Our podcast, CTU Speaks! is hosted by rank-and-file CTU member Andrea Parker and field rep Jim Staros.
We’ll chat about our union, bargaining for a new contract, and our fight for the schools our children and educators deserve.
10/19/2022
Vote Yes on Workers' Rights In this episode of CTU Speaks!, co-hosts Andrea Parker and Jim Staros talk with CTU PAC chair Kimberly Walls-Kirk and State Sen. Robert Peters about the November 8 ballot measure to include workers' r
10/12/2022
Justice for All In this episode of CTU Speaks! co-hosts Andrea Parker and Jim Staros talk with Lauren Bianchi and Chuck Stark, two teachers at Washington High School that CPS sought to terminate this past summer. The
08/02/2020
08/02/2020
CTU is always working to support our members for a fight for organizing, equity and equality. Take a listen to see one of the consistent ways they support educators.
26: CTU Never Sleeps In this episode, co-hosts Andrea Parker and Jim Staros discuss the issue of union organizing with Norine Gutekanst (director of organizing for CTU) and Jhoanna Maldonado (organizer for CTU) and show h
07/24/2020
August 3, 2020 🗣Support the cause and help progress happen! Check back for further action steps very soon
06/16/2020
Stay tuned to upcoming podcast related to Black Lives Matter.
04/11/2020
In this episode, co-hosts Andrea Parker and Jim Staros continue our coronavirus coverage with CTU President Jesse Sharkey detailing the union’s ongoing effort to fight for equity within Chicago Public Schools as the learning environment shifts online. CTU clinician and nurse Dennis Kosuth also joins the team to describe his view from the front lines of the coronavirus landscape and to discuss what it will look like from a public health perspective to return to the classroom.
Share your thoughts and questions with the CTU Speaks! team by emailing [email protected] or calling 312-467-8888.
16: Corona complications In this episode, co-hosts Andrea Parker and Jim Staros continue our coronavirus coverage with CTU President Jesse Sharkey detailing the union’s ongoing effort to fight for equity within Chicago Public
04/11/2020
In this episode, co-hosts Andrea Parker and Jim Staros speak with Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey and Vice President Stacy Davis Gates about the COVID19 pandemic and its far-reaching impact on schools, the union, the city, and the world. Then they interview Emily Hecht, the CTU delegate at Vaughn Occupational High School that was closed a week before the rest of CPS because a teacher aide at the school tested positive for COVID19. Emily provides an inside look at how Vaughn’s school community is responding to the urgent needs of students and parents.
Share your thoughts and questions with the CTU Speaks! team by emailing [email protected] or calling 312-467-8888.
15: Corona Crisis In this episode, co-hosts Andrea Parker and Jim Staros speak with Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey and Vice President Stacy Davis Gates about the COVID19 pandemic and its far-reaching im
CTU Speaks! is the brainchild of the Union’s member-led Public Relations and Communications Committee, hosted by committee members Andrea Parker and Jim Staros. The inaugural episode, “Are We Striking?” features segments on bargaining with the Chicago Board of Education, in-school contract enforcement, affordable housing, sustainable schools and an interview with CTU Chief of Staff Jennifer Johnson.
“We want our members to feel more empowered, better able to advocate, well informed and more organized, especially in their schools,” Parker said. “We want to build a sense of community by bringing key decision makers like CTU officers, fellow members and local politicians on the show to share information and answer some hard questions about the state of public education in our city.”
Parker, a South Side native and 15-year veteran of CPS, teaches middle school reading at Fulton Elementary, in the same neighborhood in which she grew up. She became heavily involved in the Union after becoming a delegate in 2009 at her former school, Curtis Elementary, which was taken over—or “turned around,” according to CPS—by the Academy for Urban School Leadership. Parker was also a strike captain in 2012, and is a current member of the Union’s executive board and chair of the Public Relations and Communications Committee.
Staros is an East Coast native and chair of the Social Science Department at King College Prep, where he has been teaching since 2002. He is King’s Union delegate and serves as the district organizer for Network 4A. Staros also has been part of the CTU Summer Organizing Institute and just finished the inaugural year of the CTU Policy Fellowship.