Will Chicago schools have to add days to the end of the year because of the teachers strike?

Chicago Public Schools will have to open school for three days at the end of June — or add days elsewhere in the school calendar — to make up for days lost to the teacher strike, if the strike is resolved Thursday.

The district and the Chicago Teachers Union have reached a tentative deal for a new contract that would bring teachers back into classrooms, but the dispute over whether to make up the days that were lost is a sticking point that’s held up an end to the strike.

The union wants all instructional days made up, with pay for teachers. While Mayor Lori Lightfoot contends that the district isn’t required to add days to the calendar, she was not clear about whether the district would make use of emergency days already on the district’s schedule. The Illinois State Board of Education has told the Tribune that CPS would have to make use of those emergency days once the strike entered its ninth day, on Tuesday.

Illinois law requires that schools maintain a minimum of 180 school days each year, ISBE spokeswoman Jackie Matthews told the Tribune earlier this week. CPS started the year with a total of 188 qualifying days on its calendar: 178 regular student attendance days plus two days for parent-teacher conferences, four days for teacher workshops and four days for school improvement.

All schools also must identify five “emergency days” in their school calendars to accommodate events such as weather or a work stoppage. Emergency days don’t have to be used unless needed. For the 2019-20 calendar, those days are Friday, June 19, and the following Monday through Thursday. That means the district could schedule classes June 19 to make up for Tuesday, and later in June to make up for additional days if the strike continues.

CPS spokeswoman Emily Bolton said Tuesday that the district was “in the process of gathering a full understanding of potential outcomes and next steps regarding whether or not the district will make up school days missed beyond eight.”

Bolton noted that the Board of Education would have to vote to add days to the school calendar. The next board meeting is Nov. 20.

After the 2012 strike, which lasted seven days, CPS made up those days by shortening winter break, skipping a holiday and adding days at the end of the school year.

kgeiger@chicagotribune.com