Chalkbeat

Chicago Public Schools could take another crack at overhauling its middle management

2026-07-22T22:11:33+00:00

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As Chicago Public Schools weighed budget cuts this summer, officials revisited a familiar target: middle management.

Staffing in the district’s 18 network offices that serve as bridges between schools and district headquarters nearly doubled over the past decade before dipping last school year as massive deficits loomed, according to a Chalkbeat analysis. The growth stemmed in part from the launch of networks for high schools under former CEO Janice Jackson. More recently, it tracked with the district’s overall staffing expansion fueled with COVID relief dollars.

Although a major overhaul of these networks is on hold, CPS leaders are continuing to discuss whether they could be leaner and more responsive to schools, sources told Chalkbeat.

The spotlight on networks highlights longstanding debates about their role and value, in a moment when CPS faces ballooning deficits, shrinking enrollment — and pressure to boost student outcomes. Some educators and advocates say they find their structure and roles opaque, and feel the district should steer some network funding directly to schools instead. But other principals say their networks have been a crucial source of stability and guidance amid leadership turnover in CPS.

CPS CEO Macquline King first pitched rethinking the network offices last fall to align with the city’s new elected school board districts. But following pushback, the district stuck with the existing structure of 13 elementary, four high school and one alternative high school networks.

The networks evaluate principals, provide guidance on improving instruction, and relay information about expectations, new initiatives, and legal compliance between schools and the CPS central office. Network chiefs’ jobs are similar to superintendents’ roles in smaller suburban districts, according to a statement from a district spokesperson.

Networks had a $40 million budget last school year. To put that in context, more than $4 billion goes directly to schools.

Over time, network office staffing has fluctuated from a low of 119 positions in 2017 to a recent high of 248 in 2024, before falling to 227 last year, according to the Chalkbeat analysis of positions publicly posted in June each year. Even as the district trimmed administrative and school positions to close a $732.5 million gap this summer, network staffing will remain relatively flat, with the budget for networks inching up to $42 million.

King told Chalkbeat CPS focused on ensuring “that the network chiefs are successful in supporting our principals” when budgeting for the networks.

Antonio Acevedo, the chief of Network 7 that last year oversaw 25 schools in Pilsen, Little Village, and parts of North Lawndale, says his team of about 10 people is lean and busy. His own lengthy list of responsibilities includes everything from coaching earlier-career school leaders to forging relationships with community groups to holding professional development sessions on topics such as the science of reading. He said he visits at least two schools a day and speaks to students often.

“We are always trying to strike this balance between trust and accountability,” Acevedo said.

Others say there’s room to streamline and strengthen the networks. Kia Banks, the head of the Chicago Principals & Administrators Association, the union that represents principals and has some network members, said how well the networks function varies widely depending on who is leading them. A district as large as Chicago needs “that middle layer of management,” she said, but she raised concerns about duplicative staff positions and conflicting directives from networks and the central office.

“We feel many of the resources that are directed to the central offices and the networks should be placed directly into the schools,” she said.

Nelson Gerew of the Chicago Public Education Fund said in his organization’s annual surveys, principals report high levels of satisfaction with their network chiefs. In the most recent one his group plans to publish later this summer, 84% of school leaders said they get key support from their chiefs, and 78% said they trust them.

Nevertheless, as CPS continues to struggle with budget problems, “The networks are going to be an evergreen target,” Gerew said.

King’s proposed network overhaul highlighted CPS politics

Back in September, King had floated the idea of overhauling the 13 elementary networks into 10 offices aligned with the school board electoral districts. The district had recently begun a shift to a fully elected school board, and lawmakers had drawn a map to represent voters.

The four high school networks would have remained. Network chiefs and deputy chiefs would reapply for their jobs.

Officials said at the time that the goal was primarily to make middle management more nimble and responsive to school needs — and to save money.

The idea caused an internal backlash. Some school leaders worried the change would sever key relationships with their supervisors and disrupt principal evaluations that had already begun.

Some school board members also voiced concern that aligning the networks to the board members’ districts might inadvertently invite board members to meddle in their schools. The Chicago Teachers Union, which represents many network staffers, also expressed concern about cuts to support positions.

Previous CPS administrations have put their own stamp on the network structure, including the addition of high school networks in 2018 under Jackson to give them more specialized support.

Currently, between 10 and 13 people work in each network office, with some additional citywide network staff. There are also 24 central office staffers tasked with network support, according to the Chalkbeat analysis of CPS staffing data.

The number of instructional support leader positions in network teams that conduct classroom observations and provide input on teaching and learning grew substantially during the pandemic, reaching a high of 112 before dipping more recently. In 2026, there were more than 80 such positions, with an average salary of $115,000. They are represented by the CTU.

The average salary for network chiefs — a position that has often served as a stepping stone to top district leadership — hit a high of almost $180,000 last year, then dipped to about $160,000 this year. In total, average network office salaries have changed little even as overall CPS employee pay has risen steadily over the years.

Principals: CPS networks with good leaders help schools

Principals who spoke with Chalkbeat about the networks said that they can work well, although instability and bureaucratic issues can hamper their effectiveness.

Augusta Smith, a former CPS principal and administrator who now works at the parent advocacy group Kids First Chicago, recalled that her former network chief, LaTanya McDade, spent a lot of time in classrooms, knew her campuses intimately, and was consistently responsive when principals needed help or advice.

“I could call on her at any time, and she’d be there,” Smith said of McDade, who went on to serve as Jackson’s chief academic officer.

But Smith said some network chiefs can be much more focused on ensuring compliance with central office directives.

When school board member Jessica Biggs worked as a CPS principal, she had five network chiefs in as many years. She spent much time and energy getting the new arrivals up to speed, making for a “deeply unsupportive structure.”

But that has changed in recent years, Biggs said: More seasoned leaders serve in these roles and act as a bulwark against the turmoil stemming from leadership changes atop CPS.

“I worry about upending the one stable structure as this new administration is getting its footing,” Biggs said.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

New Chicago schools chief’s contract makes it easier for district and CEO to part ways

2026-04-22T19:22:29+00:00

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The new contract for Chicago Public Schools CEO Macquline King makes it easier for the district to part ways with her after the protracted and controversial departure of her predecessor, Pedro Martinez.

And unlike Martinez’s agreement, King’s contract includes a nod to the importance of the district’s relationship with the city’s mayor.

The changes would come as no surprise to those who followed the lengthy standoff between Martinez and Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose handpicked board fired the CEO without cause in December 2024. A provision inserted in Martinez’s contract by a previous board allowed him to stay on the job another six months and to continue pushing back against contract demands by the mayor’s allies at the Chicago Teachers Union.

A new, partly elected board granted King the three-year contract after she served in an interim capacity since last summer. The new contract reviewed by Chalkbeat Chicago requires only a 60-day notice if King is terminated without cause — or possibly even less if she is offered a payout in addition to the severance of 20 weeks pay stipulated in both her and Martinez’s contracts. On the flipside, King must give 90 days notice if she chooses to resign, compared to 30 days under Martinez’s contract.

As previously announced, King will make $380,000 a year — almost $20,000 more than her predecessor was making most recently — under her new contract, which goes into effect July 1.

Notably, a section about the relationship between the board and the CEO in King’s contract adds new language about “the expectation of maintaining productive and professional relationships with critical stakeholders, including the Mayor of Chicago” — a nod by a school board where a majority remains aligned with Johnson at a time of transition away from mayoral control. Martinez’s contract made no mention of the mayor, who appointed all members of the board and exerted significant control over the district back when that contract was signed.

Martinez negotiated the changes to his contract in late 2022 on the eve of the city’s most recent mayoral election. Those amendments appeared to be a bid to claim some additional job security for a role in which top leaders have long largely served at the mayor’s pleasure.

The uncertainty hasn’t gone away: In the runup to King’s appointment, some advocates voiced concern that a new, fully elected school board taking over in January could eventually opt to replace the top leader chosen by the current board, on which 10 members are elected and 11 are appointed by Johnson.

The lengthy notice to the CEO under Martinez’s contract was more of an outlier, said Robert Bruno, a professor at the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“These changes to King’s contract strike me as a return to something more standard,” he said.

Bruno noted that higher turnover and a higher-pressure, more politicized environment have been driving up superintendent salaries nationally. The most recent data from the Council of the Great City Schools shows average salary for superintendents in districts serving more than 100,000 students was $338,650 in 2023, an 8% increase over 2019.

But it’s possible that in Chicago, the CEO and board agreed on a higher salary as a tradeoff for less job security.

“A contract is this hydraulic system where everything is interrelated, where if you push down in one area, you have to give in another,” he said.

King’s benefits are in line with those in Martinez’s contract: The district will also provide a pension contribution equal to 7% of her salary and chip in an amount equal to 10% of her salary to a supplemental savings account. Like Martinez, the district is also providing a driver, a bank of 20 days of paid vacation, and four weeks of paid vacation per year.

King’s contract does away with a detailed timeline for evaluating the CEO in Martinez’s contract, instead simply requiring that she be evaluated by the board each year.

To Bruno, a notable aspect of both King’s and Martinez’s contracts is that they require the leaders to submit performance goals some months into their tenure — rather than including measurable goals as part of the contract itself. Particularly in the case of King, who has spent time leading the district as interim, she and the board could have presumably rallied around a set of goals, said Bruno, who has negotiated contracts with performance goals built in as the board president of a suburban Illinois school district.

Both King’s and Martinez’s agreements called for annual raises of up to 3% following a positive evaluation. But King’s deal does away with an amendment to Martinez’s contract that gave the board president more of a leading role in rallying the rest of the board around such raises. It goes back to previous language that just says that the board is authorized to offer the salary increases after evaluating the CEO.

King signed her new contract on March 27, the board voted nearly unanimously to hire her on March 30, and board President Sean Harden signed the document on behalf of the district on April 2.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Meisha Ross Porter, former NYC schools chief, drops out of the running for Chicago Public Schools CEO

2026-03-21T17:18:18+00:00

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Meisha Ross Porter, the former New York City schools chancellor, has dropped out of the running to become Chicago Public Schools’ next CEO, according to two school board members.

That leaves two finalists: interim CEO Macquline King and Sito Narcisse, former superintendent of East Baton Rouge Parish schools. The Chicago Tribune first reported that Porter had withdrawn.

Porter had not yet met with Mayor Brandon Johnson or a community panel, meetings expected to happen this week with all the finalists.

During the board’s closed session after its meeting Thursday, one school board member said Board President Sean Harden told fellow board members that Porter “wanted to be able to hit the ground running in Chicago, and she didn’t feel as if having a virtual interview and not meeting stakeholders would allow her to be able to be fully prepared” to take over CPS.

Porter said in an email Friday that it was “humbling and meaningful” to be a finalist but that she decided to withdraw “after careful consideration.” She did not cite reasons.

The school board is expected to hold a special meeting March 30 to discuss finalists and could choose a CEO that day, one school board member said.

The board’s CEO search, which began about a year ago, has been full of twists and turns. Porter was a finalist in the fall, but the search process took a pivot after Porter and another finalist’s names were leaked. The other finalist, Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero, dropped out, leaving only Porter. That prompted the board to do another round of interviews to find more candidates, board members said.

Since then, the board’s search firm, Alma Advisory Group, has parted ways with the board. A faction of elected board members have called for a pause in the search and claimed the mayor has meddled in the search, which the mayor has denied. These board members, who had previously voted not to hire King as interim, now want King to stay on as interim until a fully elected board is seated in January 2027.

The board announced the names of all three finalists last Friday. King, who was previously taken out of consideration for the permanent job, was a surprise addition. She was added in response to demands from the community, a school board member told Chalkbeat last week.

Two other school board members said they received a call from Harden last week, the day before finalist names were announced publicly, saying that King would be added to the list, and that he had garnered a majority of support from board members to add her.

Harden did not return a call for comment.

Earlier this week, the West Side branch of the NAACP issued a public letter calling for the board to pause the search and name King as CEO through the 2026-27 school year. They lauded King for several accomplishments, including seeing the district through a difficult budget process last summer. Remel Terry, the group’s president, sent that letter to Harden, elected board member Jitu Brown, and appointed member Michilia Blaise, who represent Chicago’s West Side.

“This is not a casual disagreement over preference or personality,” Terry wrote. “This is a serious concern about governance, legitimacy, and the public’s ability to trust the people charged with leading one of the most important public institutions in our city.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Lack of Latino finalists for Chicago schools chief draws concern

2026-03-18T20:39:09+00:00

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When the Chicago school board announced three finalists for the role of district CEO last week, there was a notable absence: Latino frontrunners.

Some Latino advocacy groups and community leaders have since voiced disappointment, pointing out that almost half of the district’s students are Latino. Making the matter more politically delicate is that Chicago Public Schools is seeking a replacement for its first Latino schools chief, Pedro Martinez, who was fired without cause over the objections of some prominent community advocates.

Some say the lack of Latino finalists is fresh evidence that the district must work to build a pipeline to top leadership posts for strong Latino contenders, within and outside the district.

“What we see is a disconnect between whom we serve as a district and who is making the highest-level decisions,” said Yesenia Lopez, an elected school board member representing a district on the city’s Southwest Side.

On Friday, the board said interim CEO Macquline King, former New York City schools chancellor Meisha Porter, and former East Baton Rouge superintendent Sito Narcisse — who are all Black — would vie for the district’s top role. They will meet with Mayor Brandon Johnson and a community panel next.

The board did have a Latino frontrunner, Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero, back in November, when the district appeared to be near the finish line with the search. But when his name was leaked to the media along with Porter’s, Marrero distanced himself from the process, insisting he was committed to his current district.

It’s not clear if other Latino contenders were in the running for finalist slots more recently. School board members signed nondisclosure agreements barring them from discussing the CEO search. It is possible that candidates currently in leadership roles elsewhere might have been discouraged from continuing on when the board decided to make finalist names public last week.

In response to a request for comment from school board President Sean Harden, the board office released a statement saying that search has focused on finding candidates with “the core competencies” needed to lead CPS in partnership with the board.

“The robust recruitment and nationwide interest in the role resulted in an applicant pool, from screening to finalists, that is diverse across several metrics, including but not limited to race, ethnicity, and gender,” the statement said.

The search, which involved extensive community engagement through surveys, focus groups, student panels, and other events, yielded more than 100 applications.

Some Latino leaders decried Martinez departure

Miguel del Valle, Illinois’ first Latino state senator, who served as school board president during former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s term, said he is reluctant to criticize the current board without knowing more about the level of interest from strong Latino candidates and any efforts to encourage such candidates to apply.

Still, he said, “Having been very much involved in selecting the first Latino CEO of CPS, I have to say I was disappointed.”

Martinez’s dismissal by a Johnson-appointed board in late 2024 drew condemnation from some community leaders. Illinois Latino Agenda, a coalition of leaders advocating for representation in positions of power, called the move “an affront” to the Latino community, arguing he had brought academic gains and stability to a school system long plagued by frequent leadership turnover.

Lopez, the school board member, said that after last Friday’s finalist announcement, she’s heard from some community leaders and elected officials on the Southwest Side, where Martinez — the son of Mexican immigrants who attended CPS — enjoyed a lot of support.

“He was seen as a person with a lived experience, bringing that cultural lens and speaking the language,” she said.

She said she worries that Martinez’ ouster and its aftermath might have discouraged some Latino candidates from pursuing the CPS top job. And she stressed the district faces a larger issue. Latinos make up fewer than a fifth of school leaders in CPS.

Lopez said a lack of community roots in top leadership can translate into policies that fail to fully consider the experience of many families. As an example, Lopez said she supports offering access to online learning for some immigrant families fearful of stepped-up immigration enforcement. But she also said extended online learning during the pandemic strained Southwest Side families, where many parents are frontline workers, and some lacked access to technology.

Latino advocates push for a leadership pipeline

Linda Xóchitl Tortolero, the president and CEO of the advocacy group Latino Policy Forum, who has since joined Illinois Latino Agenda as a member, noted in a statement that the CPS search is playing out at a time when the local Latino community feels under duress amid the Trump administration’s enforcement push, which has affected attendance for the district’s growing number of English learners and for some of its other students. She urged the district to choose a new leader with extensive experience serving Latino, immigrant, and English learner students and a record of improving their outcomes and school experience.

“Children and families deserve to see themselves in their leaders,” she said. “They also deserve leaders who see them, know them, and fight for them.”

A 2025 study by the Council of the Great City Schools, which advocates for urban school districts, showed that among 77 member districts, about 20% of superintendents were Latino in 2023. About 45% were Black, and roughly 30% were white. Only 4% were Latina women.

The report found a major increase in Latino representation in top district jobs since the start of the pandemic and a dip in the number of Black leaders. These trends coincided with a steady increase in the portion of Latino students in large urban districts and a marked decrease in the number of Black and white students.

Lopez said the board is unlikely to go hunting for a Latino finalist after a year-long search process and given a goal of selecting a new permanent CEO in April. But she said the district must do more to cultivate the next generation of Latino leaders — and saying they aren’t out there or won’t apply for key CPS posts isn’t good enough.

“That’s just an easy scapegoat answer,” she said.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Three finalists announced for Chicago Public Schools’ top job

2026-03-13T21:54:22+00:00

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Three finalists — including interim CEO Macquline King — are vying to serve as the next chief executive of Chicago Public Schools, the school board announced Friday.

In addition to King, the finalists are Sito Narcisse, former superintendent of East Baton Rouge Parish School System in Louisiana, and Meisha Porter, former chancellor of New York City schools.

Each of the candidates will interview with Mayor Brandon Johnson and participate in a “candidate community engagement” panel, according to a press release from the board office. After that, the board will hold a special meeting to discuss the finalists and vote.

In a statement, Johnson said he will meet with candidates next week and wants to hear feedback from the community panel.

“This is a critical time for our school district and for our nation, and I take this responsibility seriously as we work to ensure the next leader reflects the values of our city and is prepared to meet the needs of our students, families, and educators,” Johnson said.

The board office did not say if board members will do additional interviews with the candidates.

The school board set out last spring to find a new top leader after a previous board appointed by Johnson fired then CEO Pedro Martinez without cause following a clash over district finances. The search has been bumpy at times: As it neared a planned December completion, one contender, Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero, pulled out after his and Porter’s names were leaked to the press. The district search firm, Alma Consulting Group, parted ways with CPS last month, and a group of school board members released a statement charging Johnson with meddling in the process.

King’s inclusion on the list of candidates is a surprise: The board declined to advance King to a previous pool of finalists last fall.

Chalkbeat reported last week that the board had again decided on multiple finalists. Adding King as a finalist was a more recent decision that shows the board is “listening to the community,” said Norma Rios-Sierra, an appointed board member who is on the CEO search committee.

“She has a lot of support from a lot of community leaders, and she had some time to demonstrate how she works,” Rios-Sierra said.

King, a former principal and City Hall education policy advisor under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Johnson, has led the district since last June, including through a budget fight that put her at odds with the mayor’s office. The principals union has praised her leadership so far.

Some organizations, including the West Side branch of the NAACP, and a group of elected board members who originally voted against hiring her last year, have called for her to remain in her post until a fully elected school board can pick the next Chicago schools chief when it takes office in January 2027.

King began her CPS teaching career in 1994 and eventually became a principal at two schools, most recently at Courtenay Language Arts Center in Uptown, which involved a difficult merger with another school.

King’s personnel records drew some scrutiny before she was hired as the interim CEO. The records, which did not include any formal discipline, had two memos from district officials about how she should improve her performance. At the time she told Chalkbeat the criticism was fair but that those directives — centered on findings that she had not immediately reported allegations of abuse and failed to conduct a background check for a volunteer — were the result of understaffing at her school. King couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Porter, who was raised in Queens and attended New York City public schools, became the first Black woman to oversee the nation’s largest school system for 10 months in 2021 after her predecessor abruptly resigned. She spent more than two decades rising through the ranks as a teacher, principal, and a high-level administrator who eventually oversaw all schools in the Bronx. She is well-respected in New York City education circles, including by teachers, parents, and administrators.

She served as schools chancellor during the pandemic and as the district was beginning to reopen schools. During her short tenure, she oversaw policy pushes under former Mayor Bill de Blasio to eliminate separate gifted and talented classes and a $200 million universal curriculum for schools. Both initiatives were scrapped by de Blasio’s successor, Mayor Eric Adams. Porter was replaced as de Blasio left office.

After leaving the district, Porter became the president and CEO of the Bronx Community Foundation. The foundation, which was set up to help finance other local nonprofits, failed to distribute most of the money it raised from 2019 to 2023 and spent more on consultants and overhead than charitable giving, according to an investigation by the news organization New York Focus. In 2024, the organization’s board of directors fired Porter.

She most recently was a visiting senior fellow at the Center for Educational Innovation, an organization that works with school leaders and families, according to her LinkedIn. Porter did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Narcisse led the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, Louisiana’s second largest, for three years, until January 2024, according to his LinkedIn profile. The school board voted not to renew his contract at that point, according to local news coverage, though he expressed interest in getting his job back later that year. He has since worked as managing partner of SJ Apple Consulting Group, a firm he founded that offers consulting services to school districts.

Narcisse focused on expanding preschool, college credit opportunities, and career pathways in East Baton Rouge. During his time there, the district drew headlines and a rebuke from the American Civil Liberties Union after high school students were bused to a “Day of Hope” event billed as a college and career fair. Students reported the event, held at a local church, carried strong religious overtones throughout, and transgender students said they were bullied.

He previously served in top school district administrative posts in Washington, D.C., and Nashville. Narcisse did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Kia Banks, the president of the district’s principals union, had previously said many members wanted a new, fully elected board to pick a permanent CEO early next year, with King remaining at the helm as the district navigates the upcoming budget season. Banks said Friday she is still wary of disruption at a turbulent time for the district, which faces a massive budget deficit and pressure from the Trump administration.

“Stability is always important,” Banks said. “We’ve made a lot of progress under Dr. King. Making a shift with there being so many challenges right now can undo a lot of progress made.”

She said there is no representative from the principals union leadership on the community panel that will interview finalists, and she is unsure of the next steps in the search process.

In a statement, Chicago Teachers Union vice president Jackson Potter didn’t address the specific candidates but sought to remind the board of union priorities when choosing a CEO, including someone who would expand Sustainable Community Schools, push back against cuts from the Trump administration, and push Gov. JB Pritzker to increase taxes on the wealthy in order to boost education funding.

Hal Woods, policy director at education advocacy organization Kids First Chicago, said over the yearlong process, parents involved in his organization haven’t wavered in wanting the board to “prioritize someone who is most likely to lead with integrity, who is going to be partnering with families authentically, and who is going to work to improve outcomes from students across the city.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s school board close to identifying finalists — again — for superintendent search

2026-02-25T20:02:56+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education is getting closer to choosing finalists — again — for Chicago Public Schools’ next CEO.

Multiple board members said the next step in the search process is to identify finalists from the group of candidates they’ve been considering. Norma Rios-Sierra, an appointed board member who is on a working group for the almost yearlong CEO search, told Chalkbeat the board will have a group of finalists “very soon” and “definitely before the end of the school year.”

But even as the search continues, six of the 21 board members and groups such as the district’s principals union are escalating calls to keep interim CEO Macquline King in her role into 2027, when a fully elected school board takes over. They argue that with a tough budget season already underway and the looming campaigns for all 21 school board seats, the district needs stability instead of a push to conclude the rocky search.

Last week, that group of elected board members revealed that the board was parting ways with its search firm, Alma Advisory Group, and accused Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office and its allies of intervening in the search process.

The mayor’s office has denied those claims and said the mayor has not meddled or interviewed candidates. The mayor wants to interview finalists identified by the board, Rios-Sierra said.

Other board members say the search remains on track and denied the accusations of sabotage. They said they plan to have a CEO in place before the start of next school year. Several board members who spoke with Chalkbeat declined to share names of front-runners or the number of people they are currently considering.

Appointed board member Anusha Thotakura said the board is continuing to interview “high quality candidates,” and as of at least earlier this month, one of the candidates is someone “whose name was leaked to the press several months ago.” But she declined to specify whether that candidate was Meisha Porter, former head of New York City public schools, or current Denver superintendent Alex Marrero, whose names were revealed by the Chicago Sun-times/WBEZ and Chalkbeat in November.

A spokesperson for Denver Public Schools said Tuesday Marrero is not a candidate; Porter did not respond to a request for comment.

In November, the search appeared to be in its final stretch when the leaks seemed to derail it. Marrero said he was committed to Denver the day his name appeared in the press.

“We’re taking this process very seriously and are trying to move with a sense of urgency that this level of a decision deserves,” Thotakura said.

As planned before, finalists will still be interviewed by a panel of community members, Rios-Sierra said. The board has not said who is on the panel but it was originally envisioned to include students, teachers, and other residents.

The district has now been without a permanent leader since former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez left last June; King has been serving since and applied for the CEO job but didn’t advance to a finalist round, the Sun-Times and WBEZ reported.

In November, after news broke that the board had two finalists, the Chicago Teachers Union blasted the board for keeping their names secret. Board members, who disclosed months earlier that they would not reveal finalist names, had signed nondisclosure agreements prohibiting them from discussing aspects of the search publicly. The union declined to say whether it will again call for finalist names to be revealed.

After Chalkbeat and the Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ revealed the two finalist names, the board appeared to be left with just Porter.

Then the process appeared to come to a halt, but some board members later said they were rescheduling interviews and interviewing more applicants. Rios-Sierra said, at the time, many of her colleagues wanted to consider more than one finalist and that there were conversations about expanding the finalist pool.

Che “Rhymefest” Smith, one of the elected board members who released a statement last week decrying Alma’s departure and accusing the mayor’s office of interference, said he and other search committee members who signed it have been left in the dark about the status of the search. He said he believes a finalist or finalists have been selected and might meet with Johnson next.

The district can’t keep King “hanging on forever” and should work out an agreement for her to stay on, lest she leave for another job, Smith said.

Smith had opposed King’s appointment as interim last summer, but now says King, who came from a role in the mayor’s office, has led the district capably since. Smith and the chair of the board’s search team, elected board member Jessica Biggs, penned an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune last week that, in part, said they’re hearing calls to keep King in place until the new board is elected.

“This is the part where I have to listen to the community,” he said.

Unlike Martinez, King was not offered a contract when she was hired as interim CEO. Her offer letter — obtained by Chalkbeat through an open records request — does not indicate a specific end date for her job.

Kia Banks, the head of the Chicago Principals & Administrators Association, which represents school leaders, said her members have increasingly said they believe King should continue in her role. She said she worries that next year’s fully elected school board could second-guess or reverse any decision on a permanent top leader made this year.

Banks said King, a former district teacher and principal, has steered CPS through myriad challenges and is in the best position to craft budgets for schools and the district. The union, which reached its first preliminary contract with the district last August, is negotiating a more complete collective bargaining agreement.

“The search as it has been going on this year has become less about the needs of the students and more about which board members will prevail given their differences,” Banks said.

The West Side chapter of the NAACP has also called for keeping King in the top job until a new school board is elected and seated next January.

In a statement, Chicago Teachers Union vice president Jackson Potter said many national candidates may not be a good fit and the CEO search “requires being thoughtful and thorough to find a leader to repair, reconcile and rebuild CPS,” including with the current funding challenges facing the district. CPS is projecting a $520 million budget deficit next fiscal year.

The union did not say whether it supports keeping King in place until next year.

SEIU, which represents school support staff, did not respond to a request for comment.

Melanie Asmar contributed to this report.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago school board’s CEO search is in a holding pattern

2025-11-25T22:52:19+00:00

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Earlier this month, after Chicago’s school board appeared to have two finalists for the next CEO of Chicago Public Schools, the board was poised to hire a new leader by the end of the year.

Now, it’s unclear which finalists remain and when the district will have a new CEO.

On Tuesday, appointed school board member Michilla Blaise said that the board is “reconsidering the process.” But elected board member Jessica Biggs, who is helping lead the board search committee, said they are rescheduling finalist interviews.

This comes a week after Mayor Brandon Johnson told reporters he was under the impression that “people can still apply if they want” to lead the nation’s fourth largest school system.

Chicago is looking to replace former CEO Pedro Martinez, who was fired without cause and left the district in June. Board members had promised a transparent search process that includes public feedback, but in recent weeks many have declined to comment on where the search stands.

Elected board member Jitu Brown, who represents the West Side, nodded in agreement with Blaise’s comment at the end of an unrelated press conference. Both said they couldn’t share more information because they signed nondisclosure agreements.

“We will have updates,” Brown told reporters.

Biggs declined to share a timeline for when rescheduled interviews could happen.

Two weeks ago, board members appeared to settle on two finalists: former New York City schools chancellor Meisha Porter and current Denver superintendent Alex Marrero, who later said in a statement that he was committed to Denver Public Schools. Sources said they would face final interviews with the mayor, the board, and a community panel during the week of Nov. 10. On Tuesday, Biggs said finalists were not interviewed at that time because of a need to reschedule; she declined to confirm who the finalists were or how many remain.

At one point, the board had scheduled three special meetings for that week. Two were canceled and one adjourned after about an hour.

Multiple board members have declined to comment on what happened or was discussed during the closed session that day, citing their NDAs.

“The board is working on recalibrating and deciding how to move forward together,” Biggs said.

Last week, the head of Alma Advisory Group, the search firm hired to help the board find a new leader, said she did not have a search status update. Alma did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

The board’s search process began in the spring with community meetings and surveys collecting feedback from the public about what it wanted to see in a new schools chief. The board also passed a resolution requiring the future CEO to have a superintendent’s license.

Board members began interviewing candidates this fall and planned to have a new leader in place by the end of this year, but also said finalist names would not be made public so as not to jeopardize their current jobs.

But when the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ reported earlier this month that the board had narrowed its choices to two unnamed finalists, some local organizations pushed back. The Chicago Teachers Union, a close ally of the mayor’s, criticized the board for not naming the finalists publicly and asserted in a letter to the board president that state law still gives the mayor the power to choose the CEO, an opinion shared by one of the state senators who created the elected school board law. But legal experts told Chalkbeat the law is not written clearly.

A group of West Side organizations, including the West Side branch of the NAACP, have pushed to keep interim CPS CEO Macquline King in the role and expressed disappointment when she was not reportedly one of the finalists.

A spokesperson for the mayor said Tuesday he was planning to meet with finalists in early November, but after finalist names leaked, the process was paused.

Last Monday, the mayor said he believed there was still a lot of interest in the job.

“I know there are a number of people who would love to be able to serve this city, particularly the time in which you know, again, my budget is putting forth the largest single investment in our public schools in the history of Chicago,” Johnson said. “So there’s a reason why a lot of folks want this position, because they’re going to have a mayor who believes in public education.”

He added that the next leader of CPS will need to transition the school system into “complete autonomy” after the school board becomes fully elected in 2027 and oversee “gradual weaning off of its dependency and its reliance upon the city of Chicago.”

This story has been updated to include comment from a mayoral spokesperson.

Becky Vevea and Mila Koumpilova contributed reporting.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Cities are in a new cycle of changing who runs schools. Are they just running in place?

2025-11-24T10:54:00+00:00

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The election of a progressive mayor who has said he wants to end mayoral control of New York City schools might seem like a bellwether.

The next largest school systems, Los Angeles and Miami-Dade County, have been run by elected boards for years. Chicago is transitioning to a fully elected board after decades under mayoral control.

But don’t bury mayoral control just yet.

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani hasn’t laid out clear plans, and his references to “co-governance” could mean a lot of things, including an ongoing role for the mayor.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, another progressive, supported a “majority-elected” school board when she ran in 2021, but vetoed legislation to create an elected board once she was in office.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teachers union organizer, has continued to exert his influence over the city’s schools in support of union priorities.

And in Indianapolis, some community groups are calling for the mayor, who already authorizes charter schools, to take on a larger role in an increasingly fractured school system.

Many large cities have repeatedly overhauled their school governance to try to address perceived shortcomings and real failures of the previous model. Now a new set of existential threats — declining enrollment, looming school closures and layoffs, persistent academic challenges, and threats from the Trump administration — are reviving conversations about who can claim to exercise legitimate power over schools.

Who gets to make decisions on behalf of students and families feels particularly high stakes in this moment.

Yet there is little evidence that voters consistently prioritize student outcomes at the ballot box, whether they’re voting for mayors or school board members. Nor is there strong evidence that any particular system consistently delivers better results for students, better financial management, or more responsive leadership.

“It’s like getting dirty and changing clothes and expecting to smell good without taking a bath,” said Jonathan Collins, a professor of political science and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. “That’s what you’re doing when you change your governance structure.”

School closures put focus on who makes decisions

Education reform policies such as expanding school choice, closing low-performing schools, and welcoming charter schools have been supported by both mayors and elected school boards, sometimes under threat of state takeover. Those changes have reshaped communities in complicated ways.

New schools proliferated, and students got more opportunities. At the same time, the connections between neighborhoods and schools have frayed, competition for students and funding is fiercer, and multiple entities are now responsible for school oversight. These new realities are testing old ways of running schools.

In Indianapolis, the mayor already authorizes charter schools independently from Indianapolis Public Schools, which is run by an elected board. More students now attend charter schools than district-run schools. Legislation from earlier this year that would have dissolved the district failed, but a state-created advisory group, chaired by Mayor Joe Hogsett, is charged with figuring out how city schools should share buildings and transportation services.

Mayoral control over Indianapolis schools could untangle big knots — or create new headaches

The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance is also considering proposals that would give the mayor a much larger role in school governance, including appointing most or all of the board.

Historically, groups associated with education reform have supported mayoral control. Yet the Mind Trust, an influential pro-charter nonprofit that supported an appointed board in the past, hasn’t taken a position yet. Several potential Indianapolis mayoral candidates for 2027 are charter skeptics and supporters of an elected board.

Cleveland, where mayoral control has been firmly entrenched for nearly three decades, is grappling with similar challenges.

As in Indianapolis, a large share of the district’s school-age children attend charter or private schools after decades under the Cleveland Plan, and enrollment in district schools has plummeted. Supporters of mayoral control sometimes hold up Cleveland as an exemplar, but Mayor Justin Bibb’s aggressive school closure plan is causing some community members to demand a greater voice.

Ideastream Public Media reported an exchange at a recent community meeting between Bibb and teacher Sarah Hodge.

“Are you gonna go with us on the plan to make sure that the voters are re-enfranchised to vote for their school board?” Hodge said. Bibb responded that voters can seek a new system if they wish, but he has full confidence in his appointed board and in schools CEO Warren Morgan.

The ability to push ahead with a school closure plan is one of the benefits of mayoral control, said Aaron Churchill, Ohio research director for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a center-right think tank. He contrasted Cleveland with Columbus, where the elected school board has moved more slowly in response to many of the same pressures.

“They’re controversial, they’re hard to do, and it does take leadership,” Churchill said. And there is still a democratic check on the process. People vote for the mayor, he said, and most people know who their mayor is — unlike their school board members.

Hodge has a very different view. “It’s not bold to upset the entire city,” she said in an interview.

She believes an elected school board would listen to parents and ultimately come up with a better plan for what she agrees are necessary closures.

Hodge is working with a small group of other teachers and activists to explore options for restoring the elected board. But Ohio’s Republican trifecta state government is unlikely to go along willingly.

Hodge and other Cleveland activists have watched conservative groups like Moms for Liberty exert their influence on school boards. She wonders why people in Cleveland have fewer rights.

“If the people of Cleveland want to make an idiotic decision, that’s our right,” she said. “Since when do legislatures get to tell people, ‘You don’t get to vote. You’re too terrible to make decisions for yourself?’”

Voters often don’t care much about test scores

If mayoral control of schools is undemocratic, elected school boards raise their own questions about representation.

Most school board members are elected by small numbers of voters who don’t have children themselves and who aren’t representative of the families served in the schools. Once in office, they spend very little time talking about how to improve schools, surveys show.

Vladimir Kogan, a political science professor at Ohio State University, said that’s because voters don’t give them any incentive to do so.

Voters in school board elections might care about home values, taxes, jobs, or “symbolic virtue signaling that they are [on] team red and team blue,” Kogan said, before they care about how well schools are serving students.

School board elections are one of the few places parents can pull on the levers of power, said Keri Rodrigues, a Boston parent and president of the National Parents Union, an advocacy group. But they can turn out to be “democracy in name only.”

It doesn’t have to be that way, said Scott Levy, author of “Why School Boards Matter.” Many school board members would benefit from more training, including on how to understand academic data and budgets.

“If you look at education reform efforts, you can find every permutation except investing in school boards,” he said.

But if school boards don’t spend enough time on schooling, it’s not clear that mayors who do reap big benefits.

Kogan points to former District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty. Public opinion polls at the time showed voters believed the D.C. schools had improved under his controversial appointed chancellor, Michelle Rhee. But he lost the next election anyway: Voters didn’t like the disruptions and job losses that accompanied the overhaul of D.C. schools.

“Reformers have a wrong theory of change about mayoral control,” Kogan said. “The idea is that mayors are more visible, and it’s easier to hold them accountable. That assumes that voters care about academics.”

Progressive mayors want a role in schools

Fights over who gets to control schools often reflect racial and political divisions. Predominantly white business interests, Black- and Latino-led community groups, and teachers unions wrestle for influence. Republican legislatures try to control Democrat-led cities.

Mayoral control spread in the 1990s and 2000s as white flight and shrinking tax bases undermined school systems. Mayors, the thinking went, could elevate the importance of education, marshal resources, and insulate governance from the influence of teachers unions.

Some of these political assumptions have eroded as voters choose more left-leaning mayors.

In last year’s Chicago school board elections — held amid a leadership and budget crisis that pitted Johnson against the superintendent — the mayor’s union-backed allies picked up only four of the 10 elected seats. But with 11 appointees on the 21-member board until 2027, Johnson still controls the school board.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks outside of Austin College and Career Academy on the first day of school in August. Johnson has played an active role in Chicago schools as the district transitions to an elected board.

During recent union contract negotiations, Johnson pressed the district to hire more staff and cover a larger share of pension costs, which district leaders feared would be financially unsustainable. The teachers union also wants Johnson, not the board, to pick the next superintendent.

Wu, Boston’s progressive mayor, became a firm believer in mayoral control once she was in office. During a 2023 WGBH call-in show, a caller reminded Wu that the idea of an elected school board “got more votes than you.”

Wu pointed to frequent superintendent turnover and the recent threat of state takeover to argue against the idea.

“We need to have a focus on stabilizing and getting our school facilities up to date and mental health supports and some of the academic changes that we’re making,” Wu said.

Voters haven’t penalized Wu — she ran unopposed this year and handily won re-election.

New York parents, community groups want more say

Mayoral control in New York City is up for renewal in 2026. If Mamdani goes to Albany and advocates for less authority, he’ll be the first New York mayor to do so.

When Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman, successfully lobbied for mayoral control in 2002, people were concerned not just about student achievement but basic safety. Some of the city’s local community boards, which ran 32 regional school districts, were corrupt or dysfunctional.

Zohran Mamdani wants to end mayor control of NYC schools. It has eroded under Eric Adams.

Bloomberg gained the sole ability to appoint the chancellor and the majority of the city’s school board. He adopted a suite of reforms that included charter school expansion and greater school accountability. Test scores and other metrics improved. New York City represented a “victory lap for mayoral control,” said Collins, the Columbia professor.

But Bloomberg also introduced Lucy Calkins’ now-discredited “Units of Study” reading curriculum into city schools. Outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, who was elected on a public safety platform, overhauled the reading curriculum — initial results are promising but the rollout frustrated teachers. Now Mamdani, who ran on affordability, may give schools and teachers more autonomy.

“That whiplash is a real problem,” said Jonathan Greenberg, a Queens parent and member of the Education Council Consortium, a coalition of parent leaders. “So much of the really deep-seated changes we think need to happen take more than two years or more than four years.”

Mayoral control already has weakened under Adams, with the school board, known as the Panel for Educational Policy, expanding and exerting more independence.

Finding the right balance for an exceptionally large and complex school system may not be easy. The coalition is proposing a short extension of mayoral control — but with the mayor no longer appointing the majority of school panel members.

Greenberg hopes that policy experts can help the city design a system that allows for community control and a healthy central system that can do things at scale.

Low voter turnout in both mayoral and school board elections should be treated like a crisis, Collins said. A better system would allow for more meaningful participation, and not just at the ballot box.

Unless more people are engaged, Collins said, “there’s going to be a small fraction of people who decide who serves, and the people who are serving are going to be disconnected from the true needs of the folks who are sending their kids to school.”

Erica Meltzer is Chalkbeat’s national editor based in Colorado. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Former NYC schools chief a finalist for Chicago schools CEO

2025-11-07T21:26:42+00:00

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A former New York City schools chief is one of the two finalists for the job of Chicago Public Schools’ next CEO, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the situation.

Meisha Ross Porter, who led New York City Public Schools in 2021, will interview with Chicago Board of Education members, a community panel, and the mayor next week.

Chicago’s selection will mark the first time its new 21-member school board chooses a new leader for the nation’s fourth largest school district. Earlier this week, WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times reported that the current interim CEO Macquline King was no longer in the running for the top job. Chalkbeat could not confirm the identity of the other finalist. Late Friday, the outlet also reported Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero was a finalist. Marrero told Chalkbeat in a statement Friday that “my dedication remains firmly with Denver Public Schools where I am proud to continue serving as superintendent.”

Porter spent more than two decades working in New York City’s public schools, rising up the ranks as a teacher, principal, and high-level administrator. She ultimately became the first Black woman to lead the nation’s largest school system in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic after her predecessor abruptly stepped down.

She only spent 10 months at the helm of New York City’s public schools, appointed in March 2021 and replaced when Mayor Bill de Blasio left office at the end of the year.

In her short tenure, Porter oversaw two sweeping but late-breaking policy pushes under de Blasio that were subsequently scrapped by Mayor Eric Adams: a plan to eliminate separate gifted and talented classes and a $200 million proposed universal curriculum.

Porter is widely respected by many education leaders in New York and has also been floated as a possible schools chief for incoming Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani has said he is also considering current Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos for the role.

Porter did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither Chicago Board of Education President Sean Harden nor the school board’s chief of staff returned requests for comment.

After leaving her post as New York City’s schools chief, Porter became the president and CEO of the Bronx Community Foundation. The foundation was set up to help finance other local nonprofits, but was in turmoil during her time there. It failed to distribute most of the money it raised from 2019 to 2023 and spent more on consultants and overhead than charitable giving, according to an investigation by the news organization New York Focus. In 2024, the organization’s board of directors fired Porter.

More recently, Porter has served as a visiting senior fellow at the Center for Educational Innovation, an organization that works with school leaders and families, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The Chicago Board of Education is scheduled to meet Monday for a special meeting during which they plan to interview the two finalists in person, WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times reported this week. The board plans to reconvene later in the week to make a final pick and the full 21-member board could then vote on a final contract with the new leader at a meeting scheduled for Dec. 3.

Chicago began its process to find a new leader in March, hiring the search firm Alma Advisory Group, an executive search firm known for its work helping school boards hire superintendents.

The previous CPS CEO Pedro Martinez was fired without cause in late December 2024, but remained at the helm of the district until late June. Martinez, who made about $360,000 annually as head of CPS, clashed with Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teachers union organizer, over how to handle the district’s finances. The tensions at one point led to Johnson’s entire seven-member appointed board resigning en masse.

For the past 30 years under mayoral control, CPS’s leader has been chosen by the city’s mayor.

Earlier this year, a key lawmaker who helped pave the way for an elected school board raised the possibility that the mayor should still get the final say on who runs CPS. Legal experts and local officials disagree on whether that is still the case and the language in state law is murky.

Nevertheless, Johnson is expected to interview both finalists next week, according to a source close to the search process. He also maintains significant influence over the school board given that 11 of 21 members are his appointees.

Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates criticized the secrecy surrounding the finalists and the “hand-picked panel” of community members being asked for input, calling it “a fundamental failure of the democratic values this new process was meant to uphold.”

“Black and Brown students and their families will bear the brunt of this decision,” Davis Gates said. “Their voices must be at the center of this process, not excluded from it.”

But in a letter sent to the school board president late Friday night, Davis Gates said “the authority to appoint the CPS CEO resides with the Mayor of the City of Chicago” and argued that the board’s “apparent belief that it is empowered” to pick the district’s next leader is against state law.

Dwayne Truss, a member of the West Side branch of the NAACP, said the group is upset that interim CEO King has been eliminated as a finalist.

Truss, a former member of the Board of Education, said the current board should be prioritizing a local candidate. He pointed to former “outsider” CEOs, including Barbara Byrd-Bennett, who was convicted of receiving bribes during her time at Chicago Public Schools, as failing to be successful.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Alex Zimmerman is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Alex at azimmerman@chalkbeat.org.

Michael Elsen-Rooney is a reporter for Chalkbeat New York, covering NYC public schools. Contact Michael at melsen-rooney@chalkbeat.org.

Sendhil Revuluri running for Chicago Board of Education president

2025-10-15T20:43:31+00:00

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Sendhil Revuluri, a former vice president of the Chicago Board of Education under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, announced Wednesday that he will run for board president in next year’s election.

Revuluri, who is also an education consultant, is the first person to announce he’s running for school board president in the 2026 election, when 21 school board seats will be up for election. In last year’s inaugural school board races, 10 seats were elected; the mayor appointed people to the remaining 11 seats, including the role of board president.

The board president presides over the board and after Jan. 15, 2027, will have voting powers just like any other board member, according to state law. Currently, the president only votes to break a tie. The current board president leads meetings, discussions with board members on various issues facing the board, and helps craft meeting agendas.

