With a strike deadline looming, Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union reached a tentative agreement late Monday night on a four-year contract.
WMAQ-TV reports that union president Karen Lewis announced a four-year agreement, retroactive to last year, shortly before midnight, when the district's teachers were set to begin a strike.
The tentative agreement means that classes were able to go on as scheduled on Tuesday. The proposed contract still must receive approval from the union's membership.
The Chicago Sun-Times says under the agreement, in years two, three and four, teachers will receive the raises for added experience and education known as steps and lanes; the district had suspended those during negotiations.
Cost of living raises of 2 percent and then 2.5 percent also are forthcoming in the third and fourth years of the deal, Lewis says. Teachers are in year two of the agreement; the previous contract expired in June 2015.
The district also has agreed to lower the student-teacher ratio in kindergarten to second-grade classrooms with teaching assistants.
Video from WMAQ-TV:
