After 14 days of the Chicago Teachers’ Union being on strike, they reached a tentative agreement with Chicago Public Schools and students returned to school on November 1, 2019. Reactions varied within student, teacher, and administrative staff groups.

Many senior high school students were concerned because November 1st is the date that many colleges use as their date for early admissions and early decision applications. Although students were able to submit materials during the strike, counselors were unable to send transcripts and teachers were unable to submit letters of recommendation. Most universities were understanding about this issue, but, among students, there was still an increase of anxiety over the issue.

Julia Medina, ‘20 said “I honestly think it was pretty stressful coming back as a Senior not only for school purposes it was also stressful for college applications. I was planning to do all of my applications early action but I didn’t feel ready or have certain things prepared in time to have it ready November 1 so I decided to do regular decision and now I feel like it’s wasting time. It was definitely a hard return when the strike was over trying to get back on a schedule and back to a solid routine of waking up early and getting home late.”

Ari Karafiol, ‘20 had a different take when he said “I think it’s easy to get caught up in the fact that all of us seniors lost a lot of time and resources during the strike to work on college applications and other important planning…Coming back, I’m really feeling an overwhelming sense of gratefulness for the teachers for striking. And there’s security and hope in knowing that so many kids now and in the future will have more resources and care that we at Whitney Young often take for granted.”

High Schoolers who were supposed to take the PSAT, were left without an introduction to the SAT when the test was cancelled for CPS students who were not in school during the strike.

Alex Stahl, ‘21 was concerned about coming back. She said “Honestly, I was pretty stressed about missing the first SAT date, as well as about all the work my teachers decided to give me. It’s super weird coming back after what was basically a fall break.”

Students have also become somewhat stressed about the days that have been added back from days that students originally had off in order to make up classes that they missed over the strike. These days include the day before Thanksgiving and the two days after New Year’s Day that students originally had off. This alters many students’ plans, especially those who planned to travel over the holidays. The other two days that were added are at the end of the year and will not impact seniors. In the end, those impacted by the strike drew a collective sigh of relief when it was over.