Rumors have floated for months about who is considering throwing their name into the race for school board president. Candidates are not able to circulate petitions to get their names on the ballot until Feb. 24, 2026. Those running for president must collect 2,500 valid signatures from Chicago residents registered to vote in the city by May 26, 2026. All other school board members must collect between at least 500, but no more than 1,500 from who live in and are registered to vote in their district.

Revuluri said he was hopeful about the new, hybrid board when it was sworn in and has been in touch with current board members. But he decided to run after feeling like the current board focuses only a “very small fraction” of time on district goals or academics.

“What I’ve seen this year since they were seated in January has convinced me that we need different leadership,” Revuluri said in an interview with Chalkbeat. “We need leadership that’s going to focus the board on student learning and on board work, rather than getting involved in political actions and district operations, and that’s really why I’ve decided to run.”

This year, the school board has navigated a gaping budget deficit, clashes with the mayor’s office, the looming closure of several charter schools, and the searching for a new CEO.

He detailed some of his ideas for effective governance in a piece he wrote for Chalkbeat Chicago before he stepped down at the end of 2022, shortly after Mayor Brandon Johnson was elected.

Revuluri said his vision for an effective school board involves having a CEO selection and evaluation process that the board is aligned on and adopting a budget “if and only if there’s clear and compelling evidence” that it will improve student learning.

In addition to improving student achievement, Revuluri said in a press release that he wants to “stand up to special interests,” who he defined as groups that focus primarily on adult-centered needs rather than student priorities.

Asked if he was referring to organizations such as the Chicago Teachers Union and the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, who were among the biggest campaign spenders in last year’s election, Revuluri said both are among groups that “have engaged in rhetoric and advocacy that’s really put adult interest and adult comfort first.”

Revuluri served on the school board during the 2019 CTU strike and the 2022 CTU walkout over COVID safety protocols.

Asked if he would decline campaign donations from special interest groups, Revuluri said he’ll “welcome support from anyone, any people, any groups who agree” with putting “student learning first.”

Lightfoot appointed Revuluri to the Board of Education in 2019, and he served on the board as CPS navigated the coronavirus pandemic and remote instruction. From 2018 to 2022, Revuluri was the managing director for strategic development at investment firm PEAK6 Capital Management, according to his LinkedIn page and biography online.

Before that, Revuluri worked at the University of Illinois at Chicago for roughly seven years, with most of that time helping to lead the Suburban Cook County Mathematics Initiative, which was meant to improve mathematics education across 40 public school districts.

Revuluri also worked for CPS’ Office of Mathematics for one year as an instructional specialist, according to his LinkedIn page. Before that, he was the math department chair at a New York City high school in the Bronx.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Who picks the person to lead Chicago schools? Elected officials and legal experts disagree.

2025-08-13T10:00:00+00:00

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Months after the Chicago Board of Education hired a search firm to help look for the next CEO of Chicago Public Schools, board President Sean Harden received an email from one of the chief architects of Chicago’s elected school board legislation.

At the time, State Sen. Rob Martwick, who represents parts of Chicago’s Northwest Side and some suburbs, said newly-elected and appointed board members had been asking him who has the power to choose the next CEO.

Martwick, who is also an attorney, decided to email Harden on May 28 with the answer: It’s the mayor — and it would be “outside of the law” for the board to choose, he wrote.

In the email obtained by Chalkbeat through a Freedom of Information Act request, Martwick cited a section of Illinois’ school code that was first written when Chicago’s schools were put under mayoral control in 1995. It states: “The Mayor shall appoint a full-time, compensated chief executive officer, and his or her compensation as such chief executive officer shall be determined by the Mayor.”

But school board members point to a different section of the school code that puts the power of picking a superintendent in the hands of the Chicago Board of Education.

Some legal experts, however, disagree that there’s a straight answer — including on whether the law gives the school board hiring power once it’s fully elected in 2027.

“It is completely unclear,” said Teri McMurtry-Chubb, a professor of law at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The competing opinions raise questions about whether the law is clear enough on who hires the CEO and whether current or future Chicago mayors could try to argue that it’s their choice, not the board’s.

The mayor appoints 11 members to the 21-member school board until 2027.

Martwick’s interpretation — or his May 28 email — hasn’t had any apparent impact on the board as it looks for the next leader of CPS by as early as next month. Jessica Biggs, who is the chair of the board’s transition team, said the question arose earlier this year.

“I think that there was a wondering early on in the process about whose authority this actually was, but it’s my understanding that that question was resolved pretty quickly, and it was determined that that authority rests with the board,” Biggs said.

Martwick, an ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s, sent the email one month after the school board committed to hosting community feedback meetings about the CEO search and two months after it passed a resolution requiring the next leader to have a superintendent’s license. His note also came about a week after the board had narrowed its choice for an interim CEO to a handful of candidates, which at that point excluded the mayor’s chief of staff.

Martwick said he has not discussed the issue with the mayor or City Hall, and that his interpretation is also based on what he and fellow lawmakers settled on as they negotiated the legislation.

“I didn’t want this, but the concession that I made was that the mayor would appoint the school board president and the mayor would appoint the CEO during the transitionary period,” Martwick said. “After [it’s] fully elected, [the board is] a separate, standalone government, and they retain the power to do everything.”

Martwick and other lawmakers pushed for years to establish the city’s first elected board after more than a decade of advocacy for an elected school board from community groups and the Chicago Teachers Union.

In February 2024, the mayor sent a letter to state Senate President Don Harmon, asking for 10 people to be elected to the school board this year and to allow the mayor to appoint the 11 others until 2027. Harmon — who had originally supported the idea of full and immediate elections — filed legislation carrying the mayor’s preferred plan, which was ultimately passed.

Asked what he thinks of the school board moving ahead with its search process despite his interpretation of the law, Martwick said the board could open itself up to legal action from the mayor.

“There’s no legislation police, right? We don’t come around and say, ‘Oh, you’re not following the law,’ but you leave yourself open to some sort of legal challenge,” Martwick said.

“But I suppose if they say, ‘You guys decide — that’s OK with me,’ you know, then that’s the way it goes.”

Legal experts interpret Illinois law differently

In Illinois state law governing public schools — also known as the school code — the Chicago mayor’s authority for choosing the district’s CEO is outlined in a section related to CPS’s former Board of Trustees, which existed between 1995 and 1999, at which point it was replaced with a mayoral appointed board that oversaw Chicago schools until this year.

That section of the law was not removed when the elected school board bill became law and there is no explicit date for when the mayor loses the power to appoint a CEO, even as other sections of the law outlining Chicago’s transition to an elected school board set specific start and expiration dates.

However, a different section of the school code states that after June 30, 1999, “the board may, by a vote of a majority of its full membership, appoint a general superintendent of schools” and that the board can conduct a national search for a superintendent.

In practice, between July 1999 and January of this year when the hybrid school board was sworn in, Chicago’s mayor has chosen a CEO, who was later approved by a vote of the school board, whose members were all appointed by the mayor.

David Bloomfield, a former general counsel of New York City public schools before that district became a mayoral-run system, said from his reading of the Illinois school code, Chicago’s school board chooses the CEO. He said the mayor’s authority is outlined in a section that talks about an emergency declaration that was “overhauled by more recent reforms.”

“I don’t think it’s ambiguous, and if my interpretation is correct, no legislative action is needed,” Bloomfield wrote in an email to Chalkbeat. “It’s just obsolete, not really requiring repeal.”

But Nadav Shoked, a law professor at Northwestern University who has studied local government law, said the school code doesn’t set an explicit expiration date for the mayor’s powers and uses more passive language for the board — that it “may” hire a CEO — making the law unclear and potentially inviting legal challenges.

He drew out a hypothetical situation: If a board-picked CEO approves the firing of a principal, that principal could choose to sue the CEO and argue that person has no power because they weren’t hired properly. Shoked said he’d bet on the board winning such a case, since the law does allow the board to hire a CEO, and the broader intent of recent reforms have been to make the school board its own governing body. Still, the ambiguity could lead to legal challenges and legal bills for CPS, he said.

McMurtry-Chubb, the law professor from UIC, said the law as written could allow both the board and the mayor to hire co-CEOs, which “would also be another drain on resources that we just don’t have.”

If the mayor or the board hired someone the other wasn’t supportive of, the CEO could “endure a potentially contentious work environment,” McMurtry-Chubb said.

State lawmakers should clarify the law to say who has the authority to hire the CEO, McMurtry and Shoked said. And the board can make some moves in the meantime to avoid a legal move from City Hall, Shoked said.

“To the extent that they’re not currently at war with the mayor, they can solve the problem by just making sure that once they come up with their candidate, just get the mayor to also agree,” Shoked said.

Neither Harden’s office nor the mayor’s responded to requests for comment.

Biggs feels the law is “pretty clear” that after 1999, it’s the school board — whether elected or appointed — to hire the CEO. She said Harden worked with board members to decide when they should invite the mayor to “offer his recommendation.” The mayor’s office has also not raised concerns about the search with her, she said.

“As a sister agency of the city, we’re interested in working in partnership with the mayor’s office,” Biggs said, including deciding when to introduce candidates to the mayor’s office. “I do not have a concern about a legal challenge.”

The current law does not have explicit language that says who can choose the CEO after 2027, when the 21-member board will be fully elected. Martwick said the General Assembly would need to clarify the law’s language if it’s ambiguous, but it’s his understanding from the negotiations around the elected school board legislation that the power to choose the district’s leader belongs to the board after it becomes fully elected.

“I will testify to that in open court,” Martwick said. “That is the intent of the legislation.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

There are many ideas for solving CPS’ budget issues. Here’s how 9 of them could play out.

2025-08-05T21:51:32+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools has a $734 million problem.

That’s the size of the district’s budget deficit, which must be closed in the coming weeks in order for CPS to comply with state law requiring it to pass a balanced spending plan for the upcoming school year. District officials must release their budget proposal to the public by Aug. 13 for the board to pass by its Aug. 28 meeting.

Officials have not yet decided on how they’ll close the gap, but there are generally two approaches: Find more money, or make cuts. Last month, Chief Budget Officer Mike Sitkowski said CPS had so far reduced the deficit by $165 million through a series of layoffs and other cost-saving measures, leaving $569 million left to resolve. That number is now $519 million due to an unexpected $50 million increase in state money.

Even after the Board of Education passes a balanced budget this year, Chicago’s financial issues are not projected to go away. As it faces rising costs, CPS projects a $1.3 billion deficit by 2030.

So, where could CPS get more money? Are there expenses that can be cut?

Below is a list of various solutions that different groups, including CPS, civic organizations, and unions, have floated to close the gap.

This list does not include every idea but is meant to provide a small buffet of options. Some of these ideas are short-term fixes, meaning they solve the budget deficit this year but do not help increase revenue or reduce expenses down the road. Other ideas would provide long-term help, but may not help now. And many of the solutions would not be under the Board of Education’s control and would require another government entity to act.

All of the figures are estimates based on research done by advocacy organizations and budget experts who spoke to Chalkbeat. The numbers could fluctuate for different reasons. For example, it remains unclear how much CPS could actually issue in bonds. And the revenue potential from an additional tax on corporations would depend on how much corporations actually earn in the year that would go into effect.

Many of the timelines, including those that could take effect in fiscal year 2026, assume the soonest a government entity could take action on these proposals, but not necessarily if they would. For example, state lawmakers have not yet shown interest in calling a special session to address the district’s funding challenges.

Some officials, such as school board President Sean Harden, have made a case for a mixture of these solutions, such as borrowing money right now (a short-term fix) and pushing for more state revenue (a long-term fix).

What are the obstacles to solving CPS’ budget crisis?

What’s not reflected in the options above are the political challenges facing some of these ideas. For example, some organizations argue a progressive income tax is needed to generate more state revenue for schools and other public goods. But voters rejected the idea in 2020 in a 55% to 45% referendum vote on a proposed constitutional amendment. Some political and budget observers see less appetite at the state level to raise taxes and describe such proposals as an uphill battle.

We included the ideas on taxing corporations, which are different from income tax proposals, and assumed a scenario where lawmakers would funnel all of that new revenue into the state’s evidence-based formula, or EBF, which sends money to school districts based on their needs.

The idea about increases to EBF center around advocates’ call for a $550 million annual increase to the formula. That formula calls for an additional $1.6 billion for CPS to be adequately funded, and lawmakers set a goal to fulfill the formula by 2027 — but they’re projected to blow that deadline.

Another proposed solution is consolidating pension systems to free up more dollars available to go directly to classrooms. But it would require approval from state lawmakers and may be a hard sell to legislators who don’t represent Chicago, as well as the Chicago Teachers Union.

Similarly, borrowing money could come with logistical challenges. When CPS asks investors publicly to loan the district money — known as issuing bonds — there are legal limits to how the district can use that money and, in turn, how much it can ask for. The district also has a junk bond rating, similar to a bad credit score, meaning it would likely face high interest rates. Considering those factors and using estimates from the city and a municipal finance expert, we assumed the district would be able to borrow roughly $200 million without going a more private route, like to a bank.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago school board conducts interviews for interim CPS leader

2025-05-23T01:40:02+00:00

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Five people are currently in the running to become interim Chicago Public Schools CEO, including multiple people within CPS and a candidate from within the mayor’s office, according to several Chicago Board of Education members.

The contenders don’t include the mayor’s chief of staff, who was reportedly being considered but is not on the list of people the board plans to interview, Chalkbeat has learned from board members who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss private conversations. Chalkbeat was unable to confirm the name of every candidate.

The board must decide in less than a month who will replace outgoing schools chief Pedro Martinez.

Board members will interview candidates starting this week and plan to vote on an interim CEO by the time Martinez leaves June 18.

The district’s temporary leader will serve until a permanent replacement is found. That person will immediately be handed the difficult task of closing a half-a-billion-dollar deficit to balance a roughly $10 billion budget for next school year.

Earlier this month, district officials said they’re creating a budget plan that assumes CPS will receive $300 million from either the city or the state — both unlikely scenarios. The mayor and labor groups have slammed the hopeful budget plan. If those dollars don’t come through, schools could see significant cuts later this summer ahead of the 2025-26 school year.

In February, the board unanimously passed a resolution requiring both the interim and permanent CEO to have a superintendent’s license. The board also unanimously passed a resolution in April laying out a commitment to consider public feedback as it chooses a new CEO. While such a resolution isn’t required, the board said in a statement that it “believes it’s important to formally express its unity and commitment to a collaborative approach.”

The board plans to host community meetings in each district and will also interview teachers, students, principals, staff, union leaders, and “community partners,” according to the April resolution. The board will publish online a summary of the feedback it receives.

The board scheduled district meetings from 6:30-8 p.m. May 15 through June 5 to gather feedback about what a permanent CEO should be like. Each meeting is open to anyone in the public. The remaining meetings are:

District 6B: May 27 at National Teacher’s Academy, 55 W. Cermak Road.
District 6A: May 28 at Pritzker Elementary School, 2009 W. Schiller St.
District 4: June 2 at The Nettlehorst School, 3252 N. Broadway.
District 10: June 5 at Marsh Elementary School, 9822 S. Exchange Ave.

In a lengthy job description, the board laid out the qualities it wants to see in the district’s new leader. The wish list calls for a candidate experienced in public education who can make good on the goals set in CPS’s five-year strategic plan, achieve financial sustainability, has “political acumen” and can navigate city and state politics, build a strong leadership team, and work with the community.

About 50 people attended a meeting Thursday held in District 7 on the Southwest Side at the Arturo Velasquez Westside Technical Institute. Attendees discussed several questions, including what skills are most important for a CEO to have and what are the most important areas of improvement for their schools.

Alma Advisory Group, which is helping run the CEO search, helped organize and run the meetings, including Thursday’s. Alma barred the media from observing or recording those roundtable discussions.

Before the meeting started, teacher Lucy Murguia said she attended the meeting because she wanted to learn more about the CEO search. Murguia, who teaches at Farragut High School, said she wants the new district leader to have teaching experience.

“Sometimes people with that position have not been in a classroom, so it would just be nice if they knew what teachers go through,” Murguia said.

Mayor criticized for role in interim CEO search

The search for the interim leader, however, has already drawn some heat.

At least one board member — President Sean Harden — had floated the idea of hiring the mayor’s chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas as the interim, according to multiple board members. As of earlier this week, Pacione-Zayas’ resume was not included in the list of people the board would interview for the job, board members said.

Earlier this month, the Chicago Tribune reported that Harden, who was appointed by the mayor, was attempting to pave the way for Pacione-Zayas to become the interim choice by getting board members to change the resolution requiring the interim CEO to have a superintendent’s license. Pacione-Zayas has a doctorate in education policy but does not have that license.

The news led some to criticize Mayor Brandon Johnson and Harden, saying they were trying to install someone to lead the district who would carry out Johnson’s agenda. The mayor, who supported the establishment of an elected school board, still appoints a majority of people on the Board of Education. He will lose that power during the next election cycle in 2027, when the board will be fully elected.

In a brief interview last week with Chalkbeat, Harden did not comment specifically on efforts to hire Pacione-Zayas but said he wanted to ensure that the board doesn’t limit itself when looking for someone to fill in temporarily. He said the board’s goal is still to have a permanent leader with “the sincere appreciation and understanding of the classroom.”

“I actually think it’s pretty wise of the board to assess where it is now and to determine that we have to give ourselves room and flexibility to address the demands of today, and we can do so without it compromising our value system,” Harden said. “What we need on June 19 is someone who can walk straight in, create the landscape for us to bring in the next leader and be successful.”

Multiple board members said they still want the interim choice to have a superintendent’s license.

Anusha Thotakura, a mayoral appointee who co-sponsored the superintendent’s license resolution, said the board is “looking at folks who have superintendent’s licensures, and unless there is a strong case to be made about why we would need a wider candidate pool, I think many board members are committed to the resolution.”

Elected board member Jennifer Custer said they’ve garnered “some really strong candidates,” most of whom already work for CPS. She said she felt CPS candidates are “probably a good thing considering they have knowledge of the institution.”

“We’re just hoping we can find the best person to fill in in the meantime,” Custer said.

Asked if she’s confident the board will have someone in place by the time Martinez leaves, Custer said, “Yes.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago school board approves contract with Chicago Teachers Union

2025-04-25T02:00:23+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education has finalized the new Chicago Teachers Union contract, which will cover roughly 30,000 educators and support staff.

The board’s Thursday vote puts the contract into effect; the union’s membership ratified the contract earlier this month with a nearly unanimous vote to approve it from 85% of union members.

The four-year contract is expected to cost a total of $1.4 billion. It includes class size limits, requirements to hire hundreds of new staff, including more teacher assistants, and ten additional minutes of preparation time for elementary school teachers — which at some schools could also mean ten more minutes of recess.

The vote came about a year after bargaining began. Negotiations started with cordiality and optimism, but grew contentious amid a bruising battle between the union and district that helped lead to the firing of Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez.

But those tensions were set aside on Thursday.

In public comments to the board, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates noted that reaching an agreement did not require a strike vote or a strike, as it did in 2012, 2016, and 2019.

“That is a significant development,” she said.

Davis Gates said the contract will require a partnership between the union and district leaders to implement it well.

The school board also approved an amendment to this school year’s budget, adding $139 million in surplus development funds it received from the city, which officials said would help pay for the teachers contract as well as a future contract with the principals union. Those funds come from the city’s Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, districts, which are meant to spur development. As expected, the amendment does not mention using the money to pay the city back for a highly debated pension payment for non-teaching staff.

Though the first year of the contract, which is retroactive to last July, is paid for, there are questions about whether the district has the funding to pay for the remaining years through June 2028.

Davis Gates said the district must work to find a solution to any budget constraints, including advocating for more state funding.

District officials are expecting a deficit of roughly $500 million next school year. District leaders have said they plan to advocate for additional funding, and several school board members plan to travel to Springfield soon. After a presentation about teacher recruitment and hiring, board Vice President Olga Bautista asked how the district’s financial situation could impact staffing levels and recruitment efforts.

Ben Felton, chief of talent for CPS, and Martinez said district leaders are trying to advocate for more state funding. But Martinez, who said he’s not optimistic the state will come through, has also pushed for more surplus funding from TIF districts.

“It comes down to additional revenue for the school district to be able to sustain it or having to consider painful choices and painful cuts,” Felton said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez a finalist for state education commissioner job in Massachusetts

2025-04-15T16:16:06+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez is a finalist to be the next state commissioner of Massachusetts’ Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Martinez — who is set to leave CPS at the end of June after the school board voted in December to fire him without cause — is one of 42 people who applied for the job and is one of three finalists, who will all interview with the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Thursday during a public meeting. The other candidates are Jack Elsey, founder of the Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative and former chief of innovation and incubation at Chicago Public Schools, and Lily Laux, the former deputy commissioner of school programs at the Texas Education Agency.

The board is expected to choose someone at a special meeting on April 22, according to that meeting’s agenda. The board will then send its recommendation to the state’s secretary of education — who is currently serving as interim commissioner — for final approval.

Former Commissioner Jeff Riley stepped down about a year ago for personal reasons, WBUR reported.

If picked, Martinez would step into a job in a state that’s pushed back against the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on funding and what’s taught in schools, much like Chicago and Illinois. Massachusetts state officials have blasted federal education funding cuts, signed on to a lawsuit against halting COVID relief funding for schools, and rebuffed a recent demand from the Trump administration to affirm that it will not promote diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Last week, the interim education commissioner wrote that Massachusetts follows federal laws and will “continue to promote diversity.”

It’s at least the second job in public education that Martinez has sought since he was fired in December. In February, Martinez was one of six candidates in the running for a job as superintendent of Clark County School District in Nevada, which includes Las Vegas, but didn’t make it to the final round of interviews.

Chicago Public Schools declined to comment.

The Massachusetts board hired a search firm earlier this year to find its next commissioner. The board must choose someone for the role with a two-thirds approval vote, then recommend that choice to the state’s education secretary, an advisor to the governor who will approve or reject that recommendation.

The Massachusetts role would involve overseeing the state’s roughly 400 school districts, which in total enroll more than 914,000 students, according to state data. CPS is a district with roughly 324,000 students enrolled at more than 600 schools.

Many of Massachusetts’ demographics differ from those of Chicago Public Schools, where 47% of kids are Hispanic, 35% are Black, 11% are white and 4.7% are Asian American. Across Massachusetts, more than half of kids in public school are white, another quarter are Hispanic, 10% are Black, and 7.5% are Asian American, according to state data.

Nearly 21% of students have disabilities, 14% are English learners, and 42% of students come from low-income households across Massachusetts, data show. In Chicago, nearly 72% of kids come from low-income families, 27% are English learners, and 16% have disabilities.

With Martinez on the way out, Chicago’s Board of Education must find a new leader too. The board has hired a search firm and recently passed a resolution requiring the next head of CPS to have a superintendent’s license. Illinois law currently exempts the CPS CEO from that requirement.

Martinez’s firing followed months of disagreement with City Hall and Mayor Brandon Johnson on how to pay for new labor contracts and other costs as the district faces major financial challenges. Amid that dispute, Johnson’s entire appointed school board stepped down in October.

Before Chicago, Martinez was the superintendent of San Antonio Independent School District. Earlier in his career, he worked for the Nevada Department of Education as an education policy advisor.

From 2012 to 2014, he was the superintendent of Washoe County School District in Reno, Nevada — a job he was also fired from for allegedly misrepresenting himself as an accountant, the Reno Gazette Journal reported. Martinez said he did not misrepresent himself and later filed a wrongful termination lawsuit, which was settled for $500,000, and the school board said it only meant to put Martinez on an administrative leave, according to the Gazette Journal.

This story has been updated to note CPS declined to comment.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Board of Education votes to save 5 of 7 Acero charter schools slated for closure

2025-02-28T01:22:36+00:00

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After emotional pleas from the community, the Chicago Board of Education moved Thursday to keep five of seven Acero charter schools open — overriding the independent operator’s plans to shutter half the schools in its network.

The decision means two charter schools — Paz and Cruz — would still close in June. Paz is an elementary school, and Cruz is a K-12 school. CPS, which will cover the costs of the five campuses, must still hash out a formal agreement with Acero, which officials said they will move to do immediately.

The school board’s 16-3 decision — its first major one since becoming a hybrid elected board — caps an intense months-long back-and-forth between the charter operator, school district officials, the teachers union, and the school board, which changed more than once since news of the planned charter closures first emerged.

“It feels devastating for the Paz and Cruz families,” said Caroline Rutherford, the CTU’s charter division vice chair and an Acero teacher. “There is room at Casas, which is not far from Paz, to move the entirety of Paz into Casas if that’s an option for us. Cruz — there are not Acero schools that are close by, but we do want to create a transition plan to keep those school communities whole.”

The change came after district officials warned that helping Acero keep all seven campuses could violate state law and be financially risky for CPS at a time when the district has at least a half-billion-dollar deficit next fiscal year.

Families and teachers, who have blasted Acero for moving to close the schools in the first place, celebrated the board’s decision and loudly cheered after their vote. District leaders said risks still exist with keeping even five schools open.

Board member Che Smith said the board had to make a decision that was financially responsible. At the same time, he said the board “must be vigilant against the bad actors and as you can see, you have much support from members on this board.”

The board’s decision moves away from a December plan that called for covering the costs of running all seven campuses for next school year. It does stick with a plan to make five of the campuses district schools by the 2026-27 school year. CPS had presented an amended resolution to the board Thursday, which would have saved just four of those schools for next year, but board members moved to change that language in order to save five.

“My name is not going to be connected with some garbage; it’s not,” board member Jitu Brown said. “We made a promise to these communities.”

A handful of board members opposed committing to turning five schools into district-run campuses by the fall of 2026, arguing that the district may not have the resources to keep those campuses afloat. Those members instead supported exploring the option.

“We have to be able to ask ourselves, ‘Is it functioning, is it effective, is it financially sustainable, what is the strain on the district office?’” said board member Ellen Rosenfeld. “We must stay within state law at all times.”

The decision came four months after Acero announced that it would close seven schools due to a $40 million deficit, impacting about 1,800 students and 200 staff members. The Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ reported in November that the network still had tens of millions of dollars in cash available.

However, it leaves open the question of where students at Paz and Cruz will go and how the district will absorb the five schools in the future.

Parents and staff speak out against closures

In sometimes tearful testimony, more than a dozen parents, staff and union leaders asked the board to keep the schools open, with several saying they felt their trust was broken. Parent Lucy Salgado, described the combined pain of school closures and immigration concerns, citing a Wednesday incident in which federal immigration agents detained a father who was dropping off his children at an Acero school in Gage Park.

“I beg you: Don’t do this,” Salgado said through tears. “Help these children out.”

Acero families and teachers speak out against planned school closures on Thurs., Feb. 27, 2025 at the Chicago Public Schools board meeting.

Luis Delgado, a sophomore at Northside College Prep who attended the Santiago campus, praised the Acero school for making him less shy and getting him involved in sports and student government.

“I urge all of you to uphold the resolution not because it interests yourself, but because it interests the constituents who elected you to this position,” Delgado said, who added that if the board approves closures, “in the next election, you will have consequences.”

In a presentation to the board, Chief Portfolio Officer Alfonso Carmona and Chief Budget Officer Mike Sitkowski said that state law prevents school districts from spending more than 103% of what it spends per student at district-run schools on charter schools. A spokesperson for the Illinois State Board of Education did not immediately outline the consequences for violating that law.

And after an analysis of Acero’s campuses, officials calculated that it would cost about $4 million to replace two 80-year-old Cisneros campus boilers, which officials said are 40 years past their life expectancy, and would push the district past the limit of what it’s legally allowed to spend on the Acero network. Saving just four schools and excluding Cisneros would eliminate the legal issue, Carmona said. Saving five would mean the district could spend up to $200,000, which would exceed the legal limit and doesn’t account for other costs that could come up, Carmona said.

“When we go into these negotiations, I could not agree more with some of the students — we shouldn’t be talking about finances, we should be talking about the kids,” Carmona told the board. “Every single one of those schools are commendable … why the presentation is about finances is because of the constraints of the law.”

Several board members asked if the boiler problem could be pushed off another year, with board member Anusha Thotakura noting that CPS has more than $3 billion in critical repairs throughout the system. CPS officials said the board could choose to wait to replace the boilers, but that would open the district to risks, such as losing heat because of broken boilers.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said CPS doesn’t “have a choice but to address” the issues because they involve “the safety of the children…that is the highest risk of all.”

Board member Jenni Custer asked what would happen if the boilers broke and the district was restricted on how much it could spend to fix them due to legal issues; Chief Operating Officer Charles Mayfield said the district would have to move students and staff to another location.

CPS directed to convert schools into district-run programs

Ultimately, the board voted to keep five, assuming the potential risk of covering expenses — including accounting for possible enrollment loss and other expenses — at those campuses.

Thursday’s meeting capped off a confusing week for families and staff, who learned two days ago that the original plan from December could change. Parents received an email Tuesday morning from Carmona, who said the board would vote on a plan to save just four of the Acero schools — not all of them — for next year, and allow another three to close.

On Wednesday, dozens of staffers and parents attended an evening vigil alongside the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents Acero teachers, to call for board members to vote against the proposed changes to the plan. Board members Anusha Thotakura, Norma Rios Sierra, Yesenia Lopez, Ed Bannon, and Michilia Blaise attended the vigil and committed to voting against the amended resolution.

Since Acero announced the closures in October, families and the union have held rallies and attended multiple board meetings to push CPS to save the schools. Charters are privately run, public funded schools that are allowed to operate under a contract with CPS. Parents and staff have said they’ve felt ignored by Acero leadership.

Parents and the union celebrated the December decision from the previous board, made up of seven people appointed by the mayor, but weeks later pressed CPS and Acero for more updates about how it would keep the campuses open or a formal agreement to do so.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez one of six candidates for superintendent job in Clark County, Nevada

2025-02-12T21:18:08+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez is one of six candidates in the running to become superintendent of Nevada’s Clark County Public Schools.

The school board voted to fire Martinez without cause in December after growing hostility with Mayor Brandon Johnson. His contract allows him to stay on as CEO until June and he is currently suing the Chicago Board of Education.

But according to an agenda for a special meeting posted online, Martinez was one of 46 people to apply for the job leading the Nevada district, which is the fifth largest in the nation after CPS. The Clark County Board of School Trustees will meet Feb. 18 to discuss the slate of six candidates vying to be the next superintendent.

CPS declined to comment for this story.

In Martinez’s online application for the job, Martinez said Nevada is a state “I know and love.”

“It’s where my children were born and spent their earliest years,” Martinez wrote in the document included on the Feb. 18 agenda items. “To return to such a personally and professionally formative place is a unique opportunity I am excited to explore.”

Martinez adds that Clark County’s “commitment to fostering student success in one of the most dynamic and diverse educational environments resonates deeply with my values and my personal background as a first-generation student growing up in poverty.”

His application includes former Chicago Board of Education president Miguel Del Valle and former CPS CEO and former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan as references.

Clark County’s previous superintendent resigned last February after what the school board described as an “amicable separation,” the Las Vegas Sun reported.

Clark County School District serves nearly 300,000 students. Forty-nine percent of Clark County’s students are Hispanic; 19% are white, nearly 16% are Black, and 6% are Asian American, according to district demographic data. Just over 16% of its students are English learners and just over 14% have Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, which outline services for students with disabilities.

The presentation outlines a slate of six candidates, which includes Jhone Ebert, Nevada state superintendent; Jason Glass, former commissioner for the Kentucky Department of Education; Joshua Starr, former superintendent of Montgomery Country Public Schools in Maryland; Jon Anzalone, superintendent of Camas School District in Washington; and Ben Shuldiner, superintendent of Lansing schools in Michigan.

The first round of interviews will be from Feb. 24-25, according to the Clark County presentation. The school board can choose to interview all six candidates for the first round but may forgo some of them, meaning it’s possible Martinez will not get a formal interview, according to the presentation.

The second round of interviews would happen from March 10-11, which include community forums. The Clark County school board is expected to hire a new superintendent at its March 13 meeting, but a spokesperson said that timeline could change.

Martinez’s firing from CPS followed months of disagreement between him and Johnson over how to alleviate the district’s financial pressures, including how to pay for upcoming labor contracts. Since the fall, the district has been mired in a leadership struggle that included the mass resignation of Johnson’s first appointed school board.

Martinez, who served as superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District before taking the helm at CPS, is no stranger to Nevada. Earlier in this career, he was the “superintendent in residence” for the Nevada Department of Education, where he was an education policy advisor for both the governor’s office and the state superintendent of instruction, according to his biography. At one point, Martinez was briefly deputy superintendent of Clark County schools, according to his online application.

Before then, Martinez was the superintendent of Washoe County School District in Reno from 2012-2014. The Washoe County school board fired Martinez for allegedly misrepresenting himself as an accountant, then claimed it only wanted an administrative leave, Reno Gazette Journal reported.

Martinez filed a wrongful termination lawsuit and said he did not misrepresent himself. Martinez settled the lawsuit for $500,000, the newspaper reported.

Correction: This story misstated the date in which the Clark County school board is expected to a hire a new superintendent. A spokesperson said the expected hire date is March 13.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

How are Chicago schools responding to increased immigration enforcement? Here are five examples.

2025-01-30T20:45:16+00:00

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On Chicago’s north side, a Spanish-speaking teacher persuaded a nervous migrant mother, who had stopped sending her son to school because of fear of the Trump administration’s immigration raids, to let him come back.

In Brighton Park, a majority Latino neighborhood on the city’s southwest side, an elementary school principal has been sharing his experience as an immigrant, so that families feel more comfortable.

In Pilsen, a predominantly Latino neighborhood and historically a neighborhood where Mexican families have immigrated to, a high school launched an emergency immigration chat and told parents that it’s OK for students with immigration concerns to stay home.

As part of a vow to crack down on illegal immigration, President Donald Trump in his first week in office canceled a previous policy to keep ICE agents away from “sensitive locations,” such as schools and churches. Federal agents have stepped up “targeted immigration enforcement” in Chicago, arresting at least 100 people in the city and surrounding suburbs, Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling told reporters Tuesday.

During a Chicago Board of Education meeting Thursday, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez urged parents to send their children to school “so they can receive the education they deserve.”

“School is where every child in our city belongs regardless of their immigration status, and we will do everything in our power to protect them while they’re in our care,” Martinez said.

CPS schools, which have received thousands of migrant students in recent years, are training staff and families on their rights and grappling with how to convince their communities that schools are safe. The Chicago Teachers Union has called on the district, which has trained principals, to train more staff; CPS said it is “exploring additional options for providing teacher training.”

Those efforts were put to the test on Friday, when staff at Hamline Elementary School in the Back of the Yards neighborhood falsely reported turning away Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, sparking fear among already anxious staff and students. The district later confirmed that the agents were U.S. Secret Service investigating a threat, but advocates said the school’s response was proof that staff was trained well.

“This is the first time that I had heard of the protocol working after the sensitive locations memo was pulled, and that’s really important evidence for us advocates — [and] even parents — to see this could work,” said Alejandra Vázquez Baur, who leads the National Newcomer Network, a group of educators, advocates, and researchers who focus on equity for newcomer immigrant students.

Teacher allays fears of migrant mom

Nathy, who came to the United States in 2023 from Venezuela to flee political persecution, kept her son out of his elementary school last week, even though the school told families that it’s safe. She also stayed home from her job at a nail salon.

Chalkbeat is only using Nathy’s first name to protect her privacy.

Nathy and her family have Temporary Protected Status, which allows her to live and work in the U.S. This type of status was extended to October 2026 by former President Joe Biden’s administration shortly before he left office. However, on Tuesday, the Trump administration revoked the extension, making it unclear how long people like Nathy can remain legally in the U.S., the New York Times reported. Nathy had applied for asylum, which provides a path to citizenship, but her request was denied during an immigration court hearing in December, she said.

Now, Nathy is fearful of being sent back to Venezuela, which the Biden administration labeled as experiencing a “severe humanitarian crisis.” She, her two sons — one of whom is no longer in school — and her brother stayed inside their apartment last week, she said.

Her younger son, however, wanted to go back to school and “was very stressed locked up at home,” she said in Spanish via text message.

After her son was absent for a few days, one of the school’s Spanish-speaking teachers reached out to Nathy to persuade her to send him to school.

“He sent me an email with the rights we have and how they protect children at school,” she said.

On Tuesday, Nathy took her son back to class and also returned to work. She couldn’t afford to miss out on more pay, she said.

Her son is happy to be back, but Nathy is still nervous, she said.

“Before I felt calm,” she said by text. “Now it’s a nightmare to live here. ”

Elementary principal relates to immigrant families

At Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy in Brighton Park, where nearly half of the students were English language learners last year, the principal has unique credibility with families: He struggled for decades with his own immigration status.

Principal Marlon Henriquez said he and his mother were undocumented when they left El Salvador in 1996 to join Henriquez’s father in the United States. In 2001, they and other Salvadorian nationals were granted Temporary Protected Status and authorization to work in the U.S. after devastating earthquakes in El Salvador, he said. Awaiting his work authorization renewal over the years always made Henriquez anxious, he said.

“Once that date was up, it was possible I would not be able to work,” Henriquez said.

Last May, Henriquez was granted a green card — legal permanent residency — after decades in the United States. He’s been sharing his story in recent weeks with school families to let them know: “I’m with them, I support them, and I understand how difficult this can be.”

Gunsaulus has shared information, just like other schools, about what the school will do in the event ICE shows up, including turning immigration agents away unless they have a criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal judge. He’s also asked families to create an emergency plan for their children in case their parents or guardians are detained by ICE.

“That helped our families understand: We do not have to go into panic mode, but we have to be proactive,” he said.

Pilsen high school principal says it’s OK to stay home

On the eve of Trump’s inauguration, the principal of Benito Juarez High School, where 46% of students were English learners last year, alerted families about potential deportation plans in Chicago. It’s OK, he said, to stay home.

“Please know that while our school is safe and that our students will be protected while they are in school, I also understand that there is a lot of fear and anxiety among our families,” Juan Carlos Ocon, the principal, wrote in a message on Jan. 19 obtained by Chalkbeat. “I will support your decision to send your students to school and I will support your decision to not send your children to school if you believe they are safer if they remain home.”

In a follow-up email the next day, Ocon told parents that all homework and projects would be available via Google Classroom. He attached a PowerPoint informing families of their rights and urged them to provide emergency contact information and create a phone tree “in case you have an encounter with ICE.”

Aimee Galban, a parent of a freshman at Juarez, said the emergency chat created by the school includes an alderman and allows families to discuss and verify things such as sightings of federal immigration enforcement.

“I think open conversations and communication is all that we have, because we can’t constantly live in fear,” Galban said.

CEO Martinez, who is an alumnus of Juarez, previously told Chalkbeat that the district won’t be implementing remote learning. CPS has sent multiple emails to families about the district’s policies on immigration, including reiterating that it doesn’t collect immigration information and will turn ICE away from schools in most instances.

A CPS spokesperson said Juarez is not providing remote instruction, and it’s normal to use Google Classroom to post assignments. Schools “collaborate with students individually” to address the reasons for their absences.

Juarez staff received a “Know Your Rights” training last Tuesday — a professional development day for teachers — about protections for immigrants and what to do if approached by immigration enforcement. Later that week, all Juarez students got a similar training, said Jonah Bondurant, a Juarez teacher who works with students with disabilities.

But there were signs of fear at the school when students were first back after a long weekend and Trump’s inauguration, he said. Attendance was just under 60% that Wednesday, and rose to just under 75% later in the week, Bondurant said. Other factors for low attendance could have been last week’s frigid temperatures and that it was a short week.

Kids who did show up displayed mixed emotions and different levels of understanding of immigration rights and fears, Bondurant said. Seniors, who might recall increased immigration fears during Trump’s first term in office, seemed more aware of the issue, he said.

“Some people are afraid. Some people are using humor, I would say, to kind of, you know, cope,” Bondurant said. “But they were very attentive to, you know, taking in the information about their rights.”

Charter network tries to alleviate stress for students

At the Noble charter school network, which operates a handful of schools with larger immigrant populations, principals and staff were provided with information on what to do if ICE shows up at their school doors.

Aidé Acosta, chief college officer for Noble, said some schools heard fears from students last week, which coincided with finals. As part of her role, Acosta works on scholarships for undocumented students and is helping lead the network’s response to immigration concerns.

School leaders decided they would provide accommodations for the exams for students dealing with immigration concerns “on a case by case basis,” Acosta said, who didn’t elaborate on what those accommodations were.

Acosta said she is also trying to combat misinformation, including false reports of immigration enforcement. The incident at Hamline — which Acosta believes was handled well by the Hamline staff — inadvertently caused people to spread more misinformation and fear, she said.

School leaders’ work “includes ensuring we’re sharing reliable information because our families and communities are in a lot of pain at this moment,” Acosta said.

Community group supports families, students

False or unverified reports of ICE showing up and misinformation online can make each day feel like a game of “Whack-A-Mole,” said Andrea Ortiz, director of organizing at Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, which provides wraparound services at Gunsaulus.

Ortiz said her organization has been providing Know Your Rights training for students at high schools they partner with on the Southwest Side. Students often ask questions only attorneys can answer, she said, such as what risks do people with Temporary Protected Status face. She shares websites and phone numbers for free or low-cost attorneys.

She said she wants students to “feel prepared and confident in exercising those rights.”

Ortiz said the organization’s clinicians, who work with schools directly, are also holding support groups for families. She recounted a story from a parent at one of their partner elementary schools who shared that one morning, while getting her children ready for school, they heard a knock at the door and feared it was immigration enforcement. It ended up being the sheriff’s office knocking on a door on the floor below, but the moment “was really triggering for them” and scared the kids, Ortiz said.

Brighton Park’s clinicians jumped in, offering extra support to the mother, and the organization shared information on what to do if ICE did come to their door, Ortiz said.

Correction 1/30/2025: A previous version of this story incorrectly described Principal Marlon Henriquez’s journey to the United States. Henriquez came to the United States in 1996 and later received Temporary Protected Status in 2001.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Meet the new Chicago Board of Education

2025-01-14T22:29:28+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education is changing. After the city held its first school board elections in history, 10 people elected by their communities will join 11 mayoral appointees to serve for the next two years.

The 21-member hybrid school board will be sworn in Wednesday, Jan. 15 — marking an historic shift in governance as 30 years of mayoral control in Chicago comes to a close.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teacher and union organizer, will maintain significant influence for the next two years. Although he advocated for an elected school board alongside his allies at the Chicago Teachers Union, Johnson has struggled with the move toward a more independent board as he pushes to transform the school district with the control he still maintains.

On Dec. 16 he announced 10 of his 11 appointments, and last week, told Chalkbeat that his final pick would be made soon.

Here are the people who will serve on the Chicago Board of Education.

Sean Harden will serve as Chicago Board of Education President.

Sean Harden, President of the Chicago Board of Education (appointed)

Serves at-large and represents all 77 community areas

Sean Harden, a South Side native, was picked to serve as school board president by Mayor Brandon Johnson in December. Harden worked for the city and Chicago Public Schools in the 2000s, before launching consulting firm, Harden Wright Consultant Group.

Harden worked under former CPS CEO Ron Huberman as deputy CEO of community affairs. Before that, he held a position as executive assistant for former Mayor Richard M. Daley, then moved on to deputy commissioner of human relations.

Harden is also chairman of three nonprofit organizations: Inner Voice, an organization focused on supporting people who are homeless; Friend Health, a health center that serves low-income and uninsured Illinois residents; and the Revolution Institute, which offers assistance with job training and placement for those in marginalized communities.

Ed Bannon and a map of District 1a.

Ed Bannon, District 1a (appointed)

Neighborhoods served: Edison Park, Irving Park, Dunning, and Norwood Park

Number of CPS schools: 22

Mayor Brandon Johnson announced on Dec. 16 he would appoint longtime community organizer Ed Bannon to serve the other half of District 1 on the far northwest side of the city. A resident of the Dunning neighborhood, Bannon currently serves on the Dever Elementary Local School Council as a community representative and ran for 38th Ward alderman in 2023 against incumbent Ald. Nick Sposato. His campaign fundraising committee is still active.

Bannon formerly served as the president of the Six Corners Association, according to Block Club Chicago, and organizes an annual family-friendly bike ride, called Tour de Dunning. According to the mayor’s office, he is the parent of three CPS graduates.

Jennifer Custer and a map of District 1b.

Jennifer Custer, District 1b (elected)

Neighborhoods served: Montclare, Portage Park, Mayfair

Number of CPS schools: 20

A mom of two with a third on the way, Custer is an educator who worked as a teacher and dean of students in suburban school districts before taking a break to raise her children. A resident of the Montclare neighborhood, Custer will represent subdistrict 1b after winning a two-way race 51% to 49% against Michelle N. Pierre, a former charter school leader, district official, principal, and teacher.

Custer was supported by multiple labor unions and endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, though she has spoken out against the firing of CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and short-term borrowing pushed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, an ally of the CTU, to pay for pensions and added contract costs for teachers and principals.

Ebony Deberry and a map of District 2a.

Ebony DeBerry, District 2a (elected)

Neighborhoods served: Rogers Park, West Ridge

Number of CPS schools: 18

In November, Ebony DeBerry won 42% of the vote in a four-way race to represent the far north lakefront on Chicago’s school board. The lifelong Rogers Park resident is the manager of educational initiatives at ONE Northside and a former CPS student, teacher, and parent.

DeBerry was endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union and shares many of the same progressive views on education policy. On the campaign trail, she said she wants to increase parent involvement, expand after-school programming, and strengthen tutoring and counseling in CPS. She’s also a supporter of Sustainable Community Schools, a model in which schools partner with community organizations to provide wraparound services.

Debby Pope and a map of District 2b.

