CHICAGO, Ill.—About 100 Chicago International Charter School teachers blocked the entrance to the
school chain’s office building Feb. 13, the seventh day of their strike. “It’s unacceptable that people can have six-figure salaries and yet say they have no money to make sure our schools are properly invested in,” CICS Ralph Ellison High School English teacher Kimberly Randle told the Chicago Sun-Times. The Chicago Teachers Union members are demanding that charter teachers’ pay be raised to match that of teachers at city public schools and that the schools add social workers and counselors. The CICS network is keeping the four struck schools open with a small number of non-union staffers, while its ten nonunion schools are not affected. The protest ended after about 90 minutes, when police escorted three teachers upstairs to deliver a letter of demands to CICS President and Treasurer Laura Thonn’s office. Read more
