>> The Chicago teachers Union could be close to making a contract deal.

Union negotiators were set to meet today to consider a proposal from the district.

It comes after almost a year of heated negotiations between the 2 sides.

Our Matt Masterson joins us now with an update on the bargaining process.

And Matt, you know, sort of bring us up to speed.

What is the status of negotiations right now and where are we in the process?

Yeah.

So the unions big bargaining team.

This is a few dozen members who helped negotiate this deal.

The Met today to consider a full set of proposals from CPS is part of this potential agreement.

>> She said this comes after a year negotiations started back in April of 2024. and smoothly.

But they became quite contentious as things went on between leadership and Chicago.

Public Schools CEO Peter Martinez, back to that, of course, was fired during the course of this.

But will be allowed to remain on the job as a part of a stipulation of contract for 6 months.

There have been a few sticking point left out there about prep time for elementary school teachers school Current teacher evaluation system.

But it seems like the sides have reached agreements on his proposals.

That's why this is now going to the bargaining team that we could see some resolution as soon as this week.

>> If the bargaining team in the district do have a tentative agreement, then what would happen next yesterday?

The teachers contract would not be finished just yet.

The next step is that this would go from this bargaining team to the two's House of Delegates.

This is the union's largest governing body made up of about 700 members.

>> That would happen on Wednesday.

They would get to vote on it.

If they prove it, then you would go to the full union membership of 30,000 rank and file members.

They would be to have the final say on whether or not to ratify this contract.

But even then the deal is not yet official.

That's everything from the union side.

But then the contract would also have to be approved by the Chicago Board of Education.

And of course, that's no longer just the 7 member Mayor Lee appointed board.

Now a 21 member partially elected body as well.

So it once it gets to the board, want to get through all those different union bodies, then this could be considered a done deal.

Not complicated.

Of you mentioned if you would have been some of the major sticking points during this process.

Yeah.

Outside of those final points on the prep time, the teacher youth pay obviously main topic.

But that was settled largely quite a bit ago.

There is also been a push from the union for more librarians, a cap on class sizes, more protections the employment for the teachers who have already been hired and going back to November when President Donald Trump was elected, the union has begun pushing for what they say is a basically a force field in this contract to prevent intrusion from the federal government from Washington.

Any attacks on the most vulnerable students or teachers in the city as well.

And they want this to contract to be part of that as well.

>> Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, we know that he also played a role in negotiations earlier this month when he called CTU President Stacy Davis Gates to his office, along with CPS CEO Pedro Martinez at City Hall.

Did that meeting help to reach the steal potential deal?

Yeah.

So there wasn't any immediate resolution after this.

It's like the sides all came together at that point.

>> But Johnson did say that this was a productive conversation between the leadership.

This was one of the first times he's really inserted himself into these conversations in the days after CPS in the Union, the did make what Johnson said.

We significant headway on those remaining sticking points after that conversation.

So it wasn't the turning point in negotiations per se, but it was significant that he finally took a role in getting the sides together for a conversation.

Yeah.

Some of us who covered this a long time.

We know like hopefully they're getting closer to a deal to bring the heavies in at the end.

Masterson, thank you so