Debby Pope, District 2b (appointed)

Neighborhoods served: Andersonville, Edgewater, Lincoln Square, Ravenswood

Number of CPS schools: 19

A retired CPS teacher, Debby Pope formed a campaign fundraising committee last spring, but decided not to run in the crowded District 2 race, telling Chalkbeat she would instead support DeBerry’s candidacy. In late October, Mayor Brandon Johnson announced her as one of his new appointees after the mass resignation of his first group of school board appointees amid tensions with CPS CEO Pedro Martinez.

Pope is a former member of the Chicago Teachers Union and has served in their House of Delegates. According to her bio on the Board of Education website, she is the parent of two CPS alumni and a grandparent of a current CPS kindergartener.

Norma Rios Sierra and a map of District 3a.

Norma Rios-Sierra, District 3a (appointed)

Neighborhoods served: Logan Square, Avondale, Kelvyn Park

Number of CPS schools: 23

Rios-Sierra is an artist and cultural events manager with Palenque LSNA, a neighborhood community group serving Logan Square that also works in schools helping provide after school programming and parent mentors.

According to the mayor’s office, Rios-Sierra is a CPS parent. She also runs a stained glass art studio in Logan Square where she teaches classes for kids and adults.

Carlos Rivas Jr. and a map of District 3b.

Carlos Rivas Jr., District 3b (elected)

Neighborhoods served: Humboldt Park, Hermosa

Number of CPS schools: 32

Born and raised in Humboldt Park, Rivas graduated from Lowell Elementary, his neighborhood school, and Northside College Prep, one of the district’s top selective enrollment high schools. He taught through Teach for America and worked as an alumni counselor for the Noble Network of Charter Schools.

Rivas won a two-way race against another Humboldt Park native with 56% of the vote. He was endorsed by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and was part of the Democrats for Education slate of candidates.

Rivas Jr. currently serves as the director of public affairs for the city’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability and worked on the city’s response to the influx of migrants arriving from Texas as part of Operation Lone Star. He still lives in Humboldt Park and serves as a transitional foster parent, fostering unaccompanied migrant children who need to be placed in Spanish-speaking households before they are sent to an adult sponsor.

Karen Zaccor and a map of District 4a.

Karen Zaccor, District 4a (appointed)

Neighborhoods served: Uptown, Buena Park, Lakeview

Number of CPS schools: 15

Karen Zaccor, a longtime community organizer and Uptown resident, is one of the mayor’s appointees to the new school board. She was a CPS teacher for 28 years and most recently taught at Uplift Community High School in Uptown, a school she co-founded, before her recent retirement. She also raised a daughter who graduated from CPS.

Zaccor has used her advocacy efforts to push for an elected school board, establish full-day kindergarten, and stop school closures. She ran unsuccessfully for school board and was endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union as well as 46th Ward Ald. Angela Clay.

Ellen Rosenfeld and a map of District 4b.

Ellen Rosenfeld, District 4b (elected)

Neighborhoods served: Lincoln Park, Lakeview

Number of CPS schools: 18

Ellen Rosenfeld, a former teacher and mother of four, held various education-related roles before running for school board.

Rosenfeld, originally from St. Louis, taught for five years on the city’s South Side. She later joined the Local School Council at Bell Elementary School, where her children attended. For the past seven years, she worked as a family and community engagement specialist at CPS, which involves communicating with families at forums or public meetings.

Rosenfeld has since quit that job in order to serve on the school board.

Rosenfeld beat her five opponents with 41.6% of the vote. She raised the second largest amount of campaign cash in her district, with close to $187,000, as of late October. Rosenfeld was endorsed by state lawmakers Rep. Ann Williams and Sen. Robert Martwick, who were behind legislation to create the elected school board, as well as multiple Chicago alderpeople, Cook County commissioners and U.S. Rep. Jan. Schakowsky. She was was part of the Democrats for Education slate of candidates.

Jitu Brown and a map of District 5a.

Aaron “Jitu” Brown, District 5a (elected)

Neighborhoods served: Austin, Ukrainian Village, West Town

Number of CPS schools: 38

Aaron “Jitu” Brown, who grew up on the South Side, lives in Austin. His son attends Kenwood Academy High School.

As the only person on the ballot for District 5, Brown won 100% of the vote. He was endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union and got an early vote of confidence from Mayor Brandon Johnson, who Brown considers a friend. Brown raised about $55,000 in campaign funds.

Brown is a longtime community organizer who, over the past two decades, has advocated for many school-related issues, including creating an elected school board and fighting school closures.

Since the 1990s, Brown said he helped run school youth leadership programs on the South and West sides. He also volunteered for and eventually oversaw the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, a progressive advocacy group focused on several issues, including education.

Brown is the national director of the Journey for Justice Alliance, a progressive coalition of organizations that advocates for improving schools through “community-driven” approaches and is against privatization.

Michilla Blaise and a map of District 5b.

Michilla “Kyla” Blaise, District 5b (appointed)

Neighborhoods served: West Town, West Loop, Garfield Park, North Lawndale

Number of CPS schools: 62

Michilla Blaise, who was appointed to the board in October after the entire previous board resigned, grew up in Chicago and attended Catholic schools. Blaise used to live on the North Side but said she moved with her children — who attend Kenwood Academy High School — to her mother’s apartment building in East Garfield Park.

Blaise launched a career in politics when she went to work for former 46th Ward Ald. Helen Schiller.

She later started her own political consulting firm. She is currently chief of staff for Cook County Board Commissioner Frank Aguilar and is also board secretary for Westside Justice Center, a legal services nonprofit organization.

Blaise ran for school board last year against fellow board member Aaron “Jitu” Brown before dropping out of the race.

Anusha Thokatura and a map of District 6a.

Anusha Thotakura, District 6a (appointed)

Neighborhoods served: Streeterville, River North, Wicker Park

Number of CPS schools: 14

Despite finishing second in the November election, Anusha Thotakura is one of Mayor Johnson’s picks to serve on the school board. As the recently-promoted executive director of Citizen Action/Illinois, Thotakura leads a coalition of progressive organizations advocating on a number of different areas, including education.

Thokatura grew up in Chicago’s northwest suburbs and worked as a middle school math teacher in San Jose, California through Teach for America before returning to Illinois. A resident of River West, she was endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union and said on the campaign trail she would be focused on early childhood education, expanding after-school programming, and improving school facilities.

Jessica Biggs and a map of District 6b.

Jessica Biggs, District 6b (elected)

Neighborhoods served: Englewood, Greater Grand Crossing, Woodlawn and Hyde Park

Number of CPS schools: 37

Former CPS principal and current CPS parent Jessica Biggs won a three-way competition with 45% of the vote in November. She ran as an independent candidate and raised the least amount of money in her race. Still, Biggs got the endorsement of progressive alderwoman Jeanette Taylor.

Biggs left CPS after serving as principal for six years at Burke Elementary in Washington Park. According to a report by WBEZ in 2018, she was fired for directing staff members to mark students tardy when they would have been marked as absent for half a day. Biggs said her departure from the district should not color her time as a leader in CPS.

During her campaign, Biggs said she would prioritize working with state lawmakers to fully-fund the state’s evidence-based funding formula and work to ensure strong neighborhood schools.

Emma Lozano will represent District 7a.

Emma Lozano, District 7a (appointed)

Neighborhoods served: Little Village, Pilsen, Near West Side

Number of CPS schools: 46

A pastor and long time immigration rights activist, Emma Lozano has fought for sanctuary policies in Chicago and elsewhere. Mayor Brandon Johnson named her last month as one of his picks to serve on the school board and called her a “champion for bilingual education and immigrant rights.”

Yesenia Lopez and a map of District 7b.

Yesenia Lopez, District 7b (elected)

Neighborhoods served: Gage Park, Brighton Park, McKinley Park, Bridgeport

Number of CPS schools: 33

A former Latino outreach director for Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s campaign, Yesenia Lopez now works as an executive assistant for the Illinois Secretary of State. A Gage Park resident, Lopez graduated from Pickard Elementary School and Benito Juarez Community Academy in Pilsen and earned a degree in political science and gender studies from DePaul University.

Lopez won a three-way race to represent the south west side with 56% of the vote. She had the early endorsement of Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia, a longtime progressive politician in Chicago and one of the first Latinos elected to the City Council. Lopez does not have children, but has volunteered and worked in several schools in her community.

Angel Gutierrez and a map of District 8a.

Angel Gutierrez, District 8a (elected)

Neighborhoods served: Garfield Ridge, West Lawn, Marquette Park, Clearing, Midway Airport

Number of CPS schools: 29

A resident of the Garfield Ridge neighborhood, Angel Gutierrez handily won a two-way race in November against Felix Ponce with 63% of the vote. A non-profit consultant, Gutierrez has experience in governance, fundraising, strategic planning, and management. He worked in fundraising roles at Chicago Hope Academy, a Christian high school on the west side, and Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago.

On the campaign trail, Gutierrez said he would advocate for financial stability, school choice, and campus safety. He was endorsed by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and was part of the Democrats for Education slate of candidates.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has not yet appointed someone to serve District 8b.

TBD, District 8b (appointed)

Neighborhoods served: Back of the Yards, West Lawn, Bridgeport

Number of CPS schools: 36

The mayor has not yet selected an appointee to serve in this position.

Frank Niles Thomas and a map of District 9a.

Frank Niles Thomas, District 9a (appointed)

Neighborhoods served: Auburn Gresham, Englewood, Canaryville

Number of CPS schools: 47

A Johnson appointee last October, Thomas is a CPS graduate, a U.S. Air Force veteran and the father of four CPS graduates. He led the Department of Streets and Sanitation in the 21st Ward and the local school council for Dunne Elementary, where he also founded a mentoring program.

In coming onto the board, Thomas touted his experience handling contract negotiations and other labor-management issues.

Therese Boyle and a map of District 9b.

Therese Boyle, District 9b (elected)

Neighborhoods served: Beverly, Morgan Park, Pullman, Roseland

Number of CPS schools: 46

Boyle is a retired educator with 35 years of experience as a CPS school psychologist and teacher. An independent candidate in the school board race, she also ran unsuccessfully to lead the Chicago Teachers Union in 2019. In November, she won a four-way contest with 36% of the vote.

Boyle, a mother of two CPS teachers, has said the district should step up efforts to recruit and retain seasoned educators — and strike a balance in supporting both neighborhood and selective enrollment or magnet schools. She also wants to focus on improving students’ academic achievement and mental health and on balancing the district’s budget.

Che 'Rhymefest' Smith and a map of District 10a.

Che “Rhymefest” Smith, District 10a (elected)

Neighborhoods served: Kenwood, Oakland, Hyde Park, South Shore, Woodlawn

Number of CPS schools: 33

Smith is an award-winning musician, community activist, and former aldermanic candidate. Smith, who largely self-funded his school board bid, has said his priorities are boosting arts, science and mental health programs in CPS, growing partnerships with nonprofits and other local organizations, and weeding out waste in the district’s budget. He won a competitive four-way race in November with 32% of the vote.

Smith, who co-founded a youth outreach nonprofit named Art of Culture, also would like to see more student involvement in district decision-making. Late last year, he spoke out forcefully against Martinez’ firing.

Olga Bautista and a map of District 10b.

Olga Bautista, District 10b (appointed)

Neighborhoods served: Avalon Park, Altgeld Gardens, Chatham, East Side, Hegewisch, Pullman, South Chicago

Number of CPS schools: 56

Bautista, an environmental activist on Chicago’s Southeast Side, was one of the board members Johnson appointed in October following the previous board’s resignations. The mother of two CPS students and a former aldermanic candidate, she is the co-executive director of Southeast Environmental Task Force. She has also served as a mentor in the youth organization Rebel Bells and as community leadership director for Our City Our Voice, a civic engagement nonprofit.

She has said she is passionate about fully funding the district’s schools and promoting more environmentally friendly school buildings through the Green New Schools initiative.

This story has been updated to clarify Jennifer Custer will represent subdistrict 1b.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

The mayor’s on ‘union leave’ from CPS despite leaving CTU. Does that undermine contract talks?

2025-01-08T18:31:28+00:00

Mayor Brandon Johnson taught for four years at Chicago Public Schools before going on leave in 2011 to work for the Chicago Teachers Union and ultimately launch a career in politics.

But even though he no longer works for the union, Johnson remains on “union leave” from the school district.

That means, after all these years, he could return to the classroom — and earn a six-figure salary as if he never left.

The mayor’s leave status has attracted more scrutiny and concerns about a potential conflict of interest in recent weeks, as his administration negotiates a contract with the CTU that could benefit him in the future. Those negotiations have become increasingly tense and have fueled a monthslong leadership shakeup at CPS, including the recent firing of CPS CEO Pedro Martinez.

Under CPS policy, Johnson — or any CPS employee who leaves to work for the union — can accrue seniority during their time away and return to CPS with the guarantee of a job.

In an interview with Chalkbeat on Tuesday, the mayor said he hasn’t thought about what he would do after his time in office but said teaching middle school “is still the best job I’ve ever had.” He denied that his union leave status represents a conflict of interest, because he’s not currently earning a CPS paycheck.

“There’s no economic benefit for me as a CPS employee on leave as mayor of the city of Chicago,” Johnson said. “We have firefighters who are on leave, right, [on the] City Council, and they actually vote on their contracts. There are police officers who are on leave and they actually vote on those contracts. I don’t vote on any contract, so there’s no conflict of interest.”

Ald. Nick Sposato, who represents part of the city’s Northwest Side, said he was on leave from the Chicago Fire Department for his first eight years in office and voted on firefighter contracts. During that time, he did not feel conflicted because council members were not directly involved with bargaining.

“Nobody ever had a problem with me being a fireman and voting on fire contracts,” Sposato said.

Sposato, who is occasionally critical of the mayor, also said he did not believe Johnson would “give the farm away” for personal gain years from now.

“I believe he’s a man of integrity,” he said of Johnson.

Until 2027, Johnson will appoint a majority of members to the Board of Education, who will vote to approve union contracts and allocate money to pay for the costs.

On Christmas Eve, an internal CPS memo included in Martinez’s legal filings against the Chicago Board of Education documented concerns about Johnson’s employment status with the district. The memo was first reported on by the Chicago Tribune. In that June 2023 memo, Ben Felton, the chief talent officer for CPS, wrote that he was concerned about a potential conflict of interest due to the mayor’s ongoing employment with CPS, an organization that he oversees.

Felton wrote that he raised the issue with then-Deputy Mayor of Education Jen Johnson, who is not related to the mayor, on four occasions between May and June 2023. The mayor declined to resign his position because he wanted to “signal his support for education and teachers,” Felton wrote in the memo.

Johnson, who remains a close CTU ally, repeated that sentiment Tuesday.

“I’m committed to making sure that the people who do teach, the people who are in our schools, that they know that they have an advocate … and to ensure that our public schools and our public teachers are fully supported,” Johnson said.

If Johnson were to return to his CPS job, he would at minimum be placed in the district’s Reassigned Teacher Pool and assigned to a school, according to Felton’s memo. Felton added that he felt the mayor’s return to CPS “is unlikely,” but that his leave status was “not an immaterial benefit.”

Dick Simpson, professor of political science at University of Illinois at Chicago and a former alderman, said no mayor in recent history has been in Johnson’s position. But he said the economic benefit to the mayor “is not substantial enough” to be deemed a conflict of interest.

“If he becomes involved in the negotiations and the running of the schools, which many mayors like Richard M. Daley did or Richard J. Daley before him, the question is whether or not his own history and involvement will cause him to make decisions which are bad for the city or in this case, the school system, or both,” Simpson said.

The mayor’s office has pushed CPS to take out a short-term loan to help pay for the costs of a new labor contract with the CTU and the principals union, as well as to cover some pension obligations. Martinez has refused to take that step — one of the factors that led to his firing.

Other observers see things differently.

“If he has no plans to go back, he should easily resign” from CPS, said Vladimir Kogan, professor of political science at Ohio State University who has studied local politics and education policy. “I think this is a problem of his own creation.”

Joe Ferguson, Chicago’s former inspector general who now leads the Civic Federation, a government watchdog group, said it’s unclear whether the mayor’s employment status and his official position cross legal lines.

“It impels a much greater degree of transparency and public facing disclosure of his actual activities, communications, and positions, so that there is no question of where he is acting in conflict with his former employer, and there should be a reassessment of the law and regulations,” Ferguson said.

Johnson could earn over $100,000 upon CPS return

If Johnson went back after his first term in office, in 2027, he would be considered a 20th-year teacher, even though he taught for just four years before his 2011 departure. These details were not mentioned in Felton’s memo.

That means, according to the current CTU contract, that Johnson could earn at least $100,419 upon his return. That figure is the base salary for a minimum 208-day schedule and doesn’t include other benefits. It does not account for raises or changes to salary brackets that could change in the next contract. Chalkbeat was unable to verify the salary “lane” Johnson was in before he left CPS. These lanes change a person’s salary based on factors like earning a master’s degree. Johnson has a master’s degree in teaching, according to his biography.

The salary figure represents someone who has worked for 20 years and is in the lowest lane; someone in the highest lane would earn a base salary of just over $113,300, under the current union contract.

CPS has offered annual raises of between 4% and 5% for the new contract.

After Felton raised concerns about the mayor’s employment status to former Deputy Mayor Jen Johnson, she said she asked the city’s ethics adviser about the issue and that the adviser “did not have concerns,” Felton’s memo said.

Chalkbeat filed an open records request with the Chicago Board of Ethics for any official advisory positions about the mayor’s employment status; the board said no such records existed.

After this story published, Steve Berlin, executive director of the ethics board, told Chalkbeat in an email that “neither the staff of the Board of Ethics nor the Board itself was asked about leave arrangements, and have issued no opinions addressing this issue.”

One former senior CPS official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues, said that the mayor, CPS, and CTU should all know that Johnson no longer qualifies for being on union leave due to his departure from CTU, and act accordingly by working to change his employment status.

In response to questions from Chalkbeat, CPS spokesperson Mary Ann Fergus said, “CPS flagged this area of concern as outlined in the Chief of Talent Ben Felton memo. It is presumed that the mayor determined that no action was necessary.”

At the same time, the former official acknowledged, Johnson’s position as the most powerful elected official in the city — and technically as the boss of CPS — can make it intimidating for members of his own administration to take action without his consent, especially if he’s expressed his desire to stay on leave, he said.

“It’s the mayor’s responsibility and his team’s responsibility to identify that this is an issue and take action about it,” the former official said. “And they were presented baldly with the choice, basically, and said, ‘No.’”

Becky Vevea contributed reporting.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

This story includes an updated response from Chicago Board of Ethics Executive Director Steve Berlin.

Judge bars Chicago Board of Education from teachers union contract talks without CEO approval

2024-12-24T23:00:32+00:00

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A Cook County Circuit Court judge ruled Tuesday that the Chicago Board of Education may not block schools chief Pedro Martinez from doing his job and may not attend teachers contract negotiations without his approval.

Judge Joel Chupack granted Martinez’s request for a temporary restraining order in a Christmas Eve ruling from the bench, marking another dramatic turn in the power struggle between the CEO and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s hand-picked board members.

The board fired Martinez without cause on Friday, meaning he will stay on the job for another six months and collect more than $130,000 in severance pay. As part of that vote, the board said it would modify Martinez’s powers without specifying how.

But on Tuesday, the judge ruled that the Board of Education members are barred from “obstructing” Martinez’s “performance of his job duties.” They also cannot attend the district’s high-stakes contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union — as three did on Monday — without first getting permission from Martinez, the ruling said.

Board members also cannot attempt to manage any of Martinez’s staffers, the ruling said.

Another court date has been set for Jan. 9.

“Pedro Martinez is still the CEO, and there’s no question about that,” said Bill Quinlan, Martinez’s attorney. “They don’t have the right to restrict his duties and limit his statutory obligations.”

Jeremy Glenn, an outside attorney representing the Chicago Board of Education, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday’s ruling.

At least three school board members took the unusual step of attending contract negotiations Monday without an invitation from the CEO or the mayor. Martinez’s lawyer responded with a letter demanding board members cease and desist from attending, describing it as “unlawful interference” with Martinez’s authority.

After Tuesday’s ruling, Martinez told reporters that the current board — picked by a mayor who is a close ally of the teachers union — could “force a contract down our throats,” and that CPS’s negotiating team considered resigning en masse when board members showed up to Monday’s negotiations and attempted to interfere, Fox 32 reported. For his part, board President Sean Harden said he and others attended simply to support CPS’s team.

During a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates acknowledged that no one but Martinez is in charge — and that he should be ready to take the blame if the recent progress stalls in contract negotiations.

“People get to say that this contract is being bargained with the Chicago Teachers Union and Pedro Martinez, so we look forward to finally seeing him on Thursday,” Davis Gates said.

Martinez has not attended negotiations. Typically, school district CEOs and superintendents leave contracting negotiations for district bargaining team members with rare exceptions, such as when a deal is nearly at hand.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

CPS shares plan to keep open 5 of 7 Acero charter schools due to close

2024-12-13T04:05:56+00:00

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As angst grows about the planned closure of seven Acero charter schools on Chicago’s Southwest Side, CPS suggested Thursday that the best option would be to support keeping five of the schools open.

The district’s recommendation came after nearly two-and-a-half hours of public comment during which teachers and families pleaded with the district to help save the seven campuses.

Acero charter network announced in October that before the 2025-26 school year, it would close seven of its schools — where more than 1,800 students are enrolled and staff are members of the Chicago Teachers Union — because of a $40 million budget shortfall. Since then, families and the union immediately launched rallies and began attending board meetings to press CPS to prevent the closures.

Alfonso Carmona, chief portfolio officer who oversees charters in the district, presented a slew of options during Thursday’s board meeting. These included transitioning the seven campuses into CPS-run schools, or just helping affected students enroll at district schools. Carmona said that based on the feedback they’ve received, “what we’ve heard from these families is that we should not close these campuses.”

But the option he ultimately recommended was more of a “hybrid” option: He said CPS supports keeping five of the seven campuses open and “phasing out” the other two, known as the Paz and Cruz campuses.

Under this option, the district would help Acero cover its budget deficit. Carmona said this could be the best option because it’s likely CPS won’t actually have to open its wallet under this scenario. He said the charter network would “break even” if it closed the Paz and Cruz campuses — both of which are for sale — because they both “contributed substantially” to the network’s projected deficit, according to a district analysis. He added that the buildings are in disrepair and would need significant investment.

“That will also allow enough time for us to also potentially transition those schools as district managed schools after the 25-26 school year,” Carmona said. It was unclear how many schools would potentially be absorbed.

Ultimately, the district would help students from Paz and Cruz enroll in CPS or charter schools, according to Carmona’s presentation.

Acero did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the CPS proposal. Acero operates a total of 15 charter schools in the city.

But it’s unclear what option the board will ultimately choose — or how soon. Sidestepping Carmona’s recommendation, Vice President Mary Gardner asked Carmona to provide more details by Monday on the option of absorbing all seven Acero campuses, which the district estimates would cost between $21 million and $28 million. Board member Michilla Blaise said the board is “working hard” to give families direction on the issue.

The district had planned to present most of these options at a special meeting last month, but the board canceled the presentation without explanation.

The board, which passed a resolution last month calling for Acero to address the board, has criticized Acero for not attending board meetings to discuss the issue. Acero subsequently sent the board a cease and desist letter, accusing the board of sharing defamatory statements about the network and its closure plans.

“There has been 200 children I think leaving Acero schools that we might not get back again, and that’s disrupting your community because people are scared and worried, so we’re trying to make sure we’re moving thoughtfully and with the appropriate guidance,” Blaise said to the families who attended Thursday’s meeting.

Acero’s charter schools are publicly funded but privately managed. The Acero network operates based on a contract with CPS, and the network announced the closures in accordance with rules set out in that contract.

The union and families have held rallies, attended multiple board meetings, and met with elected officials in an effort to save the campuses.

On top of dismaying Acero students and families, the planned closures have increased tensions between Mayor Brandon Johnson — a union ally and opponent of school closures — and Chicago Public Schools leadership. Johnson, who has generally been critical of charter schools, said he doesn’t want to see any school close and last month called for CPS to create a “contingency plan” for the closures.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Citing Trump, CTU cranks up pressure on school district to settle contract before 2025

2024-12-13T02:48:47+00:00

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The Chicago Teachers Union turned up the pressure Thursday for Chicago Public Schools to settle its contract before the end of 2024.

After roughly seven months of contentious talks, the union has pushed the district in recent weeks to strike a deal on its contract. The union appealed to the school board — appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU employee and close ally — to press the administration on its behalf, and the board immediately obliged in a letter to CEO Pedro Martinez.

During nearly two-and-a-half hours of public comment during Thursday’s Board of Education meeting that sometimes featured boos and chants, several union members and CTU President Stacy Davis Gates called for a swift deal. The union also held a rally before the meeting to argue that although the district approved a resolution reaffirming its welcoming status to immigrants, Donald Trump’s mass deportation plans made it crucial to settle the contract and avoid disruptions to students and families.

The union’s latest push highlights the different pressures, including the new school board set to take office early next year, that are affecting contract talks.

Davis Gates asked the board to “make a directive to the senior leadership team and the CEO” to settle the contract before Trump’s inauguration.

“Settle this contract so we can have a protective force field over a district that represents the tapestry of this country,” Davis Gates said, to loud applause from dozens of union members in the audience.

The board was scheduled to discuss collective bargaining during its closed session portion at the end of its meeting, which is not open to the public.

Martinez said Thursday that daily negotiations sessions are yielding progress in several areas, thanks to a revised, shortened list of CTU priorities. For example, he said the district committed to maintain school athletic director positions and increase stipends for coaches. He also said the district will hold the line on protecting principals’ ability to lead their schools and on keeping instructional time for students unchanged.

But the union also continued to sharply criticize Martinez, whose job has hung in the balance for months after Johnson asked him in the fall to resign. Martinez has so far refused to leave or reportedly take out a buyout offer.

The union and the district appear to have made some more headway this week.

For months, CPS has resisted the union’s demands for a major increase in staffing, noting that the district added thousands of new positions during the pandemic and now faces growing budget deficits.

But union leaders announced in a video before the Thursday meeting that the district had offered to increase the number of teaching assistants, technology coordinators, and school librarians, and to create a bilingual teaching assistant pool.

The teachers’ union has also continued to push for higher pay raises after the district offered cost-of-living increases of up to 5% that would raise the average teacher salary to more than $110,000 in four years, along with other pay and benefit improvements. CTUIt has reduced its initial proposal for 9% increases to 6% the first year.

But some of the controversy about the contract isn’t really about salaries and pay increases. Some aldermen, other employee unions, incoming school board members, and others have increasingly expressed concern about rushing to settle a high-stakes contract with enormous financial and academic implications for the cash-strapped district and the city.

Some have said there shouldn’t be a deal before a new board, partly elected by the residents of Chicago, takes over in just five weeks.

“It should be that school board that begins the process of bringing back stability to our school district,” said Alderman Gilbert Villegas during a press conference this week calling for that new hybrid board to settle the contract. “They are the ones that voters picked.”

But Michilla Blaise and the rest of the board have said they have the right to make decisions they see fit immediately.

Villegas sent a letter Thursday to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to review whether the “unprecedented” standoff over the contract might violate state law, alleging that current board members have been in touch directly with the CTU about contract talks. Under state law, the schools chief is supposed to be the one negotiating directly with employee unions, with the board stepping in to approve the resulting contracts.

Separately, during Thursday’s meeting, representatives from both Service Employees International Union 73 — which represents school support staff — and the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association reiterated concerns about contract proposals that they view as scaling back the power of their own members.

And some incoming board members expressed concern about the cancellation of their board training for next week. The training was canceled at the direction of the current board, but newly elected board members say they haven’t been told why.

“The historic elected board will be joining you soon to help set district goals and priorities, approve policies, make purchasing decisions, evaluate contracts, approve the budget and capital plan, and set the school year calendar,” said board member-elect Che “Rhymefest” Smith, who will represent District 10. “We need all the information and training … with no interruptions.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Board of Education pushes Acero to find alternatives to planned charter school closures

2024-11-15T00:40:31+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education passed a resolution Thursday that called for a later deadline for GoCPS applications and sought to find alternatives to the Acero charter school network’s plan for seven campus closures on the Southwest Side.

The board’s resolutions came during a specially called meeting and were the latest in an increasingly tense situation surrounding the charter network’s planned closures, which have increased friction between Mayor Brandon Johnson’s office and Chicago Public Schools leadership.

The Acero charter network announced last month that it will close seven campuses because of a $40 million budget shortfall. The staff at those campuses are members of the Chicago Teachers Union.

The board’s Acero resolution called for Acero officials to meet with the board to discuss alternatives to the campus closures, which would impact 2,000 students and 500 staffers.

Families and teachers have rallied against the closure since the network’s announcement. Earlier this week, the mayor said he directed CPS leadership to dig into the network’s finances and wanted to see a “contingency plan” from CPS related to the closures.

The board’s resolution demands that if the network declines to find alternatives, Acero “shall return all unspent public funds and property” to the district.

Resolutions are nonbinding in nature and don’t compel Acero to meet with CPS or discuss alternatives. However, Acero must meet with CPS by Nov. 15 to discuss the school closures as part of its agreement with the district. All charter networks — which are privately run entities that receive public funding — operate based on conditions set in agreements with CPS.

Based on Acero’s agreement with CPS, the district does not appear to have a legal pathway to prevent the closures.

In an emailed statement, Acero said “there are no winners when high-quality schools are forced to close their doors due to the implications of inequitable and inadequate public school funding.”

“While we are disappointed by the misinformation surrounding this heartbreaking circumstance, we welcome working with the Chicago Public Schools to find long-term and sustainable solutions for everyone impacted by these anticipated closures,” the statement said. “This is clearly evidenced by the nearly 20 meetings Acero Schools has had with senior CPS officials before the special meeting to provide timely information to advance this initiative.”

CPS was expected to give a presentation at the meeting that would provide “a more complete picture” of the Acero closures and “provide options for impacted families, address the questions raised and the feedback received during the briefings and meeting, and outline several solutions for the Board to consider at a future meeting,” CPS said in an emailed statement earlier this week.

But that presentation was canceled, Board Vice President Mary Gardner said at the top of the meeting. Asked why, Bogdana Chkoumbova, the district’s chief education officer, said, “I don’t know,” and said the board’s office would have a better idea. Board members Frank Niles Thomas and Rafael Yañez declined to comment to reporters after the meeting.

Chalkbeat obtained a copy of the presentation, which included options the district could pursue in response to the closures. One option is that CPS would provide “support” to Acero to keep the campuses open. The presentation said the district has “confirmed and identified the financial needs” but didn’t elaborate, saying more budget information would be shared at upcoming board meetings.

A second option would be helping affected students enroll at CPS-run schools, which the district says is in line with what it has done in the past when charter operators moved to close their own schools. It would provide more money to district schools that enroll “a significant number” of additional students.

A third option would have the district absorb the seven Acero campuses slated for closure and reopen them as CPS schools in the 2026-27 school year. The union has previously asked the district to absorb the campuses.

This option “may provide the least amount of disruption to students and families,” the presentation said. The presentation noted that the district would have to take a number of steps to add the schools to CPS’ portfolio, including getting board approval and amending the capital budget, but that long-term costs “may not increase significantly.” Still, there would be costs associated with transitioning the schools from charters to district-run buildings, the presentation said.

The presentation also laid out the steps the district has taken since Acero announced the closures Oct. 9. City Hall officials have criticized how CPS leadership has monitored Acero and responded to the planned closures.

According to the presentation, between Oct. 11 and Nov. 1, the district met with the charter operator and requested more financial information. It also provided families with information on what to do next. The presentation noted that this was standard operating procedure, and the Board of Education did not ask the district to deviate from that until its Nov. 1 meeting, which followed weeks of upheaval, including the entire former Board of Education announcing its resignation Oct. 9.

Asked if the board was trying to block CPS CEO Pedro Martinez from presenting at the meeting, the mayor told reporters Thursday, “I’m not aware of this blockage that you’re speaking of, and there’s no particular directive outside of making sure that we invest in children,” according to a tweet from a Chicago Tribune reporter.

In an extraordinary moment before the board passed the resolution, board member Michilla Blaise criticized district leadership and thanked Acero families for raising their concerns about the closures. Caroline Rutherford, an Acero teacher who is currently on leave, asked CPS “to take action to keep our schools open” during the public comment portion.

“It seemed that CPS was kind of resigned to letting it go and giving up, and that based on your work and how your words touched us, we’re making sure we’re putting our feet down, and we’re going to stand with you in terms of at least exploring what the opportunities are,” Blaise said.

The board also sought to push the deadline for GoCPS — an application families use to get seats at a variety of schools, including charters and selective enrollment programs — to Dec. 15 to give affected families more time to choose a school for next year. District officials are expected to officially move back the date, a spokesperson said.

The district has already pushed the deadline back to Nov. 22.

Separately, the board also retained outside law firm Cozen O’Connor, which offers legal services for a wide range of subjects. District officials did not respond to questions about why the board decided to hire the firm.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Mayor Johnson calls for CPS to craft ‘contingency plan’ for planned Acero closures

2024-11-13T00:14:12+00:00

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Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday criticized Chicago Public Schools leadership in relation to a heated school closure proposal by the Acero charter school network and used the moment to call for greater accountability of charter schools.

Johnson, however, did not elaborate on what steps he would like to see the district take to prevent those closures. The Chicago Board of Education does not appear to have a legal path to stop the closures, according to its agreement with Acero.

While Johnson emphasized that he’s not saying CPS CEO Pedro Martinez did something wrong, he said the district needs to put together a “contingency plan” in response to the proposed Acero closures and that he and his team “haven’t seen that type of leadership” from the district.

The proposed Acero closures have added tension to the already tense relationship between Chicago Public Schools leadership and Johnson, who in September asked Martinez to resign. Martinez has refused to step down.

On Tuesday, Johnson also questioned how the Acero network — whose staff is unionized by the Chicago Teachers Union, a Johnson ally — reached its current financial situation just a year after CPS deemed it worthy of a three-year contract extension. The network has blamed the closures on a $40 million budget shortfall, Block Club Chicago reported.

“This is not about pointing the finger at someone doing something wrong — this is about how we course correct so families don’t lose out,” Johnson said.

Acero did not immediately responded to requests for comment.

In an email statement to Chalkbeat, a CPS spokesperson said the district is working with the charter network’s leadership to schedule a parent town hall, hold ongoing town hall meetings, and provide support for students.

According to the CPS spokesperson, when a charter decides to close, CPS implements internal procedures including contacting families to review options, such as neighborhood schools or schools with available seats, and providing financial support to district schools that could see an influx of students from the closed schools.

Last month, the Acero network announced that it was planning to close seven of its schools, or about half of those it operates, impacting about 2,000 students at those campuses. The network cited a $40 million budget shortfall. It’s unclear where students will enroll, but those students, like any Chicago resident, have the right to enroll in their neighborhood school.

As a charter school network, Acero is privately managed but publicly funded. It is allowed to operate 15 campuses, largely on the Southwest Side, based on conditions set out in a contract with Chicago Public Schools. Acero’s current contract was last renewed in July 2023 and runs through June 2026.

Acero’s contract allows the network to close schools but says the network must provide written notice to the district by Oct. 15, and that closures can’t happen before June 30 or the end of the school year — whichever happens last, “except in situations of an emergency where the health, safety or education of the Charter School’s students is at risk.”

CPS did not immediately say whether the network notified the district by Oct. 15. The news of the proposed closures became public Oct. 9 — which CPS CEO Martinez has said publicly is around the same time he found out.

Since the network’s announcement, Acero families and teachers have rallied against the closures and have aired their concerns with the Chicago Board of Education.

Union officials have asked the district to intervene or to absorb the campuses and keep them open for another school year. When the district declined to renew an agreement with Urban Prep charter schools in 2022, CPS officials promised to keep those schools open as district campuses. That ultimately did not happen and the two campuses remain open under an agreement with Urban Prep until June 2025.

CPS did not immediately respond to questions about the options it might be considering pursuing at this point.

The Chicago Board of Education plans to hold a special meeting Thursday during which it will vote on a resolution calling for Acero representatives to come before the board and discuss alternatives to the closures. The resolution also says that if Acero ultimately closes the seven campuses, it “shall return all unspent public funds and property,” and that the district should extend its deadline for GoCPS — the application Chicago families use to apply to various schools, including charters and selective enrollment campuses — until Dec. 15. That deadline has already been pushed back to Nov. 22.

Asked why the mayor is advocating so strongly for Acero given his past criticism of charter schools, Johnson said he doesn’t want “any family to endure that type of trauma” that comes along with school closings.

Still, Johnson invoked a long time position of his — that as privately-run entities, charter schools should get more accountability. CPS is already tasked with monitoring charter schools, setting out conditions in each operator’s contract, and deciding whether operators’ schools should be renewed.

“Part of what my task is to challenge CPS and its leadership to respond to charter operators who have these structural elements within their budgetary framework that are not sustainable long term, and that will require audits,” Johnson said. “It will require CPS digging in a little bit deeper to look at the trends that are happening.”

Tensions continue to build between Johnson, CPS

On Monday, mayor’s office staff, including Chief of Staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas, and two of the mayor’s closest allies — Alds. Carlos Ramirez Rosa and Byron Sigcho-Lopez — met with CPS staff, including Martinez, about the proposed Acero closures. Chicago Board of Education members Olga Bautista and Frank Niles Thomas were also present, according to a source with knowledge of the meeting, who was not authorized to speak to the press about private discussions.

It was a “contentious discussion,” in which mayoral staff questioned CPS leaders about when they discovered the proposed closures, whether it has combed through the charter network’s financial documents, and what CPS has been doing about the issue, the source said. Martinez said the district has engaged with Acero families and is thinking through best options, the source said.

“Pedro’s story stayed consistent with what he’s said privately and publicly: He found out when the district did around the same time they went public,” the source said.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Sigcho-Lopez said the meeting left him “concerned with [Martinez’s] leadership style” and, like the mayor, wanting an audit of Acero’s finances.

“He had a lot of excuses, a lot of contradictions, but not a lot of answers in terms of actually what he is going to do to ensure that those 2,000 kids are not forced, you know, into a transition that is not in anyone’s interest,” Sigcho-Lopez said.

Pacione-Zayas told Chalkbeat that CPS officials were asked if the district had reached out to the Illinois State Board of Education for guidance and if the district had considered absorbing the campuses – including how it would affect their budget.

“None of that was prepared,” Pacione Zayas said. “All that was revealed to us was that they extended the GoCPS [application deadline] by seven days.”

Families use the district’s GoCPS application to apply to schools, including preschool programs, selective enrollment, and magnet schools.

CPS has reviewed the costs behind a number of scenarios, including absorbing the campuses, according to a CPS source who was not authorized to speak with the press. The source declined to elaborate whether it was a viable option and said they were unsure if City Hall was aware of the district’s analysis.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s new school board president resigns a week after taking office

2024-10-31T20:00:35+00:00

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Chicago’s new school board president, the Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson, resigned Thursday after his past antisemitic and misogynistic comments online resurfaced.

It’s more leadership turmoil for the Board of Education, which will soon transition to a 21-member partially-elected governing body, ending 30 years of mayoral control.

Johnson’s departure comes less than a month after Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed him on Oct. 7 alongside five others. The shocking overhaul came after the mayor’s first set of appointees resigned en masse amid tensions between the mayor and Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez.

The newly appointed school board members swore themselves in just last week and are scheduled to meet Friday.

The mayor said in a statement Thursday afternoon that he asked for Johnson’s resignation and that he resigned effective immediately.

“Reverend Mitchell Johnson’s statements were not only hurtful but deeply disturbing,” Mayor Johnson said. “I want to be clear: antisemitic, misogynistic, and conspiratorial statements are unacceptable.”

The mayor said that his office would “identify a qualified individual” — he did not provide a timeline — and that the school board would meet as scheduled.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker called for Johnson’s resignation earlier Thursday.

“Any person charged with the stewardship of the Chicago Public School Board must exemplify focused, inclusive, and steady leadership,” he said in a statement. “The views expressed in the current Chair’s posts – antisemitism, misogyny, fringe conspiracy theories – very clearly do not meet that standard.”

Pritzker is of Jewish Ukrainian descent. As of Thursday afternoon, 40 of 50 Chicago aldermen and the City Clerk Anna Valencia also signed a letter calling for Johnson to step down.

Earlier this week, Jewish Insider reported that Johnson crafted more than a dozen Facebook posts with antisemitic statements following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Johnson issued a statement late Wednesday apologizing “to the Jewish community.”

“The remarks I posted were reactive and insensitive, and I am deeply sorry for not being more precise and deliberate in my comments posted last year,” Johnson wrote. “Since then, I have asked for and received feedback from my Jewish friends and colleagues, who helped me be more thoughtful in the way I address these sensitive matters.”

But additional Facebook posts surfaced Thursday in which Johnson supported a conspiracy theory that 9/11 was “an inside job” and questioned why working women don’t want families.

Mayor Johnson said when he announced the new appointments that the members were still being vetted. The mayor also said the new appointments, including Johnson, would stay in their roles after the transition to a hybrid elected and appointed board.

But it’s not clear if the new appointees can continue to serve past Jan. 15, when elected and appointed members are set to be sworn in. That’s because the mayor must appoint people who live on the opposite side of the geographic districts as the elected winners, which won’t be known until after Nov. 5.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Board of Education president apologizes for antisemitic Facebook posts

2024-10-30T23:39:22+00:00

Mayor Brandon Johnson said Wednesday his newly appointed Chicago Board of Education president is “seeking atonement” for making antisemitic comments but did not call for his removal as requested by just over half of the City Council.

The mayor’s comments came less than a day after Jewish Insider reported that Board President Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson crafted more than a dozen Facebook posts with antisemitic statements following Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which led to the death of at least 1,200 Israelis, according to Reuters. Israel has since launched a full scale offensive on Gaza, resulting in the death of 45,000 Palestinians, Reuters reported.

“I know Rev. Mitchell Johnson has worked hard as a faith leader in his interfaith work,” the mayor told reporters Wednesday after a City Council meeting. “I know he has since come forth and has apologized for his comments and how harmful that they have been to the people of the Jewish community.”

The mayor continued: “These are not sentiments that I subscribe to and I do appreciate Rev. Johnson being willing to be held accountable for statements that he has made that has caused harm.”

The mayor appointed Johnson as board president last month after the entire Board of Education resigned. He has presided over one Board of Education meeting, and the body is set to meet again for its first regular meeting on Friday, Nov. 1.

In a prepared statement, Rev. Johnson issued an apology “to the Jewish community” for his remarks, and said he has fought antisemitism throughout his career.

“The remarks I posted were reactive and insensitive, and I am deeply sorry for not being more precise and deliberate in my comments posted last year,” Rev. Johnson wrote. “Since then, I have asked for and received feedback from my Jewish friends and colleagues, who helped me be more thoughtful in the way I address these sensitive matters.”

He added that he is “committed to making sure that antisemitism and hate of any kind have no place in Chicago Public Schools.”

Since the Oct. 7 attacks, posts from Rev. Johnson — who is not related to the mayor — have ranged in extremity. Several of his posts shared support for Palestinians and called for a ceasefire in Gaza, which the Chicago City Council has also formally done as part of a narrowly passed resolution earlier this year.

In December 2023, he shared a video of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, stating, “And, like him, I believe that Israel has a right to exist just as the Palestinians have a right to exist. Further, Israel must retreat to the original land border which was illegally granted to them by the United Nations.”

Other posts have gone far further. On Feb. 20, Johnson wrote, “The Nazi Germans’ ideology has been adopted by the Zionist Jews.” In an apparent support for Hamas, Johnson also wrote that “people have an absolute right to attack their oppressors by any means necessary!!!”

Jewish Insider reports that posts Johnson reshared came from anti-Israel and Russian propaganda accounts, as well as a conspiracy theorist.

On Wednesday, the mayor declined to directly say whether he knew about Johnson’s Facebook posts when he picked him for school board.

Elected officials, at least one school board candidate, and some political groups called for the board president to step down Wednesday, including 27 alderpeople — just over half of the City Council.

Asked about the comments, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who is Jewish, said he did not condone the remarks, and that proper vetting “doesn’t seem to have occurred here,” as reported by Capitol Fax.

“Look, can you miss things in peoples’ vets? Sure. But it feels like Facebook posts are pretty easy to find,” Pritzker said.

The board president has also faced questions about separate controversies. NBC Chicago reported earlier this month that Johnson was disbarred as a lawyer in the 1990s and that he had a lien placed on his home, in part for not paying child support.

Asked last week about those findings, Board President Johnson told reporters, “The truth is, I was suggested for this position because of my leadership capacity and my ability to get things done. That’s the truth. The good news is I wasn’t hired to be an accountant and I wasn’t hired to be a lawyer.”

School Board candidate Ellen Rosenfeld, who is running for District 4 on the north lakefront, said the “stunning lack of vetting” around the board president shows “just how far [the mayor] is willing to go to push his agenda at the expense of students and teachers.”

Chicago Democrats for Education, a political organization that opposes the Chicago Teachers Union and is backing school board candidates, said Rev. Johnson’s remarks “raise serious concerns about the safety and well-being of Jewish students and families in our city.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Mayor Johnson’s budget would send Chicago Public Schools $300 million – less than what CPS wants

2024-10-30T19:12:06+00:00

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Facing a nearly $1 billion deficit next year, Mayor Brandon Johnson proposed a city budget Wednesday that would send roughly $300 million to Chicago Public Schools.

