Sometimes I feel like Im living my life as a spectator, says Gates, the unions vice president and heir apparent. [13]. 2020. This year began with the shooting death of 8-year-old Melissa Ortega, a student at Emiliano Zapata Academy in Little Village; the murder of Amanda Alvarez-Calo, a pre-K teacher at Matthew Gallistel Language Academy in East Side; and a shooting outside Alessandro Volta Elementary School in Albany Park that sent it into lockdown. When you hear my fire, you hear Hazel. Four years later, after undergoing brain surgery, she retired, and Sharkey, her vice president, took over. She also serves as a board member for the Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE), a nexus for organizations working at the intersection of the struggle for racial justice and Wall Street accountability. Sharkey was first elected vice president in 2010, when Karen Lewis was elected CTUs president. West Ridge YMCA receives $3.75 million in U.S. funds for renovations, possible reopening U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky helped secure funds for the High Ridge YMCA, which is now being used to house migrants, two years after the facility was closed to the public. Chicago Teachers Union, Website. Teacher Unionism, The Labor and Working Class History Association, May 23, 2014. Accessed June 01, 2020. This whole country said at one point, postGeorge Floyd, that Black lives matter, she called out from the Jacqueline B. Vaughn Hall stage on that final night of February. Stacy Gates Davis L in 2016 was employed in Chicago Teachers Union and had annual salary of $112,422 according to public records. Your visits to the show are always one of my favorite features but today (Ben Jarovsky 06/27/18), you burned down the house. Some notable people were looking on. Guidestar, Chicago Teachers Union, 2017 990. Your messaging is atrocious. Including the mayor. Press Inquires: They would have you to believe that Black lives, queer lives dont matter in this country. Her detractors blame her for contributing to a contentious relationship between the CTU and the mayor that resulted in an 11-school-day teachers strike in October 2019the longest in decades. You should be ashamed. Widely known as the firebrand counterpart to wonky union head Jesse Sharkey and viewed by some as at least as powerful among the rank and file this former CPS teacher gained a reputation for backing down to no one, not even Mayor Lightfoot, who reportedly resorted to barring her from final negotiations. Stacy Davis Gates has served as the Political and Legislative Director for the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) for the past six years. Wikipedia. Christel Williams is a 25-year veteran of Chicago Public Schools, serving as a PSRP delegate, district supervisor, functional vice president and American Federation of Teachers-Illinois Federation of Teachers (AFT-IFT) convention delegate in that time. Yet they remain a part of Gates. Chicago is a city that can leave behind, even devour, its young. My other grandmother was born out of wedlock and ostracized from both sides of her family tree. The public face of Chicagos teachers, who stand squarely at the center of the countrys labor movement and culture wars, Gates, 45, is an unflinching critic of Mayor Lori Lightfoot and a fierce opponent of attempts to privatize public education. This is not like a couple of angry Black women.. I remember we were never able to take a book home because they didnt have a book for every student, says Latoyia Kimbrough, a 2005 graduate who now works as in-house legal counsel for CTU. I said survive. Accessed June 02, 2020. Ms. Stacy Davis Gates is the Political and Legislative Director of the Chicago Teachers Union AFT Local 1. I feel privileged to be in this space that they struggled to dream of, against every imaginable odd., Grandmother Laura passed away when Gates was in college. Ms. Davis Gates is currently on leave from the classroom, where she taught high school social studies for over a decade at Englewood, Clemente, and Mason Community Links High Schools. [1] Law, Justin, The Courts vs. The CTU represents its members through collective bargaining for compensation, benefits, employee work conditions, and school governance. Accessed June 02, 2020. (When asked about it on the Crains Chicago Business podcast A.D. Q&A in January, Gates said that the notion of her running was something she first heard from Lightfoots lips and was not a priority for her. Thats my family, she said. Accessed June 02, 2020. Stacy can be contacted at [emailprotected]. Learn more about how easy it is to take the next step and join the IFT! The American Federation of Teachers is a union of professionals that champions fairness; democracy; economic opportunity; and high-quality public education, healthcare and public services for our students, their families and our communities. The Chicago Teachers Union has elected a new president: Stacy Davis Gates. They led every meeting with school-based discussions of billionaires, banks and racism., The union started partnering with community organizations known largely for fighting gentrificationthe Pilsen Alliance, Logan Square Neighborhood Alliance, Kenwood-Oakland Community