As teachers marched in a picket line outside Walt Disney Magnet School on the North Side Monday, 11-year-old Adina David sat in a nearly empty computer room, playing the obstacle game “Racing Legacy” while five adult volunteers hovered nearby.
Eight-year-old Gissel Garcia spent the day floating around the Riverwalk cafe where her mother works as a chef. While Katie Garcia Schlick prepared lunch and dinner meals, Gissel played with a co-worker’s child and occasionally ducked into a corner to read her Jerry Spinelli book.
At Nichols Park on the South Side, elderly women kept a watchful eye over their grandchildren playing with kids from the neighborhood.
For many students, the first day of the Chicago teachers strike was a welcome day off, an unexpected vacation a week after school began. For some parents, it proved to be more an inconvenience than a major disruption, though they didn’t get confirmation of the strike until late Sunday night.
Most managed to find alternatives for their children rather than dropping them off for four hours at the sites Chicago Public Schools opened as an alternative. But for many parents, the options were a lot less clear for Tuesday, let alone if the strike goes on for days or weeks.
“I think grandparents should go on strike too,” said Zoya Sipen, a retired dentist who drove in from Skokie to pick up her 7-year-old grandson from Disney. “His parents are working, and I was glad to see my grandson, but there are a lot of parents out there who don’t have this kind of help.”
According to school officials, nearly 11,000 students came to the 144 “Children First” schools — far fewer than the 150,000 students the sites were prepared to accept.
An additional 8,000 children were counted at alternative sites such as churches and libraries, the district said. The YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago also reported lower-than-expected registration at its 10 urban facilities that accepted children.
School officials, however, said they expect the numbers to pick up as the strike goes on.
At some schools, there was more staff — nonunion employees such as administrators, janitors and cafeteria workers — than students.
At Disney, 50 children showed up and about an equal number of staff.
The halls were quiet at Crown Academy on the Near West Side, where officials had prepared for up to 500 students but only 29 showed up. The students played board games and video games and colored in pictures of Disney characters.
Keanna Padilla, 12, sat around a circular table with classmates as she colored a picture of Dumbo the elephant. She typically would have been in reading class that time of morning.
“I don’t think we should be doing this,” Keanna said. “We should be learning.”
The lack of classroom instruction was the main reason Carley Carney said she kept her 8-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter at home in Beverly while she worked, rather than send them to a CPS contingency site or another program.
“It’s basically throwing a bunch of kids in a room,” Carney said. “I’d rather have them home with me.”
But she feels lost regarding how to move forward given the unpredictable circumstances.
“I have no idea what we’re going to do if this goes on. We’re just taking it day by day,” Carney said. “I can’t make any commitments right now.”
Chicago companies didn’t see much absenteeism or many schedule changes related to the strike, according to the Human Resources Management Association of Chicago.
That’s likely because parents had enough of a heads-up of the walkout to arrange for child care, said Bernadette Patton, president and CEO of the 800-member association.
Of its Chicago members, a few said they saw some employees arrive later than usual and a nominal increase in workers telecommuting.
“If the strike would go for a longer duration, their workers would have to tap other resources or vacation days or paid time off or an increase in telecommuting,” Patton said.
Though Schlick was able to take her daughter to the restaurant with her, she said it was a stressful day for her family. She woke up early and had to hustle to get ready and then coordinate with her ex-husband, who cares for their son, who is also a CPS student.
“I’m not anti-union at all,” Schlick said, adding that she understands the teachers’ plight. “But why couldn’t this be handled in the summer?”
Some parents said they were making sure their children used the time off constructively so they would not be far behind once classes resumed.
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Instead of wasting the day inside their Washington Park home, Geraldine Flowers said she made her grandson go to the library and write a report on what he thinks about the strike and the school district’s decision to phase out his high school, Walter H. Dyett High School.
“All this is hitting him at once, the changing schools, the strike. That could be confusing to a 16-year old,” she said. “I want feedback from him.”
Flowers said she doesn’t plan on letting her grandson off the hook Tuesday, either. He’ll be going with her to the Safe Haven program at Sweet Holy Spirit Church.
In some neighborhoods, the day was less structured. In Little Village, children no older than 8 or 9 rode bicycles in groups. Swings and slides at parks along California Avenue were filled with kids. A group of boys played catch with a football, and a nearby basketball court was filled.
The Chicago Police Department reported no shootings or disturbances as a result of the strike. Police beefed up patrols by putting officers assigned to administrative duties on the streets.
But even with the increased police presence, some parents kept their children in the house.
“I will not allow them to be on the street,” said Vicki Williams, who spent the day watching her 14-year-old daughter and several young relatives at her home in Auburn Gresham. “They’re at home at all times, as if they’re in school.”
Tribune reporters Lolly Bowean, Jodi S. Cohen, Jeremy Gorner and Bridget Doyle and freelancer Cheryl V. Jackson contributed.