Tentative School Pact Puts Chicago Walkout on Hold

Teachers and the Board of Education reached a tentative agreement here Saturday, easing threats of a shutdown in the nation’s third-largest school system.

Negotiators emerged from a 16-hour session before dawn to announce the breakthrough, which must be ratified by the Chicago Teachers Union and school board.

“I have some good news for the city of Chicago,” Mayor Richard M. Daley said. “It looks like we have a tentative agreement.”

No details of the proposed contract were released.

“It’s not everything we wanted, but it is something the schools can thrive on,” school board President D. Sharon Grant said.

Other negotiators left the meeting without comment.

The agreement was the first step to a resolution of the months-long school crisis. The school board has been trying to negotiate a teachers’ contract since July that they hoped would erase a $298-million state budget deficit.

In addition to board and union members, state lawmakers also must approve certain aspects of the contract.

The tentative agreement came less than 12 hours after a second federal judge issued a fourth waiver allowing schools to open without a balanced budget, as required by state law.

Parents of minority children filed a class-action lawsuit Friday, contending that the state’s balanced budget law was unconstitutional and discriminatory because it applied only to Chicago schools, where 90% of the 411,000 students are minorities.

U.S. District Judge James Alesia agreed with the argument and issued the order, which expires on Oct. 18.

“There is no doubt in my mind that irreparable harm will be felt by the schoolchildren in Chicago” if schools were shut down, Alesia said.

Schools were to shut down at midnight Friday, when an order by U.S. District Judge Charles P. Kocoras expired.

But mediators questioned the effectiveness of the court reprieves, saying shuttered schools would pressure negotiators into an agreement.