Education

Chicago Teachers Contract Officially Approved Following Board of Education Vote

The Chicago Teachers Union’s new four-year labor contract has been officially approved, following a favorable vote Thursday night by the city’s partially elected Board of Education.

The 21-member board voted to approve the deal during its monthly meeting at Chicago Public Schools’ Loop office Thursday — the last step necessary to finalize the contract.

“We appreciate this support because it’s going to take all of us to implement this contract,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates told the board Thursday. “It’s pretty big and it does a lot.”

Union leadership, its House of Delegates, and eventually its 30,000-plus rank-and-file members all voted to ratify the agreement in separate votes over the past several weeks.

CPS officials have estimated the cost of that contract at $1.5 billion over its lifetime and around $120-125 million during the first year alone.

The deal includes raises for teachers and enforceable class size limits. It also expands services offered to special education, bilingual and unhoused students and will add teacher prep time and increase the number of libraries and librarians districtwide, while also expanding funding for sports programming and access to career and technical education opportunities.

The union said it also ironed out some of its final sticking points — elementary teacher prep time and the teacher evaluations — after CPS agreed to increase professional development time and to advocate for state law changes to address the racially disparate impacts of the current evaluation system.

“At its core this contract fairly rewards the excellent work of our educators, makes investments that are financially responsible for the district and keeps the best interest of our students at the forefront,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said.

Martinez also said he was proud the sides were able to avoid a work stoppage. This contract marks the first time in 15 years CTU reached an agreement without first taking a strike vote.

In 2012, CTU went on strike for seven days. In 2016, a late-night agreement averted a second walkout under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In 2019, an 11-day strike followed the breakdown of negotiations with former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

“We have a contract, we have a contract that did not require a strike vote, we have a contract that did not require a strike,” Davis Gates said. “That is a significant development considering up until this point that is what it has taken to get us here.”

The agreement was reached after nearly a year of tense negotiations that pitted union leaders allied with Mayor Brandon Johnson against Martinez, whom the mayor’s then-handpicked board fired last December.

Because Martinez was terminated without cause, a provision in his contract allowed him to remain on the job for six months. He is set to leave CPS in June and is now expected to take over the top state education post in Massachusetts.

Union leaders have hailed the four-year deal a “historic achievement” that represented the fulfillment of promises Johnson made to transform CPS into a school district that offers a well-rounded education to every Chicago child and security to its employees.

The board on Thursday also voted to amend the school district’s 2025 budget in order to fund the first year of the new contract.

Martinez acknowledged the district has a “challenging” financial outlook for the coming years, including a projected budget shortfall of $529 million for the 2026 fiscal year. He said “conversations are ongoing” in regard to funding strategies for future years.

Students, families, district officials and educators plan to travel to Springfield on Tuesday to advocate for additional state funding.

“CPS was proud to help lead the fight for the new evidence-based funding formula in Springfield,” Martinez said, “and we’re proud to stand alongside districts from across the state in our push for more funding now.”

Heather Cherone contributed to this report.

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