That’s nearly $140 million more than what CPS already budgeted to receive from the city. But it’s still roughly $190 million short of what CPS wants to help cover critical upcoming costs that have been at the heart of leadership conflicts between the mayor’s office and CPS.

The makeup of the city’s budget could have a significant impact on the school district’s finances this year. It could also decide whether the district will cut spending or borrow money to cover looming costs.

District leaders, union officials, and the mayor have balked at the idea of CPS budget cuts.

“We are building a government that truly works for the people … no longer will the city of Chicago be dismissive about our young people and the children who are the future of the city,” Johnson said during his budget speech to the City Council.

The key to the money CPS wants from city coffers is surplus funding from Tax Increment Financing, or TIF. This comes from special taxing districts meant to fight blight and spur development.

Johnson’s $17.3 billion budget plan, which would raise property taxes to help the city close its deficit, includes $570 million in TIF surplus funds. By declaring a surplus, the mayor is releasing TIF dollars that have not been dedicated to any specific project. When that happens, by law, 52% of those funds — in this case, $296 million — would go to CPS under Johnson’s budget. Last year, the district received $226 million in TIF surplus funds, according to CPS.

In July, the Chicago Board of Education approved a $9.9 billion budget that assumed the district would receive $159 million in TIF funds from the city. But that budget did not include union contract costs or pensions for non-teaching staff. The latter is an expense the city used to cover until Mayor Lori Lightfoot took office. This year, the district has refused to cover the cost without the city’s help.

To help pay for those pensions and labor costs, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has asked for an additional $325 million in TIF surplus funds, a request he says he began making in the spring. Without such help or additional revenue, district officials say they may have to turn to cuts or borrow money to cover upcoming expenses of those contracts and pension obligations.

CPS did not immediately respond to the mayor’s budget proposal. The Chicago Teachers Union, an ally of the mayor, applauded his budget plan but called for alternatives to raising taxes. In a statement, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said that if there’s at least $500 million in TIF surplus funds, “there’s likely double that available” to be used on city services, including public schools.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas, who has criticized the mayor’s request for Martinez to resign and recent leadership turmoil at the district, said CPS should have been more responsible with its COVID relief dollars, which have buoyed the district’s finances over the past few years. The money recently expired, blowing a more than $500 million hole into CPS’s budget this year that officials closed through central office cuts and other savings.

“The reliance on the city of Chicago to help bail out CPS is really frustrating because we have no say in how they appropriate their budgets,” Villegas said Wednesday. “Basically what they’re doing is telling us, ‘We need all this revenue,’ and we have no say. This reliance on us only when and wanting to include us only when they need money is a problem for me.”

CPS has defended its use of COVID relief money, which went toward more staffing and programming for students, and says it resulted in important academic gains.

Ald. Jason Ervin, a West Side alderman who is a close ally of the mayor’s and chairman of the council’s budget committee, said the city allocates the TIF surplus funds that it is required to, and CPS always gets a chunk of that.

During Martinez’s five-hour testimony to City Council two weeks ago, Ervin sharply criticized the district for increasing its request for TIF surplus funds, arguing that such a move takes away development dollars from low-income communities like the one he represents.

“Whatever CPS needs to do to manage beyond that [money] is their decision,” Ervin said Wednesday after the budget address.

The mayor’s office has pushed the district to take out a short-term loan to cover those costs. But district leaders have so far rejected the idea, saying such borrowing would incur high interest rates, further degrade the district’s bond rating status, and saddle it with payments that will ultimately hurt classrooms.

That was one reason the previous Board of Education resigned en masse earlier this month. Johnson has appointed a new board that could still take out such a loan. They are set to meet this Friday, Nov. 1.

Alternatively, the question of how to pay for major upcoming costs could fall to the district’s new, 21-person board that will be half elected and half appointed by the mayor. The school board election is on Nov. 5, and the new board will be sworn in on Jan. 15, 2025.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools chief presses for different fix for district budget problems

2024-10-10T00:04:26+00:00

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Amid turmoil over district leadership and a disagreement over the budget, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said Wednesday that a special set of city funds meant to incentivize development could help stabilize the district’s finances.

In a prepared statement, Martinez said CPS has been advocating since April for the city to use Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, funds to help CPS pay for things like pension costs for non-teaching staff, costs related to a new Chicago Teachers Union contract, and the inaugural contract for a new principals union.

Martinez is at odds with Mayor Brandon Johnson over how to pay for the pension and union contract costs – expenses that the district did not set aside funds for in its current budget. The Johnson administration has pushed CPS for months to take out a short-term loan but district leaders have resisted, saying that it would saddle the district with high interest rates for years to come and could worsen CPS’s bond rating, making it harder to borrow in the future.

The disagreement factored into an extraordinary series of events in the past week — all seven members of the school board announced their plans to resign and Johnson swiftly named replacements, all as the city prepares for its historic first school board election. The new-look board will feature a mix of Johnson appointments and elected members in January.

The district’s proposal centers on TIF surplus funds, which haven’t been dedicated to a specific project and, according to the district, could help fund the $175 pension payment and labor agreement costs. Tax increment financing is a funding tool that uses future property tax revenue to fund community redevelopment projects.

This year’s budget, which covers the current school year, includes $159 million of TIF surplus funding – close to 40% of which is being used to cover the new contract with SEIU Local 73, which represents school support works, such as custodians. (CPS said the district has not yet received those funds.)

Martinez said “we all recognize that more revenue is necessary” to cover the pension and union contract costs.

According to CPS, more than $1.2 billion in property taxes are “diverted from CPS and other taxing bodies into TIF funds annually, depriving CPS of over $600 million in annual revenue.”

In his statement, Martinez said “government and labor partners are coalescing around this revenue source.” That, he said, means the district could pay for upcoming costs “without cuts, without taking on expensive short-term debt, and without waiting for additional funding to materialize from the State.”

In a statement, mayor’s office spokesperson Ronnie Reese said Johnson has repeatedly told Martinez that he would give CPS the maximum” TIF amount. He said Martinez “flatly refused” to adopt a budget that included union contract and pension costs “as covered by TIFs and additional financing.

“Had the CPS CEO worked collaboratively with the City and the Board of Education to pass a budget with the source of revenue being TIF and additional financing, as we and our [budget] team worked diligently to do, we would not be in the predicament we find ourselves in today,” Reese said.

Some local officials have floated the idea of providing more TIF funds to CPS, including Ald. Gilbert Villegas, WBEZ reported. That idea drew some nods, including from Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates and 40th Ward Ald. Andre Vasquez, who said it’s a “better recommendation” than a short-term loan.

The teachers union called this week to end all TIF districts and direct unused or unobligated money to Chicago Public Schools.

The mayor’s office has for months pushed CPS to take out a short-term loan that would help cover the union contracts and the $175 million pension payment – a cost the city used to cover until Mayor Lori Lightfoot took office. The mayor’s transition team report called for those funds to be returned to CPS, but in practice Johnson has so far asked CPS to cover that cost.

In a July 8 internal memo obtained by Chalkbeat, CPS described the idea from City Hall as a $300 million short-term loan that would incur high interest rates. CPS expressed concern that it would saddle the district with expensive debt down the road and worsen the district’s bond rating status, making it harder to borrow in the future for capital costs, such as repairing a school. A $300 million loan would cover 4% raises for members of the teachers and principals unions, the memo said.

“My team and I have specifically resisted taking out expensive short-term debt, and we have advocated against cuts, because we knew that this solution was on the table at our request,” Martinez said in Wednesday’s statement. “In fact, we developed scenarios to show how devastating each of these options would be if additional revenues were not found.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org .

All Chicago Board of Education members to resign amid tensions between Mayor Brandon Johnson and CEO Pedro Martinez

2024-10-04T22:55:50+00:00

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The entire seven-member Chicago Board of Education will resign in the coming weeks after months of tension between Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez.

The resignations pave the way for Johnson to appoint new board members who could then carry out his wishes, including potentially firing Martinez. Johnson’s office said late Friday he will announce new appointments on Monday at 10:30 a.m.

Word of the resignations comes more than a week after the school board took no action to remove Martinez and about a month before the city’s first school board elections, which will create for the first time a hybrid board of 10 elected members and 11 appointed by the mayor. In three decades of mayoral control, no Chicago mayor has replaced all of their hand-picked members so quickly. Johnson hand-picked six of seven members last July.

The upheaval is also happening amid contract negotiations with Johnson’s former employer the Chicago Teachers Union.

In a joint statement Friday, Johnson and the current appointed school board announced all current members would “transition from service” later this month.

“None of the members leaving the current Board planned to continue onto the hybrid Board, and none are running for election. With the unprecedented increase in Board membership, transitioning new members now will allow them time to orient and gain critical experience prior to welcoming additional elected and appointed members in 2025,” the statement read.

Johnson said this week that he never discusses personnel issues in public. But he told reporters Wednesday, “I was elected to fight for the people of the city and whoever is in the way, get out of it.”

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Jen Johnson, deputy mayor for education, youth, and human services, said the mayor’s office “did not ask for resignations.”

“We knew that none of these board members were running [for election] or going to stay, and so we collaborated to ensure that there was a shepherding, a passing of the torch, as we approach this new board,” Johnson said, adding that all seven board members signed on to the statement the mayor’s office sent to the press.

Earlier this month, the mayor asked Martinez to step down — which he publicly later denied doing. Nonetheless, Martinez refused to resign and the school board has declined so far to fire him.

Board members have declined to comment publicly on Martinez’s clash with Brandon Johnson, but the board has in recent months backed Martinez in a couple of decisions that defied the mayor’s wishes. That includes adopting this year’s budget, as well as declining Johnson’s request for CPS to take out a short-term loan to cover some upcoming costs.

The board members stepping down are Board President Jianan Shi, Elizabeth Todd-Breland, who was appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, Mary Fahey Hughes, Tanya Woods, Mariela Estrada, Michelle Morales, and Rudy Lozano Jr.

Shi and Todd-Breland declined to comment further Friday. The other members have not returned emails or calls asking for comment on the resignation rumors this week.

The resignations will pave the way for Johnson to appoint new people to fill the vacancies on the board, who could then vote to approve a short-term loan and fire Martinez. The next school board meeting is Oct. 16, one of few remaining scheduled meetings before the new partially-elected, 21-member school board is sworn in on Jan. 15, 2025.

“The board certainly will have the same authority, to evaluate the CEO against the objectives, and they will, you know, have to certainly tackle the incompleteness of the budget,” Deputy Mayor Johnson said.

Johnson did not directly answer when asked if it is the mayor’s hope that the new board will fire Martinez and approve a loan.

The mayor “will work with this new board just as he did with the current board to ensure we are protecting investments in our schools and that we are not cutting and using the truly chaotic solutions of past administrations, which harmed students in communities for generations,” she said.

In a statement, CPS CEO Martinez commended the board members “for their steadfast dedication to ensuring greater equity in our system, emphasizing our collective responsibility to improve the quality of education for those who are furthest from opportunity.”

If the mayor’s intention is to install a new board in order to fire Martinez, it would “be a group that has never evaluated [Martinez], has never worked with him,” according to a source familiar with the situation who was not authorized to speak with the press. “They don’t know any of his work, they haven’t been part of any of these conversations.”

That source also noted that new board members typically have an orientation, which could be difficult to wedge in before the board’s first meeting.

In order to conduct business, the school board must have a quorum, which board rules define as “a majority of the full membership of the Board of Education then serving.”

Deputy Mayor Johnson declined to specify the exact date of departure for each current board member, calling the latter a “personal decision” for each person.

A CPS central office staffer, who was not authorized to speak with the press, said the board “doesn’t want to undermine the mayor publicly” and feels board members were pressured to leave for not adhering to the mayor’s wishes. Another source familiar with the situation, also not authorized to speak with the media, questioned the official explanation.

“The mayor’s office will try to spin this as a transition,” the source said. “There is no credible explanation for why seven people would all leave a month or two ahead of time to facilitate a transition.”

The mood in the CPS central office was “like a funeral home” Friday as news of the resignations broke, according to the central office staffer, who said many people were sad to see the board departures.

“You could tell they really care about what’s going on at the district,” the staffer said, adding that they have worked with multiple CPS boards. “They have a sense of responsibility that I think I haven’t seen in the past.”

Multiple board members had been in serious discussions to resign as of at least Sunday, three sources told Chalkbeat.

As rumors of resignations floated earlier this week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he hoped the school board would not resign before new members are elected. Friday morning, former Chicago school board member and once interim-CPS CEO Jesse Ruiz put out a statement thanking current board members and urging them to “stay the course.”

“Despite all the pressures I know you all are under, I truly hope you continue to provide the steady leadership, governance and oversight that is critical for our public institutions to operate in the best interest of ALL its stakeholders,” Ruiz wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The school board shakeup likely won’t have an immediate effect on schools, students, and educators, said Jeffery Henig, professor emeritus of politics and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, who has studied mayoral control of school boards.

The resignations “will create a potential embarrassment” for the mayor, but also give Johnson a chance to “step in strongly” and make swift decisions that he thinks are necessary, Henig said.

The turmoil could, however, create long-term problems for the new board, which may be tasked with replacing Martinez, hiring a permanent replacement, or addressing the issue of borrowing to cover costs, he said.

“This dramatic gesture by the current board could set into motion enough turmoil and public positioning and open vying for leadership in one faction [of the school board] versus another, that it would make it harder for the new board to set an even course at the beginning,” Henig said.

Some candidates running for school board in the November election began issuing statements.

Kate Doyle, a candidate in District 2, said she was “disappointed to see leaders step away” at a critical time and that if elected, she would “work to ensure that decisions are made transparently and with the long-term success of our students in mind.”

Tensions between Martinez, Johnson building for months

In its year-plus tenure, the Johnson-appointed Board of Education has pursued and approved policies that line up ideologically with the mayor. That includes making a commitment to prioritize neighborhood schools, moving away from student-based budgeting for schools, and barring police officers from school campuses.

Martinez and his administration worked in tandem with the board to develop and implement those changes. But the school board has had some frustrations with his performance, WBEZ reported last week. According to documents related to his annual evaluation, board members felt blindsided or unprepared in certain circumstances. Still, CPS told WBEZ that the board and Martinez “have worked collaboratively throughout our tenure to have open dialogue, fostering a respectful and professional relationship.”

“It’s true that the board has been frustrated with Pedro along the way,” said the source familiar with the situation. “But I do think that, in my knowledge of the situation, there has been this relentless pressure to fire Pedro for cause and do it quickly, and the board is not comfortable doing that.”

According to Martinez’s contract, the board would need to provide six months notice before firing him without cause. If the board fired him for just cause, such as criminal activity, he would have to leave immediately. Martinez could sue the district if he believes he was wrongfully terminated.

At the heart of the tension between Johnson, his school board, and Martinez is the district’s budget, which faced a half-billion-dollar deficit before CPS made cuts to close it. That deficit existed largely because billions of federal COVID dollars that the district used to beef up staffing and invest in new programs, such as tutoring, expired this week.

The district’s $9.9 billion budget approved in August did not set aside dollars for the new teachers contract, which it is currently negotiating. It is not unusual for the school district to amend its budget once a contract deal has been reached. WBEZ recently reported that the district has outlined several options, including the “last resort” option of furloughs and layoffs.

Johnson criticized the budget plan, which included the same amount of funding for schools but resulted in other cuts, including of support staff who CPS said will be reassigned or paid for the rest of the year.

The district also did not include a $175 million pension payment for non-teaching staff that CPS began paying in 2020 when Johnson’s predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, was in office. Johnson opposed that cost shift before he became mayor, but has now asked CPS to continue paying it as he works to close a $223 million deficit in the city’s current budget and a nearly $1 billion deficit projected for 2025.

Johnson was expected to deliver his city budget proposal in a speech to City Council on Oct. 16, but earlier this week the mayor’s office announced Johnson would deliver his budget on Oct. 30, a week after the school board is scheduled to meet.

Over the summer, Johnson asked CPS to take out a short-term loan to help pay for the cost of the pension payment and the added expenses of contracts for the teachers and principals unions. Martinez and the board refused, in fear that taking on such a loan would saddle the district with high-interest rates and deepen its looming deficit for years to come.

The board’s departure so close to the election will likely turn up heat on school board candidates, said Henig, the Columbia professor who has studied mayoral control.

“If the candidates haven’t been forced to address this, there’s gonna be a lot of pressure on them to address this,” Henig said.

Union negotiations turn up heat on Martinez

The conflict is compounded by ongoing contract negotiations between the district and the Chicago Teachers Union, where Johnson worked as an organizer before his foray into politics. The union’s wide-ranging proposal package asks for 9% raises, more staffing, and more support for students, but the district has said its financial challenges remain – and less than 10% of the CTU proposals could create a $4 billion deficit for the district by the 2029-30 school year..

The union further turned up the heat on school district officials after saying it obtained a list of potential co-locations between 140 schools. The district, Martinez, and the Board of Education have said they have no plans to close schools. In letters to staff and families earlier this month, Martinez said the list was created as part of its analysis for the five-year strategic plan, and that it led district leaders and the board to affirm that they did not want to close schools.

The union’s House of Delegates recently passed a vote of no-confidence in Martinez.

Under state law, no school closures can happen in Chicago until Jan. 15, 2025. After the union’s claims over the past couple of weeks, the now-outgoing board passed a resolution Thursday, which Martinez prompted, that calls for no school closures until 2027.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Board of Education will consider promising no school closures until 2027

2024-09-25T02:31:38+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education is slated to vote on a resolution that commits to no school closures until 2027 — a response to a Chicago Teachers Union assertion that CEO Pedro Martinez is planning closures, which he has staunchly denied.

The vote on the resolution, which Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointed school board will consider at its Thursday meeting, comes days after Johnson asked Martinez to resign. In an op-ed for Chicago Tribune published Tuesday, Martinez said he will not step down — and described the talk of closures as a tactic aimed at undermining him.

The resolution is worded as a recommendation from Martinez that the board will be asked to approve. But in the Tribune piece, Martinez said both he and Board President Jianan Shi are asking the board to approve the resolution. In a letter to staff and families, Martinez said the resolution has the board’s “enthusiastic support.”

Asked Tuesday night if Shi partnered with Martinez on the resolution, Shi – in his first public comments since news of Johnson’s resignation request — said Martinez proposed it. Asked if he would vote to approve it, Shi said, “As a former organizer, educator, I have no intention of closing schools.”

If passed by the board, the resolution would place a moratorium on school closures until the end of the 2026-27 school year. Currently, state law prevents Chicago from closing schools until Jan. 15, 2025, when the city’s new, partially elected school board will be sworn in.

In an email, Mary Ann Fergus, a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools, said the resolution is binding, “but, of course, it could be reversed by future Boards.”

In his letter to staff and families, Martinez wrote that the resolution was an effort to “put to rest” what he described as a “misinformation campaign.”

“I’m disappointed that this misinformation campaign is out there, because I know it has caused unnecessary stress and worry for many in our school communities,” Martinez wrote.

Johnson’s request for Martinez’s resignation raised questions over whether the school board might move to fire Martinez at Thursday’s meeting. On Tuesday evening, a CPS spokesperson initially sent reporters a statement purporting to be from the district and the board that said there was no plan to take action on the CEO’s contract or to secure a loan at the meeting. The statement also said that “there have been an unfortunate series of rumors aimed at discrediting CEO Martinez and his leadership team,” and that any reference to school closures “is a tactic to provide more chaos and uncertainty, to steal precious time away from delivering a world-class education to our children.”

Soon after, Shi tweeted that he hadn’t seen the statement before it went out, and told Chalkbeat that the statement “caught me off guard. This was not a Board of Education statement.”

Minutes later, the district spokesperson sent out an email saying the earlier statement was incorrectly labeled and came from CPS only.

Shi declined to say whether he agreed with the statement and wouldn’t comment on Johnson’s request for Martinez to resign, saying he cannot discuss personnel issues.

Martinez’s reassurance fail to sway union leaders

School closures are a political third rail in Chicago, where in 2013, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to close 50 schools is still painful for many Chicago residents.

Last week, the union said it had obtained a school facilities analysis that included a list of 70 schools that could be consolidated with 70 others. Citing this document, the union’s House of Delegates passed a vote of no confidence in Martinez.

Martinez has said he would not close schools during his tenure as head of CPS. In a letter last week to staff, Martinez said the school board requested the analysis, and that the district conducted it to help create a five-year strategic plan, which places more focus on bolstering neighborhood schools. Martinez has said the analysis led the board and CPS officials to decide that closures were unnecessary.

Despite Martinez’s assurances over the past week and the planned resolution, union leaders continued to press the issue of possible closures at a public bargaining session at Cameron Elementary on the West Side Tuesday evening.

The session was focused on the union’s demand to expand the number of campuses participating in the Sustainable Community Schools program, a joint district-union initiative that gives extra funding to schools to enlist community nonprofits, beef up after-school programs, and strengthen parent engagement, among other things.

The school district has offered to expand the program from 20 campuses now to 45 within four years, a more modest expansion than the union and Johnson’s administration have sought.

At the session, union Vice President Jackson Potter held up a list of schools flagged for possible consolidation as part of the facilities analysis. He noted that some Sustainable Community Schools are on the list, and questioned whether efforts to transform them could be moot if they end up shuttered down the road.

Bogdana Chkoumbova, the district’s chief education officer, again categorically denied that officials are eyeing closures.

“This referenced list was never made as a recommendation nor was it ever considered as a next step or follow up by anyone,” she said, “There never was a plan to close schools.”

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates countered that staff vacancies and large class sizes in some schools were undermining them, potentially setting them up for closure down the road.

“I am looking at the schools on the list and seeing how they’ve been starved for resources,” she said.

Gates and Potter pressed officials on possible staffing cuts to help balance the district’s almost $10 billion budget, which did not include any dollars for teacher and principal contract costs when the school board passed it earlier this summer.

District officials acknowledged that staffing shortages continue to be an issue. But they argued the district — which added 6,000 positions, including about 2,500 teachers, in the past four years — is on the right track.

“The bottom line is that there are more qualified educators in CPS than at any point before,” said Ben Felton, the chief talent officer.

He said there is no plan to lay off district employees midyear, though he did not rule out the need for such cuts later as enrollments shift.

Budget issue creates rift between mayor and Martinez

Tensions between the mayor and CPS became clear after Johnson told reporters that he was unhappy with the CPS budget, which had a slew of cuts to close its deficit.

Johnson’s desire to oust Martinez came after Martinez and the board declined to cover a chunk of pension payments for non-teaching staff, a move that helped widen a city budget deficit.

When the Johnson administration pushed CPS to take out a short-term loan to help pay for the pension costs, as well as the costs of new teachers and principals union contracts, Martinez and the board balked.

In an internal memo obtained by Chalkbeat, CPS leadership said taking out such a loan would be fiscally irresponsible, could result in a further downgrade of its bond ratings, and would worsen the district’s long-term debt. Martinez publicly confirmed those concerns in his Tribune op-ed.

During the bargaining session, district and union officials joined in praising the community schools model and professing a desire to expand it. But at a press conference afterwards, Davis Gates again took aim at Martinez, calling him a “clown show CEO” standing in the way of a mayor, teachers union and school board in agreement about pumping more dollars into schools and transforming them.

“He can just sign on the dotted line and then we can work together to win more funding for our schools,” she said.

CPS officials canceled their press conference.

In a statement Tuesday, City Hall spokesperson Ronnie Reese did not directly address the resolution.

“As an organizer, Mayor Johnson fought against school closures and participated in a hunger strike to save neighborhood schools,” Reese said. “His vision for public education in Chicago calls for investments in our students — not layoffs and harmful school actions that have traumatized families and communities across the city.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Mila Koumpilova is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Amid contract negotiation standoff, the Chicago Teachers Union invokes school closures

2024-09-19T22:43:21+00:00

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The Chicago Teachers Union is escalating a fight with CEO Pedro Martinez as its contract negotiations drag on, with the union accusing the schools chief of plotting to close or consolidate underenrolled schools.

Martinez says there are no such plans, and that the district’s recent analysis of its buildings led to the conclusion that closures were unnecessary. State law bars Chicago from closing public schools until Jan. 15, 2025.

“Let me reiterate: I will not recommend that any schools be closed during my leadership of CPS,” Martinez wrote to district families this week.

But CTU has doubled down, arguing that the existence of the analysis — which neither CTU nor the district would provide to Chalkbeat — is a problem. Jackson Potter, the union’s vice president, told Chalkbeat Wednesday that school board members should consider removing Martinez over the analysis, calling the schools chief a “huge barrier to our collective success.”

The back-and-forth is a sign that the union is looking to put additional pressure on the CEO as negotiations continue. Martinez, appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, is already on shaky ground, with Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU organizer and close ally of the union, reportedly considering ousting him. And in a city where the shuttering of roughly 50 campuses a decade ago still touches a nerve, the union’s allegations are eye-catching — even if it’s unlikely the schools chief would pursue politically unpopular closures under a mayor and school board that oppose them.

The war of words over closures comes as the district faces looming budget deficits and after Martinez has clashed with both the mayor and the union. The CEO recently rejected an appeal from Johnson to take out a high-interest short-term loan to cover a $175 million employee pension payment and the cost of the teacher contract. Meanwhile, the union has lambasted Martinez for limited progress in the talks over the CTU’s slate of proposals, the union’s most far-reaching and costliest to date.

In a statement to Chalkbeat, CPS spokesperson Mary Ann Fergus reiterated that there are no plans to close or consolidate schools.

School board President Jianan Shi and Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland did not respond to requests for comment.

The facilities analysis: what we know

Although the arrival of migrant families helped push enrollment up last fall, CPS has grappled for years with enrollment declines that have left many of its campuses underenrolled, especially on the city’s South and West sides. How to best address the issue of shrinking schools is a challenge districts across the country are facing post-pandemic, amplifying fears of possible closures.

In a letter to families earlier this week, Martinez said the district conducted a neighborhood-by-neighborhood facilities analysis to inform a new five-year strategic plan that prioritizes efforts to prop up neighborhood schools. In separate communication to staff, he said the school board requested the study.

In his letters to parents and staff, Martinez said the district would not consider a consolidation plan without first consulting families and residents. He noted that the district is currently looking into two specific moves: a new home for the Velma Thomas Early Childhood Center and moving the seventh and eighth grade from Kelvyn Park High School to three neighborhood elementary schools.

Officials have also pointed out the state moratorium against school closures in Chicago, which expires in January on the same day a partly-elected school board will be sworn in. Johnson’s administration and his appointed school board have said unequivocally that they have no appetite for closing campuses, though they opposed a bill in Springfield that, in part, would’ve extended the moratorium to 2027.

Despite Martinez’s reassurances, union officials have repeated their claim that the district is considering closing schools, including during public comment at the school board’s Wednesday meeting.

Potter said the analysis CTU obtained included a detailed list of roughly 70 schools that could be consolidated with 70 other campuses. He also said the union has internal budget slides that reference consolidation as one option for addressing the district’s financial woes, with staff furloughs as another possibility.

“Why would a CEO have a list of 140 consolidations? Why would that be generated in such a detailed manner if they weren’t considering it?” Potter said. “That’s a waste of time and resources.”

Fergus, the district spokesperson, reiterated that the district reviewed facility usage as part of ongoing work related to the Education Facilities Master Plan and its annual capital plan.

By state law, Fergus said, CPS is required to post guidelines by Oct. 1 for “school actions,” a term used to describe changes to a school. She said only co-locations – when schools share a building – would be considered and can only be explored by CPS once a school community has requested it.

As negotiations continue and city budget looms, more pressure on Martinez

The backdrop to this fight is the ongoing contract negotiations.

After months of little progress, the district and union brought in a mediator to oversee the contract talks last month. At the bargaining table, the district has offered teachers raises of up to 5% in the next four years, which officials say will bring the average educator salary to more than $110,000 by the end of the contract, along with benefit increases at no cost to teachers and other concessions. But the district has balked at the union’s proposals to codify class sizes and staffing minimums in the contract, among others. The two are scheduled to bargain in public next Tuesday.

Also looming is pressure on Johnson to close a $223 million deficit in the City of Chicago’s current budget and close next year’s nearly $1 billion gap. Both gaps in the city’s budget, which covers city services such as police and fire, public libraries, and streets and sanitation, exist partly because the school board passed a $9.9 billion budget this summer that did not include money for the pensions of non-teaching staff. The CTU once sharply criticized Lightfoot when she passed on this same pension payment to the school district during her tenure.

Johnson suggested CPS take out a high-interest, short-term loan, but district leaders, backed by the school board, have said short-term borrowing to cover those costs would only add to CPS’s already substantial debt. Reports that Johnson was laying the groundwork to remove Martinez emerged in August amid this disagreement.

The union has made its displeasure with Martinez clear, arguing that district officials – and Martinez specifically – have failed to lobby state lawmakers and the governor aggressively for additional funding.

Potter said union leaders to his knowledge have not spoken with board members about removing Martinez. But he noted that since reports first came out that Johnson was planning to oust the schools chief, the district and union have made more headway at the bargaining table — “improvements in the pace and seriousness of bargaining.”

Still, he said, “If every time we make incremental progress at the bargaining table it’s because we have to threaten Pedro Martinez’s job, that’s not a healthy standard. It’s an impossible one.”

The CEO still has the support of many school leaders. Earlier this month, roughly 460 principals and assistant principals wrote to the school board arguing that after years of leadership turnover, Martinez is making progress in leading the district and his removal weeks into a new school year would cause significant disruption for students and staff.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org .

Who are the Chicago school board candidates for the 2024 election?

2024-09-07T00:23:41+00:00

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Chicago school board candidates have submitted petitions for the city’s first school board elections on Nov. 5.

School board hopefuls need 1,000 valid signatures from residents of their district in order for their name to be printed on the ballot. The deadline to submit signatures was June 24 at 5p.m.

To learn more about the new school board districts and find out which one you live in, Chalkbeat created an interactive map.

Many candidates have also begun fundraising for their campaigns, reporting contributions to the Illinois State Board of Elections.

Here are the candidates running in each district, according to the Chicago Board of Elections.

This list will be updated.

District 1

Jennifer Custer, a CPS parent and former teacher, union leader, and school administrator in the Chicago suburbs
Michelle N. Pierre, a CPS parent and Local School Council member, executive director at New Leaders, a training program for school leaders, former charter school leader, and former district administrator in Cleveland

District 2

Ebony L. DeBerry, director of educational initiatives at ONE Northside, former CPS teacher, parent, and Local School Council member
Kate Doyle, a former special education teacher, co-founder and CEO of youth career development nonprofit KindWork, and Vice President of the Greater Rockwell Organization
Margaret “Maggie” Cullerton Hooper, a CPS parent, Local School Council member, and senior consultant for the Alliance for Black Equality PAC
Bruce Leon, founder of human resources firm and 50th Ward Democratic committeeperson, and a board member of Arie Crown Hebrew Day School

District 3

Jason C. Dónes, chief of people operations at non-profit Beyond 100K, former teacher and leader at Teach for America
Carlos A. Rivas Jr., a spokesperson for the Civilian Office of Police Accountability and former alumni counselor at UIC College Prep, a Noble charter school

District 4

Kimberly Brown, a marketing professional, adjunct professor, and CPS parent
Andrew A. Davis, a nonprofit leader, CPS parent, and former LSC member
Thomas Day, a CPS parent, co-founder of Illinois Veterans for Change
Carmen Gioiosa, a CPS parent, Local School Council member, adjunct professor, former CPS administrator, and former CPS teacher
Ellen Rosenfeld, a family and community engagement manager at Chicago Public Schools, a CPS parent, and former CPS teacher
Karen Zaccor, a teacher at Uplift High School and former LSC member

District 5

Aaron “Jitu” Brown, a community organizer with Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, director of the Journey for Justice Alliance, and a Dyett hunger striker

District 6

Jessica Biggs, a CPS parent and former teacher and school principal
Andre Smith, an entrepreneur and recent candidate for Illinois House 5th District
Anusha Thotakura, a deputy director at Citizen Action/Illinois and former teacher

District 7

Raquel Don, a CPS parent and Local School Council member
Yesenia López, a Latino outreach director with Gov J.B. Pritzker’s campaign
Eva A. Villalobos, an accountant and private school parent

District 8

Angel Gutierrez, chief advancement officer at Chicago Hope Academy, a private high school, and a former leader at Catholic Charities of Archdiocese of Chicago
Felix Ponce, a CPS music teacher and professional trombonist

District 9

Therese Boyle, a school psychologist and former candidate for CTU president
Miquel Lewis, acting director of Cook County Juvenile Probation & Court Services and former appointed member of Chicago Board of Education, current member of Special Education Advisory Committee
La’Mont Raymond Williams, chief of staff and general counsel to Cook County Commissioner Bill Lowry
Lanetta M. Thomas, a community activist

District 10

Robert Jones, a pastor at Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church and a Dyett hunger striker
Karin Norington-Reaves, a CPS parent and consultant, former candidate in Illinois’s 1st congressional district
Adam Parrott-Sheffer, a CPS parent, adjunct lecturer at Harvard, author, former principal in CPS and the Chicago suburbs, former district administrator in New York City
Che “Rhymefest” Smith, a Grammy-award winning songwriter, rapper and community activist

UPDATE: As of Friday, Sept. 6, the following candidates have voluntarily withdrawn or been removed from the ballot:

Chuck Hernandez, Republican committeeman of the 38th Ward on the city’s North West side and retired detective with the Chicago Police Department (District 1)
Daniel Steven Kleinman, community organizer and Local School Council member (District 2)
Kirk J. Ortiz, vice president of a private security company and former candidate for Illinois House District 4 (District 3)
Michilla “Kyla” Blaise, a CPS parent, chief of staff for Cook County Commissioner Frank J. Aguilar, political consultant, and public relations professional (District 5)
Anthony Hargrove, an associate director of the Back To Our Future program at nonprofit Breakthrough Urban Ministries and former dean at Chicago Public Schools (District 5)
Kernetha Jones, a retired CPS teacher (District 5)
Jousef M. Shkoukani, an attorney and founder of an education nonprofit Unified Under Hope (District 5)
Brenda I. Delgado, a CPS parent, vice president of Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, and former Local School Council member (District 6)
Danielle Wallace, a community youth advocate and non-profit leader (District 6)
Felipe “Phil” Luna Jr., a management systems specialist for the Illinois Department of Public Health and Local School Council member (District 7)
Jesus Ayala Jr., chief of program and strategy operations at Metrosquash (District 7)
Darius Dee Nix, interim impact director for City Year Chicago, former CPS charter school teacher, former candidate in Illinois’s 1st congressional district (District 8)
Brittany Bailey Preston, a construction manager and Local School Council member (District 9)
Rosita Chatonda, nonprofit founder and teacher advocate, former CPS teacher and former teachers union organizer (District 10)
James M. Walton, a former school principal and administrator in CPS and the Chicago suburbs (District 10)
Nathaniel “Nate” Ward, director of community outreach & engagement for City Colleges of Chicago, CPS parent, and Local School Council member (District 10)

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools inspector general departs

2024-08-28T15:48:02+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools Inspector General Will Fletcher resigned earlier this month, leaving an opening at the top of one of the nation’s largest school district watchdog agencies.

Over the past four years, Fletcher’s office investigated thousands of sexual misconduct complaints, among other high-profile cases. He stepped down to take a new position two years before his contract was due to expire in 2026.

Fletcher, who started a job this week at the Gateway Development Commission — a public transit agency run jointly by New York and New Jersey — said he had felt no pressure to find a new job and left the district only reluctantly.

“This job was especially important to me because I had a personal commitment to CPS as a former student and a CPS parent,” he said.

On Thursday, the school board is slated to pass a resolution acknowledging Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointment of Amber Nesbitt, Fletcher’s deputy who led his office’s sexual allegation unit, as acting inspector general while the mayor decides on a permanent replacement.

Fletcher’s departure, first reported by WTTW, came about four-and-a-half years after he was appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. He oversaw a number of inquiries that exposed significant misconduct in CPS and drove changes in the district.

His office cracked down on federal Paycheck Protection Program loan abuse by district employees and led district officials to keep better track of hundreds of thousands of laptops, tablets, and other devices bought during the pandemic.

His office also investigated automatic enrollment of all students into JROTC, or Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, at some high schools serving primarily Black students. This practice was brought to light in a 2021 Chalkbeat article. The district ended the practice after Fletcher’s investigation.

After taking over the inspector general’s office in 2020, Fletcher expanded the sexual misconduct investigation unit the district had launched two years earlier, following the publication of a Chicago Tribune series that exposed district mishandling of sexual harassment and abuse of students.

The unit opened more than 2,180 cases since its creation and fielded more than 400 complaints in fiscal 2023 alone. It has substantiated hundreds of complaints, resulting in discipline and criminal charges. The unit’s investigations included inquiries into a dozen employees at Marine Leadership Academy and the former head of Urban Prep Charter Academy, which along with other factors led the district to pull that school’s charter.

He came to oversee a team of 58 people with a $7 million budget, though some positions are now vacant or frozen as part of the district’s efforts to address a growing budget deficit.

Fletcher said overseeing the sexual misconduct and abuse unit has been one of the most rewarding parts of the job.

“It’s a truly unique office that gives students a voice,” he said.

He said his successor must continue the work of making the office more efficient and responsive to the public.

If the mayor’s office does not appoint a replacement to serve out the remainder of Fletcher’s term by Jan. 1, Chicago’s new, partly elected school board could approve a new inspector general when it takes over on Jan. 15, 2025.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Is Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson trying to replace CPS CEO Pedro Martinez?

2024-08-15T01:18:58+00:00

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This story has been updated to include a comment from CPS and the Board of Education.

Chicago Public Schools staff and students could face a rocky start to the school year amid reports of a possible shake-up of the district’s top leadership.

According to WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times, Mayor Brandon Johnson is reportedly looking to replace Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, who has overseen CPS since September 2021 and recently pushed back, alongside the Chicago Board of Education, against directives from City Hall.

The news comes less than two weeks before the start of a new school year and as Chicago is about to be center stage hosting the Democratic National Convention.

But three sources close to CPS who spoke on a condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly told Chalkbeat that Martinez is focused on doing his job and has not expressed interest in quitting.

Ultimately, Chicago’s Board of Education is tasked with hiring – and firing – a CEO. Historically, Chicago mayors have selected who they want to serve as CPS CEO and then had their pick voted on by board members, who were also appointed by the mayor.

The mayor’s office declined to comment about plans to oust Martinez.

In a statement, CPS and the Board of Education said, “The Chicago Board of Education, CEO Martinez, and Chicago Public Schools leadership are focused on preparing for a smooth start to the school year on August 26. We’re excited to work together with our school leaders, educators, and parents to continue to put the needs of our students first and build on our academic growth of the past two school years.”

One source close to CPS heard earlier this month that City Hall had drafted a list of potential replacements for Martinez but was not aware of the mayor’s team conducting interviews with anyone. And another source said that while the board has been aligned ideologically with the mayor’s office, it does not seem to have the appetite to fire Martinez right now.

If this board doesn’t act, the decision could ultimately be left to a new slate of people after Chicago’s first school board elections happen this November. That board will consist of 11 mayoral appointees, and another 10 members who will be elected from across the city.

The tensions between the mayor, CPS leadership, and the Chicago Teachers Union on the eve of a new school year are a stark contrast to harmonious spirit one year ago, when Johnson, Martinez, and CTU President Stacy Davis Gates visited schools together on the first day of classes.

Ald. Jeanette Taylor, who chairs the City Council’s Committee on Education and Child Development, said she had no idea that Johnson was looking to replace Martinez until Wednesday morning when a longtime City Hall newspaper reporter called her.

“I did not know, but I understand,” Taylor said. “Did the man do what he was supposed to do? Did he do his job? Did he put CPS in a better place than it was when he got there? For me, no.”

Still, Taylor said the timing is bad with the school year about to start and it’s “not a good look” given that CPS is currently bargaining with the Chicago Teachers Union.

Ald. Gilbert Villegas, past chair of the City Council Latino Caucus, which lobbied former Mayor Lori Lightfoot to pick a Latino to lead the school district, said he felt Martinez has done a good job and has been a “voice of neutrality” during the bargaining process with CTU.

“There has to be someone in the room that’s making sure that taxpayers are being heard and their issues are being considered here, and it’s just, it just doesn’t make sense that in the middle of negotiations you want to replace the CEO because he’s providing information that you don’t like,” Villegas said.

In recent weeks, the board passed a budget put forward by CPS leadership that Johnson did not approve of. That $9.9 billion spending plan approved last month closed a $505 million deficit through cuts and other savings. But it didn’t include any funding to pay for an eventual new contract with the teachers union or with the district’s new principals union. It also doesn’t include money to pay $175 million in pension costs for non-teaching staff that the city used to cover until the Lightfoot administration. A Johnson spokesperson has previously said they expect CPS to cover the $175 million in pension costs.

The board and CPS also rejected the Johnson administration’s recommendation to take out a short-term loan to pay for additional expenses, including the cost of new teachers and principal contracts and the pension payment. City Hall has continued to push CPS to take that loan and to cover the pension payment, according to one of the sources close to CPS. That source said Wednesday’s news felt disappointing to read about “when we’re all trying to do the right thing for CPS and for the students going forward.”

Negotiations between the district and Chicago Teachers Union, a close ally and former employer of Johnson’s, have become increasingly tense. CTU leadership has directly blamed Martinez for the lack of movement, saying Martinez lacks “the vision” to make the union’s proposals possible.

The 700-plus proposal package covers a variety of issues, including 9% raises for teachers and other members, additional staff to schools, and more support for students and their families in need, such as housing assistance. During a public bargaining session Tuesday, CPS said just 52 of the union’s proposals would cause the district’s deficit to balloon to $3 billion next fiscal year, roughly $2.5 billion more than what the district is already anticipating.

After that bargaining session, Davis Gates expressed frustration about the district’s deficit analysis related to the union’s proposals. Asked if the mayor’s office should reprimand CPS for defying Johnson’s wishes, Davis Gates pointed to other situations where the board has aligned with a mayor’s will, such as the notorious “Willis Wagons” created in the 1960s under former CPS CEO Benjamin Willis to avoid integrating schools or the decision under Mayor Rahm Emanuel to close 50 schools.

“You gotta ask Pedro why he doesn’t comply with the transition report that the mayor’s team said yes to,” Davis Gates said, referring to a report outlining the mayor’s vision for schools that closely aligns with policies CTU supports. “I can’t answer why they are not subordinate.”

Martinez and the board have carried out several policy changes Johnson favors, including moving away from student-based budgeting, stripping schools of on-campus police, and committing to rethinking the school choice system.

Martinez could resign on his own, though it’s unclear if he would still be eligible to receive severance in that case. If the board fired him without cause, he is entitled to severance equal to 20 weeks of pay, or close to $131,000, and would need six months notice, according to his contract with CPS.

Taylor said paying out Martinez’s contract will be costly, but keeping him could be too.

“Our kids cannot afford for us to keep trying to figure it out and fighting amongst each other,” Taylor said. “We wonder why our city is in chaos, because we [are] in chaos.”

Mila Koumpilova contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org .

Amid financial woes, Chicago Public Schools to receive similar state funding increase this year

2024-08-05T23:09:17+00:00

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Amid a bump in students learning English as a new language and a dip in local tax revenue, Chicago Public Schools would now need nearly $1.2 billion to be adequately funded, according to state data released Monday.

The updated figure, which is $93 million more than was projected last year, was provided as part of an annual calculation determining how Illinois will distribute state money to public school districts — and comes as the city’s school district grapples with complex financial problems in the next school year.

Still, Chicago gets about 21% of the funding distributed through the state’s evidence-based formula — which allocates money to districts based on their students’ needs — but serves about 18% of Illinois’ students, said State Superintendent Tony Sanders.

“I think it’s important to note that we still have districts that are below what Chicago was funded,” Sanders said.

Data show 49 Illinois districts are still below 70% adequately funded, compared to 72 districts last year and 430 districts in 2018, right after the state’s funding formula was revamped. Chicago is considered 79% adequately funded.

Districts with greater shares of students with high needs, such as English language learners or low-income students, receive more money under the funding formula. In Chicago’s case, the district’s recent increase in English language learners impacted its adequacy calculation.

In a statement, CPS spokesperson Mary Ann Fergus said the district is “committed to working with our local, state and federal partners” to find more money for students and schools. But the district, which has previously asked Illinois leaders to provide more funding, acknowledged that significantly more money is not coming through this year.

“District leadership recognizes that achieving state funding at the 90 to 100 percent adequacy level for CPS and all districts in Illinois will take time and was not intended to be reached by Fiscal Year 2025,” Fergus wrote.

A closer look at state funding for Chicago

The Chicago Board of Education recently passed a $9.9 billion budget that closed a roughly half-billion-dollar deficit driven largely by the loss of federal COVID relief dollars.

CPS is expected to receive an additional $25.8 million from the state’s evidence-based funding formula for the coming 2024-25 school year. The district also gets state money earmarked for other education initiatives, such as $284 million for early childhood education, according to the district’s adopted budget. CPS’s budget includes a total of $2.6 billion in state funding.

Thousands of migrant families have arrived in Chicago over the past two years, fleeing political and economic strife in South and Central American countries. Amid that shift, Chicago Public Schools enrolled roughly 5,700 more students learning English as a new language in September 2023, compared to the same time in 2022, according to official district data. And over the course of last school year, between last September and this May, more than 7,500 English language learners enrolled across district and charter schools, for a total of more than 85,000 such students, according to preliminary CPS data analyzed by Chalkbeat.

A dip in local revenue also had an impact on how much funding the state calculation indicates Chicago needs. Sanders cited a dip in tax revenue imposed on corporate profits, plus “modest growth” in property values.

