CHICAGO (Associated Press) -
Emanuel is urged negotiators Monday to come up with a new contract for the city's teachers quickly for the sake of the children.
During a news conference at Marantha Church, Emanuel said negotiations resumed at about 11:30 a.m. He spoke with students on the Southwest Side, at one of the Safe Haven spots open to kids while classes aren't in session due to the strike.
Emanuel defended the Chicago Public Schools' contract offer to teachers. He says negotiators were close to agreement, but the Chicago Teachers Union chose to go on strike despite that. He called the strike "totally avoidable."
Emanuel says one of the unresolved issues is disagreement over the teacher evaluation system. But the mayor says that system was designed by teachers for teachers.
City officials vowed to keep hundreds of thousands of students safe when striking teachers hit the picket lines Monday and school district and teachers union leaders resumed negotiations on a contract that appeared close to being resolved over the weekend before the union announced both sides were too far apart to prevent the district's first strike in 25 years.
SEE: Chicago Teachers strike after negotiations fail
The walkout in the nation's third-largest school district posed a tricky test for Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his city, as parents and school officials begin the task of trying to ensure nearly 400,000 students are kept safe.
Police Chief Garry McCarthy said he was deploying police officers to those sites to ensure kids' safety but also to "deal with any protests that teachers may, in fact, have" while protecting their rights. He also was taking officers off desk duties and redeploying them to the streets to deal with potential protests -- and thousands of students who could be on the streets.
Emanuel said he will work to end the strike quickly.
"We will make sure our kids are safe, we will see our way through these issues and our kids will be back in the classroom where they belong," Emanuel said Sunday night, not long after the union announced it was going on strike. "I would like all the parties to do right by our children. ... Our kids belong in the classroom. The negotiators belong at the negotiating table and finish their job."
SEE: Options for parents during teachers strike
The two sides were not far apart on compensation but were on other issues, including health benefits -- teachers want to keep what they have now -- and a new teacher evaluation system based partly on students' standardized test scores, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said.
"This is a difficult decision and one we hoped we could have avoided," she said. "We must do things differently in this city if we are to provide our students with the education they so rightfully deserve."
"This is not a strike I wanted," Emanuel said. "It was a strike of choice ... it's unnecessary, it's avoidable and it's wrong."
Both Emanuel and union officials have much at stake. The walkout comes at a time when unions and collective bargaining by public employees have come under criticism in many parts of the country, and all sides are closely monitoring who might emerge with the upper hand in the Chicago dispute.
The timing also may be inopportune for Emanuel, a former White House chief of staff whose city administration is wrestling with a spike in murders and shootings in some city neighborhoods and who just agreed to take a larger role in fundraising for President Barack Obama's re-election campaign.
Emanuel said the district had offered the teachers a 16 percent pay raise over four years, doubling an earlier offer.
Lewis said she would not prioritize the issues, saying that they all were important to teachers.
The strike is the latest flashpoint in a very public and often contentious battle between the mayor and the union.
SEE: FCS Reporter's Notebook: Karen Lewis' impersonation of Mayor Emanuel
When he took office last year, Emanuel inherited a school district facing a $700 million budget shortfall. Not long after, his administration rescinded 4 percent raises for teachers. He then asked the union to reopen its contract and accept 2 percent pay raises in exchange for lengthening the school day for students by 90 minutes. The union refused.
Emanuel, who promised a longer school day during his campaign, then attempted to go around the union by asking teachers at individual schools to waive the contract and add 90 minutes to the day. He halted the effort after being challenged by the union before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.
SEE: CTU, CPS agree on longer school day
The district and union agreed in July on how to implement the longer school day, striking a deal to hire back 477 teachers who had been laid off rather than pay regular teachers more to work longer hours. That raised hopes the contract dispute would be settled soon, but bargaining continued on the other issues.
Chicago's Democratic mayor has shrugged off the Republican presidential nominee's criticism of the city's teachers strike.
In a statement Monday, Mitt Romney said Chicago teachers are turning their backs on thousands of students. And he said he sides with parents and students over unionized teachers.
But speaking at a news conference in Chicago, Emanuel called Romney's comments "lip service." He added that he didn't give "two hoots" for national commentary on the teachers' strike and efforts to end it.
Emanuel also criticized Romney for backing proposals to cut taxes that the Chicago mayor says would end up hurting students nationwide.
