Proposals for the 2007-2008 deal

Negotiations

* One-year contract term

* Recognition of Chicago Teachers Unions as the sole bargaining unit for union members of contract schools

Charters

* Eliminating multiple campus charter schools and requiring charters that already have them to downsize to one over three years

Teachers

* Selection of high school department chairs by teachers, not principals

* Reduced teaching schedule for department chairs

* Increase in the number of preparation periods from three to five for elementary school teachers; from one to five for high school teachers with division classes

* One additional librarian, art and music teacher for every 500 students

* Overall reduction in class size with additional reductions for classes with more than 10 percent special education students

* Board-funded positions for a technology coordinator for every 500 students or 200 computers

Paraprofessionals

* Private rooms for school counselors

* Reduction in counselor-student ration from 600-to-1 to 350-to-1

* Minimum of one counselor at every school

* Half-time counselor aide

* Minimum of two board-funded clerks at every school. Minimum number of clerks higher for larger schools

Program Funding

* A line item in school budgets for library media centers

* Installing a working computer and printer in every classroom for teacher use

* Minimum of $2,000 for supply and equipment budget for every physical education teacher

* Increase in funding for vocational education classes

Salary and Benefits

* Maternity leave

* Increase in the maximum number of hours for which teachers can be paid for overseeing extracurricular activities

* Provision for the Board of Education to pay for health insurance premiums

* Increase in lifetime healthcare benefits and life insurance

* Access to higher steps on salary scale for vocational education teachers

* Extra pay for teachers who temporarily take into their classes students whose teachers are absent

* $1,000 bonus for “educational support personnel” who have become highly qualified under NCLB; bonuses for teachers

* New early retirement benefits

School Operations

* Shaving 15 minutes off school day

* Eliminating 50-minute periods in high schools, leaving schools with 40-, 42- and 45-minute period options with the latter being the default

* New guidelines for handling student discipline

Job Protection

* Provision for layoffs of education support personnel to be based on seniority

* Elimination of article that always probationary teachers to be released from their schools without due process

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