The data released by the state Monday focuses on the money distributed through the evidence-based funding formula, which directs more money to districts with higher needs that lack enough local wealth to cover costs.

Most school districts, including Chicago Public Schools, rely primarily on local property taxes to fund public schools. In Chicago, more than $5 billion is collected from local taxes, $4 billion of which is directly from property taxes.

Illinois boosts K-12 funding by $2 billion since 2017

Data shows Illinois has increased funding for public schools by $2 billion since overhauling the funding formula in 2017. In a news release, Gov. J.B. Pritzker said the state will “continue to build on our progress” to ensure every student “gets the quality education they deserve.”

Sanders said that compared to other states, Illinois is investing “more and more” annually into public education that has helped schools get through the pandemic “and sustain their growth” through COVID.

“I think the state deserves credit for continuing that investment year over year, recognizing we’re not there yet,” Sanders said.

State lawmakers decide every spring how much money to send to Illinois’ 852 school districts. In August, the Illinois State Board of Education finalizes the dollar amounts each district will receive.

Illinois divides school districts into four tiers in order to determine how to distribute the money allocated by state lawmakers. Tier 1 districts get the largest increases in state funding because they are considered to be the furthest away from having enough money to sufficiently fund schools; Tier 4 districts are those with the least amount of need and get smaller increases.

One report, penned by a budget watchdog organization whose leader helped craft the state’s funding formula, estimates that districts won’t be adequately funded until 2034 – seven years later than the state had originally committed.

Chicago, the state’s largest district, was a Tier 1 district until 2022, when it moved to Tier 2, as the share of the city’s low-income students dipped and property wealth grew.

Illinois’ second largest school district, U-46, which serves Elgin, Bartlett, Streamwood, and other northwest Chicago suburbs, serves 40,000 students and is considered a Tier 1 district that is 71% adequately funded. That district would need another $173 million to close that gap, according to state data.

The teachers union, as well as CPS and the board, have called on the state to provide more funding to help cover costs, which could still grow this year as officials negotiate new collective bargaining agreements for teachers and school leaders. Officials also don’t yet have a plan for covering $175 million in pension payments for non-teaching staff, which the district wants the city to cover, as it did before Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration.

Pritzker has said more money is not coming this year. Sanders reiterated that on Monday.

“The EBF funding formula is used not just for Chicago, but for funding all 852 school districts across the state,” Sanders said. “It is a fair way of distributing funds across the state, it is going to lead us to better equity in the long run, so no, there are not going to be any short-term changes.”

City Hall also directed CPS to take out a loan to cover additional costs; the district pushed back and has not yet taken out such a loan.

The state also released a report Monday detailing trends of how districts across the state had planned to use state funding.

Tier 1 districts were more likely to make lowering or maintaining class sizes a top strategy for improving student achievement, the report said. Overall, nearly a quarter of all districts said that improving programs, curriculum, and/or “learning tools” was a top strategy, while another 15% were primarily focused on maintaining or improving extra support for students.

Becky Vevea contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s school board is changing. Here’s how it can be effective.

2024-07-29T20:45:00+00:00

Chicago voters will — for the first time — elect school board members this Nov. 5.

After decades of advocacy and several twists and turns, candidates have filed to run, even as open questions remain around ballot access, voter eligibility, and member compensation.

Some claim this transition as a win for democracy, but neither appointed nor elected selection guarantees an effective board. Awareness of this election remains low, as does understanding of what a school board does. The board’s decisions, and ultimately, whether our public schools are effective and equitable, depends on their focus, behaviors, and work.

It matters now more than ever that voters understand why school boards exist, what the Chicago Board of Education’s responsibilities are, and what effective governance looks like, so we can make informed choices this fall.

The 21 school board members — 10 of them elected — will be sworn in on Jan. 15, 2025. These members will have significant influence over how future Chicago school boards will work, the board’s relationship to district leadership, and ultimately, how effective our schools are.

The change in structure is an opportunity to shift from a governance model based on precedent and adult comfort — “this is how we’ve always done things” — to a governance model that is intentionally designed to focus on, and most effectively improve, outcomes for the students of our city.

What is a school board anyway?

To make informed decisions that lead to an effective board, voters must understand what a school board is, what it does, and how it works effectively.

School districts do not exist on their own. They are creatures of state law. In Illinois, Article X of the state Constitution establishes a “fundamental goal” of “educational development of all persons to the limits of their capacities”, that the state “shall provide for an efficient system of high quality public educational institutions and services”, and that it shall have “primary responsibility for financing the system of public education.”

That is, we have public schools to educate all students in our community — to increase what our students know and can do.

The Illinois School Code sets overall expectations of districts and of boards and carves out specific rules for Chicago in Article 34, which was amended in 2021 to make the board elected.

In Chicago, the school board sits below the community; it exists to represent the vision and values of the community, who are the “moral owners” of the district.

The board exists to govern — not manage — for the whole community. This includes students and their families, and also residents who have no “customer” relationship with public schools. These stakeholders have many ideas about which student outcomes should be focused on, and what means should be used to do so.

Elected school board members should engage the whole community to understand the vision they have for students, and the values they have for how this work is done. They must bring coherence to the expectations shared by this diverse community to provide a clear definition of success. This enables the district’s leadership and staff to effectively pursue a common community vision while adhering to a shared set of values.

The board is also responsible for setting and monitoring goals, and developing and passing policies, on behalf of the community. The board is responsible for hiring, supervising, and evaluating a CEO, as well as evaluating its own work. And per statute and its own rules, it has a number of administrative functions, such as approving a budget.

How is Chicago’s school board unique?

Chicago’s school board will shift from seven appointed members to 21 members. For a two-year period beginning in January 2025, 10 members will be elected and 11 will continue to be appointed by the mayor. In 2027, all 21 members will be elected.

As Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) put it earlier this year, Chicago is creating “a new democratic form of government from whole cloth.”

This is not the first time that Chicagoans will vote for people to make decisions about their local public schools. Since 1988, Local School Councils (LSCs) have played a key role in governing individual schools. An effective LSC works just like an effective school board: The LSC sits below the school community, engaging with them to understand and represent their vision and values as moral owners, sets and monitors goals, hires and supervises and evaluates the principal, evaluates its own function, and fulfills other duties like budget approval.

While LSC training has serious issues and too many LSCs are ineffectual in supporting school improvement, this experience may be a helpful resource for future boards. But unlike LSCs, the school board is responsible for results across the entire district.

CPS has delivered progress for students through recent decades, often through times of economic and political challenge, but many of these improvements resulted from professional educators’ work with little Board support.

However, some challenges aren’t easily solvable at the school level. This new governing body will confront decades of segregation and disinvestment that have led to very different experiences for students situated differently in our city.

A recent Public Agenda survey finds that “more city residents trust teachers and principals to look out for students than trust the teachers union, board of education, CPS central office, or mayor to do so” — indeed, half or fewer of city residents trust the Board or district to look out for students. Only four in ten think an elected board will serve students better than an appointed board.

With more changes coming, the Board must govern effectively to face these challenges as a district.

What makes a school board effective?

While school boards make big decisions that impact many aspects of students’ educational experience and outcomes, research on what these boards actually do is limited and often relies on small samples of school board member surveys. These efforts can also provoke political resistance, especially when they focus on student outcomes.

However, ongoing work is shedding more light on what makes school boards effective, and the findings reinforce some of what is known about the characteristics of effective school boards.

Based on the evidence of other districts, whether board members are appointed or elected doesn’t seem to be tightly correlated with effectiveness — but how they work is strongly correlated.

So what should school boards do?

Specific behaviors are associated with improving student achievement. According to a review of existing research compiled by the National Association of School Boards, effective school boards:

engage with and listen to the community, and collaborate with staff and as a board around strong shared beliefs and values about what is possible for students and their ability to learn.
lead with strong collaboration and mutual trust as a united team with the superintendent, assess themselves, and work to train and develop their own knowledge and skills with a commitment to continuous improvement.
commit to a vision of high expectations for student achievement, define clear goals toward it, align and sustain resources towards these goals, embrace and monitor data, communicate progress to the community, and stay focused on improving student achievement (rather than operational issues).

What do these evidence-based best practices about what effective school boards do imply for the Chicago Board of Education?

The district, under the governance of the current appointed board, is going through the process of creating a strategic plan. Staff have incorporated many opportunities for the community to learn about the plan and to voice some reactions.

However, rather than asking the community what is important to them — their vision for our students — the district has developed a plan and then asked for feedback on these methods. This is the reverse of effective practice.

The new board and its successors will have the chance to listen to the community about their vision to identify what outcomes the community feels are most important for our students. This can only happen if the board engages communities by meeting them where they are, getting a broad and representative voice, and asking questions about the community’s vision, rather than feedback about specific methods.

The next step of effective governance is to create focus by setting clear goals reflecting both the community’s vision and the realities of the current state.

Goals are the foundation to make all the subsequent decisions well. Goals allow the board to hold district staff accountable for student outcomes — the purpose of the district — rather than focusing on adult interests or inputs. In particular, clear goals enable the board to monitor progress.

The more the board does this work while staying out of specific methods that district staff select, the more effectively staff can focus and the more likely it is that we make progress so the most important student outcomes are improved.

Finally, how the board operates is crucial to rebuild trust, engagement, and voice. Based on the last several decades, many stakeholders have well-founded concerns about how decisions are made, whether their well-being and perspectives are considered, and whether the outcomes of those decisions have been accurately conveyed.

This distrust can drive the community’s attention to securing inputs for specific schools or neighborhoods, rather than focusing on outcomes. This can move the board to respond primarily to those who have voice and privilege. This can lead to inequity, and through loss of focus, less effective system-wide governance.

What can you do to help Chicago’s elected school board be effective?

There are four things voters can do to help align what candidates do to campaign with what board members do to govern effectively.

First, ask candidates the right questions. This starts with understanding the role of the board.

Candidates are already making statements about who they are, how the district should work, or what they will do on their websites, in campaign materials, and in forums and interviews. Some of these statements are aligned with what boards can do, and even what effective boards do.

But many are not. They make promises that are outside the authority of an individual board member or the board as a whole, focus on methods over outcomes, or prioritize specific subsets of the city rather than the community as a whole.

Ask potential board members what the role of the board is and how they will act to make the board effective — how they will engage with the community, collaborate with each other and with staff, train and develop their own knowledge and skills to improve, and about how they will set and monitor goals for student outcomes.

Second, select candidates who commit to being effective, and help others do the same.

When candidates express their understanding and commitment to effective board behaviors, share this with others in your community — and when they don’t, share that too.

Awareness remains low — 63% of residents are not aware of the transition to an elected board. Turnout in recent elections has been generally low, and research finds that there is often a pronounced demographic divergence between the student population and those who cast ballots in school board elections.

Even on the ballot, school board elections will show up after every other elected office, followed only by the numerous votes on retaining judges.

Make a plan to vote, and to activate your communities, so board members who are committed to effective governance have a chance to serve, and all board members realize that their voters care about effectiveness.

Third, give candidates (and board members) input.

Chicagoans have varied opinions about what is important for our students to learn, about the priorities among them, and about the values by which our schools should abide. It is important to have conversations about these questions, and it is the board’s job to represent the community’s views.

Unfortunately, the attention of advocates, candidates, and voters has disproportionately been on factors of identity, affiliation, and ideology rather than goals for our students. Even with competent and dedicated district leadership, staff, and educators, we’re less likely to achieve the outcomes our students deserve if the board doesn’t do its job well. We must all give the board input on what is most important for the district to achieve, so these outcomes are as likely as possible.

Finally, hold board members accountable.

Accountability isn’t just about consequences; even more powerful than what happens after the decisions are made is setting clear expectations up front of what needs to be accomplished. Just as the board is responsible for holding the CEO and their staff accountable to deliver the outcomes that our students need and deserve, we as voters are responsible to hold the members of the board accountable to do their job of governance.

We must expect them to focus on what’s best for students, listen to the community’s vision, communicate the current state and progress, and provide clarity on plans for the future. If we as voters prioritize a district that works for all our kids rather than prescribing specific methods or focusing on local needs or in response to adult interests, we will have the best chance of a district that will navigate upcoming challenges to continue improving outcomes for all of our students.

This historic governance transition poses risks, but also opportunities. If voters engage with candidates now, through the election, and beyond, we will give the board the best chance to operate effectively, so our district has the best chance of delivering our students the outcomes they need and deserve.

Sendhil Revuluri is a parent of two CPS students, a former teacher, and former vice president of the Chicago Board of Education from June 2019 to December 2022.

CPS won’t guarantee busing for general education students this school year – but is piloting new strategies

2024-07-25T22:10:02+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools won’t guarantee busing for general education students next school year, but officials are trying two new strategies to help more kids get to school.

Those strategies, officials said Thursday, include plans to adjust bell times at 36 district schools and piloting a program where buses pick students up at “hubs,” officials said.

The efforts are meant to help free up more buses to serve more students after the district cut service last year for about 5,500 general education students who were largely attending selective enrollment and magnet schools.

The district’s decision resulted in a constant drumbeat of criticism over the last school year from families who had lost busing. The policy even led some families to transfer out of their school.

CPS officials cited a bus driver shortage when it decided to only bus students with disabilities and those who are homeless, groups entitled to transportation under federal law. But CPS had been working to comply with a state corrective action plan imposed in 2022 that called for shorter bus rides for students with disabilities. The state closed that corrective action plan in April.

The district’s bus vendors transported just over 9,300 students last school year, with most of them students with disabilities. Another 3,600 students received a stipend to cover transportation costs. The district budgeted $146.3 million for student transportation last fiscal year, which ended on July 1, according to budget records.

CPS announced Thursday it will still offer stipends of up to $500 to students with disabilities who are eligible for transportation, but will now limit these to students who live at least five miles away from their schools. Officials said they made the change to save money and get more of these students on bus routes.

Charles Mayfield, the district’s chief operating officer, said the district is forecasting to enroll more students with disabilities next school year, which starts Aug. 26. CPS said the district intends to provide bus routes to all students with disabilities whose Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, or 504 plans call for busing, as well as students who are homeless who qualify for busing before launching the new efforts for general education students.

Last year, about 1,900 general education students who were previously eligible for busing also received Ventra cards upon request.

The bell time adjustments will allow bus vendors to cover more routes and increase the number of students they carry, according to CPS. For example, a bus could drop off kids at a school where the start time is 7:30 a.m., then pick up and drop off students to a school that starts at 8:45 a.m., a district official told the board.

The timeline for the “hub stop” pilot program was less certain. Officials said they hope to launch it during the first quarter of the school year. Under the model, students would get on buses to their school from another school. It was unclear how close these hubs would be to students’ homes.

Once the hub pilot program starts, students in “underserved communities” will be given initial access to the hubs, officials said.

It is “the district’s goal” to provide access to the hub stops to “all general education students who are eligible,” said Mary Ann Fergus, CPS spokesperson, in a statement.

Natasha Haque, a leader in the CPS Parents for Buses group, said parents are thrilled that the district will at least try to provide rides for general education students though families still face uncertainty weeks before the school year’s start. The group, which formed last year to advocate for more transportation options, had pushed for the idea of hubs as a way to make school bus routes more efficient.

“This is a vastly different message from CPS,” Haque said. “They are trying to fill all those empty seats on school buses, which they refused to do last year.”

Haque’s husband drove their sixth grade daughter from their Lincoln Park home to her gifted program on the South Side last school year, picking up another student bound for the same school on the way and logging as much as three-and-a-half hours on that commute every day. The husband, who works multiple jobs, had to adjust his work schedule to make the trips possible.

This fall, Haque’s daughter will start seventh grade on a campus much closer to their home, largely because of how tough commuting to school was on the family.

“It was a real struggle last year, with families taking many different modes of transportation,” she said.

Over the course of last year, the district said it held multiple hiring fairs and increased driver pay to attract more drivers, but saw little movement with those efforts.

“It is too early to say how one strategy, such as adjusting bell times or establishing the hub stops, will increase student bus riders as it is contingent on other factors, including the hiring of sufficient drivers,” said Fergus in a statement.

Mila Koumpilova contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Here are Chicago’s new school board districts

2024-06-17T15:45:02+00:00

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This November, Chicago voters will elect school board members for the first time to govern Chicago Public Schools, the nation’s fourth largest school district.

The change will end 30 years of mayoral control.

Activists and parents started pushing for the ability to elect Chicago school board members roughly a decade ago, after years of education reform that changed how schools were funded, how teachers were evaluated, how many schools were opened and closed, and who operated them.

In 2021, state lawmakers passed legislation to create a half-elected, half-appointed 21-member elected school board in Chicago by 2025 and a fully-elected board by 2027.

Explore more in this interactive map.

Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Teachers Union to hold first public bargaining session

2024-06-13T23:40:00+00:00

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Chicagoans will get a window into collective bargaining between the city’s public school district and its teachers union at a first-of-its-kind meeting Friday night.

Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union will hold a public bargaining session at Marquette Elementary in the city’s West Lawn neighborhood on the South Side. As of midday Wednesday, registration to attend in person had reached capacity, but officials said it will be livestreamed on YouTube.

But at Friday night’s session — held on the first weekend of summer break — the two sides do not plan to discuss any provisions of the current CTU contract, such as those dealing with class size limits, pay raises, or other benefits. Instead, they plan to discuss “healthy, safe, and green schools.”

Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teachers union organizer, made “green schools” part of his education platform last year. School facilities are typically dealt with in the district’s capital budget, which had its own series of public hearings already this year.

Tonight’s meeting is another sign of a more friendly relationship between the two parties.

The CTU’s current contract expires on June 30. Last week, CPS posted their opening proposals online and sent an email to parents sharing more information about how they will approach labor negotiations. CTU has posted their proposals online for members to access using a passcode, and the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think tank, published a copy of the union’s ideas to their website.

While there is a lot for the two sides to sort out, one thing seems certain: Chicago’s new, partially elected school board likely won’t have much say over the teachers union contract during board members’ first few years on the job.

Though the length of the contract won’t be discussed Friday, the dueling proposals put forward by both sides would lock a new contract in place that would last through the first two rounds of school board elections.

CPS is proposing a five-year contract that would expire on June 30, 2029, while CTU is putting forward a four-year deal expiring on May 1, 2028.

Ten new school board members will be elected from 10 districts on Nov. 5, 2024. Those 10, plus 11 appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, will be sworn in on Jan. 15, 2025. In November 2026, 20 members will be elected from 20 districts and the school board president will be elected at-large.

The current contract is a five-year deal that began after a 12-day strike in 2019, but negotiations between CPS and CTU occurred multiple times during the COVID pandemic around schools returning to in-person learning. The previous contract covered three school years starting in 2016, and the one negotiated in 2012 ended up being four years.

It’s common for public sector labor agreements to extend through one or more election cycles, said Robert Bruno, a professor of labor and employment at the University of Illinois.

“Things like school board elections, things like a mayoral and city council elections, really should not be first and foremost,” Bruno said.

“They should bring a package forward that says, ‘This will be good for the district, it’ll be good for students, and it’s affordable, and teachers, our employees will be supportive of it,’” Bruno said.

A CPS spokesperson said the district wants a five-year contract “to ensure stability and predictability” to allow the district “to more effectively plan our academic and operational programming, supports, and services.”

A CTU representative said school board elections did not factor into their proposal for a four-year contract. The representative added that the union supports giving parents and communities more say over the public school system through an elected board.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Board of Education opens new school safety policy for public comment

2024-05-23T21:55:09+00:00

The Chicago Board of Education moved one step closer Thursday to creating a new school safety policy that would rid campuses of school resource officers by the fall.

The board voted to open a 30-day period where the public can comment on the newly proposed Whole School Safety plan, which pushes schools to embrace alternatives to traditional disciplinary practices and teach students how to understand their emotions, known as social-emotional learning.

The board is expected to vote on the plan in July, after the public comment period is over.

Jadine Chou, chief safety and security officer for CPS, noted the proposed plan was created with feedback from a survey and the Whole School Safety Steering Committee, made up of community-based organizations that had advocated for a different approach to safety.

“It’s not just about locks on our doors or cameras,” Chou said. “It’s about how children feel when they enter the building, how welcome they feel and how emotionally well they are.”

The proposed policy change comes three months after the board voted to ban school resource officers, or SROs, who are trained and staffed by the Chicago Police Department. Currently, 39 schools have SROs while Local Schools Councils at 14 other schools voted to remove their officers.

That decision also called for CPS to create a new “holistic” safety policy that incorporated alternative discipline, such as restorative justice, which focuses on conflict resolution and getting to the root of why students act out.

In defending the change, the board’s February resolution said the rates of suspensions and calls to police are disproportionately higher for students with disabilities and Black students, compared to their Hispanic and white peers, and contended that adopting alternative disciplinary practices could help reduce those disparities.

Chou said Thursday that the previous board had committed to “a vision” to phase out SROs and to change safety guidelines in August 2020, following outcry in response to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

The board at the time also directed Local School Councils to vote on whether they wanted to keep SROs on campus. The board’s decision now to strip LSCs of that authority has drawn criticism from LSCs and elected officials, including state lawmakers who filed a bill that would allow LSCs to contract directly with the Chicago Police Department for campus officers. That bill is still moving through the legislature, but there’s limited time left for it to pass as the legislative session is set to end soon.

Nationally, research has shown that schools with police officers tend to have more student arrests, but it’s unclear whether that’s caused by the presence of police or if those schools have more challenges than others. And a recent study found that Chicago schools that adopted restorative justice practices saw a drop in student arrests.

Under the proposed safety plan, all schools would also be required to do the following by 2028:

Create a Whole School Safety committee made up of parents, teachers, and students.
Hire at least one security guard. Schools would get more guards based on a formula that considers multiple factors, such as the size of the school building, the number of students, and neighborhood crime.
Create an emergency management plan that’s updated annually.
Teach social-emotional learning.
Implement restorative justice practices.
Include training on “climate, trauma-responsive, and social and emotional learning” in professional development plans.
Have behavioral health teams, which are supposed to help students who are in crisis, have experienced trauma, or are in need of mental health assistance. Most CPS schools – 460 – already have such teams, according to a district spokesperson.
Keep all doors locked, except for bathrooms.

The district’s new school funding formula also promises every school a security guard and for high-need schools, a restorative justice coordinator.

Schools will be required to adhere to the new guidelines and create safety plans in phases. The schools that go first will be chosen based on how often they’re currently using exclusionary disciplinary practices, Chou said.

Multiple people from the steering committee spoke Thursday in favor of the policy.

So did Natasha Erskine, executive director of the nonprofit Raise Your Hand, who told board members the plan is overdue. Like some experts, Erskine said she has some concerns about exactly how the plan will be implemented and funded, and is eager to find out more about these specifics.

Chou said schools will be encouraged to build on things they’re already doing and hopes that implementing the guidelines over a number of years — as opposed to all at once — will help.

But overall, Erskine said, “Parents are optimistic about what’s listed in your policy.”

The public can provide comment on the policy on the district’s website. They can also attend four meetings next month, which will be posted online at www.cps.edu/wholeschoolsafety.

Mila Koumpilova contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools pitches safety plan calling for restorative justice, no police in schools

2024-05-15T22:38:13+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools pitched a new school safety plan Wednesday that would get rid of campus police, call for more training for educators on alternative discipline practices, and require locking classroom doors.

The proposed plan, which is on the agenda for next week’s board meeting, comes three months after the Chicago Board of Education passed a resolution to remove school resource officers, or SROs, by the start of next school year. At the time, the board directed CPS CEO Pedro Martinez to create a new safety plan by June 27 that focuses on restorative practices.

Thirty-nine high schools still have on-campus police officers staffed by the Chicago Police Department. At 57 other schools, Local School Councils, or LSCs, voted to remove SROs.

The board’s plan to remove police could be reversed. State lawmakers have filed a bill that would allow LSCs to contract with the Chicago Police Department to staff SROs. That bill is still being negotiated, according to a spokesperson for Rep. Mary Gill, the bill’s sponsor who represents Chicago’s Beverly neighborhood.

The district’s new proposed safety plan, however, extends beyond campus police. The plan builds on existing district efforts to teach kids about social-emotional skills and restorative justice practices, which are alternatives to discipline meant to resolve conflict and understand the root of student behavior, according to the proposal. All schools would be required to have a safety plan based on these new guidelines by 2028.

The plan covers “physical safety, emotional safety, and relational trust, which drives the development of a holistically safe environment,” said Jadine Chou, CPS’s chief of safety and security, during a board meeting Wednesday to review the board’s agenda for next week.

Chou said the plan was developed with community organizations and considered feedback from a survey about school safety that drew 9,000 responses. The board will vote next week to open a 30-day public comment period on the proposed plan and would vote on the plan after that.

Among the proposed plan’s highlights:

All schools would be required to have at least one security guard. Schools would get more guards based on a formula that considers multiple factors, such as the size of the school building, the number of students, and neighborhood crime.
All schools would be required to have an emergency management plan that’s updated annually.
All schools would have to teach social-emotional learning and must implement restorative practices.
Schools would include training on “climate, trauma-responsive, and social and emotional learning” in professional development plans
All schools would be required to have behavioral health teams, which are charged with supporting students who are in crisis, those who have experienced trauma, or are in need of mental health assistance. Most CPS schools – 460 – already have such teams, according to a district spokesperson.
All interior and exterior doors must be locked at all times, except for bathroom doors. Staff would have keys to doors.

This fall, all schools would receive data from the district to “conduct a baseline assessment of their safety, culture and climate” and would be required to develop safety plans based on that assessment.

After brief remarks from Chou on Wednesday, board members applauded the proposal. Board member Rudy Lozano said it signals a shift from discipline to a “healing-centered equity frame for students.”

Board’s approach to school safety draws mixed response

The board’s recent actions on school safety drew praise from advocates who had long pushed CPS to invest money in more social workers and other resources, and highlighted how Black students were more likely to be arrested. The decision drew opposition from some Local School Councils and elected officials who felt that LSCs should decide whether to keep police on campus.

Most research shows that schools with police tend to have higher arrest and suspension rates but doesn’t clarify whether police are the cause or if officers are more likely staffed at schools with more challenges, according to a Chalkbeat review of research in 2020. Nationally, students have generally positive views of SROs but those views tend to worsen among Black students, who are more likely to get arrested. Another study last fall found that Chicago schools implementing restorative justice practices saw fewer student arrests. Students also reported feeling safer at school.

David Stovall, a UIC professor of Black studies and criminology, law, and justice, said the district’s proposed safety plan reflects what many community members have asked for.

However, Stovall said, the plan will work only if officials can ensure all schools are meeting requirements, such as creating behavioral health teams with mental health professionals.

“It can’t be just one office operating out of central [office], right? You have to have teams of folks in order to do that work we’re talking about,” Stovall said.

The plan seems to require more resources at a time that CPS is projecting a $391 million budget deficit next fiscal year, which begins July 1, he said.

Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, which works with the Chicago Police Department to train Chicago’s SROs, said he was “deeply disappointed” in the board’s decision. Canady said officers are trained to “build positive relationships” with students, parents, and staff.

“We recognize that in some communities, there’s strained relationships with law enforcement,” Canady said. “If we’re ever going to get that right, we’ve got to get it right with the next generation [and] the next generation just happens to be adolescents that are going to become our next adults in society.”

The movement to remove SROs came into focus in 2019, when the U.S. Department of Justice placed the Chicago Police Department under a federal consent decree and raised questions about the role of campus police. Then in 2020, the district asked LSCs to vote on whether they wanted to keep their SROs after protests over Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of Geroge Floyd.

On the campaign trail, Mayor Brandon Johnson said he supported getting rid of campus police, but later said he supports letting LSCs make that decision for their schools. Johnson flipped again earlier this year when he supported the board’s decision to remove officers.

Correction: May 15, 2024: This story previously said the incorrect number of days this proposal will go out for public comment.

Samantha Smylie contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

What does it take to be a school board member? New Chicago leadership program offers a guide.

2024-05-03T15:21:29+00:00

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In a classroom normally filled with teenagers, 16 adults sat at desks arranged in a U-shape on a recent Saturday afternoon at Roosevelt High School on Chicago’s North Side.

Behind the group, there was a small table with a box of red, green, and yellow wristbands. Green meant you were fine with hugs; yellow OK’ed high fives and fist bumps; and red meant “no touching, send vibes!” according to a sign taped to the table. Next to the wristbands were a stack of packets that said “Effective School Boards Framework.”

At the front of the class, a projected slide said in big letters, “Student outcomes don’t change until adult behaviors change.”

It was time for lessons on how to be on a school board.

AJ Crabill, an author presenting to the group that day, asked the class: Who is at the top of the organizational chart of a school system?

It’s not the school board, he said.

The superintendent, someone wondered.

“It is 1,000% not the superintendent,” Crabill said.

The mayor?

“It’s definitely not the mayor.”

Students?

That would be “beautiful,” Crabill said, but that’s not how it works typically.

The correct answer: The community.

Crabill, director of governance for the Council of the Great City Schools, was explaining to the class of education advocates, parent leaders, and prospective school board members that any school system exists to serve the public — but sometimes policymakers forget that.

“The moment you realize the community is at the top of the org chart, and then you realize, ‘That seems completely incongruent with my lived experience,’” Crabill said, drawing some laughs.

AJ Crabill, Director of Governance for the Council of Great City Schools, speaks to the inaugural class of Academy for Local Leadership (ALL) Chicago fellows during School Board School held at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Chicago, Illinois on April 19, 2024.

The students are the inaugural class of a new, eight-month fellowship launched by National Louis University to prepare people for Chicago’s first elected school board, said Bridget Lee, the fellowship’s executive director. The fellowship is funded by Crown Family Philanthropies, The Joyce Foundation, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, and Vivo Foundation (Crown, Joyce, and Vivo also support Chalkbeat. Learn more about our funding here.)

Known as the Academy for Local Leadership, or ALL Chicago, the fellowship is happening at a critical time. Chicago voters will begin electing people to the city’s school board this November, and candidates are building campaigns. But Lee said the program is for advocates as well as potential candidates.

Fellows had to apply to join the program, which began in March and will last through November and are hosted across the city, said Lee, who added that they are still figuring out the timing for the second cohort of fellows. Fellows are given a $400 stipend to help cover transportation costs — an amount Lee hopes will increase in the future, she said.

Academy for Local Leadership (ALL) Chicago fellow Mary Nikoo takes notes during a session held at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Chicago, Illinois on April 19, 2024.

Over about two sessions a month, the group will learn the basics of Chicago’s school system, the district’s finances, and how to make an “action plan” for creating change in school communities.

Towards the end of the program, fellows will flesh out their actual action plan and present their vision for change during their graduation ceremony. By then, some of the fellows who are running for school board may have won their elections.

The first group of fellows includes a handful of people running for office and many with close ties to the district. It includes Sendhil Revuluri, a former board member; Danielle Wallace, a school board candidate running in District 6 on the South Side; and Mykela Collins, a mother with two children in Chicago Public Schools who serves on a Local School Council.

Wallace, a former teacher and nonprofit leader in Englewood, was on the fence about running for school board until she started the fellowship.

“One of the most valuable things for me is becoming really clear on what my thoughts and values and positions are on different topics,” Wallace said. “That just gives me a lot of confidence on making the right decisions from that seat.”

Fellows Jesus Ayala Jr. and Carlos Rivas have also filed campaign finance paperwork to run for school board seats in District 7 on the South West side and District 3 on the North West side, respectively.

Collins said she applied for the fellowship because she wanted to know how to be a better advocate.

“I wanted to know who is important for me to go to, the type of questions I can ask and needed to ask and how I can go about getting those answers,” Collins said.

Academy for Local Leadership (ALL) Chicago fellows Mykela Collins, right, and Christina Jensen, left, laugh during a session held at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Chicago, Illinois on April 19, 2024.

Lee’s idea for the fellowship formed three years ago, when Illinois lawmakers first passed a law creating the elected school board. As a former teacher and CPS employee who worked in the central office, Lee wondered how the public would learn about the complicated new governance system. Lee then visited a program in Cincinnati called School Board School, which educates school board candidates and advocates, and decided to bring the model to Chicago, she said.

Lee said “plenty” of organizations help political candidates navigate politics. ALL Chicago focuses instead on learning about the school system and how to work with people who may not agree with you — just like a school board.

For example, this first batch of fellows sees eye-to-eye on about 80% of things: They care about children, and they want all students to succeed regardless of their backgrounds, Lee said. She wants the fellowship to be the place where people can have “productive civil discourse” about the 20% of things they don’t agree on.

“I think that fellows are sort of learning from each other, like how their own stories and their own experiences have shaped their viewpoint and how the system should run and are learning how to talk about that in a way that moves things forward,” Lee said.

Since the program began in March, the group has already heard from some experienced policymakers, including former Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson, Lee said. They’ve also started to create their plans for how they want to impact the school system.

On the Saturday afternoon when Crabill was there, however, the fellows went back to the basics.

He asked the group to ponder some big questions, such as, “Why do school systems exist?” Answers varied. One person said the goal was to prepare children for the workforce. Another said school systems also help students socialize.

Academy for Local Leadership (ALL) Chicago fellow Cory Cain asks a question to speaker AJ Crabill, Director of Governance for the Council of Great City Schools, during a session held at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Chicago, Illinois on April 19, 2024.

After learning that the community is at the top of the organizational chart, Crabill, who wrote the book, “Great On Their Behalf: Why School Boards Fail, How Yours Can Become Effective,” emphasized another basic fact of being an elected official: Your job is never over.

“You gonna be sittin’ up in the grocery store trying to find a non-squishy avocado, and somebody gonna come up to you and complain about, how come their kid didn’t get a part in the play?” Crabill said, igniting laughter across the room.

But, seriously, he said: “This becomes your life. People will roll up on you at any moment when you have put yourself in the position to be their representative — and I think it’s perfectly appropriate for them to do so.”

The fellows’ knowledge of Chicago Public Schools varied. One person talked about the district’s school bus crisis. At one point, one fellow informed another that Chicago Public Schools had scrapped its old school rating policy last year. The second fellow replied, “Thank God.”

Materials used by Academy for Local Leadership (ALL) Chicago fellows are seen on the desks during a session held at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Chicago, Illinois on April 19, 2024.

Other times, fellows had some universal experiences with CPS. For instance, during a discussion about public feedback, the class started talking — and commiserating — all at once about the process of signing up for public comment during monthly Chicago Board of Education meetings.

“You gotta sign up two days in advance and it finishes in two minutes,” one fellow said.

“Yes!” another replied.

School board members should never only consider public feedback during a meeting, Crabill said, given that most people in the community won’t be represented there.

Crabill also covered the murky line of when board members should step in to solve a problem or delegate to someone else.

He asked the group to imagine a class of 26 students where six of the children have higher needs and get more attention from the teacher. Now imagine that a father of one of the other 20 children calls a school board member he knows, asking for more attention for his child. The board member then calls the teacher to fix the problem. What is the teacher going to do?

One fellow’s answer stood out: “Spend more time with that one kid,” she said.

That’s probably what would play out – but Crabill warned the group to never let that happen. School board members should be pointing the parent to the proper channels for expressing their concern instead of giving them inequitable access to power and frustrating their employees in the process.

Fellows in the inaugural class of Academy for Local Leadership (ALL) Chicago listen to speaker AJ Crabill, Director of Governance for the Council of Great City Schools, during a session held at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Chicago, Illinois on April 19, 2024.

“We’ve created a hostile work environment for our staff that pressures them to no longer do what in their judgment is the best interest of children but instead do what is in the best interest of the power that be that showed up,” Crabill said.

This lesson was enlightening for Collins, the mother and LSC member.

“Learning that the roles and the responsibilities and accountability of the board is so much different from what I ever thought,” Collins said. “I thought that the board is supposed to do everything…anything goes wrong in the school, it’s the board’s issue, but learning that’s not how it is and they delegate different folks throughout the district to make those changes.”

During the session, fellows had a meta moment. They realized that so much of what they’re learning about the school system isn’t common knowledge to the general public. Was there a way that the system or a future board could spread what they’re learning?

Crabill challenged them.

“This is a new scenario for Chicago,” Crabill said, “so write a new script.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Teachers Union reveals some key contract demands

2024-04-16T21:20:12+00:00

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The Chicago Teachers Union wants its next contract to include raising the salary floor for paraprofessionals, more dual language programs, sports and fine arts programs for every school, and more Sustainable Community Schools, which provide wraparound services for students, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said Tuesday.

The union also wants bargaining sessions to be open to the public, Davis Gates said at a press conference at Richards Career Academy on the Southwest Side, a Sustainable Community School where she was flanked by teachers and other union members.

Davis Gates said having more Sustainable Community Schools is just one area that the union agrees on with Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former middle school teacher and former CTU organizer. That commonality is different from contentious negotiations of the past that led to two strikes, she noted.

That changing dynamic is coupled with the union’s desire to open bargaining sessions up to the broader public, such as through livestream, because the contract is meant to benefit everyone, Davis Gates said.

“When I say that this contract is about the common good, I am saying that in the front yard of this city, we will be inviting families to participate, our students to participate,” Davis Gates said. “We will be inviting Chicagoans who believe that this is the greatest city on Earth, to participate in building the greatest school district on Earth.”

Davis Gates later said that the public sessions can only happen if CPS agrees. A CPS spokesperson said the district “looks forward to learning more” about CTU’s request to publicly bargain. A representative for City Hall did not immediately return a request for comment.

“Although contract talks between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) have not yet commenced, the District looks forward to negotiating a fair contract that balances the interests of the hard working educators with our budget constraints,” said Evan Moore, district spokesperson, in a statement.

There is some precedent. In Colorado, state law requires teachers’ contract negotiations to be done in public. In Chicago, with a union-friendly mayor who drew heavy support from the CTU on the campaign trail, contract negotiations this year may not result in a long battle or lead to a strike, as they have in past years under former mayors Rahm Emanuel and Lori Lightfoot.

However, bargaining will occur as the district is deciding how to close a $391 million budget deficit as federal COVID dollars run out. That challenge raises questions about how many costly demands CPS can commit to.

In an interview last week with Chalkbeat, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said the district’s structural deficit — when expenses exceed revenue — preceded the pandemic and, in recent years, was due in part to the 2019 CTU contract agreement that will expire this June. Budget watchdogs have noted that this financial situation prevents the mayor from agreeing to every union demand.

Asked about the economic implications of the contract, Davis Gates did not provide more specific details but said the union will ask for “substantial amounts of investment into our school community,” and emphasized that schools still don’t have enough staff.

However, CTU and the district already agree on at least one thing: Both believe the state should provide more funding to CPS to help alleviate its financial pressures and have said they are pushing lawmakers to do so. The state has boosted funding for CPS since overhauling its funding formula in 2017. But that new formula indicates that CPS would still need $1.1 billion to be considered adequately funded.

There are no signs yet that more money is coming. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has proposed a budget that would increase K-12 funding by the same amount as last year.

CTU delivers demands across the city

After the press conference Tuesday, union leaders rode a trolley to deliver its demands to Pritzker’s office, as well as Johnson’s office and some of its critics, such as the Civic Federation, a nonpartisan government watchdog group. The trolley also stopped at the offices of White Sox and Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf, who has sought $1 billion in taxpayer subsidies to build a new Sox stadium. Asked why the union approached him, a CTU spokesperson said, “because he loves Chicago as much as we do.”

Before the trolley took off, various school staffers took the microphone at Richards to discuss different contract demands.

Christel Williams-Hayes, the CTU’s recording secretary, highlighted the work of paraprofessionals who provide additional support to schools and can include special education assistants, teacher assistants, school clerks, and parent advocates, among others. The union plans to demand a higher salary floor for paraprofessionals, Davis Gates said. Their pay can range based on the specific paraprofessional job title and years of experience.

One of the lowest paid paraprofessional positions is a teacher assistant, which has a starting salary this school year of $36,259, an increase from $30,862 in the 2019-20 school year, according to the CTU’s current contract.

Charese Munoz, an English teacher at Spencer Technology Academy in Garfield Park, said the city must expand dual language programming to more Black students who can benefit from learning a language other than English.

Rolando Perez, a restorative justice coordinator at Brighton Park Elementary School, which is also a Sustainable Community School, said the union wants “each school and each student” to have a restorative justice coordinator who oversees an alternative form of discipline that focuses on resolving conflicts. The Board of Education recently directed the district to create a new safety plan by removing school resource officers from campuses and implementing alternative disciplinary practices, such as more restorative justice.

“Simply put,” Perez said, “how can a student be ready to learn when they come into a school if they are not feeling fully supported socially and emotionally?”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools ending student-based budgeting in favor of set staffing levels at all campuses

2024-03-21T22:08:53+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools plans to do away with a decade-old system in which school funding was largely based on student enrollment. Instead, starting next year, each school will get a set number of staff and additional funding based on need.

The change, announced Thursday at a Chicago Board of Education meeting, is part of a revamp of the district’s funding formula and delivers on a promise Mayor Brandon Johnson made during his mayoral campaign to end student-based budgeting.

The district had already started to move away from a student-based approach in the previous two budget cycles, as it funded more positions – such as social workers – centrally. The current formula also accounts for student needs, such as how many students with disabilities need additional support.

Under the new formula, every school will have certain guaranteed staff, including an assistant principal, a counselor, and core classroom teachers. It would guarantee “a baseline level of resources for every school, regardless of enrollment,” then add more based on need, according to a district presentation.

Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, welcomed the move away from student-based budgeting, calling it an inequitable approach “because not every student has the same needs and doesn’t generate the same resources.”

It will, however, likely be challenging for the district to roll out a new funding model when schools already have “a certain funding expectation” they rely on to pay for contracts or programming. The district should try to hold schools harmless, meaning schools shouldn’t lose money under the new formula, Martire said.

In 2013, Chicago Public Schools switched from using a budgeting system that funded a set number of staff at each school to one that allocated money per student. As schools lost enrollment, their budgets often tightened. But budgets have also grown over the past few years with the influx of $2.4 billion, so far, in federal COVID relief funding.

The district’s enrollment declined significantly over the past decade, losing more than 75,000 students since 2013. Enrollment stabilized this year with about 323,000 students enrolled. At the same time, the number of employees has grown. District staffing data shows CPS employed roughly 43,500 people as of the end December, up from around 37,000 as of December 2018.

District officials and school board members did not immediately share more details about the formula. It remains unclear exactly how funding will be allocated to campuses or how much autonomy a principal and Local School Council would have over their school’s budgets.

Schools will also receive discretionary funding, but it is not clear how that will be calculated.

A school’s need will be determined by something called the “opportunity index,” which considers several factors, such as the percentage of students with disabilities, those who are homeless, those learning English as a new language, those who come from low-income families, the number of teachers a school was able to retain, and whether a school is segregated by race or ethnicity. The index also considers data about the surrounding community and how a school has been funded historically.

“Maybe it’s just more striking because I’ve been here for a while now, but this is a major shift and it’s important,” said Elizabeth Todd-Breland, vice president of the Chicago Board of Education.

The funding formula shift comes as the district is also facing a projected $391 million deficit, as federal COVID relief funding runs out. That gap must be filled by revenue that has not yet been identified, Mike Sitkowski, the district’s budget director, told the board Thursday.

District officials are projecting an additional roughly $25 million in K-12 funding next year under the state’s Evidence-Based Funding formula, or EBF, which makes up the largest portion of state funding for CPS. That would bring total EBF funding for Chicago to nearly $1.8 billion. State officials have gradually provided more funding to Illinois school districts under the formula, but CPS officials are advocating for a larger increase, arguing that the district is still owed more than $1 billion.

When accounting for all state funding, Illinois gave Chicago Public Schools nearly $2.5 billion for this current fiscal year, up from $1.5 billion in 2017, the year before the state reformed how it was funding school districts.

Even with the budget challenges, the district is working to keep several of the new investments it made using federal COVID dollars, including high-dosage tutoring, additional counselors, and extended learning time, such as the expansion of summer school, as well as before- and after-school programming.

Officials defended those investments by highlighting a recent study that showed Chicago’s reading scores have bounced back from the pandemic at a greater rate than most big school districts.

“It should not take a crisis for us to fully fund our schools,” Bogdana Chkoumbova, the district’s chief education officer, said during her presentation Thursday.

In an interview earlier this week, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said the district may also have to make “hard decisions” this year. That could include pausing “critical” repairs for buildings, he said.

Becky Vevea contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools ‘hitting the gas pedal’ on expanding dual language programs

2024-03-19T21:12:40+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools plans to hit “the gas pedal” on an expansion of dual language programs, which teach students in both English and another language, CEO Pedro Martinez said Tuesday at an event focused on Latino students.

At the event hosted by advocacy organization Latino Policy Forum, Martinez said CPS has a “significant opportunity” to expand its existing slate of dual language programs, which are designed to help students become fluent in English and another language.

The district currently has dual language programs in 37 elementary schools, three high schools, and three charter schools, according to a presentation Martinez delivered Tuesday.

Officials did not immediately share details on how soon the district wants to expand its dual language offerings, what it would cost, or where new programs would open because the district is still planning, according to a spokesperson. Martinez said Tuesday his team also wants to create more world language options.

Dual language programs are one of three types of English learner programs available in CPS; however, dual language can also serve students who are not learning English as a new language.

By state law, schools with 20 or more English language learners who speak the same native language must offer a Transitional Bilingual Program, which provides instruction in English and a child’s native language but focuses on building up the student’s English skills. Schools with 19 or fewer students who speak the same native language have a Transitional Program of Instruction, which provides instruction in English, according to CPS.

Transitional programs work to ensure that non-English speakers can speak English, but “imagine if they could keep their Spanish and go deeper,” he told the crowd at Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy.

