UPDATE 2-Chicago mayor seeks 'spirit of compromise' as teachers strike hits 11th day

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot called on the city's teacher's union to embrace a "spirit of compromise" as a strike that has kept 300,000 public students away from school extended into an 11th day on Thursday, despite a tentative contract deal. District and union officials were at odds over whether the school calendar should be extended by additional days to make up for lost classes, and whether the city's 25,000 teachers would be compensated for pay lost during the second-longest teachers' strike in recent U.S. history.

"Our members are tired, frustrated and miss their students ... we want to return to the classroom," Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey said in a statement on Thursday. "By not restoring days of instruction to our students lost during the strike, the mayor is making it clear that she is more concerned about politics than the well-being of students." Lightfoot, a first-term Democrat, has rejected the demand for makeup days and accused the union of reneging on a deal reached Wednesday with the third-largest U.S. school district.

During a morning press conference, Lightfoot asked for a "spirit of compromise" from the CTU union. "They have basically issued a take-it-or-leave-it demand ... that's simply a non-starter," she said. "If the CTU wants to have a conversation in that spirit of compromise then, of course, I am willing to listen."

Rank-and-file union members were gathering outside of City Hall on Thursday morning. According to the union, the tentative agreement for a five-year contract includes enforceable staffing increases of 209 social workers, amounting to one in each school, a case manager in each school, and 250 additional nurses.

The agreement also has the district spending $35 million to reduce oversized classrooms and prioritizing schools that serve the most vulnerable students. African-Americans and Hispanics account for the majority of Chicago's public school enrollment. The Chicago walkout follows a wave of teacher strikes across the country over wages and education funding during the past two years, including a week-long work stoppage in Los Angeles in January.

As was the case in Los Angeles, the labor dispute in Chicago centered on a pay as well as teacher demands for contract language to reduce class size and to increase staffing levels for support professionals, including nurses and social workers. Any settlement is subject to approval by the Chicago union's House of Delegates, a body consisting of 825 elected representatives from each of the city's schools and support staff classifications before classes can resume.

The district had said it was looking into whether it could make up more than eight school days lost during the strike, and the Chicago Board of Education would need to vote on adding any attendance days to the school calendar. The teachers' last contract expired on July 1, and they walked off the job on Oct. 17.

The union was seeking a contract that runs three years instead of five and includes more paid preparation time for elementary school teachers. Lightfoot has said the union's full demands, if met, would require an annual spending increase of 30% beyond the current school budget of $7.7 billion.