Chicago Public Schools: Our Students, Our Families, Our Schools

Whether we are custodians, bus aides, SECAs, or security, we are committed to providing a safe, clean, and positive learning environment in our schools for our students. After all, many of us have children in the Chicago Public Schools.

The CPS Board needs to make a commitment to us so we can provide the school environment that our kids deserve.  This includes adequate training and professional development. Right now, our training and development is often treated as an afterthought, or a ‘not-thought-of-at-all’. Sometimes we’re assigned to just do more work, or paperwork, or clean closets and decorate hallways. None of this prepares us for our work with our students.

Whatever our jobs may be, we ALL interact with students. Whether assisting in their education, taking care of their physical needs, or just being responsible adult role models, our students count on us. This means we need more specialized and advanced training not just on cleaning and safety, but also on interacting with our diverse student population. Many of us are responsible for care work with diverse learners – this means there is a need for more training on physical care, managing behavior and social interactions.

SECAs, in particular, are tasked with teaching diverse learners the same lesson plans as their classroom teachers to make sure the diverse learners keep up with their students and don’t fall behind other students. This means we need more professional development, training and support in pedagogical methods and subject matter. But we receive little from the CPS Board.

When the CPS Board doesn’t provide us with the best training and professional development, it not only disrespects us, but it disrespects the students that we serve and their families.

We want to do the best jobs we can, but without relevant training, not to mention enough staff in each job title and each school, CPS is doing a disservice to our students, our schools, and our communities.

Join us at the next negotiations:

Wednesday, December 19

5-9pm

Local 73 Office

300 S. Ashland Ave.

Have you joined our CPS SEIU Local 73 Members Facebook Group? Click to join the group and have direct conversations with other CPS members.