet Fields, the soccer fields on the Lincoln Yards site. Huu Nguyen, CPS parent, RYH parent leader, and Illinois Families for Public Schools board member, also spoke. You can read both statements below.

Watch video of the speeches here. 

In good news, SEIU Local 73 has a tentative agreement! In not so good news, there's no agreement between CPS and CTU but negotiations continue. Emotions are high right now- and for good reason. Be good to yourself and others. We will get through this. Social media tip: Sometimes you just have to keep scrolling or get off social media for a while. At the end of this contract negotiation, we are still all parts of school communities which are part of a larger community, the Chicago Public Schools. Our children need all of us working together. 

We sent the below email this afternoon. 

UPDATE: The strike continues after a day of bargaining. No school, Friday, October 18. Downtown rally, 1:30pm, City Hall.

UPDATE 10.18.19: Emergency Bilingual Ed Action-CTU/SEIU 73 Strike Day 2!, Friday, Oct 18, 11:30am - 2:30pm, Thompson Center Food Court. FB event page has more details.

Sun-Times: Chicago Public Schools classes canceled Thursday in anticipation of teachers strike

Mayor Lori Lightfoot and schools chief Janice Jackson announced all Chicago Public Schools classes are canceled for Thursday in anticipation of the strike. 

Possible strike(s) update below.

We are one week away from our annual fundraiser, Raise a Glass for RYH! Thanks to all of you who have bought tickets, purchased an ad or sponsorship, and joined The Host Committee!

Our new(ish) Executive Director, Jianan Shi, is celebrating his birthday! Wish him a happy, relaxing birthday weekend by BUYING YOUR Raise a Glass for RYH TICKETS TODAY! 🥳