Organizationto attend school board meetings and host community forums on school closures. The union made a push for affordable housing for students and teachers to be written into their contract, along with sanctuary protection for immigrantsunprecedented demands. Accessed June 02, 2020. What am I missing? Ive adopted the same two questions. Chicago Teachers Union, 2019-2020 Dues. Prior to her current role at the CTU, she served as the unions Political and Legislative Director. And for those who are not experiencing that in the same way, it is difficult to even grasp why this is happening., Gates wanted to be Perry Mason when she grew up. Accessed June 01, 2020. For more than 75 years the Chicago Teachers Union has fought for the schools Chicagos students deserve. The air crackled with applause. We sat at a table debating ventilation during an airborne pandemic. And the classroom teacher is tasked with making sense of it. CTU also retained Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D) as a consultant, paying him $106,000, in addition to his own $85,000 county salary. It made me feel powerless. Accessed June 02, 2020. She and her students attended the community meetings that were part of the school-closing process. You are confronted with different children from different households coming inside a school community who are processing rape and violence and trauma in so many different ways. There was a movement afoot to say our union has to be more than a place that bargains a contract for a finite amount of time, Gates says. Yet both of these women overcame so much to put their children in a positionto put me in a positionto succeed. Photo: CLARISSA BONET | HAIR AND MAKEUP: DENISE MILLOY/MAKEUP MAGIC INC. By her second semester of teaching, Gates started looking for ways to make inroads with her students that had little to do with curriculum. The problems are complex. Accessed June 01, 2020. My granny was a teenage mothera teenage single mother with an alcoholic father who was a sharecropper. Net assets declined to less than $1 million. As for politics, Gates says shes not sure shes cut out for it. The school went through three principals her first year. We may not like it, but it just makes sense right now. The fact that you have to fight for these things, it feels like punishment. But she has no choice, she says. Weve got this amazing band program. And theyd close it anyway. Bellware, Kim, Chicago teachers say they will go on strike. Discord between CTU leadership and the mayor is hardly novel, either. Revenue: $27,878,897 Despite Chicago Public School enrollment dropping by over 6,000 students in 2019, and by 80,000 students since 2000, the Chicago Teachers Union has refused to allow schools, even failing schools, to close. In 2017, Ms. Davis Gates was elected Chair of United Working Families, an independent political organization by and for working-class people and our movements. While at the CTU, Ms. Davis Gates has been the architect of bold political and legislative campaigns for the schools and city that all Chicagoans deserve. Both branches took the same path, Gates says. It felt demoralizing. A union member made it for her. We are in love with humanity at this union. The 2019 teachers strike, which took place five months into Lightfoots term, captured national attention for both its length and the groundbreaking issues it brought to the bargaining table. The impact of historical, generational disinvestment on the South Side and West Side of the city is difficult for people who are experiencing it to challenge, because its every day and it covers all facets of their existence. Photographs and illustrations, as well as text, cannot be used without permission from the AFT. Before Sharkeys announcement, Gatess name also had been brought up as a possible contender. As a speech-language pathologist, she served as an executive board elementary functional vice president and Big Bargaining Team member. What does it mean when two transistors are matched? Subscribe to one or more of our free e-mail newsletters to get instant updates on local news, events, and opportunities in Chicago. Then I started thinking that would put me on the wrong end of the spectrum of justice, she says. While at the CTU, Ms. Davis Gates has been the architect of bold political and legislative campaigns for the schools and city that all Chicagoans deserve. [37] In 2012, contract negotiations stalled over Mayor Emanuels proposal to use student test scores in teacher evaluations, as well as his effort to give principals more hiring authority. We know how to teach remotely. From milquetoast to militant is how Jane F. McAlevey described the unions evolution in her 2016 book, No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age. In 2020, the city was running an $838 million budget deficit, and Chicagos school system bonds have been rated below investment-grade in recent years. [19] Ultimately, when the 11-day strike ended, the city of Chicago declined to incorporate housing policy into the contract with CTU. Karen was a curious leader, Gates says. Accessed June 01, 2020. I think about the lessons I got as a kid: You have to be twice as good to get half as much. She played in