>> After almost a year of often contentious negotiations, the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago public schools have reached a tentative contract deal.

The union's contract expired last June in the last 3 contract negotiations all came to a strike vote and in 2 cases an actual strike before a deal was reached.

Joining us with their perspectives on all of this are Goodchild deputy general counsel for the Chicago Teachers Union and member of the union's small bargaining team Zeid or foster director grievances at the Chicago teachers Union as Foster is a former high school teacher and also a member of the sea to use small bargaining team.

And Vicki Kruse.

blow is CPS teacher of more than 30 years and is a member of CT use Big bargaining team and folks at home.

We'll explain what the difference between a small in the big bargaining teams are shortly.

But before we get to our conversation, Mayor Johnson couldn't help but take a victory lap.

Here's some of what he said this morning.

>> And no one in this city wants to see anybody in this city underpaid undervalued.

I know that.

So, you know.

We got it done.

The first mayor, 15 years to get a contract done.

Keep labor peace.

>> Ok, so my thanks to our guest again, Cedar Foster low in Goodchild.

And as we mentioned, the difference, a pretty small in the big bargaining team.

Small bargaining team.

Those are the folks who are actually at the table sitting across from the district in the city, big bargaining teams about 65 educators and staff members who sort of like get the temperature and how we're feeling about about the potential agreement how it's going.

Okay.

Yeah.

Alright.

So while this contract it was settled without a strike vote.

Of course there was a lot of work to get here and along the way, an entire school board Then new one got elected and appointed Knicks successful attempts to fire the schools.

Ceo Pedro Martinez, the kicker.

Is that low over to you first, what do you think the holdup was over this past year?

I think the holdup itself was Mister Pedro Martinez.

>> I feel as though we at sea to you came to the table, ready to negotiate a fair contract, a contract that is cumulative that builds off of each previous contract.

I feel as though the board of Education was also willing and ready to bargain in good faith.

I believe that Pedro Martinez himself one of the biggest reasons why we were blocked at every pass.

>> That said the raises that you all received that were offered last summer.

These are the same raises that that went into the deal that we have today.

Zebra.

You didn't have a deal last summer that what else was holding up?

Well, so outstanding that what sweet enough.

So we started this process with quite a few proposals.

I know you all have heard of the 700 proposals.

So we had a lot of things that we were trying to accomplish.

We started this process trying to transform Chicago public schools.

It wasn't just about compensation.

concerned about staffing.

We wanted to create an elementary school day that enhanced experience for all of our students.

So it was it was a lot on the table and it took some time.

But we felt like we've made some significant improvements and we are confident that the students will have a better experience.

The Chicago public schools as a result, no strike vote this this time.

Of course, fact Goodchild.

How would you compare this process to previous ones previous mayors?

>> Very different on every way.

You know, this is the first time that we're negotiating contracts with mayor.

That isn't an adversary.

air was a middle school teacher and knows what it's like to walk into a public school and meet children that are bringing with them problems come through the door of every school and the city every day.

as you mentioned before, we had a situation where he had a CEO who decided that he was going to listen to the mayor and that he was going to listen to the board.

But despite that, we're really proud of what we were able to accomplish over the last year and what it's going to mean for students, educators and families across the city.

>> So let's walk through what some of the gains for CPS staff and teachers It doubles the number of libraries and librarians.

We've mentioned smaller class sizes.

There is more prep time for elementary school teachers and staff protections for academic freedom.

And I want to come back to that in a bit protections for LGBTQ students I think the dry want to come to to you on this first.

You know, I think a lot of people have heard about, you know, the sort of protections for academic freedom for tenured professors, for example.

But how does this apply to to our public school teachers?

So the academic freedom is something that we feel is important because it allows our teachers to be able to use their professional judgment.

>> And teach the truth.

There's so many different political forces right now.

We want to make sure that our teachers had language in the contract that would allow them to be able to teach and provide, you know, and experience for our students.

And so like indicated, we've gotten a lot of protections for LGBT Q PLUS students and and some of our employees and so supports for bilingual students.

Special Ed tried to build a force field our students to protect them.

And we feel confident that this contract will be able to do that.

>> Vicky, what does this mean for, you know, people working in elementary schools how does all this sort of go together better for you and for your students?

It's really exciting.

Teachers are thrilled that we have more prep time too planned.

The lessons planned the curriculum prepare for our students to make their learning experience richer.

attainable.

Accessible and teachers are thrilled that now with this set of agreements that we are going to be able to actually.

Use our expertise to build upon with what we already have.

You know, teachers take a lot of work home and teachers work a lot of lot of hours outside of the classroom.

This not only allows us the ability to develop our are Kraft inside the building and it really it gives us a lot of respect.

I feel back.

fact, a teacher's yes, yes, sad.

Some of these contracts gains they might be in direct opposition to what we're hearing from President Trump and his goals for on for education.

>> How enforceable teaching some of these changes are in this country.

>> Yes, I think what we're seeing around the country right now is states municipalities, school districts standing up for what they believe despite the attacks coming from the new administration in Washington on public education on teaching the truth on respecting a public workers are at large and and public educators.

And so I think, you know, this is an area where we are really glad for the collaboration shared values with the people that we sat on the other side of the table from you know, teaching black history.

That's American history teaching about the contributions of the LGBTQ community, the immigrant community.

These are all things that are critical and that we're going to stand together and protect.

>> you have any concerns that, you know, the elected the hybrid Ford they still have to figure out?

>> You know, their budgetary challenges, right?

Even though a contract deal has been reached, CBS still has issues.

Are there?

>> Changes in his contract that you think could cause issues for the district in the future?

>> I don't think so.

I think Co Martinez is very clear that there's money to for this contract.

And so we've taken a lot of precautions and making sure that there are protections for students.

It's not just about salary and benefits.

There's things that our students can really benefit from.

And we think that there's a commitment from the school board to ensure that, you know, we are able to see this contractor.

Vicki.

>> Better pay for veteran teachers.

Senior teachers was a thing this time.

And I know when I covered this several years ago, that was an issue.

Even then.

What did you get this time?

Did you get what you didn't get last time?

we got is amazing.

We added 7 steps to you may have heard.

I should preface Everybody's got a And yes, forgive a step is a raise.

And previously at step 14 we began.

You may have heard this alphabet soup sort of thing.

And it was one of those things where you'd be on your 14 of teaching.

And then next year you'd be then be would like Now there are steps up to 25 that are far easier to understand.

Along with the caller raises in raises intriguing, OK, we didn't have before.

Before we go about 30 seconds left, not a done deal yet, dad, what are the next steps?

>> So tomorrow night we will have our House of delegates convene representatives from every school across the entire city.

And we're going to go through the tentative agreement and and this tentative agreement has so much in it for every constituency across our membership and every school in the city.

We are so excited about what this is going to mean for the student experience.

You mentioned doubling the number of libraries.

I increasing access to sports access to fine arts students being able to attend field trips at no cost.

If they're eligible for free and reduced price lunch.

And so we're going to go through.

Teachers are sticklers for attention detail they are and then after House of delegates, House of delegates decides that it goes on to the rank and file.

>> board has his decision to make as well.

That's Crestwood.

All right.

We're gonna leave it there because it's going to be a thing that we're going to keep following.