“We want biliteracy, not just transitioning out of the native language into English,” said Karime Asaf, chief of the district’s Office of Language and Cultural Education.

The district’s goal comes as CPS has welcomed more than 6,000 new migrant students into schools so far this year, Martinez told reporters after the event. Educators and union officials have expressed concern about a lack of staffing and resources at schools to properly support migrant students who have come to Chicago from the southern border since 2022.

CPS has struggled to provide bilingual programming to English language learners. In February, district officials said just under 6% of schools — or roughly 30 — did not have teachers with required bilingual or English-as-a-second-language credentials.

Asaf said this challenge has emerged as migrant families move out of shelters and find permanent homes through housing assistance programs in neighborhoods where the schools do not have bilingual programming or large numbers of English learners, Asaf said. The district is prioritizing helping teachers at those schools get certified to teach English language learners, if they are interested, she said. The district is also sending central staffers to help schools with students who are learning English, she said.

But even before the most recent wave of migrants, CPS bilingual programming lagged. In 2017, the Chicago Reporter found that 71% of 342 schools audited by CPS did not have adequate bilingual programming, in violation of state law.

CPS has gradually opened dual language programs over the past decade, with efforts stretching back to at least 2016 and an expansion in 2018.

Advocates for English learners have previously pushed the district to open more dual language programs. One study focused on fifth graders in Oregon found strong signs that dual language instruction can improve literacy achievement, according to a 2022 review of the research by the federal Institute of Education Sciences’s What Works Clearinghouse. However, that study and another out of Utah found no evidence that dual language instruction boosted math or science achievement, and reviewers called for more rigorous research.

Such programs can also be costly, which could make it challenging for the district to implement as it faces a $391 million deficit next fiscal year.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools is in new era for negotiations with the CTU. What could it mean for schools?

2024-03-06T22:24:06+00:00

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When former Chicago Teachers Union President Jesse Sharkey thinks about the dynamics between City Hall and the union, he flashes back to 2011. That’s when then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel defended a decision to cancel pay raises for teachers by saying they got other types of salary boosts, while “our children got the shaft.”

The stinging quip illustrates how contentious contract negotiations and the relationship between the CTU and city officials were back then, ultimately leading to a weeklong teachers strike in 2012, said Sharkey, who currently sits on the union’s executive board.

After years of thorny relationships with district officials and mayors who did not align with the union on how to improve or support schools, the CTU is expected to begin bargaining this spring over a new contract with a district that now answers to Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former middle school teacher who rose to power as a CTU organizer.

“This is going to be a struggle because the culture in Chicago with the public schools and the teachers union is a culture of ‘No,’ and ‘Make me,’ and ‘OK,’” current CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said during a City Club speech Tuesday. “That’s different from what we are embarking on this time. We’re saying, ‘How might we?’ That’s a different question.”

In a statement, CPS spokesperson Damen Alexander said the district “looks forward to negotiating a fair contract that balances both the interests of the District’s hard-working educators and our duty to be fiscally responsible.”

A City Hall spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

The latest contract talks will come amid massive change for Chicago Public Schools. The first-ever school board elections will take place this fall and a 21-member partially elected board will take office next January. And bargaining will happen as the district attempts to fill a projected $391 million budget deficit for next year, after four years of being buoyed by $2.8 billion in federal COVID relief dollars that will soon run out.

Amid those challenges, the union has a strong ally in office.

The CTU was Johnson’s largest campaign donor, and Davis Gates introduced him at his victory party.

Before the union propelled one of its own into the mayor’s office, the teachers union regained some bargaining power in 2021 when state legislators passed a law that restored its right to bargain over a broader set of issues — such as class size or the length of the school day — which had been restricted since 1995.

Still, Johnson signaled on the campaign trail that he would face “tough decisions” as mayor in negotiations with the CTU and wouldn’t be able to meet all of the union’s demands.

“So who better to deliver bad news to friends than a friend?” he said during a mayoral forum last year.

But the Johnson administration has already overseen policy changes the union counts as victories, including expanded parental leave for CTU members, a promise to remove school resource officers by next school year, and a commitment to rethink school choice policies.

The union’s House of Delegates, made up of hundreds of educators across the city, is scheduled to vote Wednesday on proposals crafted by the union’s various committees and developed as a response to what CTU members said they wanted to see in the next contract, according to the union.

Those proposals include a wide range of ideas, from pay raises and housing assistance for teachers to providing affordable housing and support for homeless students and their families.

While union officials acknowledge that things are different this time around, they have also emphasized that Johnson does not “have a magic wand” and pushed back against the idea that the union will get everything it asks for.

“I think it is ridiculous for anyone to think that the Black man on the fifth floor who comes from the progressive movement has fairy dust to sprinkle to end this quickly,” Davis Gates said in an interview with Chalkbeat last month. “There is an entire bureaucracy that has been hired and trained to tell the Chicago Teachers Union, ‘No.’”

Joe Ferguson, president of Civic Federation, a nonpartisan government watchdog group, said the mayor can’t meet all of the union’s demands because “the money isn’t there for it.” He said the public deserves to hear from the board and the mayor on where they’ll draw the line.

“Where those boundaries are, nobody can say,” Ferguson said.

Past tensions between CTU and City Hall prompted strikes

Over the past decade, contract negotiations between CPS and the CTU have resulted in two strikes that garnered national attention and inspired education labor fights around the country.

In 2012, after months of simmering disagreement and the city skipping a raise for teachers, the union went on strike for seven days at the start of the school year. Emanuel had pushed for a longer school day and embraced education reform ideas sweeping the country at the time, including a new way to evaluate teachers, which the union strongly opposed. He also refused to bargain over issues like class size, which at the time, state law did not require CPS to do.

An 11-day strike happened in 2019 under then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who the union had initially expected to align with more than Emanuel. The union was fighting for “common good” ideas that exceeded the scope of a teacher’s daily duties but were meant to improve students’ and families’ lives, such as ensuring that every school had a nurse, social worker, and librarian. The contract ultimately locked in some of those demands, as well as other wins, such as a $35 million fund to help reduce class sizes, but ultimately, the long strike left many teachers and families frustrated.

Those sour dynamics appear to be gone with Johnson’s election, said Robert Bruno, professor of labor and employment relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who co-wrote a book about CTU’s 2012 strike.

“Both parties believe that the other party understands and would be respectful of each other’s perspectives, which certainly wasn’t the case with the two previous mayors or even the previous CEOs — and we’ve gone through a few of them in Chicago,” he said.

Sharkey noted that Johnson’s priorities include many ideas the union agrees with and gave rise to, such as creating more sustainable community schools that provide wraparound services to families. His campaign platform also closely mirrored a document CTU first put out in 2012 titled “The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve,” which was updated in 2018 and most recently, in 2022.

In general, the union has found that working with the district has been easier and more receptive since Johnson has taken office, according to Sharkey and Davis Gates.

But Davis Gates said she expects plenty of disagreement because she still feels that the agency has a bureaucracy “that cannot collaborate, that does not say yes, and has a difficult time understanding how to partner with us.”

Union again pushing ‘common good’ demands

The union is expected to push for cost-of-living raises that keep up with or exceed inflation and a more uniform overtime pay policy, according to proposals leaked to conservative think tank Illinois Policy Institute, which a CTU spokesperson confirmed are real. The union also wants changes to the teacher evaluation process, including to codify that evaluations cannot be used for layoffs.

Proposals also include codifying health care policies, such as gender-affirming care, paid parental leave for employees, abortion coverage, and access to weight loss medical care, such as bariatric surgery.

In a more novel demand, the union will also push for housing assistance for its members, but the leaked proposal doesn’t include more details on how that would be done. Under Emanuel, the city offered assistance to police officers who wanted to buy homes in the areas they worked in, but few officers took advantage of the program.

In the classroom, the union is expected to renew a push to give elementary school teachers more preparation and collaboration time during the school day, Sharkey said. That was a major demand in the 2019 contract negotiations that largely did not come to fruition – and could again be difficult to secure this time around given the complicated logistics of tweaking a school day.

Union officials also expect proposals around bilingual services for students, including on attracting staff and expanding access to bilingual training for teachers, and retaining more special education staff. Both bilingual and special education are teacher shortage areas.

Davis Gates said they’ll continue demanding a librarian and nurse be staffed at every school.

Separately, union officials are expecting to push for more common good items, Davis Gates said. This will include creating a career and technical education program that would involve building houses for homeless students and their families, according to the leaked proposals.

Common good proposals will also include creating more sustainable community schools, Davis Gates said. The union is also interested in pushing for more “green” – or energy efficient – schools, such as by installing more solar panels. The district is already planning to purchase 50 electric school buses.

CPS’s budget deficit could complicate negotiations

Contract talks will begin as the district plans for its budget next year, which is projected to be $391 million in the hole. That could make costly union proposals a tough sell for the district.

District officials have for months publicized the budget deficit as federal COVID relief dollars run out. The district can either cut programming or find more money, which officials want to do by demanding more funding from the state.

Bruno, the labor expert, said it is a good sign the union agrees that Springfield should provide more money, because that means all negotiating parties agree on a solution to a significant problem.

However, Ferguson, from the Civic Federation, has little hope that more money is coming, in part because of what appears to be a “frayed” relationship between City Hall and Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s office. Pritzker recently proposed a budget that provides the same increase to K-12 funding as last year. And because CPS’s deficit is driven by the loss of COVID relief dollars, this year’s negotiations are “a fairly unique stew,” he said.

“There have been deficits being faced in the past [and] constraints on funding sources, but none that have come in this particular context, where not only is there a question of, where is more money coming from, but it also comes at a moment when we all know that recent existing streams are going to end,” Ferguson said. “And it has also been made abundantly clear by Springfield, by the governor, that there is no money to be gotten from the state.”

Union officials said they don’t yet know the price tag of their proposals, and they don’t expect to propose “money-saving” ideas. But Sharkey said they’ll have ideas on how the district can fund their proposals “and would expect the board to try to work with us on that.”

Asked how the district’s financial picture will impact its approach to negotiations, a CPS spokesperson pointed to the district’s budget deficit and said the district must be “fiscally responsible.”

Even with financial challenges, Sharkey said he expects the union and the district to work out disagreements in a more timely manner, unlike past negotiations that were “unproductive for months.”

Davis Gates said CTU continues to see its contract as “leverage for the common good,” has “high expectations” for upcoming negotiations, and is hoping for more agreement that will finally deliver on the CTU’s push to get schools more resources.

At the City Club speech this week, in a room full of business leaders, educators, and philanthropists, Davis Gates said she expects people to be skeptical that the mayor is going to “give CTU everything it’s asking for.”

“I hope he does,” she said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Who’s the boss? Chicago principals report to many different people.

2024-02-27T20:48:12+00:00

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During Femi Skanes’ 10 years as a Chicago principal, her boss was primarily a district official known as a network chief, she said. Alan Mather, who was also a principal for a decade, says he answered to then-Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan.

Many principals in Chicago also feel their Local School Council, or LSC, is a boss, while others view the council as more of a partner.

Principals are the leaders of their schools and staff. But in Chicago, multiple entities have power over principals. Later this year, Chicagoans will begin electing school board members, marking another shift in control over the city’s school system, which has been run by the mayor and a hand-picked CEO since 1995 and by a decentralized system of elected LSCs since 1988.

The city’s principals have unionized in hopes of creating more job protections for a role that has seen high turnover in recent years.

“Right now it’s kind of the wild wild west,” said Cynthia Barron, program coordinator and assistant professor with UIC’s Urban Education Leadership Program. “We’re kinda all waiting to see what’s going to happen.”

Barron, who spent more than three decades at CPS, said she doesn’t foresee immediate changes as a result of unionization or an elected school board. But, given that details around the future principals union contract and the elected school board are still being ironed out, she said there are “so many unknowns.”

How Chicago principals ended up with many bosses

Those unknowns — as the principals union takes root and the city moves to an elected school board — may disrupt an already complicated hierarchy.

As it stands now, a Chicago principal’s direct supervisor is the head of their network — the geographic area their school is organized under — and they are also accountable to their Local School Council, or LSC, a unique-to-Chicago elected body at most schools made up of parents, teachers, students, and community members, that can hire principals. Both have different hiring and firing powers.

Local School Councils were created in 1988 under the state’s Chicago School Reform Act, which gave LSCs the power to hire principals, approve school budgets, and approve annual school improvement plans.

The state amended that law in 1995 in an effort to centralize and improve the city’s school system. Lawmakers voted to keep LSCs but mandated training for them. The changes also gave the mayor sole authority over appointing the school board and replaced the superintendent title with “chief executive officer” — which stands today.

Today, LSCs can hire a principal and offer them a four-year contract. They can decide to keep the principal or fire them when their contract is up for renewal.

Network chiefs, on the other hand, work for the district and are tasked with ensuring that schools are complying with district policies and meeting academic and instructional goals, according to interviews with school leaders. Network chiefs answer to district leaders who report to the CEO, the Board of Education president, and the mayor. School leaders can also turn to their chiefs when they need extra support.

Both chiefs and LSCs use a similar rubric to evaluate principals annually. Only network chiefs can fire principals at any time for just cause.

Though LSCs hold power over principals, they do not have the same connection to district officials and the school board that a network chief does. It’s also not clear how they’ll interact with the school board once it expands and includes elected members.

Froy Jimenez is a member of the city’s Local School Council Advisory Board, which the state created to advise the Board of Education. Jimenez, a teacher and LSC member at Hancock College Preparatory High School, said he believes that LSCs and principals are “co-leaders” with the shared goal of supporting students.

“When we look at [the] budget, when we look at curriculum, when we look at any specific need of our school,” Jimenez said, “we’re doing it like we’re collaborating.”

Principals balance multiple interests

Principals’ responsibilities have grown over the past two decades and especially since the pandemic. Today, in addition to being instructional leaders, they’re expected to maintain relationships with students, families, staff, and sometimes elected officials, said Jasmine Thurmond, director of Local School Council principal support at CPS.

Some school leaders appreciate the variety of voices, but others often feel torn between conflicting demands.

One principal, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly, was asked by parents who attended LSC meetings to “publicize or encourage things like picketing or public demonstrations” over a district decision this year to suspend bus service for 5,500 general education students, largely those at selective enrollment and gifted schools.

The principal agreed that the lack of busing has been challenging for many of her students. But she explained to parents and the LSC that publicly protesting the busing decision could put her in hot water with her other boss: the district.

“I have to figure out how I can advocate for the needs of my students and the needs of my families,” she told Chalkbeat, “but in a way that is very respectful of the people that are making these decisions — and that is a really difficult balance to strike.”

She has a good relationship with her LSC, which she said is “fair and reasonable” but also demanding. The council requests a lot of data and presentations. Meeting those needs and building personal relationships can be difficult along with all of her other responsibilities as a school leader, she said.

Ryan Belville, principal of McAuliffe Elementary School, said he has a close bond with his LSC that grew during the pandemic, when they worked hand-in-hand to make sure students and families had what they needed. Belville said the LSC has also held him accountable “to serve the school community effectively.”

“I really see why LSCs were developed and why they were put into action,” Belville said. “It’s something we’re very fortunate to have in Chicago.”

Sometimes the LSC wields its power, as Hancock College Preparatory High School did last year when it decided not to renew its principal’s contract in the face of student and teacher opposition.

But there are limits to an LSC’s authority.

At Jones College Prep, the LSC voted in 2022 to recommend the district fire then-principal Joseph Powers based on various allegations, including that he was ignoring problematic teachers and was not addressing issues around gender and racial discrimination. His contract was not up for renewal at the time, so the LSC could not fire him outright.

CEO Pedro Martinez declined to fire Powers, saying there wasn’t sufficient evidence. Later that year, CPS put Powers on leave after a student dressed in a Nazi uniform was seen goose-stepping in the school’s Halloween parade. Powers then retired.

One Chicago elementary school principal, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly, said that contract renewal time can sometimes feel political. She must ensure that she’s keeping “these X number of people happy or satisfied” so that she can keep her job. At the same time, she wishes she had “more robust” feedback from her LSC, which she thinks is lacking at her school because people often don’t have time to participate — an issue many LSCs face.

On Chicago’s West Side, the LSC at Oscar DePriest Elementary School is working on ensuring enough participation on its council. It is also figuring out how it will work with the school’s new principal, whom it hired in November after interviews and a candidate forum, said Wallace Wilbourn, a teacher and LSC member.

He wants the LSC to have a greater voice on the school’s curriculum, its culture, and how it approaches assessments.

But he’s already seen that many people are trying to hold the principal accountable. Ever since being hired, Wilbourn said, his principal has had to spend a lot of time in meetings with the network.

Network chiefs, top CPS officials hold power

Barron, with UIC, said the relationship between a network chief and principal more closely resembles a typical employee-manager relationship: The two work together on a leadership plan that has goals to hit throughout the year.

Skanes, who was the principal of Morgan Park High School until 2022, always viewed her network chief as her main supervisor. Feedback from the network chief was sometimes “attached to next steps, even in terms of promotion and opportunities,” she said.

The Chicago elementary school principal said the network chief is looking for things at the school that parents or community members may not have expertise in, such as best teaching practices, she said. Her LSC is more interested in school uniform policies or community events for families, she said.

“I think both of those perspectives are super important,” she said. “It shouldn’t be all one or another.”

A former Chicago principal, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly, said most of his network chiefs were good listeners and open to his ideas of how to improve his school. But he also felt pressure from the network to boost certain metrics, such as raising attendance by 10 percentage points, including by visiting student homes.

Those efforts resulted in a lot of pressure on staff and kids at his school who were already experiencing “so much trauma,” he said. After hitting the network’s goal, the principal eased up those efforts, saying it didn’t feel “worth the squeeze and my time and emotional energy.” Attendance rates dropped.

In that case, he decided to “take the heat from the network” because it meant more “sanity” for his school, he said.

A small share of schools have Appointed Local School Councils, or ALSCs, which don’t have the power to hire or fire principals but can provide nonbinding input on who they want to lead their schools. In those cases, the CEO gets final say on hiring a principal.

That was the case for Alan Mather, now the president of the Golden Apple Foundation. He became the principal of Lindblom Math and Science Academy in 2005 when the school was reopened as a selective enrollment high school. Mather was appointed by then-CEO Arne Duncan and the new school, which drew high-performing students from across the city, did not have an LSC. It wasn’t until his last year at Lindblom that an ALSC was formed, Mather said.

Mather considered Duncan to be his boss and was given a lot of autonomy to craft Lindblom’s culture and academics, such as adopting a year-round schedule during his time.

“It was the CEO who could have removed me at any time,” Mather said. “I was not working under a contract.”

As principals unionize, a question about management

When the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, or CPAA, decided to unionize last year, its president Troy LaRaviere promised to fight for better pay, less focus on bureaucratic tasks, more job security – including the ability to voice opinions publicly without punishment – and more due process when principals face accusations of misconduct.

LaRaviere did not respond to multiple requests for an interview for this story. Another CPAA representative declined to comment, including to confirm whether the union has started bargaining, and deferred to LaRaviere.

The unionization effort could impact how network chiefs discipline and evaluate principals. But huge questions remain.

“We don’t know what is to come,” said Thurmond, from the district. She added that they’re “looking forward to deepening the collaboration” with CPAA to make sure principals are supported, versus the district “being perceived as an enemy.”

Some observers have wondered how a union contract might impact the authority of a network chief or LSC. For instance, will it be tougher for the LSC not to renew a principal’s contract?

Changes to an LSC’s powers, however, would likely require a change to the state law that created them, said Barron, the expert from UIC.

For the district’s part, Thurmond said CPS will continue “empowering LSCs and ALSCs” so that “communities continue to have control of their schools.”

One former principal thinks an elected school board could make LSCs feel redundant or powerless, since board members will represent different parts of the city.

LSCs were created when there wasn’t an elected board and are seen by some as mini-school boards at individual schools. But come January 2025, the Chicago Board of Education will be made up of 10 members elected by their communities and 11 members appointed by the mayor.

“If we have an elected school board of 21 and you have them passing resolutions saying we’re doing this, this and this,” he wondered, “then what does the LSC have the autonomy to say and do if it’s all coming from downtown?”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s school board wants to remove police from all schools starting next school year

2024-02-20T19:32:03+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education wants to remove police officers from schools starting next school year, according to a resolution included in the agenda for Thursday’s board meeting.

The resolution directs CPS CEO Pedro Martinez to come up with a new policy by June 27 that would introduce a “holistic approach to school safety” at district schools, such as implementing restorative justice practices, which focus on resolving a conflict instead of punishment.

That policy “must make explicit that the use of [school resource officers] within District schools will end by the start of the 2024-2025 school year,” the resolution said. (Find the resolution on page 15 of your PDF reader.)

The resolution nods to the district’s shift in student discipline to more restorative practices, which has led to “significant progress” in reducing suspensions. However, the resolution notes that disparities in suspension rates are disproportionately higher for students with disabilities and Black students, compared to their Hispanic and white peers.

Most CPS schools don’t have school resource officers who, unlike security guards, are trained and employed by the Chicago Police Department, but are stationed in schools full-time. If passed, the resolution would directly impact 39 schools – all high schools – that have a total of 57 officers on campus, according to the resolution and district officials. Fourteen schools voted to remove a total of 28 officers and instead received a total of $3.9 million for “alternative safety interventions,” including for restorative justice and social service coordinators, the resolution said. CPS also employs more than 1,400 security guards at schools, according to staffing data from the end of December 2023.

Schools that have voted to keep their officers have cited a variety of reasons for doing so, including that in some cases, school resource officers have strong relationships with students. Opponents of police on campus argue that the presence of officers can lead to more punitive student discipline and can leave children feeling unsafe.

Last month, Nadig Newspapers and WBEZ reported that the board was planning to remove Chicago Police Department officers from schools. Mayor Brandon Johnson later confirmed to WBEZ that he’s in support of such a plan.

The resolution, which the board is slated to vote on Thursday, represents Johnson’s hand-picked school board’s clearest statements on removing police officers from Chicago schools. As a mayoral candidate, Johnson had said police officers “have no place in schools,” WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times reported. However, last year, he told the outlet he would leave the decision up to LSCs.

The resolution said the district would continue to partner with the Chicago Police Department, but district officials did not immediately explain what that relationship would look like.

Having police stationed inside Chicago schools came under scrutiny in 2019 as part of the police department’s federal consent decree. In 2020, amid protests and the racial reckoning that swept the country after George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police, Chicago schools began voting one-by-one on whether or not to keep their school resource officers.

Driven by similar issues, Denver Public Schools removed police from schools in 2020 and 2021, but its work to implement a new school safety policy, as Chicago’s board is seeking, was derailed by the pandemic. The Denver school board reversed its decision last June after a shooting inside a high school.

In 2022, the Chicago school board reduced its contract with the police department from more than $30 million to roughly $10 million and allocated money for schools to implement alternatives to police, such as restorative justice counselors. The contract was renewed last summer for $10.3 million and about $4 million to improve school climate was separately allocated to schools that had removed their officers.

Research from the University of Chicago released last fall found an improvement in student engagement and a decline in suspensions at schools that had implemented restorative practices in recent years.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools enrollment climbs as more migrant families arrive

2024-02-08T23:43:51+00:00

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More than 5,700 newly arrived immigrant students have enrolled in Chicago Public Schools since the beginning of the school year, district officials said Thursday.

Preliminary school enrollment data updated daily on the city data portal and analyzed by Chalkbeat shows overall enrollment increased by 4,500 students since the official count on the 20th day of school in September. After more than a decade of decline, CPS saw its enrollment stabilize this school year.

“The number is fluid and evolving,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said Thursday. “Our principals and teachers and school communities have been incredibly welcoming to the students and their families.”

His comments came during a virtual press conference about a new volunteer coordination effort launched by the City of Chicago aimed at supporting migrant families. It also comes after city officials once again delayed its plan to enforce a 60-day shelter stay limit on migrant families.

Publicly available data does not reveal how many CPS students are migrants or how many are living in city shelters. District officials said they do not collect information about the immigration status of students or their families “to support the City of Chicago’s Welcoming City Ordinance.”

Preliminary enrollment data analyzed by Chalkbeat indicates nearly 7,000 more students have been identified as English language learners since the end of September, when the district officially counted enrollment. English language learners can include both newly arrived immigrants, as well as students already living in Chicago.

Last school year, English language learners made up about one-fifth of all students; a decade ago, these students made up roughly 16% of CPS.

Last month, educators, union officials, and some local lawmakers raised concerns about schools without enough bilingual staff and other resources struggling to meet those students’ language and mental health needs.

District officials said Thursday that just under 6% of schools are lacking teachers with necessary ESL or bilingual credentials. Karime Asaf, the district’s chief of language and cultural education, said officials are prioritizing those roughly 30 schools — which officials did not identify — “for any kind of services or resources.”

Asaf said schools are working to get more teachers certified to teach English learners. District officials said they’ve allocated a total of $8 million to schools that saw increases in English learners since the 20th day of school.

Martinez said around 600 teachers are currently working toward getting bilingual or English as a Second Language endorsements.

Martinez said currently 7,200 teachers have these qualifications, up from about 5,100 teachers in 2018. However, bilingual staffing can vary by school, and often support staff, such as social workers, are not bilingual. CPS does provide a 24/7 language interpretation hotline that schools can call to get assistance communicating with families, but some parents have said they’ve struggled to communicate with schools or understand their school options when it’s time to move.

Students who are homeless — those in shelters, living doubled up somewhere, or living in a public place — have a right to remain at their school even if they move out of the school’s boundary and are entitled to transportation provided by the district, such as free CTA passes. By state law, if a school enrolls 20 or more students who speak a language other than English, the school must set up a bilingual education program with qualified staff. Asaf said this is “a multi-year process.”

“Generally, the challenge we have is when families just walk up to our buildings and we always tell our schools: Enroll the families. And then we have a process to work with those families to make sure we find the nearest program,” Martinez said.

The district also has bi-weekly meetings with staff at the city’s largest temporary shelters that are housing migrants, to “make sure that our families understand that there’s always a way to connect with the Chicago Public Schools … to make sure all their questions are answered,” Asaf said. She added that most school leaders attend these meetings.

Martinez said CPS is planning to hire newcomer adults who have received work authorization for “critical needs” at schools, including as custodians, as well as positions in transportation, nutrition, and classroom support.

Many of Chicago’s migrant families have been searching for work but need authorization to obtain jobs legally. Axios reported that about 1,000 newcomers have received work permits as of late January, four months after the federal government expanded eligibility to nearly half a million immigrants from Venezuela, where political and economic turmoil has pushed many residents to leave.

“We were proactive working with the city to say, since we know we have these families who are looking for jobs, we have many openings,” Martinez told reporters on Thursday. “We are now just trying to make it easier for our families to be able to apply for these different jobs.”

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org. Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

As Chicago gets its first elected school board, Local School Councils may become a proving ground for candidates

2024-02-08T16:32:48+00:00

Updated: This story has been updated to reflect an extension to the deadline for candidates to file paperwork to run for LSC. It is now Wednesday, Feb. 14.

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In the halls of Uplift Community High School, Karonda Locust is known as “Mama T.”

“If you need help, go tell my mom,” her daughter Tiara, now 23, would tell her friends when she was a student there.

“That’s how I got stuck here,” Locust said with a laugh on a recent Monday.

For four years while her daughter attended Uplift, Locust served as a parent representative on the school’s Local School Council, the governing body of community members, parents, and school staff that make decisions about the school’s budget and academic plan and evaluate the school’s leaders. Locust has also served on the LSC at Willa Cather Elementary school, where her youngest daughter still attends, for nine years.

For Locust, the LSC was a gateway to more involvement in the school.

“That’s how it should be,” said Locust’s sister Taschaunda Hall, who is also an active member of the Cather’s LSC and briefly served on the LSC at Uplift as well.

Chicago’s LSCs are unique and powerful. There’s nothing quite like them in other school districts across the U.S. The Chicago School Reform Act of 1988 established that every CPS-run school would have a Local School Council. Today LSCs are made up of six parents, two teachers, one non-teacher representative, two community members, one to three students, and the school’s principal.

But while the first LSC elections in 1989 had over 17,000 candidates, those numbers have plummeted over the years. The last LSC elections in 2022 saw just over 6,000 applicants, but voter turnout was at its strongest in a decade, with students making up the majority of the 110,700 voters.

Still, LSC members have successfully advocated for change and improvements and many believe the councils are the key to better schools across the city.

Now, with Chicago’s Board of Education adding elected seats for the first time this year and transitioning to a fully elected board in 2026, LSCs may become a sort of proving ground for positions with a broader reach.

“I do predict many of our LSC members may put their hat in the ring,” said Kishasha Ford, director of the CPS LSC Relations office. “Our LSC members [are] very well-equipped to do this work because they have some experience being on a kind of a board, because if you think about it, LCSs are like mini school boards for their local school.”

Elections for these “mini school boards’' are happening again this spring. The deadline to run for LSC is 3 p.m. next Wednesday, Feb. 14 and election day for elementary schools is April 10 and April 11 for high schools, with new two-year terms of office beginning July 1, 2024.

As of Feb. 1, 1,902 people had filed to run for LSC, according to district officials. At the same time last election cycle in 2022, 852 people had applied.

Over the decades, LSCs have changed the names of schools named after enslavers, removed controversial leadership, won capital improvements, even helped open new schools. Others have sat mostly empty, served as little more than a rubber stamp, or been rendered ineffective by infighting and conflicting interests.

It depends on who’s running the ship, says Kendra Snow, the lead parent organizer for grassroots organization Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education.

Studies showing that parent involvement in schools can have a major impact on student outcomes are abundant, but for LSCs to be effective, Snow argues, parents have to do more than just show up, they have to be informed.

But the “showing up” part is still a major part of the battle.

After elections in 2022, over a thousand LSC positions were unfilled and according to CPS data, 311 schools still have vacancies on their councils. Still, according to CPS, 97% of LSCs had enough members to meet “quorum,” which requires that seven members be present for the LSC to vote and conduct business.

Chalkbeat caught up with four parents who have served on LSCs, where they called for improvements and guided their schools through challenges. Their experiences demonstrate what LSCs are capable of, some of the reasons parents may be opting out, and how the role of LSCs may shift as Chicago gets an elected school board.

The mom who wants to open LSCs to more people

Karonda Locust (right), a current LSC parent representative at Willa Cather Elementary School and former LSC parent representative at Uplift Community High School, stands with her sister, Taschaunda Hall (left), on the playground outside Cather.

Karonda Locust is decked out in the red and black of Willa Cather Elementary school on a recent Monday morning. Today, she’s helping out at the security check-in at the front doors before heading to work, but “I’m always there, everywhere,” she says.

She chats easily with staff and students and no one questions her presence as she walks the halls. They all know who she is.

Locust has served on the LSC at Cather alongside her sister Taschaunda Hall for nine years. When her eldest daughter moved on to Uplift Community High School in 2019, she joined the LSC there as well. For four years, she served on both LSCs at the same time.

Her time on the LSC at Uplift helped her forge relationships with the staff and kids and she continues to volunteer there even though her daughter has graduated. That’s the point of LSCs, she said, to invest in not just your own kids, but the school community as a whole.

That’s why in 2022 when her daughter was a senior at Uplift, she and her daughter (who sat on the LSC as a student representative) advocated for a bus service to bring in more students from the West Side. Her own daughter would never benefit from it, but other kids would.

Now, a bus picks up kids from Cather Elementary to bring them to Uplift, giving West Side kids a chance to attend the school without leaving parents to figure out the hour-and-a-half commute.

“That’s one of the things that I’m most proud of – that we were able to bring kids from other neighborhoods to Uplift and they can have that experience as well,” said Locust.

With the first Chicago Board of Education elections happening later this year, Locust said several friends and community members have asked her to run for a seat, but she doesn’t have the time.

Instead, now that her daughter has graduated – she earned a scholarship to study education at Truman College and plans to become a teacher – Locust is shifting some of her focus to advocating for changes to the structures and rules of LSCs.

Some of the requirements for serving on LSCs, she says, are keeping people out.

When Locust herself was a teen mother, she had a hard time making it to her daughters’ school events. In her stead, she often sent grandparents or aunts or uncles, any way to make sure her kids felt supported. But none of those family members could run for the LSC as a parent representative – and none lived within the school’s neighborhood boundaries, making them ineligible to serve as a community representative.

Family structures have changed in the past three decades, said Locus, and she wants to open up LSCs to more family members outside of the traditional parent-child paradigm.

“We’re actually losing out on opportunities for family members that could support the school because of the structure that was created over 30 years ago,” said Locust. “This is a non-paid position, so if somebody wants to serve and help my kids’ school, God bless ‘em.”

She also hopes to end the fingerprinting and background check requirements for LSC parents, saying it alienates parents with criminal records and scares off parents who are undocumented, though, barring convictions for certain offenses, both are legally allowed to serve on LSCs.

The veteran LSC leader who built a new school

José Quiles, a community representative on LSCs at Mary Lyon Public School, Steinmetz College Prep, Belmont-Cragin Elementary School in Belmont-Cragin, speaks inside of a classroom on Fri., Jan. 25, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois.

José Quiles has served on LSCs since they were first created in 1989. In his 35 years as a parent representative and then as a community representative, he’s seen it all.

The stories roll out of him with ease on a recent Thursday as he leads a Local School Council information session at the Belmont-Cragin not-for-profit organization he founded in 2015, the Education Community Committee (ECC).

He currently sits on LSCs at three schools – Mary Lyon Public School, Steinmetz College Prep, and Belmont-Cragin Elementary School – and when he’s not conducting LSC business, he’s teaching other people in the neighborhood how to join their LSCs and get things done on them.

In the workshops at ECC, they talk about things like how to read a budget and the rules and expectations for LSC members.

But what he hones in on and repeats over and over in the workshops is that the LSC is about the kids. All of the kids, not just their own.

That’s what sustained the eight-year movement he helped lead to get a new school built in Belmont-Cragin, he said – knowing that it was what the kids in the area needed.

“Belmont-Cragin started because Mary Lyon had 1800 kids,” said Quiles.

Initially, to address the overcrowding, some of the Mary Lyon kids were sent to a nearby site on Mango St. that was formerly the Catholic school St. James. When it became clear that the principal at Mary Lyon was struggling to oversee both school facilities, the LSC requested a separate principal and LSC to separate the school from Mary Lyon altogether, thereby creating a new school.

“Basically, we gave birth to it,” he said with a laugh.

Amid the swath of school closures in 2013, the St. James facility was closed and the students were relocated to a site on Palmer St., but the LSC found that there were not enough bathroom facilities for the students.

The LSC and other community organizations began pushing for a new school to be built at Riis Park.

In January 2023, the new Belmont-Cragin Elementary School officially opened in the park, offering 32 classrooms with park views, a black box theater, library, music room, and access to the connected park fieldhouse.

Quiles’ own children and foster children have long since graduated from the schools where he currently serves as community representative on the LSCs.

At 68, he says he wants to retire, but he’s worried that the LSCs aren’t ready for him to do so.

“A strong council moves mountains,” he told participants in Spanish during a recent LSC workshop. “But a weak council goes in no direction. And when you don’t move in any direction, there is no progress.”

That’s what his work with ECC is all about – educating parents so they know what questions to ask and how to push for change, whether on LSCs or as members of the new elected school board or as the voters who put people on those governing bodies.

Despite his insistence that he needs to retire, Quiles still has his ear to the floor at his local schools.

Right now, he says the biggest issues his LSCs are working on are the social emotional impacts of the pandemic on the students and supporting immigrant students and parents.

Advocating for the South Side

Kendra Snow is running for LSC at Christian Fenger Academy High School in Roseland. She is a former LSC member at Harvard Elementary School in Auburn-Gresham.

Back in 2002 when Kendra Snow sat on her first Local School Council at a school in Auburn-Gresham, “it was like a puppet show,” she said.

The principal “hand-picked” the parents she wanted on the council and ran the meetings, quickly going over budget lines. No one asked any questions or knew what anything meant.

“We were just bodies here to put a signature to something,” she said.

Then, Snow began to learn on her own.

“I had to learn this for myself, it’s the parents with the power, and if you want to know something then you read into it the same way she did,” said Snow. “So now I’m the troublemaker, because I challenged things.”

CPS supports LSCs with trainings and office hours, as well as 13 specialists supporting 511 LSCs, according to the department’s director Kishasha Ford.

There is a 300-page manual for LSC members and online modules as well as in-person trainings, said Ford.

“That’s the biggest part of our job is the education piece.” she said. “Because it is a lot to know and we can’t expect every single LSC member to know every single nuanced thing. That’s why we’re here to help support and to guide them.”

Snow read the manual and did the online modules, but she says, it’s not quite enough.

“You got to just do more than just watch these videos,” she said, suggesting that CPS incorporate questions into the modules to make sure viewers understood the material before moving on to the next video.

She supplemented her CPS training with resources and workshops from community organizations. Now, Snow works to empower other parents so they can have a voice on their LSCs. She is the lead parent organizer with Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education.

The mother of seven, Snow has been entrenched in public education since her eldest son, now 31, first attended school. In fact, it was when her son was accepted into a school on the North Side that Snow was able to compare his experience there to the schools her other children attended on the South Side.

The biggest difference?

“Resources,” she said. “We’re not fighting the same battles. The resources that are in those schools, we don’t have in our schools.”

In her experience, Snow said parents are angry about the lack of resources and come into the schools shouting about it. She sees it as her job to give them a more effective way to get things done.

“You’re not getting results that way. So now let’s fight a different way for what we need in the school,” she said. “You hit them with policies. You hit them with facts.”

Snow has concentrated her efforts specifically on the South Side where she grew up and where most of her children have attended public schools.

In her work as a CPS-certified LSC trainer, she hopes she can not only encourage more South Side parents to run for LSC seats, but help make sure they are informed and therefore empowered to help improve their schools – one parent at a time, one school at a time.

“Know your power. Know that this is for your kids,” Snow said. “You have to fight for your kids. Just be there. Just show up. It’s a couple hours out of the month. Just show up. That time is worth it for public education.”

Educating fellow parents, ousting a principal

Vanessa Espinoza is former LSC member at Orozco Community Academy in Pilsen.

Vanessa Espinoza has been volunteering in Chicago Public Schools since before she had kids.

When she became a mother and began making friends with other parents, it opened her eyes to some of the inequities and challenges in CPS. Espinoza, who is bilingual, became particularly interested in supporting English language learners as well as students with IEPs, or Individualized Education Programs, to help students with special needs.

She soon joined the LSC at Orozco where her kids were enrolled and was surprised that few of the parent representatives understood the documents and policies they were supposed to be making decisions about.

“Why are you expecting the parents to approve something that they don’t understand totally?” she said. “You gave them the power just to say yes and no, but not do anything else.”

The trainings offered by CPS to parent representatives, she said, were superficial. For example, they teach the names of the budget lines, but not that each budget line can only be used for certain purchases.

“None of that was taught to the parents who were going to make this decision on the budget” she said.

However, Espinoza’s background as a support worker at another school gave her a leg up in this area. And her knowledge of finances turned out to be particularly important on Orozco’s LSC in 2014.

Because she knew how to read the budget, Espinoza soon discovered that the principal at the time was transferring large sums of money between budget lines, something that required approval from the LSC.

So she asked to see all of the reports on the budget and the school’s internal accounts. The principal refused and Espinoza requested an audit. The LSC tried to work with her, Espinoza said, but the principal was not amenable.

“This money’s for the kids. You don’t want to tell us where the money is and how you’re going to use it, then that’s it,” she said. " So we requested her removal.”

The council voted unanimously to remove Principal Nancy Paulette-Aguirre in November 2014.

But it wasn’t an entirely popular decision.

Most of the teachers at the school supported the decision, raising issues about turnover among other things and other LSC members said Paulette-Aguirre refused to work with the council, but non-LSC parents were split. On the day of the vote, 12 parents protested outside the school. Paulette-Aguirre was later removed from a second school in 2019.

“Even though the parents have the power to make significant changes, you have to be able to educate the parents with the information needed to make educated decisions, and [CPS] is not. In my opinion, they’re not.” said Espinoza.

She worries that these same issues might bleed over into the newly elected school board but is still hopeful that parents will gain some of the 10 elected seats this year.

“To have an elected school board that is going to be successful you have to have parents involved,” she said. “They know what their kids need.”

Espinoza’s children have graduated out of CPS, but Espinoza remains an advocate for education and serves as the bilingual communication specialist with Kids First Chicago and as the president and co-founder of Amigos de Gunsaulus, a parent-led non-profit that supports Gunsaulus Scholastic Academy in Brighton Park, where one of her children graduated.

Despite her challenging experience on Orozco’s LSC, she’s hopeful things can change as long as LSCs are filled with people who put the kids first.

“To be honest with you, it’s a lot of responsibilities, and it’s not well rewarded in a sense, not a monetary reward. Sometimes you get enemies,” but, she said, “If in your mind and your heart is the best for the kids’ education, I think you should run.”

Chicago is getting an elected school board. What questions do you have?

2024-02-06T22:22:30+00:00

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Less than a year from now, Chicago Public Schools will swear in its first elected school board members.

Chicago’s elected school board is coming soon. Here’s what you need to know.

But even with a firm swearing-in date of Jan. 15, 2025, many unanswered questions still remain about the election on Nov. 5 that would usher in those new board members — and how the board will function once in place. State law says 10 members will be elected this year, but lawmakers are debating whether to elect all 21 now. (Mayor Brandon Johnson recently asked the legislature to ensure that just half are elected this year, the Sun-Times reported.)

The state legislature must also finalize district boundaries for school board members. Lawmakers appear to have agreed on a third draft of the map last November.

Once members are sworn in next January, what’s next? How will the board work in comparison to the appointed board it will replace?

Chalkbeat Chicago wants to hear your questions about the upcoming school board elections and the elected school board. We’ll aim to answer your questions through our reporting as we follow campaigns and elections this year.

Answer the survey here or fill it out below. We will not use your name in our reporting without your permission.

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Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Board of Education renews contracts for 49 charter schools

2024-01-25T23:01:29+00:00

The Chicago Board of Education voted Thursday to renew agreements with 12 charter networks, impacting 49 schools. The decision followed months of pleading from charter school leaders, educators, and students.

The board extended contracts for all of the schools up for renewal. It renewed most of the contracts by either three or four years, starting this July. The maximum extension allowed under state law is 10 years.

Each renewal came with a set of conditions, ranging from monitoring services for students with disabilities and students learning English as a new language to improving facilities, financial compliance, and accuracy of teacher licenses. Those conditions were a result of “issues that were identified during our comprehensive review,” said Zabrina Evans, executive director of the district’s Office of Innovation and Incubation in the Office of Portfolio Management.

The vote represented the first round of charter renewals under the current board. In the months leading up to Thursday’s vote, Chicago’s charter school community worried that the board, appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, would make it more challenging for charters to get renewed. Johnson, who rose to power as an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, has long been critical of charter schools, but has also said he doesn’t oppose them.

More recently, the board passed a resolution stating its intention to move away from school choice and focus on sending more resources to neighborhood schools. The resolution does not call for the closure of schools of choice, such as charters, but board leaders said they would be more closely scrutinizing charter schools.

The board’s vote to renew all contracts isn’t surprising: State law has barred school closures in Chicago until 2025. In July, a Cook County judge overturned the previous board’s decision not to renew its contract with Urban Prep Charter Academy after ruling that the state’s school closure moratorium applies to charters.

Board Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland said she appreciates the improvement she’s seen in some charter schools, but said that others have failed to keep up finances or follow federal laws.

“I still maintain that as a private operator getting public money, there should be a higher level of scrutiny,” Todd-Breland said.

District officials said they evaluate charter schools based on performance in three criteria: academics, finances, and operations, which focuses on 13 areas related to state and federal law, requirements in their charter contract, and CPS policy. Five-year extensions are awarded to schools that meet or exceed academic and financial standards and receive the highest rating for operations. Extensions beyond five years go to schools that exceed all standards.

Board President Jianan Shi said he wanted the district to continue focusing on the student experience portion of the operations category for charter evaluations. He said he was concerned to see schools not meeting expectations focused on students with disabilities, students who are learning English as a new language, and student discipline. No school met standards for all three of those categories.

“‘I’m elated that we have schools that are doing well academically and financially, but I want kids to enjoy going to school every day,” Shi said.

During several board meetings since the summer, charter school leaders have asked the board to renew their contracts for the maximum 10 years. While it was previously common for schools to receive five-year extensions, district leaders have more recently renewed charters for shorter terms. Last January, the previous board – appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot – handed out two-year extensions to nearly half of the charter schools up for renewal, while another two got five years.

On Thursday, no school received five years. Just over half were extended for four years, and just over 40% were extended for three years. The board approved a one-year extension for Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy Charter High School and a two-year extension for Chicago High School for the Arts.

Ebonie Durham, executive director of Great Lakes Academy, a charter school that received a three-year extension, asked the board to provide schools and families with more clarity on what it takes to get a 10-year extension.

Great Lakes met academic and financial performance standards, but did not meet benchmarks for operations, including for student discipline, students with disabilities and students learning English as a new language.

As conditions of Great Lakes’ extension, the board called for the school to implement the district’s recommendations for serving students with disabilities. The conditions also call for monitoring how the school is serving English language learners, its disciplinary practices, and how it tracks repairs to facilities.

“If the CEO’s recommendation is accepted and we receive three years, in two years I will be back in front of this board again pleading to be renewed,” Durham said.

Before the board vote, some teachers raised concerns about Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy, which serves students ages 16-21 who became disengaged with school. The teachers at the school, who are part of the Chicago Teachers Union, have voted to strike Feb. 6 in response to concerns over several issues, including staffing levels for students with disabilities, “sanctuary protections” for immigrant students and employees, and compensation, according to the CTU.