student-staff basketball games. The Chicago Teachers Union has some 20,000 teacher and clinician members. Before her election to the office of President in 2022, Ms. Davis Gates served for four years as Vice President of the Union. He hasnt publicly ruled it out, but he says his current plan is to return to the classroom. Ms. Davis Gates has also spearheaded statewide legislative campaigns to pass the strongest charter school accountability measures in the country, push for the restoration of the bargaining rights of Chicago Public Schools employees, and fully fund public education by ending tax loopholes for the 1%. By the time I got to meet these kids, something would have already happened. So she set her sights upstream: Grab them before theyre thrown into the water, to paraphrase Desmond Tutu, rather than standing downstream to keep pulling them out. Leone, Hannah, Chicago teacher who crossed the picket line during the strike is now suing the teachers union over dues payments, Chicago Tribune, May 07, 2020. The running track was barely usable, with dangerous dips in its lanes. And I think because of that, its easier for people to extract characters and focus on them. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, traveled to Chicago to lend her support. It irks Gates that theres an expectation that she and the mayor should get along. What are the benefits of believing in God? Tara Stamps, a CTU administrator and daughter of the late community activist Marion Nzinga Stamps, was onstage introducing the Jammin for PEACE speakers and performers. To submit a correction for our . And now, after CTU president Jesse Sharkey announced in February that he wouldnt seek reelection, she is primed to take over the top slot at what is arguably the nations most powerful teachers union. The auditorium was named for playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who graduated in 1947. Salary Breakdown (2019) Total Compensation . Why are we negotiating safety? Gates asks. I think thats an achievement, that we are all free to have differing thought processes on anything, and that women have voice in a city as dynamic as Chicago. Website by Governmental Strategic Solutions, LLC. Accessed June 02, 2020. I think Stacy is a remarkably effective public spokesperson. In response, CTU blamed a Koch-funded law project, called the lawsuit anti-worker, and argued that, by only allowing members to revoke their dues authorizations in August, they were operating within the letter of the law. [22], In addition to its status as Local 1 of the American Federation of Teachers, CTU is also a member of other left-wing labor groups, including the Chicago Federation of Labor (CFL), the Illinois State Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (ISFL-CIO), the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT). But they had an air of choreography, she says, of an outcome predetermined before anyone even spoke. She showed up to cheer on the football team on Friday nights. And also really scared. As an elementary bilingual education teacher, she served as a delegate, district supervisor and strike coordinator. In Gatess office at CTU headquarters, a Notorious SDG print with her likeness hangs above her deska riff on those Notorious RBG prints that were ubiquitous for a while. Im not going on your field trip because its not fair.. Even as a sixth grader, it bugged herjust as the injustice and tragedy she sees now motivate her. Then You Havent Been Paying Attention. chicagotribune.com. You need to run for public office. Ms. Davis Gates lives on the South Side of Chicago with her husband and three children. They are a measure that Duncan, who went on to become U.S. education secretary, exercised frequently during his eight-year stint as CEO and that Rahm Emanuel put to use as mayor. This outcome led the CFT to prioritize collective bargaining rights as a primary goal. CTU is a local union of the American Federation of Teachers, the countrys second-largest national teachers union. After 12 years as one of the primary faces of the Chicago Teachers Union, Jesse Sharkey is returning to the classroom. The Chicago Teachers Union is an organization of educators dedicated to advancing and promoting quality public education, improving teaching and learning conditions, and protecting members rights. Subscribe to one or more of our free e-mail newsletters to get instant updates on local news, events, and opportunities in Chicago. Claiming dibs on revenue sources that dont exist and saying the rich will pay for it? Wagner Acerbi Horta and Brendan Rigney, Beyond the picket line: Union clout, tallied, Center for Illinois Politics, October 27, 2019. Grandmother Hazel died a week before her namesake was born. Im not the caricature in the letters to the editor. But caricatures are easier to digestand dismissthan the deficits and disinvestments plaguing public schools. 1)Frederick Douglass, Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight, 2)When they call you a terrorist, a black lives matter memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors & Asha Bandele, foreword by Angela Y. Davis, 3)How to Avoid a Climate Disaster by Bill Gates. 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