Teacher deal makes CPS reauthorize $5.4 billion operating budget

Now that it has reached a tentative contract settlement with Chicago teachers, Chicago Public Schools must re-do its $5.4 billion operating budget and hold a new series of public hearings.

But saying it cannot accomplish those tasks by mid-November, the Board of Education has decided to skip its scheduled Nov. 16 meeting altogether and move the next one up to Dec. 7.

The district also has yet to release cost details of the agreement it reached with the Chicago Teachers Union just in time to avoid a strike. Officials said all those details will be released once the CTU's 25,000 members ratify the agreement.

The ratification vote - conducted via secret ballot - will be held Thursday and Friday at the 500-plus schools staffed by CTU members.

The Sun-Times has learned that the entire four-year deal, which preserves a 7 percent pension benefit for existing teachers and grants modest raises in the last two years, is estimated to cost about $8.9 billion.

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