Stacy Davis Gates, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, highlighted the fight at Instituto as one reason the renewal process should reflect “what the people, the stakeholders in that school community deserve.” One of her recommendations included creating Local School Councils so that charter parents have more of a voice.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Inspector general’s report prompts Chicago Public Schools to propose changes to device tracking policy

2024-01-17T23:39:41+00:00

Chicago Public Schools is working to improve how schools keep track of electronic devices and other items, in response to an inspector general’s report that found the district had lost more than 77,000 devices.

The proposed changes — some of which were outlined at a school board committee meeting Wednesday — include disciplining staff for failing to abide by the district’s policy for managing school assets, such as devices, and updating policy language to say that training is “mandatory” for staffers who are responsible for keeping track of devices. The district’s asset management team would also create an annual report about theft and loss of devices, according to the proposed changes.

Last week, CPS Inspector General Will Fletcher released his annual report which, in part, found that the district had marked more than 77,000 devices lost or stolen in the 2021-22 school year. The district has found 12,000 of the missing devices, nearly all inside schools, district officials said.

Fletcher’s report cited a lack of training and an unreliable tracking system as some reasons for why so many devices were missing or unaccounted for. He also said staff and students were not held accountable for devices. Last year, a Chalkbeat and WBEZ investigation also found that the district didn’t have a structured system for tracking down devices and lacked a clear plan or vision for how to best use the technology in the classroom.

“The [policy] has been amended to reflect a more accurate description of the current process, eliminate sections of the policy which are obsolete, and overall improve CPS asset and inventory management practices,” said Rolando Hernandez, assistant deputy controller for CPS’ finance office, during Wednesday’s meeting.

The district’s asset management policy doesn’t just cover technology. It applies to any item that is not real estate, that is purchased by or donated to CPS, is valued at more than $500 but less than $25,000, and has a lifespan of more than a year. The current policy applies to schools, central offices, and network offices, which are responsible for managing their devices.

Each school and district office should have an “accountable official” who is responsible for keeping track of devices, the existing policy says.

Other proposed changes include:

All devices must be entered into CPS’ electronic inventory system once they are delivered – not just purchased – within 30 days.
Each person designated to track devices within their school or office will be responsible for complying with their annually required inventory and ensuring its accuracy.
Schools and offices will report potential loss, damage, or theft to the district’s asset management team. That team will share an annual report on such loss or damage to the district’s Risk Management team, the Department of Facilities, and Safety & Security team.
If a student or staffer transfers to a new school or department, any devices they’ve received from the district will follow them, which their old school or department must log into the district’s asset management system. Once students or staff leave the district, they must return devices and other “assets.”
Broken computers must be disposed of through a special process created by the Information and Technology department, though that process was not spelled out in the proposed changes. Items that are not computers will be disposed of by the Department of Facilities, including through contracted salvaging companies.

The board is expected to vote on the proposed changes in March after a month-long public comment period, which is slated to begin Jan. 26.

Separately, the district is also working on several other changes “to more accurately represent” what devices are in schools, district officials said Wednesday. That includes automating the process of recovering computers, which would involve freezing and sending notifications to devices that would ask students or staff to return them. The district is also considering replacing its current asset management system because of “functionality and data issues” that must be improved.

On Wednesday, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez disputed Fletcher’s estimate that the missing devices were worth $23 million. Martinez said many of those devices were old, bringing the total cost to about “a tenth” of Fletcher’s figure. However, he added that’s “not an excuse” to explain the lack of tracking at a time when the district added hundreds of thousands of devices to its inventory.

“It’s been great that now all of our children have access to devices [but] it is easy for us to not prioritize how we get rid of old devices, and it’s not always clear even to staff, and so I just want to call that out,” Martinez said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools won’t bus general education students for the rest of the school year

2023-12-21T22:54:15+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools won’t provide busing to general education students for the rest of the school year, officials said Thursday.

In a letter to parents, the district said a driver shortage persists and is preventing it from providing busing to general education students — largely those in magnet and selective enrollment programs. The district will continue to provide free CTA cards, valued at $35, to those roughly 5,500 families; about one-third of those children are using the passes, according to a CPS spokesperson.

“We fully understand how frustrating this news will be for many of our families, and sincerely empathize with the challenges and inconvenience that this situation has caused,” the letter said.

The update comes after the district announced in late September that it couldn’t provide busing to general education students this semester but would share an update with families before winter break regarding the second half of the school year. In November, the district cast doubt that it would be able to expand bus service this year.

Citing a driver shortage, the district announced in late July that it would limit busing to students with disabilities whose Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, call for transportation, as well as students who are homeless. Both student groups are legally entitled to transportation — and the district is on state watch to improve commute times for students with disabilities.

The district left open the possibility that general education students could get busing later in the year.

The district is currently busing 8,133 students with disabilities and another 146 students who are homeless, according to a CPS spokesperson.

Thursday’s busing update comes a week after the school board passed a resolution saying it wants to bolster neighborhood schools and move away from a system of choice where families travel outside their neighborhood for school. Asked if the district’s desire to move away from school choice informed their decision to sever busing for general education students, a spokesperson said the district is following state law and board policy by prioritizing students with disabilities for transportation.

Parents of children in selective enrollment and magnet programs have repeatedly shared frustrations with the Board of Education about the difficulties they’ve faced without busing to schools that are far from their homes, including difficulties balancing the school commute with their work schedules. Some parents have transferred their children to other schools.

Aria Haque, a sixth grader at Keller Regional Gifted Center in Mt. Greenwood, lives 20 miles from her school, and transferred to her neighborhood school after “so many hurdles and almost no time” to figure out the commute, Haque told the board at its meeting earlier this month. Her new school, however, was teaching material she said she’d learned two years ago.

Haque decided to re-enroll at Keller “even with the killer commute.” Her father now drives Aria and another Keller student whose family doesn’t have a car and lives 15 miles away from the school.

“That has been our routine ever since: An hour-and-a-half on the road for me, which isn’t bad, but over three hours for my dad, which is horrible,” Haque said.

Natasha Haque, Aria’s mother, said she’s been advocating with a group of parents to get busing reinstated for general education students in magnet and selective enrollment schools. She worries that students from low-income families at Aria’s school, Keller, will lose out on the chance to attend a great school. Roughly a third of Keller’s students were from low-income families last year.

“If the message to families is: ‘You cannot rely on us to transport your child to a selective enrollment school,’ it’s the lower income families that will be the first to say, ‘Yeah, I cannot afford to take my child to school. I cannot quit my job,’” Natasha Haque said Thursday after the letter to parents was sent out.

Limited busing has also helped the district comply with a state corrective action plan to keep commutes under an hour each way for students with disabilities. Last school year, about 3,000 students with disabilities were on routes longer than an hour. As of October, the district was busing an average of 7 students with disabilities per route, a Chalkbeat analysis found.

Commute times had improved this year as the district has limited busing, but have worsened in recent months: In August, 47 students with disabilities were on routes longer than an hour; that’s grown to 111 students as of Thursday, a slight dip from late November, according to the district.

CPS said another 115 students with disabilities are in the process of getting bus routes. The district has received 4,649 requests since the start of the school year, close to 900 more requests than last year. It is also continuing to hold job fairs to hire more bus drivers.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

How do families use Chicago’s vast school choice system? Five people tell us their stories.

2023-12-20T22:53:13+00:00

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One mother in West Pullman on Chicago’s South Side sends her daughter to a charter school even though there are two neighborhood schools down the street.

Up in Albany Park, a mother is for the first time confident in her daughter’s neighborhood school after two decades of sending her older children to magnet and test-in programs.

A high school student attends one of the district’s most coveted high schools — but wants the city to undo the system she used to get there.

There’s a lot that goes into how families choose a school in Chicago.

Last week, the city’s school board made waves by announcing they want to move away from that system of choice and build up neighborhood schools, especially in areas that have lacked investment from the city. The board passed a resolution last week stating its intent, but does not call to close any schools or change specific admissions policies.

Originally established to help desegregate schools, the system has recently earned a reputation for stressing out students, who are competing for seats at a limited number of sought-after schools, many of which are segregated by race and income.

Despite that, students have increasingly chosen schools they’re not zoned for. Last school year, 56% of students attended their zoned neighborhood school, or roughly 20 percentage points fewer than in the 2002-03 school year. A quarter of students attended their zoned high school last year, compared to 46% 20 years ago.

The district also won a federal grant in October that they will use to collect community feedback on how they can make neighborhood schools more attractive. In the grant application, Chicago Public Schools said its goal was to reduce the percentage of families attending school outside of their regions by 3%. The district did not answer questions to clarify their definition of region or why 3% was their goal.

How much the district will try to change the city’s school choice system will depend on feedback from the community, board members said. Already, a mix of reactions have emerged. Some community groups praised the board’s support of neighborhood schools. But former CPS CEO Janice Jackson wrote in an op-ed to the Chicago Sun-Times that moving away from school choice would ultimately hurt Black and Hispanic children.

“Trying to do anything in a district that large is going to take a long time if you’re going to do it right,” said Jack Schneider, a professor at University of Massachusetts at Amherst who studies education policy. “It’s going to turn quite slowly and particularly so if your effort is rooted in engaging communities and really listening to them and trying to respond to what you’re hearing.”

Chalkbeat asked readers for their thoughts on school choice and got nearly 80 responses from families across the city about how they’ve navigated the system. We spoke to some of those families to understand how — and why — they chose their schools.

From left to right: Tiffany Harvey walks her dog, Mila, alongside her daughters Isabel Harvey, 21, and Amalia Harvey, 10, as they walk to Haugan Elementary School in Chicago on Dec. 18, 2023. Amalia is a fourth grader at Haugan Elementary School.

Preschool sells mom of four on neighborhood school

About 20 years ago, when Tiffany Harvey was deciding where to send her firstborn to school, she kept hearing that aside from some gifted and magnet programs, Chicago’s schools were “terrible.”

Harvey applied to magnet schools and had her son tested for gifted programs. She also toured a kindergarten classroom at the neighborhood school, Haugan Elementary, a couple blocks away from their Albany Park home. But at the time, Haugan didn’t have before- or after-care programs to accommodate her work schedule, while magnet and gifted programs came with busing. And Haugan’s test scores seemed low to her, she said.

“I honestly felt like I was a bad parent if I didn’t explore all the options and find the best option,” she said.

Over the next two decades, Harvey would send her first three children to magnet, gifted and selective enrollment schools outside their neighborhood.

A few years ago, that changed.

In search of preschool for her fourth child, Harvey applied for the district’s full-day pre-K program and saw that Haugan had seats. She didn’t want to pay for preschool again, and after so many years in Albany Park, she wanted to invest in her neighborhood school as someone who was better-off than some of her neighbors. Her daughter got a seat at Haugan, where 89% of students come from low-income families.

Some research shows public pre-K programs can “attract a more integrated group of families” to schools, while some districts notice families flee after preschool, said Halley Potter, senior fellow at The Century Foundation, who has studied school segregation.

Harvey, who had low expectations, found Haugan was “phenomenal,” she said. Her daughter’s teacher was creative and kind. There was a good combination of play-based learning and introduction to academics. Her daughter was meeting kids from all kinds of families. The next year, she enrolled her daughter in a nearby lottery dual-language program, but they missed Haugan. Her daughter returned for second grade and is now in fourth grade.

“We never looked back,” Harvey said.

Harvey supports families having the ability to choose a school for their child. However, she wishes more parents would realize that schools can’t be measured by test scores alone, and more-advantaged children, like hers, can flourish alongside peers who are different from them. It’s also easier for parents to get involved at schools that are nearby, she said.

As district leaders consider how to invigorate neighborhood schools, they should add more services, such as pre-K programs or after care, as ways to draw in more families, she said.

“I don’t know what the right balance is,” Harvey said. “I do want our neighborhood schools to be celebrated and promoted and have the resources they need, where parents don’t feel like they have to drive across town to find a better option.”

A mom who chose a charter school

Charity Parker lives a couple of blocks away from two neighborhood schools in West Pullman. But her daughter, Aikira, attends a Chicago International Charter Schools, or CICS, campus that’s a roughly 15-minute walk from their home.

Parker, who attended Catholic and charter schools growing up in Chicago, said the neighborhood schools close to her — Curtis and Haley — are “poorly funded” and don’t have good test scores. At both neighborhood schools and Aikira’s charter school, more than 90% of students are from low-income families. But CICS is designated as “commendable” by the state, the second- highest designation out of five. Haley and Curtis have lower designations.

Charity Parker, left, and her daughter Aikira Parker, 8, right, smile as they pose for a portrait together outside of CICS Prairie Chicago International Charter School, where Aikira is a second grader, in Chicago on Dec. 18, 2023.

Aikira is learning more advanced topics than other neighborhood kids Parker knows, she said. She placed fifth in the school’s science fair for a solar panel project, Parker noted.

“An 8-year-old doing engineering work — I’m not getting that at my local CPS school,” she said.

Another selling point for Parker, who is Black, is that about one-third of Aikira’s peers are Hispanic, so she’s exposed “to another culture besides her own.” At Curtis and Haley, more than 90% of students are Black, which is common in Chicago’s segregated neighborhoods.

Parker said all parents should have the right to choose where their children go to school, and the district should never mandate attending neighborhood schools. While Parker loves some things about CICS, she has some issues with the school.

Aikira “loved” kindergarten at CICS, but the next year, Parker had some disagreements with Aikira’s first -grade teacher over coursework. This year, Parker has some concerns about behavior issues in Aikira’s classroom and has considered transferring her out.

But other charters are far away, and she doesn’t have a car. Private school is too expensive.

So, she’ll stay at CICS, she said.

“I’ll admit there are some things about my daughter’s school that rub me the wrong way, but the education is awesome,” Parker said.

Dad sought out selective schools for his son

Since kindergarten, Clyde Smith’s son, Kadin, has exclusively attended selective public schools located 5 to 6 miles south of their Bronzeville home.

Kadin tested into McDade Classical School, a selective enrollment elementary school in Chatham. Then, he tested again in sixth grade and got a seat at an accelerated middle school program located inside Lindblom Math and Science Academy, a selective enrollment high school in West Englewood. Kadin, 16, is now a sophomore at Lindblom.

The stressful nature of admissions never felt “unhealthy,” Smith said. His son has always been surrounded by peers who aimed for similar programs, so he was used to the competition.

“It’s always been in the air,” Smith said. “It’s almost like asking a fish, ‘How’s the water?’”

Kadin Smith, left, stands with his father, Clyde Smith, at their Bronzeville home.

A simpler option might have been to attend his neighborhood school where he’s guaranteed a seat: Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts. District officials closed Dyett in 2015, but the school was revived in 2016 after protests and a hunger strike that Mayor Brandon Johnson participated in as an activist.

The district hosted a press conference in October at Dyett about the school’s rising graduation rates, and officials noted that the school’s 86% graduation rate had surpassed the citywide average.

Smith said he “understood the activism” that brought back Dyett, but it wasn’t enough to win him over.

“The test scores, the classes offered, the colleges they get accepted into overall, to me, doesn’t lay proof that that’s the strongest academic environment like some of these selective enrollment schools are,” Smith said.

Smith complimented the district’s desire to boost neighborhood schools, adding that segregation and “racial inequities” have left many schools under-resourced. Neighborhood schools need “strong teachers,” challenging courses, and more internship opportunities, he said.

Paul Hill, an architect of the idea that districts should create a mix of school options for parents, said the district could risk driving away parents like Smith.

“If the district is really serious about working hard on the neighborhood schools and trying to figure out what would keep people in them… that’s responsible,” said Hill, the founder of the Center for Reinventing Public Education. “On the other hand, if they really attack the schools of choice that probably will drive down enrollment.”

Smith agrees. After all, if Kadin didn’t get into a selective enrollment high school, he and his wife would have sent him to private school.

Mom is daunted by high school admissions

Laura Irons loves Logan Square and their neighborhood school, where her 7-year-old daughter is in first grade. But the thought of choosing a high school is so daunting, the family is considering leaving Chicago by the time their daughter finishes eighth grade.

Irons’ daughter passed up a seat at a magnet school to attend her zoned school, Brentano Math and Science Academy, because the family liked walking to school and didn’t want their daughter to lose friends.

“Being nearby the school, I think, has tremendous social-emotional benefits,” Irons said.

For the future, her family would consider the neighborhood high school. But other parents tell Irons it’s dangerous, with lots of fights and nearby shootings. Irons doesn’t know whether to believe them.

Laura Irons, far right, poses for a photo with her husband and two children at the Logan Square Blue Line stop.

Irons worries about the impact of the competitive application process on her daughter. Through friends and community Facebook groups, Irons hears about kids being “so tremendously stressed out” by the application process. She hates that some schools are considered good or bad without any clarity about why.

“I don’t like [the idea of] making such a big decision at such a young age,” Irons said. “It feels like the college process, which is hard already in itself.”

Even though Irons and her husband love city life, they’re leaning toward leaving unless there is more clarity and transparency around how the choice system works, she said. And she doesn’t know where to find accurate information.

“I do value choice in certain situations so I’m not anti-choice,” Irons said. “I think the system that we have, though — to sound so cliche — it’s just a broken, very opaque system. I wonder if kids would even be stressed if the parents weren’t so stressed.”

Selective enrollment student sees problems with the system

One of Tess Lacy’s earliest memories of discussing school choice was in fourth grade. Her physical education teacher told her class, “I want you to go to good high schools,” Tess recalled.

Comments like that were common throughout Tess’s elementary and middle school years. Teachers talked often about applying to sought-after high schools. Many of her friends felt they’d fail their parents if they didn’t get into those schools. While her own parents didn’t care where she went, the stress around Tess conditioned her to focus on selective enrollment schools, she said.

Tess Lacy poses for a portrait in front of George B. Swift Elementary School, which she used to attend, in Chicago on Dec. 18, 2023. Lacy is currently a sophomore at Jones College Prep.

She took the High School Admissions Test and got into her top-ranking: Jones College Prep in the South Loop.

Now, three years later, Tess wants to see the selective enrollment system abolished.

Selective enrollment schools tend to have more resources, not just from the district, but also from families who can fundraise, sometimes millions of dollars, Tess noted.

“If you intentionally, institutionally, structurally create schools that have more resources, parents with more resources will send their kids there,” Tess said. “I feel like a lot of people are able to realize that’s not normal, but there’s a lot of people who would rather forget about the tens of thousands of students who don’t have that privilege.”

Tess doesn’t regret attending Jones, where she has made friends from all over the city. She enjoys doing technical work for the school’s drama department.

But her decision to attend Jones now feels like it was influenced by everyone around her. She regrets not ranking Edgewater’s Senn High School higher. Senn was not her zoned high school, but is a neighborhood school closer to home that has a good arts program — one of Tess’s interests.

She would encourage eighth grade students to “really, truly think about what they as a student want.”

“Now I look back, and I see how my decision was so not my own decision,” Tess said.

Correction: This story orignally stated that McDade Classical School was a gifted program. McDade is another type of selective enrollment elementary school in Chicago.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools leaders want to move away from school choice

2023-12-12T18:45:13+00:00

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Chicago school leaders want to move away from the district’s system of school choice — in which families apply to a myriad of charter, magnet, test-in, or other district-run programs — according to a resolution the Board of Education will vote on this week.

The move puts in motion Mayor Brandon Johnson’s campaign promise to reinvigorate Chicago Public Schools’ neighborhood schools. On the campaign trail, Johnson likened the city’s school choice system to a “Hunger Games scenario” that forces competition for resources and ultimately harms schools, particularly those where students are zoned based on their address.

District leaders’ goals include ensuring “fully-resourced neighborhood schools, prioritizing schools and communities most harmed by structural racism, past inequitable policies and disinvestment,” the resolution, which was released Tuesday, said.

The board wants to pursue that policy goal — and several others — as part of the district’s five-year strategic plan, which will be finalized this summer. In an interview with reporters on Tuesday, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, Board President Jianan Shi, and Board Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland declined to specify changes or say how far they want to move away from the choice system. That’s because they want to collect community feedback on how far the district should go, which would be outlined in a final five-year strategic plan this summer, they said.

The board is expected to vote Thursday on the resolution, which doesn’t create or get rid of any policies; rather, it formalizes and publicizes the district’s goals.

The district wants to “transition away from privatization and admissions/enrollment policies and approaches that further stratification and inequity in CPS and drive student enrollment away from neighborhood schools,” the resolution says.

This marks the first time the board has formally stated it wants to move away from selective admissions and enrollment policies. It says the school choice system, as it exists today, “reinforces, rather than disrupts, cycles of inequity” and must be replaced with “anti-racist processes and initiatives that eliminate all forms of racial oppression.”

Some selective enrollment and magnet schools lack the diversity of the city, enrolling larger shares of white and Asian American students, while others remain largely segregated by race and class.

Martinez said it is painful to hear of students traveling far distances to attend school, or when parents ask if they should get their 4-year-old child tested for gifted programs. He said he can “scream as loud as I can” about all that he believes neighborhood schools can offer to families versus highly sought-after magnet or selective enrollment schools — but “it’s not going to be enough.”

“We see this as an opportunity to, again, build trust, because I want to keep calling that out — that is a huge challenge for us,” Martinez said.

Any number of big changes could be on the horizon, Todd-Breland said.

“There likely will be policies that need to be revised and changed, so the admissions and enrollment policy is on the table as something that through this process of engagement, likely there will be some changes to it,” Todd-Breland said.

Todd-Breland and Shi said they’ve heard many pleas from the community to overhaul the choice system. The board’s goal to move away from school choice is framed in the resolution as a response to the district’s ongoing challenges, such as budget deficits and academic disparities between students citywide and Black and Hispanic students, students with disabilities, those who are homeless, and children learning English as a new language.

District leaders imagine prioritizing neighborhood schools to receive more resources and programming. Martinez said universal preschool is one example of an initiative that can draw families into a school.

The system of school choice in Chicago grew over many decades.

Data shows around 56% of elementary school students attended their zoned neighborhood school last school year and 23% of high school students did. Twenty years ago, during the 2002-03 school year, 74% of students attended their zoned elementary school and 46% of high schoolers did.

Many of the district’s most popular magnet and selective schools were created in the 1980s and 90s under a court-ordered federal desegregation consent decree that officially ended in 2009. In the 2000s, then-Mayor Richard M. Daley opened 100 new schools under an initiative known as Renaissance 2010. Most of those schools did not have neighborhood attendance boundaries and many were charter schools run by third-parties.

The expansion of school options also contributed to the mass closure or shakeup of nearly 200 schools, including 50 schools in 2013. Enrollment has further declined since then, but under state law, the district cannot close schools until 2025. Officials would not say if the five-year plan would eventually include closing schools and emphasized their plans to engage communities.

However, Todd-Breland did signal that the board might move to close charter schools.

“If you are a privately-managed school, taking public dollars from our taxpayers that would otherwise go to the other schools that we know need to be invested in because they haven’t [been] for years, and you are not performing at a level that we find to be a high quality educational experience for young people, then why do you continue to exist in this system?” she said.

Nearly half of the charter schools authorized by the Chicago Board of Education are up for renewal this year and dozens more will be next year. If a charter is not renewed, it most likely would close, though operators can appeal to the state.

The previous administration, under the leadership of former CPS CEO Janice Jackson, also tried to reinvigorate underenrolled neighborhood schools. In 2018, the district offered additional funding for specialty programs to local schools looking to attract more students.

Though the current system has long been criticized for stressing out students and families as they compete for spots at the most sought-after schools, many families value having options outside of their assigned neighborhood school. Student admissions to gifted programs rely on a test, while admissions to selective enrollment high schools are based in part on the High School Admissions Test and previous school performance.

The board’s policy priorities come less than a year before Chicago will for the first time elect school board members. State law currently says 10 members will be elected and the mayor is to appoint another 11. That shift is one reason the board is focused on getting a lot of community feedback on their vision, so new board members “understand this is the direction that the district is moving in,” Shi said.

Political shifts, such as this transition to an elected school board, could upend what the current board wants to do, said Jack Schneider, an education policy expert and professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

“The last thing you want is to put all of this effort into something like promoting neighborhood public schools and then have a massive change in the composition of the board that then leads to a 180 in priorities,” Schneider said.

The resolution also highlights several other policy goals under the district’s next strategic plan, including creating more community schools over the next five years. These schools provide wraparound services to students and families, another priority for Johnson. It also includes adding staff, ensuring culturally relevant, anti-racist lessons for students and similarly framed professional development for educators, and prioritizing collecting feedback from students and the community.

The board also wants to ask the community’s help in creating plans for “previously closed and currently ‘underutilized’ schools,” the resolution says.

Read the full resolution on page 21 of the board’s agenda posted online.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools is tapping principal Joshua Long to lead its special education department

2023-12-11T20:31:00+00:00

Joshua Long, currently the principal of Southside Occupational Academy High School, has been selected to lead Chicago Public Schools’ beleaguered special education department, according to district officials.

The department — known as the Office of Diverse Learners Supports and Services — serves nearly 52,000 students with disabilities and has been without a chief since June. That’s when Stephanie Jones stepped down amid fallout from Chicago’s violations related to the use of restraint and timeout of students. The department has also struggled in recent years to ensure students with disabilities are getting services they’re legally entitled to under federal law.

Long sent a letter to families whose children attend Southside this morning announcing “with mixed emotions” that he accepted the role and would start after winter break, pending confirmation by the school board this Thursday.

“I am excited to continue working for students with disabilities and look forward to new opportunities to engage with all stakeholders as we move to positively impact each student’s experience in every school,” he wrote.

Ben Felton, chief talent officer at Chicago Public Schools, said the district used an external search firm and input from city officials, local advocates, educators, and other staff in its search for a new department head.

“We approached this differently than we had in the past given how critical this role is to CPS and how deeply invested many of our stakeholders are in special education and in this position,” said Felton.

Representatives from Access Living, the city’s Office of People with Disabilities, district principals, the Dyslexia Collaborative, and the Chicago Teachers Union were among the community groups that had a conversation with finalists and provided feedback, Felton said.

CEO Pedro Martinez made the final recommendation; the school board, which meets on Thursday, must approve the appointment.

Long would be inheriting a department beset with problems. The district is under state watch on multiple issues, including providing timely transportation to students with disabilities and for how it physically restrains students in the classroom.

Long has been the principal of Southside since 2010, according to his LinkedIn profile. In 2019, he won the prestigious statewide Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Leadership.

Joshua Long, second from left, speaks with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson in Sept., 2023 in Chicago, Ill.

Before that, Long worked in various positions, including as a speech pathologist in a dozen schools, he told Chalkbeat in 2019. At the time, when Chalkbeat asked Long how the district should help students with disabilities, Long said he saw classes that “were not being run effectively” and weren’t “as rigorous” as other schools he’d been in. With that in mind, Long said “that the biggest thing is establishing equity for all students no matter which school or neighborhood they are in.”

Some district leaders have known Long for years. Board of Education member Mary Fahey Hughes, a longtime advocate for students with disabilities, sent her son to Southside. During a school visit with Mayor Brandon Johnson in September, Hughes praised the school and its model, which is designed to help those with more challenging disabilities transition into the real world.

“The thing I love about this place is there is so much respect for students where they’re at,” she told Chalkbeat at the time.

Long was a proponent of changing the timeline for when students with disabilities could transition out of public schools. Previously, under state law, some students with disabilities could receive services until the day before their 22nd birthday. In 2021, state law changed to allow students who turn 22 during the school year to remain eligible for services through the end of that year.

Long has also advocated for improving funding and availability of services for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities once they graduate from CPS. In an interview with Chalkbeat during the September school visit with Johnson, Long said the state has a yearslong waiting list for people with more challenging disabilities who want to access state-funded adult services, such as for community-based living or day services, that are meant to provide people with more independence. One of his former students accessed such services eight years after she graduated from Southside, he said.

“Our students do best through routine and through daily interactions,” Long said. “Now, she sat home for eight years and likely lost a lot of skills that she learned here with us.”

Long’s appointment comes after the district leaders signaled this fall that they were interested in expanding the school model Long oversaw. Southside is one of a handful of so-called specialty schools that focus on teaching students with intellectual and developmental disabilities about work and life skills. Southside, for example, has classes that teach students how to work in retail, food service, and auto mechanics. Unlike most schools, the district assigns students to these schools.

The district is under state watch regarding multiple issues for how it supports students with disabilities. Last year, the state launched a corrective action plan requiring the district to cap bus commute times for students with disabilities to 60 minutes each way. About 3,000 students with disabilities exceeded that limit at the start of last school year, according to the district.

Under state watch, those travel times have vastly improved this year, after the district decided to stop busing general education students, largely those in magnet and selective enrollment programs. In September, the state launched a new corrective action plan to ensure the district is providing transportation to all students of disabilities whose Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs, call for bus service.

This spring, documents obtained by Chalkbeat revealed the district had been under state watch for failing to follow state law on physical restraint and timeout for students. The state board said that Chicago was not notifying parents of incidents, staff and faculty were not trained in how to properly restrain and seclude students, and untrained staff were using outlawed methods of restraint.

The state board named Jones for failing in her role as a designated official to look into restraint and timeout incidents. In that role, she was required to maintain copies of incidents, be notified of incidents that occurred during the school day, and receive documents of physical restraint and timeout incidents that went on for a long time.

Prior to Jones’s time as chair, the district’s department responsible for supporting students with disabilities had been in trouble with the state before. A 2017 investigation WBEZ found Chicago Public Schools secretly overhauled the special education department in 2016, resulting in students losing access to vital services. The State Board of Education placed the district under a corrective action plan in 2018, which lasted until 2022. During the 2022-23 school year, the state placed Chicago under a general supervision plan to continue to watch how the district handles special education services.

Now, Long could play a key role in ensuring that the department is delivering services to students with disabilities, monitoring physical restraint and timeout incidents, and helping students catch up after the coronavirus pandemic disrupted education.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago district official says adding busing this year will be tough as driver shortage persists

2023-11-29T03:16:15+00:00

Chicago Public Schools officials expressed doubt Tuesday that they will be able to provide busing to general education students for the rest of this school year.

“It’s very difficult to make a pivot within midyear to be able to add transportation now,” Charles Mayfield, the district’s chief operating officer, said during a hearing of the City Council’s Committee on Education and Child Development.

Mayfield’s comments come as the school district is still working to shorten bus rides for more than 100 students with disabilities to comply with state law.

In response to questions from aldermen about the state of student transportation, district officials cited a shortage of drivers as the core reason they’ve limited bus service so far this year to students with disabilities whose individualized education programs require transportation and those who are living in temporary housing. Both groups are legally entitled to receive bus rides to school.

About 5,500 general education students who were previously eligible for bus transportation were not offered busing this year — mostly those who attend magnet and selective-enrollment schools. The district is instead offering those families CTA passes, including a companion pass for a parent or guardian. Many parents have complained about the change, with some saying it’s hard to meet their work obligations and get their kids to school. It has led some families to transfer children out of their schools.

The district had already announced that it wouldn’t be able to expand busing to general education students for the rest of this semester. Officials have promised an update on transportation in December, before the new semester begins.

As of mid-October, the district said it had created bus routes for about 8,100 students, mostly children with disabilities.

Mayfield told aldermen that the district has now hired 715 drivers, compared with about 680 in July — meaning it has 54% of the drivers it needs. That’s only a small increase, he said, even though the district has held dozens of hiring fairs and worked with its bus vendors to increase hourly driver pay rates by $5 since last year.

“We just haven’t seen much traction with being able to build that pipeline back for drivers,” he said.

Officials added that the number of students with disabilities has grown by about 20% from last year, and the district is regularly receiving new transportation requests.

Chicago Public Schools has been under state watch since last November for failing to get students with disabilities on bus rides shorter than an hour each way. Last year, the district reported that 3,000 students were on rides longer than an hour, with 365 on rides lasting more than 90 minutes each way.

This year, with transportation for general-education students sharply limited, the district has touted an improvement in travel times for students with disabilities. As of Monday, 116 students with disabilities were commuting more than an hour to school, according to Mayfield’s presentation. That is, however, an increase from August, when 47 students with disabilities were on routes longer than one hour.

The state opened another investigation in September after advocates and parents complained that students with disabilities whose individualized education programs include transportation are being denied their federal right to a “free appropriate public education.”

The complaint alleges “widespread … delays and denials” across CPS and an “unnecessary administrative burden,” because families have to request transportation even after they’ve already been deemed eligible, according to a copy of the complaint obtained by Chalkbeat.

Looking ahead to next year, Mayfield said the district will be discussing various strategies to make bus transportation “more efficient.” The options could include creating regional bus pickup sites and adjusting school start and dismissal times. He emphasized that those decisions would be made in collaboration with unions.

“Candidly, there will be some decisions that will need to be made, because we’re not seeing that driver population come back,” Mayfield said.

Becky Vevea contributed reporting.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools graduation rates hit record high, data show

2023-10-31T19:01:51+00:00

A greater share of Chicago Public Schools students graduated last school year than in 2022, reaching a new record, officials announced Tuesday.

The graduation rate of 84% — representing students who graduated in four years — was 1.1 percentage points higher than the graduation rate for the Class of 2022, when 82.9% of high school students graduated on time. The dropout rate for the Class of 2023 was slightly higher at 9.4% than it was for the Class of 2022, which saw 8.9% of students drop out between freshman year and graduation.

Chicago Public Schools’ five-year graduation rate for the Class of 2022 — which includes students who take extra time to finish their diploma either at a traditional or alternative school — was 85.6%, 1.6 percentage points higher than for the class of 2021 when it was 84%.

District officials announced the numbers with fanfare at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts, with CPS CEO Pedro Martinez flanked by Mayor Brandon Johnson and joined virtually by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.

Martinez said the rising graduation rate was a sign that the district is continuing to recover from the pandemic, reminding the audience that the students in the Class of 2023 were freshmen as the pandemic started in 2020, followed by two school years of remote and hybrid learning.

“When you think about their last year, their senior year, was probably their most normal year, I want you to take these results and put them in that context,” Martinez said.

Cardona described the graduation rates as “promising signs for the future of education in Chicago.” He highlighted the district’s use of federal COVID relief dollars, which CPS has put toward several purposes, including covering teacher salaries and hiring more instructional staff.

The announcement came one day after Illinois state education officials released statewide data, including graduation rates that had also increased across Illinois. (The state and Chicago Public Schools calculate graduation rates differently, so Chalkbeat is unable to provide direct comparisons.)

Chicago’s graduation rate has steadily increased over time, hitting a record high in 2022 even as students have faced academic challenges connected to the pandemic. Tuesday’s announcement comes on the heels of another report that found a rising share of CPS students are enrolling in college.

Racial disparities among graduates still remain, though they are narrowing. Graduation rates increased for Black, Hispanic and Asian American students, while dropping slightly for white students — by .4 percentage points — compared to the Class of 2022. Rates also dropped for multiracial students by 5.7 percentage points.

Nearly 75% of Black boys graduated in four years, up from roughly 65% five years ago, according to district data.

Despite higher graduation rates, SAT scores dipped for the Class of 2023, to an average composite score of 914. The average score for the Class of 2022 was 927, according to district data. Separately, the district also saw slightly fewer ninth graders — 88.7% — who were on track to graduate by 2026. That’s compared to 88.8% of the class that’s one year older than them.

As the pandemic set in, the district relaxed some grading policies, as did other school systems across the nation — raising questions about how such policies may have contributed to CPS’s rising graduation rates. Martinez argued that an increase in students completing college-level credits was a sign students were held to a high standard. Just under half of the Class of 2023 earned early college credits, a 5% increase from 2022, according to the district.

One of those students is Zaid Orduño, who said at Tuesday’s press conference that he took college-level courses at Daley College during his time at Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, through the district’s Early College Program. His classes at Daley included English, math, sociology, and psychology, and he ultimately earned an associate’s degree alongside his high school diploma.

Taking those classes, he said, inspired him to pass up his original plan of joining his family’s construction business and instead pursue a civil engineering degree at Illinois Tech, he said.

A wall at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts is dedicated to remembering a hunger strike held in 2015 to demand for the reopening of Dyett, which was closed at the time.

Dyett, located in the Bronzeville neighborhood on the South Side, saw its graduation rate tick up by more than 3 percentage points, to 86%. Johnson noted how far the school had come since he and other community members participated in a highly publicized hunger strike in 2015 to demand that Dyett, then shuttered, reopen. He also recognized fellow hunger striker Ald. Jeanette Taylor, who now represents the neighborhood nearby in City Council and serves as the chair of the Committee on Education and Child Development.

“A hunger striker can turn into a mayor and an alderman, and more importantly, a hunger strike can lead to the success that we are experiencing with our students right here at Dyett High School,” Johnson said.

He also used the moment to once again advocate for expanding the Sustainable Community Schools Initiative that Dyett and 19 other schools are a part of. The program partners schools with a nonprofit that provides wraparound services for students and families.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools could see a $391M budget deficit next school year, official says

2023-10-25T21:59:31+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools is expecting a $391 million budget shortfall next year as federal COVID relief money runs out, officials said Wednesday.

The district has received $2.8 billion in COVID relief since the onset of the pandemic. The last $300 million of that will be spent in 2025, according to Mike Sitkowski, chief budget officer for CPS, who shared the figures during a Board of Education meeting. The current budget is $9.4 billion. Next year’s budget starts July 1, 2024 and will cover the 2024-25 school year.

By law, the school district must balance its budget, Sitkowski noted. That means district officials will either have to cut expenses or find a way to boost revenue. Board President Jianan Shi called for the latter.

“Our district needs more revenue, and this is a moment for all of us at every level to stand up and advocate for our teachers, our students, our families, for this board to advocate for more revenue at the state, local, and federal levels,” Shi said after the presentation.

The financial update comes as the City Council holds budget hearings for the city’s next budget, which is due by the end of the year but is typically finalized by Thanksgiving. The district’s budget operates on a different timeline, more closely matching the school year. The district will also hold budget community roundtables for the public throughout November. (Dates can be found here.)

Districts across the nation have been bracing for financial challenges as their pandemic relief dollars run out. Chicago officials have directed their relief dollars toward employee salaries, hiring more instructional staff and creating several new programs. About $670 million of federal relief was included in this year’s budget — representing about 7% of the current budget set to end June 30, 2024.

Asked on previous occasions about what CPS will do once the federal money runs out, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has said district officials plan to ask the state for more support.

The $391 million deficit is the result of complicated collection of revenues and costs the district is projecting for next year: First, the district will have a $670 million hole in next year’s budget due to the loss of federal pandemic aid, according to Sitkowski’s presentation. That gap will be partially filled by the last bit of federal relief — about $300 million. However, the district is also expecting $123 million more in expenses it says it can’t control, including for teacher pension costs, debt service, health care costs, and inflation, Sitkowski said.

Those costs will be partially offset by rising revenues of $102 million, which include $23 million more from the state, as well as some rising tax collections, and more state support for pensions, according to Sitkowski.

The projections shared on Wednesday seem to outpace what a previous analysis warned of. A report issued under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot warned of a potential $628 million deficit by 2026 and predicted a neutral outlook for 2025. The report also noted that as the city has shifted more costs onto the district, it could shoulder more expenses as the board goes from mayoral control to an elected body.

District officials have been ratcheting up pressure for more money from state officials. This school year, CPS is projected to see a $23 million increase in state funding, for a total of about $1.77 billion this school year.

But on Wednesday, Sitkowski said that if the state fully funded districts under the Evidence-Based Funding Formula, CPS would have an additional $1.1 billion in funding.

Last month, the board highlighted the need for $3.1 billion to address critical repairs at school facilities over the next five years.

Sitkowski said direct funding at the school level has also increased by $1 billion since fiscal year 2019, even as enrollment dipped. More than 2,300 teachers were hired in that time, including classroom teachers, interventionists, and educators for the arts and physical education, he noted.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

This Chicago principal creates a sense of belonging for migrant students and their families

2023-10-18T21:50:45+00:00

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When Maureen Delgado walked into her first classroom at Clinton Elementary in 1999 to teach middle school English and Social Studies, it was virtually empty — no textbooks, no pens, nothing.

“If I hadn’t had experience previously teaching, I probably would have really struggled,” Delgado said. “But that’s also one of the things that I think about when I hire new teachers: How can I support them? How can I make sure that they have what they need?”

Delgado is now the principal at Clinton, a kindergarten through eighth grade school in Chicago’s West Ridge neighborhood on the city’s north side. It’s a role she took on in 2016 after several years as the school’s assistant principal.

This month, Delgado and a handful of Chicago Public Schools principals are being featured on Chicago Transit Authority buses and trains as part of Principal Appreciation Month. District officials said she was chosen for creating an inclusive environment for Clinton’s immigrant and refugee population.

Delgado spoke with Chalkbeat Chicago about how she leads one of the city’s largest elementary schools, serving more than 1,000 students, 90 percent of whom are from low-income households and 62 percent of whom are English learners.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

What made you want to be a principal?

I think if you were to ask me, back when I was doing my undergrad work, I would say I just wanted to be a teacher, and that’s all I wanted to do. But through my experiences here, I found myself being pushed into leadership roles, such as a grade-level instructional team leader. I think one of the things that really propelled me, though, was I realized that the opportunities and structures I had set up in my classroom were not necessarily the same across the school. I thought I could do more good as a school leader in order to support all of our learners.

Tell me a little bit about your own experience with school growing up and how it affects your work today.

My own experience in school is kind of embedded in working in this neighborhood. My father was an immigrant from the Middle East. My mother was a second-generation American. School was always important. I was the first person in my family to go to college. There were no ifs, ands, or buts in our family. You were going to get a college degree. It was always ingrained in us that school is important, that we’re here in this country being given the opportunity to better ourselves. My father felt that education was really the driver to seek a better life, and he was a proponent of making sure that that happened for his family.

I always wanted to be a teacher. I tortured my family, my cousins by playing school on the weekends. I had a chalkboard that I was given as a birthday gift. I just was always really drawn to education and drawn to helping kids and to helping students learn. When I was attending school at nearby Rogers Elementary, I spent a lot of time volunteering in younger grades like kindergarten and first grade. I’d spend my lunch periods or other free periods helping out in those classrooms. In high school, there was a child development class and we had a preschool in our high school, where I would volunteer. At Clinton, I feel like I found my niche and I found the perfect community to do that in.

Chicago has seen a big influx of migrant students. How is your school helping newcomer students?

One of the things that has drawn me to this community and has helped me stay here is being a child of an immigrant myself. My family comes from the Middle East and my aunts’ education stopped at what would be the equivalent of third or fourth grade. They never felt like they could go into their children’s school. So they relied on my mother who was English-speaking to be able to advocate for my cousins because they just never felt welcome in the school and they felt that that barrier would hinder them.

West Ridge and Rogers Park is a very diverse part of the city and it’s been diverse for years. Clinton is right off of Devon Avenue, which is known as Little India. We’ve had a lot of Asian families from Pakistan and India, but we also have a lot of different families from the Middle East. When I was teaching, we would get a lot of families from Eastern Europe, especially Kosovo, Bosnia, when there was a civil war there. We’ve always been welcoming different immigrants and different refugees from around the world.

We’ve continued to do that at Clinton. What has been a little bit more challenging this year is that we’ve had over 115 kids that have enrolled as newcomers since the beginning of the school year. We do have a lot of support in place, but it’s just been very fast. And while about a quarter of them are Spanish speaking, there’s another quarter that are Arabic speaking. We also have students that speak Rohingya, Burmese, Somali. We have 45 different languages spoken here. Our issues have been, ‘How do we support this huge influx that we’ve gotten?’ Because we’re also expecting more.

Over the last few years, our teachers have gotten English as a Second Language endorsements. About 95% of our teachers have their ESL endorsements. One of the things we focused on, particularly last year, was doing a professional learning community with those teachers. We have our English Language Program teachers who work as coaches and so they go in and support teachers.

We also have a lot of teachers that speak another language. Whenever we have parent meetings or one-on-one meetings about a student’s progress, we make sure that if we don’t have somebody on staff who speaks that language, we utilize the language line [a hotline we can call to get a translator]. So that helps us strengthen that home-to-school connection.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received and how have you put it into action?

I think the best advice I’ve ever received is to really listen. One of the things that I’ve had to do as an administrator is really to listen to my community, our school community, and kind of hear what we’re struggling with and being able to have people express their concerns or question things. That has really helped to guide where we’re headed as a school and to guide our new instructional shifts and our focus is just really being able to listen to the community.

I think a lot of times people are always thinking about how to respond to something or about how they’re gonna get their point across. But I think for me, just really taking the time to listen and process what I’ve been told.

How has your school worked to support students’ mental health?

One of the things that we’ve always offered here is a partnership with Asian Human Services, now known as Trellus, so we’ve always been able to offer counseling within the school day, which I think really helps some parents become more comfortable with the idea [of counseling] because they trust the school.

Thankfully, the district has given us a second counselor. That has been phenomenal for our school. We have a rainbows group that’s meeting about loss. We have a positive minds group that’s talking about self esteem and really growth mindset. We have a wellness group that’s talking about wellness, holistically, not just physical wellness, but also mental health. We have different “lunch bunches” where kids are able to meet and have lunch with the counselor and talk about things very organically.

In addition, our counselors are supporting our teachers, with programs such as Second Step and Calm Classroom. We’re also working on restorative practices within our school.

All of that has helped to make parents more comfortable so that when we have students who do require some additional support, they trust us. We also do workshops on mental health with our Parent Advisory Council.

How do you take care of yourself when you’re not at work?

