Judge Peter Flynn declined Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's request for a same-day court-hearing on an injunction filed early Monday to end the teachers' strike.
Law department spokesman Roderick Drew told NBC News that Judge Flynn has scheduled the hearing for Wednesday.
"I will not stand by while the children of Chicago are played as pawns in an internal dispute within a union...This was a strike of choice and now a delay of choice that is wrong for our children," said Emanuel to NBC News.
According to the injunction filed, Emanuel seeks the strike to be ruled illegal, citing "clear and present danger to public health and safety" as the cause according to NBC News. The injunction urges the judge to rule that teachers return to class rooms.
Monday, leads the teachers strike into the second week. On Sunday, the chief education adviser for Chicago Public Schools the union said that the union and the district officials are close to settlement.
"We are tired, but we are so close... "It's not a lot (left to discuss), but what I find is, it's very difficult to separate the issues," Barbara Byrd-Bennett, Chief Advisor for CPS told Reuters.
A settlement was supposed to be reached Thursday but complications related to "number crunching," delayed the discussion to Friday and then Sunday, now the strike spills over into its second week.
On September 10, for the first time in 25 years in Chicago as many as 25,000 public school teachers went on strike over contract issues between the union and the school district officials.
After failed negotiations on Sunday, teachers gather to picket over contract disputes mainly related to teachers' accountability, health benefits and performance evaluations et al according to the Christian Monitor.
CBS News reports that both parties (the Union and district officials) had nearly reached a settlement with regards to wages. The report indicates that the average public school teacher in Chicago earns $71,000 annually. According to district officials, teachers were offered a 16 percent salary increase, which was double an initial offer.
Union President Karen Lewis told CBS News, "We have failed to reach an agreement that will prevent a labor strike."
In a conference at Maranatha Church, Emmanuel told reporters that the strike could have been avoided calling it a "strike of choice," and then acknowledging the devastating the effects the strike can have on the already stressed Emmanuel administration, "I've got enough challenges. I wasn't looking for another challenge," as reported by the Chicago Tribune.
Chicago is the third largest school district in the country. Now the city struggle to keep more than 400,000 children occupied.
