After nearly a year of bargaining, the Chicago Teachers Union is one step closer to finalizing a deal with Chicago Public Schools. The contract now needs approval from the Chicago Board of Education.

CTU officials on Monday morning announced that 97% of its members who voted last week cast ballots in favor of the contract proposal, a mark union President Stacy Davis Gates called “overwhelming (and) historic.”

“Our solidarity has brought us this far,” CTU President Stacy Davis Gates and union leadership wrote in an open letter to members. “Your vote decides what happens next.”

Wednesday’s vote comes two days after the union announced it had reached a tentative agreement with Chicago Public Schools following nearly a year of bargaining.

CTU leaders called the four-year deal a “historic achievement” that represents the fulfillment of promises Mayor Brandon Johnson made to transform CPS into a school district that offers a well-rounded education to every Chicago child and security to its employees.

CTU on Friday confirmed the union’s big bargaining team will meet Monday afternoon to weigh the potential deal.

The outspoken chemistry teacher led nearly 25,000 teachers on a historic weeklong strike in 2012, changing the way the union organized and negotiated. She died in 2021 at 67 years old.

The decision to delay the vote is an acknowledgment that budget amendment does not have the support of at least 14 of the 21 CPS board members.

The new 21-member, partially elected CPS board is set to vote Thursday on whether to make that pension payment and figure out how to pay for new contracts with the unions representing teachers and principals.

CTU leaders met outside Chicago Public Schools’ Loop headquarters ahead of Wednesday’s Board of Education meeting where they expressed hope that a new contract could be finalized soon if district leaders agree to their final demands.

CTU vice president Jackson Potter said the union is “very concerned” about Linda McMahon’s potential confirmation as she’s expected to carry out orders to essentially dismantle the Department of Education.

“That is the last thing that students and families need,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said of a possible teachers strike, “and given how close our teams are to an agreement, we see no reason for such a drastic step.”

Just days before Christmas, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez was terminated in a unanimous vote by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s handpicked Board of Education.

The Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools still have not reached a contract deal. Meanwhile, the CPS Board of Education’s publicly elected members will be sworn in this week, and the district will be on the search for a new leader since the current board fired CEO Pedro Martinez.

In his first interview since the CPS board voted unanimously to terminate Martinez, Johnson said the current board members were carrying out his vision for the nation’s fourth-largest school district.

To fully understand what led the district to this point, let’s go back in time to the spring of this year. Below is a timeline of the major events leading toward CPS CEO Pedro Martinez’s termination and upcoming departure from CPS: