Karen Ann Cullotta – Page 18

Jesse Sharkey, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, talks to teachers walking the picket line outside of Urban Prep Academies Englewood campus in Chicago on June 8, 2021.

CPS laying off 443 teachers and support staff. CTU vows to fight cuts.

June 21, 2021 at 8:24 p.m.

Outraged by the layoffs of more than 440 teachers and support staff, Chicago Teachers Union officials on Monday questioned why the city was cutting jobs in underserved communities during the...

Ivoryana Neal, 18, stands with her friend Danaria Keys, 17, in the cafeteria at Proviso Township Math and Science Academy in Forest Park on June 17, 2021. Both students served in a committee that created a history course on Black studies. Neal is headed to Spellman College this fall, while Keys will start her senior year.

As Juneteenth becomes a federal holiday, one suburban Chicago high school district is slated to educate students about Black history with a world view

June 21, 2021 at 9:38 a.m.

As a student activist at Proviso Township Math and Science Academy, Ivoryana Neal spent many a lunch hour visiting the fifth floor, voicing her concerns to administrators that the study...

Fourth and fifth grade students make nameplates during their keyboarding and basic tech class at Thomas Middle School on June 16, 2021. Arlington Heights School District 25's Summer U summer school program kicked-off at Thomas Middle School, and all students are required under IDPH guidelines to wear masks indoors.

As COVID-19 rates dip, some parents demand that masks be optional for students next fall

June 18, 2021 at 3:33 p.m.

After Illinois launched phase five of its COVID-19 reopening plan earlier this month, Wilmette resident Ted Dabrowski enjoyed a jubilant dinner with family and friends at a North Shore restaurant...

A sign hangs on a fence where children from kindergarten to fifth grade arrive for in-person learning March 1, 2021, at Sutherland Elementary School in Chicago.

Frustrated educators demand state’s fall COVID-19 plans for Illinois schools

June 16, 2021 at 3:13 p.m.

Frustrated by what they describe as a lack of details about what COVID-19 guidelines will look like at schools next fall, a contingent of suburban school district superintendents on Wednesday...

Teacher Elidia Villagomez works with 2- and 3-year-old students at the Carole Robertson Center for Learning in Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood. The nonprofit serves more than 650 children on the West Side. CEO Bela Moté said the pandemic has eroded many Chicago area child care programs and some now face a serious shortage of qualified employees.

Child care access was a crisis before COVID. Can the supply meet the new demand as parents return to work?

June 14, 2021 at 8:37 a.m.

When a relative told Tyleshia Lynn she could no longer look after Lynn's son Jayceon while she worked, the Chicago woman scrambled to find safe and affordable day care so...

State Superintendent of Education Carmen Ayala, shown at a South Elgin High School news conference announcing federal COVID-19 relief funding, has spoken favorably about a proposal to increase standardized testing in Illinois schools.

More standardized tests in Illinois schools? Vote delayed as educators raise alarms: ‘Our students and teachers are exhausted’

June 11, 2021 at 1:31 p.m.

A proposal to require Illinois public schools to give standardized tests three times during the next academic year instead of once — intended to better track students' progress post-pandemic —...

Ross Kooperman, right, celebrates with Paige Viti, far left, and her mother, Kristine Viti, while attending the engagement party for Blase Viti III at Tufano's Vernon Park Tap in Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood June 4, 2021.

What are you going to do when the state reopens without restrictions? Readers reveal their plans.

June 10, 2021 at 12:47 p.m.

After months of restrictions, the time has come. If new coronavirus deaths, cases and hospitalizations remain low and if vaccinations continue to increase, Illinois will fully reopen with no COVID-19...

Jesse Sharkey, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, walks the picket line outside of Urban Prep Academies Englewood campus on June 8, 2021.

Teachers strike ends at Urban Prep, Chicago’s first all-boys charter high school, after sides reach contract deal

June 9, 2021 at 3:20 p.m.

A two-day teachers strike at Urban Prep Academies has ended after officials at the charter high school network and the Chicago Teachers Union clinched a deal early Wednesday. The tentative...

Despite teachers strike, Chicago’s Urban Prep keeps doors open for students’ final exams; CTU blasts charter school management and CEO pay

June 8, 2021 at 6:19 p.m.

Expressing disappointment that the Chicago Teachers Union would call a strike just days before the end of a difficult school year, officials at Urban Prep Academies said Tuesday that administrators...

Freshmen line up for screening as CPS high school students return for in-school learning at Lincoln Park High School for the time since the COVID-19 pandemic shut schools on April 19, 2021.

What will it take for Chicago parents to be OK with sending their kids back to school full time this fall?

June 8, 2021 at 3:30 p.m.

Most Illinois families won't have a choice other than to send their children back to school full time in the fall. But Chicago Public Schools is still trying to determine...

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