Day three of the Chicago Teachers Union strike saw simultaneous rallies Wednesday afternoon at three high schools across the city, which brought out thousands of teachers, parents, and children.
Progress Illinois caught up with teachers at John Marshall Metropolitan High School on the city’s West Side during one of the rallies. There, many teachers continued to hammer on the issues of overcrowded classes and their respective schools' lack of resources, like libraries, nurses and social workers, air conditioning, and computers. Yet, none complained of being paid too little or working too many hours.
“Overcrowding’s number one,” said Tony Heinrichs, a first-grade teacher at Falconer Elementary School. “Thirty-some kids in a classroom, it’s ninety-some degrees in the classroom, there’s not a lot of learning going on.”
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About 80 students at Ames Middle School in Logan Square participated
in a student-led peace assembly yesterday afternoon in order to
promote ways to diffuse violence and empathize with others who may have
stressors in their lives that affect how they behave.
In the wake of an 
Chicago Teachers Union members voted overwhelmingly this week to
approve a three-year contract, with the option of a fourth year, that
was hammered out amid a historic seven-day CTU strike. Now comes the
challenge of paying for the deal, which has so far largely played out as
a battle between the union and district on school closings. 