Members of the Chicago Teachers Union approved their contract with Chicago Public Schools by an overwhelming margin.It now goes for a vote on April 24 to the Chicago Board of Education, which is expected to OK the four-year, $1.5 billion deal.The deal came together after a year of contentious negoti ations and lots of drama at the Board of Education. Related CTU members ratify new contract with 97% approval These were the first talks in 30 years in which the CTU had the legal authority to bargain over issues outside the classic bread-and-butter topics of salary and benefits, such as class size.Here are quick highlights of what’s included in the contract, with a focus on provisions that affect the classroom:4% cost-of-living raises in the first year, up to 5% in each of the next three; with other annual experience raises for teachers, total raises could be 7.5% or 8.5% a yearLower class-size limits for all grades, including dropping from 32 to 25 for kindergarten; when that cap is exceeded, extra educator support will be available from a $40 million pool; kindergarten classes with 23 more more students will automatically get an assistant teacherMore staff: 300 counselors, 215 special case managers, 90 librarian positions, 68 tech coordinators, 24 fine arts teachers and 30 bilingual teacher assistants; CPS estimates staffing could increase by 800 to 900 over four yearsAt least one assistant teacher for every pre-K classroomMore money for sports to pay for uniforms, buses and supplies and to boost coach stipends50 more “sustainable community schools,” up from 20, which brings community services into schools Three new dual-language and three new world-language programs per yearCPS to hire “gender support coordinators” and set a requirement that preferred employee names and pronouns be used at all timesElementary teachers get 10 more minutes of planning time and three teacher-led professional development days ...read more read less