If you ask my family, they’ll say I’m never not at work. Even if I’m not physically in the building, my mind is constantly thinking about school. But I think the way I take care of myself is really spending time with family and friends and taking care of my own mental health. Sometimes it’s getting a massage, sometimes it’s reading, sometimes it’s vegging out on Netflix.

Principal Maureen Delgado reads to a student at Clinton Elementary, where she’s served as principal since 2016 and has worked since 1999.

How does it feel to have pictures of yourself on Chicago Transit Authority buses and trains?

I haven’t physically seen one yet, but I know one of my clinicians did. I will say, I am really committed to this school and this community. I am really proud of the work that we’re doing. And I’m very proud of the teachers, our students, our staff, and our parents. Whatever I can do to share that I’m more than willing to do it.

My father passed away a few years ago and I was telling my mom about it and I said, ‘You know what, I think he would have been proud of me.’ And she goes, ‘Yes, he would be so proud of you.’ On a personal level, it’s kind of nice to know that I’m being recognized. But in terms of the school, I’m happy that we’re being recognized. Our goal is to be the best neighborhood school in the city of Chicago, and I think we’re on our way to doing that.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools reschedules High School Admissions Test

2023-10-18T21:27:08+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools announced a new testing schedule Wednesday for the High School Admissions Test, which was canceled last week after technical problems.

District students will take the test next week, on either Oct. 24 or Oct. 25. The district will assign one of those dates to each eighth grader’s school, according to a CPS letter to families. Students taking the exam in Spanish, Arabic, Polish, Urdu, or simplified Chinese will test on Nov. 1.

Non-CPS students — whose testing window last weekend was canceled — can take the exam on Oct. 28, Oct. 29, or Nov. 5 at Lane Tech or Lindblom high schools, the district said. These students must sign up for an exam date in GoCPS, the city’s admissions application system, by 9 a.m. Oct. 23.

The exam will not be the same one as was planned for last week, and students who were able to access the test will not see the same questions, officials said.

Students who were able to complete the exam will be allowed to retake the test, and their new score will be used for admissions even if it’s the lower of both tests, officials said. Students who don’t want to retake the exam must opt out by filing out this form and returning it to their school by Oct. 23. However, due to last week’s glitches, district officials “strongly recommend that students take advantage of this opportunity” to retake the exam, they said in the letter to families.

CPS’ roughly 24,000 eighth graders were set to take the HSAT in school on Oct. 11. The exam is part of admissions requirements for selective enrollment high schools and for enrollment at some schools outside of their neighborhood boundaries.

But on test day, a technical problem broke out with the testing vendor, Riverside Associates, LLC, officials said. The company later discovered that backlogged servers caused the problem, according to an FAQ on the district’s website. Students were unable to log into the testing platform, and the company’s help desk could not be reached, educators told Chalkbeat. District officials instructed principals to stop exam administration for students who were unable to log in.

The district later canceled the exam for non-CPS students, who were scheduled to take it Oct. 14 and 15.

The company fixed the problem by “adding server capacity” and testing the system to ensure that it works, the FAQ said.

Students’ HSAT scores help determine which selective high schools they might be admitted. This year, students must submit their top choices in the district’s admissions system — GoCPS — by Nov. 9, a month earlier than usual. Students were originally allowed to re-rank their choices by Nov. 22, but given the rescheduled HSAT, district officials have extended the re-rank deadline to Dec. 1.

After last week’s glitches, the district plans to be “very cautious” about the new testing plan and is “putting some strategies in place” to eliminate potential issues, said CPS Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova during a Wednesday Board of Education meeting to review the agenda for an upcoming full board meeting. Neither she nor district officials immediately elaborated on what extra steps they’ve taken to ensure the test will resume smoothly.

In the online FAQ, the district said that its team has “reviewed results of vendor testing to confirm preparedness for resuming the HS Admissions Test program.”

During the board meeting Wednesday, Chkoumbova apologized to families for the glitches and said she was “a little bit disappointed” by the problems, given that the district’s aim was to reduce anxiety for students. The district had shortened the test length this year to an hour, from a previous 2 ½ hours, and had offered it for the first time in Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, Urdu, and Polish.

“Our team went into the testing session with a lot of assurances,” Chkoumbova said. “We did triple check everything, but the platform failed.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

At one magnet school, Chicago’s bus crisis has parents grasping for options — or leaving

2023-10-13T18:14:26+00:00

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Mónica Meléndez spent the first half of the last school year driving her three kids at least an hour each way to Inter-American Magnet School in Lake View.

She felt she had no choice after the district said it would not provide transportation at the beginning of the year for two of her children.

By the time all her kids got bus service in the second semester, Meléndez was exhausted — especially on days she spent another hour driving to work.

So shortly after Chicago Public Schools announced this summer that it wouldn’t provide busing to about 5,500 eligible general education students, largely those in gifted and magnet programs, Meléndez and her husband pulled their two youngest children out of the school. It was a wrenching decision: The Spanish dual language school felt perfect for the couple, who are originally from Puerto Rico and want their children to be bilingual.

Meléndez recalls telling her husband: “Sweetie, I can’t do this anymore.” Their oldest, a seventh grader, now takes a CTA bus two hours each way.

The family’s decision illustrates one way Chicago’s school bus crisis could impact enrollment and the socioeconomic and racial diversity of the city’s magnet and gifted programs. Many of these schools were created under a federal desegregation consent decree, but have been criticized for lacking diversity and enrolling larger shares of white and Asian American students since federal oversight ended in 2009. As working-class families find it difficult or impossible to take their children far distances to school, the absence of a transportation option could segregate the schools even more.

Parents at Inter-American are looking for solutions, as other gifted and magnet programs have also sought their own alternatives to the lack of busing.

Inter-American is already seeing the impact and some families have left.

“I would be really worried about what this change would mean for the demographics for these schools and for the goals of magnet schools in Chicago more generally,” said Halley Potter, an expert on school integration policy and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation.

Parents share transportation challenges

Citing a severe driver shortage, Chicago Public Schools announced in late July that it would limit bus transportation this year to students with disabilities and those who are homeless, both groups which are legally required to receive transportation. The district is currently under state watch to make sure it’s meeting those legal requirements.

The district said it has pursued several solutions to hire more drivers, including boosting driver pay rates by $2 – to $22 to $27 an hour – and hosting hiring fairs. But as of late last month, the district still had only half the number of drivers on hand and announced that busing would not be extended to more families for the rest of the semester. The district offered CTA cards to the 5,500 children who lost busing, but as of late last month, just about 1,600 took that option.

In a statement, CPS spokesperson Samantha Hart said the district is “acutely aware” of the challenges families are facing with longer commutes.

“We are committed to continuing to work with our vendors, City partners and our families to identify solutions and ensure every eligible student has safe, secure, and reliable transportation to and from school,” Hart said.

The transportation crisis has already had a small impact on enrollment at Inter-American, where nearly half of the school’s 641 students come from low-income families. Fifty-three families were eligible for transportation at the school. As of Oct. 2, six children have transferred out of the school due to the lack of transportation, according to the district.

At least two more children transferred out after Oct. 2 because of transportation issues, said Maria Ugarte, chair of Inter-American’s Local School Council. Ugarte has also heard from many parents who are considering leaving, and she wonders how lack of busing will impact next year’s enrollment.

At a meeting last month with the school’s principal, one parent said he wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep up the commute to school. A mother shared that her commute involves taking the CTA with her three children, including a 2-year-old, every morning and evening— and doing that daily is becoming stressful.

Alexis Luna, who lives in Belmont Cragin, splits dropoff and pickup responsibilities for her third grade daughter with the girl’s father. But her daughter may have to miss school on days that the girl’s father is out of town for work, since Luna’s work schedule is inflexible and she can’t take days off.

Luna “lost everything” when her business closed during the pandemic, so she cannot afford to miss work or quit. She said she is struggling to pay for the increased gas costs.

For Rocio Meza, the lack of transportation means she can’t search for a job this year as she handles the hourlong pickup and dropoff each way at Inter-American for her 12-year-old daughter. She’s also responsible for driving her older son with disabilities to doctor’s appointments on some mornings, which sometimes makes one of the children late.

She and her husband have discussed transferring their daughter out of Inter-American – two other schools are within a few blocks of their house – but the family loves the school.

”Do I really want to do this and give up the education and experience she’s getting at Inter-American to go to another school?” Meza said.

Some attempts to find solutions at the school level haven’t come to fruition.

The school’s principal, Juan Carlos Zayas, launched a voluntary task force with parents to look for ways to ease the transportation issue. Ideas included a rideshare app and hiring a bus company on their own, according to recordings of the meetings. Both options would likely be too costly for parents, task force members said. For example, one parent found a company that would charge $158 per child this month — if the bus was full with just a couple of stops.

The district granted the school $157,000 in funding to host before- and after-school programs to accommodate more flexible pickup and dropoff times. The principal recently surveyed families for their interest and expects programming to start Oct. 23, a district spokesperson said.

Last month, Luna tried to distribute a survey to arrange carpooling for interested parents. The survey asked for information such as where their child’s old bus stop was and how many children they had. Zayas emailed Luna and several other parents that the “attempt to collect personal information” was a “clear violation” of district policy and that it was circulated to teachers without his knowledge.

District officials pointed to a CPS policy that prevents anyone from circulating ads, subscription lists, meeting invitations, books, maps, articles, or other political or commercial materials among school employees or students without approval from the principal or other district officials.

Still, some parents are trying to figure out carpool arrangements, Luna said.

Transportation woes could decrease diversity in magnet programs

During CPS board meetings, parents at magnet and gifted programs have said they are worried that the lack of transportation will most greatly impact children whose parents don’t have flexible work schedules to take young children on lengthy transit commutes or the money and time to drive them. That could force less-resourced families to transfer out of magnet programs or gifted programs or choose not to apply for them for next school year.

Once seen as a solution to the city’s segregated schools, the city’s magnet, gifted, and selective enrollment programs have been criticized for failing to achieve their diversity goals. A 2019 WBEZ analysis found that just 20% of these schools met the definition of racial diversity embedded in a now-lifted court order for Chicago to integrate its schools.

CPS uses a lottery for enrollment in magnet programs like Inter-American. Seats are offered based on the socioeconomic status of the neighborhood a student lives in. Sometimes priority is given to siblings or to students living close to the school.

Inter-American lacks racial diversity — 85% of its students this year are Hispanic, and 10% are white, according to district data. However, the school is more socioeconomically diverse, with 47% of its students coming from low-income families, still far below the district’s average of about 71%.

During one of the task force meetings, one parent expressed concern that working-class families would leave, and more local families from the surrounding affluent Lake View neighborhood would get seats — changing the face of the school.

At the same time, less transportation for magnet and gifted families could mean more students enrolling in their neighborhood schools. Bolstering neighborhood schools is a priority for Mayor Brandon Johnson.

After pulling her daughter and son out of Inter-American, Meléndez enrolled them in her local neighborhood school, Canty Elementary. There, about half of the students are Hispanic, 44% are white, and about 2% are each Black and Asian American. Just over 43% come from low-income households.

Her daughters like the school so far, Meléndez said. Canty, which is not a dual-language school like Inter-American, is just a five-minute drive away from home. But the outcome of their story is likely not the norm: In a city as segregated as Chicago, more integrated neighborhood schools like Canty are a rarity.

Potter, from The Century Foundation, said Chicago Public Schools has done “really important work” in finding ways to spur diversity in selective and magnet schools. The district’s lotteries that try to enroll students from different socioeconomic backgrounds often result in more racial diversity, too, she said.

But, Potter said, “without transportation support, a lot of that can fall apart.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Rising share of Chicago Public Schools graduates are pursuing college, study finds

2023-10-12T18:25:42+00:00

A rising share of Chicago Public Schools students enrolled in college in recent years, and far more are earning degrees or certificates at two-year colleges.

That’s according to a study released Thursday by the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research and the To & Through Project, which tracks college enrollment. Additionally, the study found that more Chicago students than ever are projected to pursue and complete college over the next decade.

The study’s findings run counter to national trends of sagging college enrollment during the pandemic; nationwide enrollment in two- and four-year colleges fell by .6% from 2021 to 2022, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Many young people across the nation are questioning whether higher education is worth the cost, said Jenny Nagaoka, one of the study’s authors and deputy director of the Consortium on School Research.

Higher education is “tremendously expensive, student debt is a huge issue [and] ultimately for a lot of students they’re unclear if the payoffs will be there,” Nagaoka said. “But CPS students are still going to college. They’re still seeing there’s value in it.”

Research shows that a college education can lead to better salary-earning potential, provide better access to high-quality housing, and contribute to better overall health, according to a review of literature by Healthy People 2030, a federal government-led project that tracks health data.

“We are hearing so much discouraging news about achievement in our schools right now, and this is not to say that’s not real, but I think it’s really important to note that at the same time, we’re actually also seeing increases in attainment,” Nagaoka said.

The study used a measure called the Post-Secondary Attainment Index, or PAI, to project college enrollment and completion based on current high school graduation and college enrollment and completion rates. Researchers calculated graduation rates slightly differently from the district, which is why they’ve come up with an 84-percent graduation rate for 2022 versus 82.9% reported by CPS. (The authors emphasized that the index is not meant to be a prediction; rather, it is a “starting place” to understand how to improve current patterns.)

This year the index is 30%, meaning that if CPS graduation and college enrollment and completion rates remained the same over the next decade, 30 out of 100 current ninth graders would earn a college credential by the time they are 25, researchers project. That is a 2.4 percentage point increase over last year and the highest rate on record since researchers began calculating this index in 2013. At that time, the index was 23%.

This year’s ninth graders were in middle school when the pandemic shuttered school buildings.

Nagaoka said they’re “cautiously optimistic” that these trends won’t reverse in the future, since this year’s record-setting data reflects students who were in high school and college during the pandemic.

But the study also found significant racial disparities within the data. For example, 66% percent of Asian American women would earn a college credential over the next decade according to the PAI, but just 13.6% of Black men would do the same.

During an event Thursday announcing the study’s findings, CPS Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova acknowledged that the district has more to do to close racial disparities.

“With these groups, especially at the high school level, we’ve learned that one of the most impactful ways we can provide support is by establishing partnerships that will provide mentorship and guidance to the students throughout their high school experience,” she said.

The researchers also studied college enrollment data from 2022 and college completion data from 2021, based on data that was available. Some highlights included:

60.8% of CPS students who graduated in 2022 immediately enrolled in two-year or four-year colleges, 1.5 percentage points higher than the class of 2021.
There are stark racial disparities in who pursued college upon graduation in 2022. For example, nearly 80% of white women immediately enrolled in college upon graduation, while just 45% of Black male students did the same.
Just over 53% of English learners immediately pursued college after graduating last year, compared with 68% of former English learners.
For the class of 2015, nearly 56% of students who immediately enrolled in a four-year college and roughly one-third of students who immediately enrolled in a two-year college eventually earned a bachelor’s or associate degree, or earned a certificate by 2021.
For those who did not immediately enroll in college in 2015, roughly 3% earned a bachelor’s degree within six years. Another 5% completed an associate degree or certificate. While those rates are on the rise, they are 1.7 percentage points smaller than similar completion rates for the class of 2009.
The percentage of students who earned some sort of college credential after enrolling in four-year schools dipped by .6% between the graduating classes of 2014 and 2015.

Chkoumbova attributed the gains to various efforts across district schools to keep students interested in school and prepared for the future, including more career and technical education and dual-credit programs. She also pointed to the district’s work on how it disciplines students. Rather than suspending students, schools are using restorative practices to keep them connected and in class.

A district spokesperson pointed to a host of other programs, such as a new pilot initiative that aims to re-engage young people who are no longer in school or working. The spokesperson also pointed to efforts to get students interested in college and staying there. That includes the Direct Admissions Initiative, which tells seniors whether they can get into a select list of colleges, and another program that provides students with support and mentorship in the two years after they graduate from high school.

Nagaoka also highlighted the increase of 5.6 percentage points in the two-year college completion rate for class of 2015 graduates, the largest increase by far over at least the past six years.

That increase, researchers and Chkoumbova noted, coincides with the onset of Chicago’s STAR Scholarship, which former Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced in the fall of 2014 and offers free tuition to City Colleges for any CPS student with at least a 3.0 grade point average by high school graduation.

Chicago’s college enrollment rates beat national figures for high-poverty schools by about 11 percentage points, researchers found. Nagaoka attributed this in part to efforts by counselors, nonprofits, and others who work in schools to ensure students know about their college options.

More specifically, CPS requires students to create a post-secondary plan, or “evidence of a plan for life beyond high school,” in order to graduate from high school. That requirement forces students to have a conversation about what’s next, she said.

Ninety-seven percent of seniors in the class of 2022 submitted a post-secondary plan, a district spokesperson said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first city budget plan includes $76 million for youth jobs

2023-10-11T18:15:18+00:00

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson put forward a $16.6 billion city budget proposal for 2024 that includes $76 million for youth jobs, the reopening of two public mental health clinics, and a push for a one-time tax on expensive homes to fund affordable housing.

The spending plan Johnson shared Wednesday is his first since taking office in May. The former organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union dashed former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s hope of a second term in February and defeated former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas in an April runoff.

Johnson, a former middle school teacher, got elected on a progressive platform embraced by the CTU and other community activists over the past decade that aimed to improve education by tackling issues beyond the classroom, such as affordable housing, environmental justice, and alternatives to policing.

The budget blueprint provides the first glimpse at how he might deliver on those promises. In a speech inside City Hall, he emphasized that the 2024 spending proposal is meant to uplift families like those he served as a teacher in Cabrini Green and as an organizer fighting the closure of public schools and mental health clinics.

“As we begin this work, I’m thinking about my family — especially my father. He was a pastor and a union laborer, raising 10 children and taking in foster children, working multiple jobs to keep us fed and sheltered,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s city budget proposal does not undo a cost shift implemented by Lightfoot in 2020 to have CPS pay for crossing guards and the pensions of non-teaching staff — two things long paid for by the city. The move angered the CTU at the time. The district’s portion of that pension payment grew to $170 million in 2022. The school district’s most recent budget did not list an amount.

Though the city’s budget is separate from the school district’s budget, it’s possible that the school district could take on additional costs traditionally included in the city’s budget in future years as the school board moves to being elected, rather than appointed by the mayor.

The proposed $78 million for youth jobs is an $11 million increase from last year. The additional money comes after the Johnson administration worked to boost the city’s longstanding summer jobs program, One Summer Chicago. It also comes as Chicago grapples with how to re-engage an estimated 45,000 youth who are neither in school nor working.

“We know that unemployment among young Chicagoans, in particular young Black women, rose during the pandemic and is lagging behind in the pandemic rebound,” Johnson said.

Ald. Maria Hadden, who represents Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood along the north lakefront, said she was happy to see the expansion in youth employment.

“It’s a number one thing, year after year,” Hadden said. “Our high school age youth and those who are just out of high school are looking for entry to careers, they’re looking for employment, they’re looking for activities, and things to do.”

Hadden noted that many young people are working to help contribute to their household income.

The Chicago Teachers Union issued a statement applauding Johnson’s 2024 budget proposal and said it “starkly contrasts with other mayors who have utilized austerity and privatization to shape policy, limit democracy and balance budgets at the expense of our city’s most vulnerable residents.”

One win for Johnson’s progressive base in his first budget proposal is the plan to reopen two of the city’s public mental health clinics that were shuttered in 2012 by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The decision preceded Emanuel’s decision to close 50 public schools, but was met with similar outrage. Activists have been pushing to reopen the six facilities ever since.

The 2024 budget plan also re-establishes the city’s Department of Environment, which was closed early in Emanuel’s first term. On the campaign trail, Johnson talked about the need to create green school buildings and update schools so they’re accessible for people with physical disabilities according to the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. But the city budget does not does not spell out specific funding for school construction and upgrades.

The $9.4 billion budget for CPS includes a pared-down $155 million capital budget for school repairs and construction. It doesn’t include a controversial plan to build a $120 million high school on the Near South Side.

But school district officials indicated over the summer that they would release a supplemental capital plan later this year. Late last month, CPS debuted a new Education Facilities Master Plan that said the district would need more than $3 billion in the next five years to address critical facility needs.

The mayor and City Council frequently allocate money from special taxing districts known as TIFs to help repair schools. The city will also declare a TIF surplus and return unallocated funds collected in those districts to the taxing bodies, including the school district. This year, CPS will get $226 million from the TIF surplus.

Johnson’s budget plan does not appear to include significant increases for child care, which Johnson argued for on the campaign trail. Advocates recently pushed for a dedicated revenue stream to help fund child care providers, which are regulated and supported by the city’s Department of Family and Support Services.

During the campaign, Johnson also promised to make bus and train rides on the Chicago Transit Authority free for students. (Like CPS, the CTA has a budget that’s separate from the city’s.) Amid a bus driver shortage and ongoing transportation troubles, the school district has offered CTA passes to roughly 5,500 students, mostly those attending magnet schools.

Only about 1,600 have taken advantage of the free transit passes, district officials said last month.

The City Council will hold budget hearings over the next month and is expected to vote on a final budget for 2024 before Thanksgiving. By law, it must approve a balanced budget by Dec. 31.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

At six Illinois college campuses, advocates seek to create ‘comfort’ for foster care peers

2023-10-02T10:00:00+00:00

Grace Ward spent four years in foster care before enrolling at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2021. On campus, 200 miles south of her hometown of Rockford, she felt alone.

Before Ward entered care, she had missed three years of school and had briefly lived in homeless shelters with her mother. In her foster home, she was expected to prioritize chores over homework, babysit younger children, and call the police if a child was having a mental breakdown, she said.

A few months before coming to the university, she had a violent disagreement that involved her foster parent, leading Ward to end that relationship and head to school without knowing anyone well on campus.

“You kind of have to figure out and navigate for yourself now,” Ward said. “How do you find comfort in your life?”

Now a junior studying animal sciences, Ward has taken up a new role: peer advocate for youth on campus who have experienced foster care. The new gig, she hopes, will create the support system for others that she craved as a freshman.

Ward has joined the state’s new Youth in Care - College Advocate Program, or Y-CAP, which pairs peer advocates like Ward with other college students who have experienced foster care. The goal is for the advocates to check-in regularly with their mentees, help them navigate college life, and ultimately create a support system they’re missing.

A 2021 study found that of Illinois youth in foster care who turned 17 between 2012 and 2018, 86% enrolled in community college. Of those, just 8% graduated, according to the study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. Students told researchers that they felt alone, largely weren’t aware of financial aid options, and that they needed more specialized attention.

As for what would help them, some interviewees said they wanted someone to help monitor their academic progress. Others said they wanted a support group, the study said.

“Young people with a background in foster care on college campuses are not getting the supports they need to be successful,” said Amy Dworsky, a senior research fellow at Chapin Hall at University of Chicago who co-authored the study and helped the state create the advocate program.

The state’s Department of Children and Family Services, or DCFS, launched the $200,000 program this year after its youth advisory board signaled that college-bound foster youth needed more support on campus, said Chevelle Bailey, deputy director of DCFS’s office of education and transition services. Some colleges have similar mentorship programs, but “there’s no consistency” across all Illinois campuses, Bailey said.

The program has launched one year after a new state law went into effect requiring each Illinois college to have a liaison that is charged with connecting students who are in foster care or are homeless with resources and assistance.

Department officials want colleges to be more “foster-friendly,” Bailey said, noting that foster youth need extra support in a new environment like college. These youth are at higher risk of dropping out of school, according to the U.S. Department of Education. In Chicago, which houses the most foster youth of any jurisdiction, 40% graduated on time from the city’s public schools last year, compared with 83% of all CPS students, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

DCFS contracted with Foster Progress — an advocacy organization for foster youth that runs its own high school mentorship program — to oversee YCAP on six college campuses this year. That includes University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Illinois at Chicago, Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, Harold Washington College, and Kishwaukee College.

“One reason we started small is to make sure we do this right and not take on too much we can’t handle,” Kim Peck, DCFS’ downstate education and transition services administrator.

Nearly 20,000 Illinois children were in foster care as of last month, according to DCFS data. These youth have likely experienced abuse or neglect that led them into the system, and often cycle through multiple foster homes before they age out of care at 21.

So far, Foster Progress has hired three advocates on Ward’s campus, and they’ve identified four mentees, said LT Officer-McIntosh, program manager for Foster Progress. She’s expecting to hire a total of 10 peer advocates, who are paid $15 an hour, to support up to 100 mentees across all the campuses.

There are three parts to the mentor-mentee relationship, Officer-McIntosh said.

Advocates are supposed to hold regular check-ins, where they’ll track goals for what the mentee would like out of the experience and will also navigate college questions and deadlines, such as for financial aid.

Peer advocates and mentees will also pick a short group training they want, such as on resume building, and volunteer together so that they feel more rooted in the surrounding community.

Beyond this framework, program leaders want peer advocates and their mentees to figure out a support system that works best for them.

“Our goal with YCAP is to not tell them, ‘This is how you build community from our perspective,’” Officer-McIntosh said. “It needs to be rooted in the things that they identify, that they want out of a campus community and the experience in YCAP.”

Ward wants to help mentees with whatever they need to grow, whether that means being “a shoulder to lean on” or just instructions for how to do laundry.

Sometimes when she walks around campus, Ward thinks about how different her life is now. She wants her mentees to similarly feel like they have a “safe space” that doesn’t involve talking about required paperwork or upcoming court dates, if they don’t want to.

“It’s not something to be like, ‘You’re a foster youth,’ Ward said. “It is something to be like, ‘You have gone through challenges in your life; this is a time to ease those challenges, so you don’t constantly struggle and feel like you’re struggling.’”

Correction: Oct. 2, 2023: A previous version of this story said a 2021 study was conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago. The study was conducted by researchers at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools says $3.1 billion for ‘critical’ building repairs needed

2023-09-29T02:30:03+00:00

Chicago Public Schools facilities need $3.1 billion in “critical” repairs that must be addressed in the next five years, according to a district plan released Thursday.

The cost is part of a total of $14.4 billion in updates that the district identified in its Facilities Master Plan, which CPS is required by state law to produce every five years.

“In a district as large as ours, and with a building portfolio as old as ours, this is the investment it would take to repair and modernize each and every one of our current facilities and give our students the learning environment we know they deserve,” CEO Pedro Martinez wrote in the plan’s introduction.

The $3.1 billion in costs identified as the most urgent work includes repairs to windows, roofs, masonry, and heating and cooling systems. Another $5.5 billion would go toward repairs in the next six to 10 years, according to the facilities plan. Beyond that, the district wants money to build labs “to support STEM education,” accommodations for students with disabilities, new auditoriums, new fields for sports, and classrooms “outfitted” for career and technical education — programming that Martinez wants to expand, according to the plan.

The district released the plan during Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, which was held in the auditorium of Austin Career and College Academy High School on the West Side and drew at least 200 observers. The changed location was the board’s attempt to address the longstanding criticism that the meetings, which are typically held during the day downtown, are inaccessible for many families and teachers who work during the day. (The last meeting held outside of district headquarters was in 2019, according to a district spokesperson.)

District officials said this summer that they had budgeted $155 million for facilities projects this fiscal year — roughly $600 million less than the previous year — and planned to ask for more capital funding this year.

Martinez used the plan to make another plea for more funding and “partnerships” from the city, state, and federal government. Martinez plans to press the state for more money as a way to address costs once COVID relief dollars run out in 2024.

“This plan will take coalitions and partnerships with our fellow officials at the city, state, and federal levels,” he wrote in his introduction to the plan. “It will take administrators, teachers, parents, students, and advocates pushing for the changes we need.”

Martinez said the facilities plan is a “critical” early part of its process to create a five-year strategic plan for CPS. That plan — which will build on Martinez’s three-year blueprint released last year to help the district recover from the pandemic — will be finalized next summer.

The district will also launch an advisory team that would make recommendations to Martinez on how to narrow academic disparities of Black students compared to their peers. Those recommendations would also inform a “Black Student Success Plan” and be part of the strategic plan, according to CPS.

Some advocates, however, immediately rejected that idea Thursday night. They had previously pressed officials to create a Board of Education committee that focused on Black student achievement.

“To have a strategic plan is not enough to say, ‘Oh, we hear you,’” said Valerie Leonard, a longtime West Side education advocate and the co-founder of Illinois African Americans For Equitable Redistricting. “I want to know that you see me; I want to know there is some action. At what point will Black children be prioritized?”

District officials are asking for community feedback as they develop the strategic plan. The public meetings to gather that input will be on:

6-7:30 p.m. October 17 at Kelvyn Park High School, 4343 W. Wrightwood Ave.
6 - 7:30 p.m. October 18 at Westinghouse College Prep, 3223 W. Franklin Blvd.
10 a.m. - noon October 21, virtual meeting
6 - 7 p.m. October 23, Little Village high school campus, 3120 S. Kostner Ave.
6 - 7:30 p.m. Julian High School, 10330 S. Elizabeth St.

Those wishing to attend should register here.

The facilities plan includes information like enrollment trends to highlight the district’s needs. District officials offered more analysis Thursday of enrollment this year.

Chicago Public Schools enrollment grows by nearly 1,200

Preliminary data on the 20th day of school — when district officials tally up students for the year — indicated that enrollment, at just over 322,500 students, is essentially flat compared to last year, Chalkbeat reported last week. On Thursday, officials revealed that 323,291 students were enrolled, or nearly 1,200 more students than last year.

It’s the first time since 2011 that the district’s enrollment has not dipped. Since that year, enrollment declines were driven by several factors, including population changes and dipping birth rates. Last year’s decline cost CPS’ title as the nation’s third largest school district.

The small enrollment bump was due to fewer students leaving and more new students, including a 7% increase in preschool students, officials said. Additionally, the number of students living in temporary housing increased by 47%, which could be one sign of an increase in migrant students who are living in shelters or other temporary circumstances.

The district does not track students’ immigration status. But another sign that the population of newly enrolled migrant students is growing is the increasing number of English language learners. About 7,800 more English learners enrolled this year than last year, officials said. CPS typically enrolls an average of 3,000 new English learners a year.

English language learners now make up nearly a quarter of the district’s students, up from 22% last year, according to Chalkbeat’s analysis.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools won’t bus general education students for the rest of the semester

2023-09-27T19:41:03+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools won’t provide busing to general education students for the rest of the semester, officials said Tuesday.

District officials informed families of the decision Tuesday morning, said Charles Mayfield, CPS’ chief operating officer.

“We really wanted to give parents an early notice to let them know that you don’t have to come back and keep asking and hoping,” Mayfield said.

Mayfield said district officials will re-evaluate the decision in December before winter break and update families then on the state of transportation service.

Blaming a driver shortage, CPS has restricted bus transportation this year to students with disabilities and those who are living in temporary housing, groups that are legally entitled to transportation. District officials say they have just 681 drivers — similar to figures last month and half of what they need, Mayfield said.

At the start of the school year, Mayfield said the district would try to provide busing to more children if it could hire more drivers, but the needle hasn’t moved on new hires since August.

“We’re continuing to do more outreach,” Mayfield said.

Over the past year, the district has hosted roughly two dozen hiring fairs, raised driver pay rates by $2, to $22 to $27 an hour, and added more bus companies in an effort to ease the driver shortage, officials said. Mayfield said it may be too soon to try new strategies, given that boosting hiring can take a while, and some of the steps, such as increasing pay, went into effect only recently.

The limited bus routes have enraged many families of general education students who have relied on busing in the past, including those in magnet and gifted programs, and they have expressed their concerns at Board of Education meetings. These families are eligible for free CTA cards, including a companion pass for parents. But of the roughly 5,500 children who are eligible, just under 1,600 have used that option, Mayfield said. (The district mistakenly said in July that 8,000 students were eligible.)

Some parents of young children have said they can’t send their kids alone on buses or trains and also can’t accompany their children because of their work schedules.

Alexis Luna said the lack of transportation could force her to keep her third-grade daughter out of school occasionally. Because of Luna’s inflexible work schedule, the girl’s father usually drives her to Inter-American Elementary Magnet School in Wrigleyville in the morning, about 45 minutes from her Belmont Cragin home. Luna typically picks her up.

But if her father has to travel out of town for work, Luna won’t be able to cover the morning drop-off. In that case, Luna said, “I will have to put her in day care, and she’s probably going to have to miss school.”

Tuesday’s decision comes in the middle of the district’s school application season, during which families apply for gifted and magnet programs. The application period ends in November.

Last year, bus transportation was available to any eligible student. But the district has struggled since 2021 to provide timely and reliable service. For example, thousands of students with disabilities last year had commutes longer than an hour — a problem the district has nearly eliminated this year as it has restricted bus service.

Currently, the district is providing bus service to 7,300 students who have disabilities or live in temporary housing. It has also offered stipends to families of these students who prefer other modes of transportation. The first round of those are expected to be mailed out this week.

As of last Friday, 324 students with disabilities were waiting for routes, Mayfield said, adding that new requests continue to come in.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools shows off training program for students with disabilities — and considers opening more

2023-09-25T22:20:04+00:00

Mary Fahey Hughes, a member of Chicago’s Board of Education, went into mom mode Monday during a tour of her son’s former South Side school, which provides work and life skills training to older students with disabilities.

Standing to the side of a horticulture classroom at Southside Occupational Academy High School, Hughes smiled as she snapped photos of Aidan next to Mayor Brandon Johnson, who was also on the tour. Aidan has come far from when he was diagnosed with autism as a child — and Hughes was unsure what his future would look like, she said.

She credits the Englewood school — from which Aidan graduated in June — with giving him the confidence to chat up the mayor and show off his alma mater.

“He just gained so much independence,” Hughes said in a hallway at Southside. “The thing I love about this place is there is so much respect for students where they’re at.”

Chicago Public Schools officials are considering expanding the model at Southside and a handful of other so-called specialty schools, which are meant to help students with more challenging disabilities transition into the real world, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez said Monday.

Monday’s tour was the district’s opportunity to show off the model to Johnson and a slew of other city and district officials. If the district decides to grow the program, it would need to lobby the state for more funding, Martinez said.

“We’re having the conversation internally about, how do we look at these programs, build on their strengths and potentially expand them,” Martinez said.

The district has seven specialty schools that together enroll about 1,800 students with mild to moderate cognitive disabilities, said Sylvia Barragan, a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools. Three schools are early childhood programs that serve younger students with disabilities. The remaining four — including Southside — are for older students and have a focus on vocational and life skills.

Unlike traditional high schools, the district assigns students to these schools, Barragan said.

Some students with disabilities who look for work after graduation may benefit more from going through a specialty program first, Martinez said. He believes the need is enough to warrant doubling the number of specialty schools.

Other districts, such as New York City, have similar programs where students with disabilities learn vocational skills.

These programs, however, have drawn some criticism for segregating students with disabilities, instead of allowing students to build skills next to peers who don’t have a diagnosed disability.

Southside Principal Joshua Long has said his school model allows students to have the specialized attention they need.

At Southside, nearly 88% of students came from low-income families last year. Asked if schools like Southside limit students to low-paying jobs, Hughes said the programs hone skills that these young adults may otherwise miss out on, potentially leaving them stuck at home without work. Hughes noted that the schools serve students with a variety of strengths, and some graduates go on to community college.

“The problem is that a lot of jobs are low-paying, despite the amount of work that needs to get done,” Hughes said.

High school students can attend Vaughn Occupational High School and Northside Learning Center High School, both on the Northwest Side. Southside, in Englewood, and Ray Graham Training Center, in the South Loop, serve students who have met graduation requirements but still need “transition supports and services,” as determined by the team that creates their Individualized Education Program, according to the district. At these two schools, students are typically ages 18-22.

At Southside, where 360 students enrolled last year, students learn about various potential jobs and responsibilities they will need in the real world. Most students are exposed to every class, and some do internships, such as with the Museum of Science and Industry, said Kristen Dimas, a teacher at the school.

Long led the mayor and other officials through several different rooms that simulate a different career or life responsibility. Among the classrooms they saw were a horticulture class, a mock grocery store, a broadcast studio with a green screen, a garage where students learn to wash cars, and a café — complete with a bakery display case.

A group of students stopped by the horticulture room to ask if they had laundry. They would eventually go to the laundry room, where they learn how to wash clothes but also learn a mental checklist on basic hygiene.

“Smell your armpits. Do they smell fresh?” said a laminated list in the laundry room. “If not, put on deodorant.”

In a supply room, where a laminated document listed rules for folding a T-shirt, a student carefully practiced folding. Long gently asked her to get the mayor’s T-shirt size, but the student was shy. The mayor, who used to be a teacher, ultimately revealed he’s an extra large.

Mayor Brandon Johnson watches a student practice folding a T-shirt at Southside Occupational Academy High School in Englewood.

“But here’s the thing — you don’t have to tell everybody that,” he said to the student, who laughed and handed him a T-shirt.

The café and laundry classes are favorites of 18-year-old Josiah Hall, who enrolled at Southside in August. He especially enjoys spending time with the teachers, he said. He hopes to attend a four-year university, such as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The school works to help students understand the career options that are right for them and to reach those goals, Long said.

For Aidan, Hughes’ son, that path has led to a new transition program for adults age 18 and older at Daley College. He’s also taking EMT classes and dreams one day of being a firefighter like his father.

Correction: Sept. 26, 2023: A previous version of this story said the program at Daley College is for people age 22 and older. It is for people age 18 and older.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s local school council elections are happening in April 2024. Here’s how to run.

2023-09-22T20:00:42+00:00

Interested in having a say in choosing your community school’s principal, greenlighting the school’s budget, and local curriculum priorities?

Run to be a member of your local school council. And bring a friend, too.

That was the message Thursday night to hundreds of parents, community members, and teachers who signed on for a crash course on what local school councils do and how to become a member.

Starting Oct. 16, people can file paperwork to become a candidate in next April’s LSC elections. Applications are due Feb. 8, 2024. Despite numerous vacancies, during the 2022-23 school year a record number of more than 6,000 candidates applied to become LSC members, according to CPS.

After last year’s election, more than 1,400 seats for LSCs across the city of Chicago remained open, according to an analysis by Chalkbeat. This year, Chicago Public Schools is trying to get ahead of the curve and provide as much information — and encouragement — as possible to parents and community members who might be interested in having a louder voice in how their child’s school is run.

“Serving on an LSC is one of the most important, most impactful ways you can make a difference in your school,” said Kishasha Williams-Ford, director of LSC relations, during the virtual meeting.

With 374 vacant seats, the majority are up for grabs, according to a map of current local school council members from CPS. That includes open seats all across Chicago — from the South and West Sides to the North Side.

Next November, voters will also elect 10 members to the Chicago Board of Education as Chicago moves to a 21-member school board that will eventually be fully elected.

One of the most important jobs for LSCs is agreeing on who will lead the school: Members have a voice in determining local schools’ next principal. They also vote on budget priorities and curriculum decisions that aren’t determined by the school district.

CPS officials reminded attendees of these powers and responsibilities during the virtual meeting Thursday, encouraging everyone with an interest to run and to persuade their friends to do the same after the heavy slate of vacancies in 2022, mostly on Chicago’s majority Black and Latino South and West sides.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez lauded parent and community involvement in local schools as being instrumental to recent student performance improvements. More Chicago students met state math and reading standards this year, but a majority of schools are still falling short of where they were pre-pandemic.

“The results are promising, why? Because we’re investing in our schools,” Martinez said Thursday night. “We can’t do this work without you. It is your voice, being connected at the local school level … that’s going to continue to make our district stronger.”

In a prepared video statement that aired during the Zoom meeting, Mayor Brandon Johnson praised the people willing to take the time to be on their local school councils and encouraged more to run in the next election.

“We need your voices and ideas to ensure our students receive the highest quality education and have every opportunity for success,” Johnson said.

Every two years, local school districts elect LSC members made up of parents, students, CPS staff, and community members. In order to become a member, people have to fill out an application form, meet the basic qualification criteria. Parent members must have a student enrolled at the school. Community members must live in the school’s attendance boundaries. Student members must be enrolled and teachers must work at the school they wish to represent.

Traditional LSCs are made up of the principal, six parent representatives, two community members, two teachers, one representative of non-teacher staff, three students for high schools, and one student for schools serving up to eighth grade. All positions — other than the one-year student terms — are for two years.

There are no term limits, so students, parents, and community members can run as many times as they want, as long as they still meet the basic qualifications. Anyone who has a child at the school or lives in the school’s attendance boundary can vote in the elections, including undocumented people.

Elections take place April 10, 2024 for elementary schools and April 11, 2024 for high schools.

Clarke Burnett, an eighth grade student at Skinner West Elementary School in the West Loop and a member of the school’s LSC, encouraged fellow students to run.

“If you’re passionate about your opinions about your school and have ideas … no matter what, your thoughts will be heard on the LSC,” Clarke said. “Whatever you have to say, it’ll be heard in some sort of way.”

Michael Gerstein is a freelance writer based in Chicago.

Chicago Public Schools enrollment is stable for first time in more than a decade

2023-09-20T02:26:40+00:00

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Enrollment in Chicago Public Schools is flat for the first time in more than a decade, according to preliminary data obtained by Chalkbeat.

New preliminary numbers for this school year show just over 322,500 students are registered at CPS schools. The data represents enrollment as of the end of the day Monday, the 20th day of the school year, when the district traditionally takes its official count. On the 20th day of last school year, 322,106 students were enrolled according to official data.

CPS enrollment has been in decline for 12 years, so this year’s shift is significant.

In the past decade, the district’s student body shrunk by 20%, with the district seeing multiple year-over-year declines of roughly 10,000 students. The dramatic contraction began after the 2011-12 school year, which was the last year CPS saw a bump in enrollment, from 402,681 to 404,151 students. Last year, Chicago lost its standing as the nation’s third largest district.

Enrollment now appears to be leveling off in Chicago. In the past year, the city has welcomed thousands of migrant families from the southern border and in July, a top mayoral aide suggested that newcomers were boosting enrollment in schools.

A district spokesperson, however, said enrollment changes are due to multiple reasons and cautioned against attributing the shifts to “any one group of students.”

“We will offer more analysis and context to our enrollment figures later this month,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said in a statement. “We are honored and privileged to serve each and every student.”

It’s too early to tell if this is the start of a new trend, said Elaine Allensworth, who studies education policy and is Lewis-Sebring Director of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.

“If it’s just a one-time pause in the trends of declining enrollment, it might not have a big overall long-term effect, but it’s really just hard to say right now since we don’t know what will happen in the future,” Allensworth said.

Thinning enrollment was driven by factors such as dipping birth rates and other population changes. With the onset of the pandemic, districts across the country enrolled fewer students, with more than 33,000 students falling off Chicago’s rolls since the fall of 2020.

Shrinking schools have left CPS officials and mayors to contend with how to best fund classrooms, especially as student needs grew during the pandemic. Enrollment has long been a determining factor for how much state and federal money a district gets. Mayor Brandon Johnson has been an outspoken critic of tying enrollment to funding, but past mayors have funded schools within CPS based on how many kids they serve.

Even with fewer students, the district’s budget has grown to $9.4 billion. That’s roughly flat compared to last year’s budget, but up from a decade ago when it hovered around $6 billion. A new state funding formula and a wave of pandemic recovery money have helped offset enrollment declines. Though state money is increasing, the district has recently seen fewer dollars than expected due to lower enrollment and increased property wealth.

According to preliminary enrollment data analyzed by Chalkbeat, there are 5,767 more students learning English as a new language this school year than last year. That’s a sizable jump: CPS has historically enrolled an average of 3,000 new English learners annually, a district spokesperson said.

CPS officials said they do not track immigration status of students. They have pointed to the growth in English language learners as one sign of newcomers, but emphasized that not all English language learners are newcomers.

The district enrolls migrant students in three ways. First, like any student, migrant children can enroll directly at schools. They can also make an appointment at the city’s new welcome center housed inside Roberto Clemente Community Academy High School on the West Side.

Finally, enrollment teams are going to families’ homes, after receiving information from the city’s Department of Family and Support Services about those in need of help who can’t make it to the welcome center, said Karime Asaf, chief of the district’s Office of Language and Cultural Education.

Schools across the district have historically struggled to meet state regulations for providing proper support for English learners. When finding a school with the right program for English learners, officials try to stay within a two-mile radius of the child’s home, Asaf said.

Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, which provides extra support for kids and families at a handful of Southwest Side schools as part of the district’s sustainable community schools initiative, said they’ve noticed an increase in migrant families among the parents they serve who don’t have stable housing.

Last year, the organization placed a case manager part-time at a high school in Back of the Yards that needed extra help with parents as they enrolled more migrant students, said Sara Reschly, deputy director of the group’s community services division.

At Brighton Park Elementary School, case manager Lupe Fernandez said newcomer families currently have very basic needs, such as undergarments and help navigating the CTA. The school is planning to create a free “closet” where families can pick up things they need for free.

“If there are schools that have those strong community partnerships, you know, like that would be a place to start because then you can wrap services around the whole family,” Reschly said.

Asaf, with the district, said they are processing more school transfers among newcomers as those families find new homes or more permanent housing.

Preliminary data analyzed by Chalkbeat show this school year, nearly a quarter of Chicago Public Schools students are learning English as a new language — a figure that trumps other large districts. For example, 14% of students in New York City public schools, the nation’s largest district, were English learners last school year.

The preliminary data signals the continuation of another trend over the past decade: a decline in the share of students from low-income households. Preliminary data indicate that number is 67%, down from 73% last school year.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools is becoming less low-income. Here’s why that matters.

2023-09-06T22:09:52+00:00

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About six years ago, Lori Zaimi’s daughter told her mom that another longtime friend was leaving their elementary school in Edgewater on the North Side. The friend’s apartment building, she explained, had been sold to someone who was going to renovate it.

Zaimi recognized the familiar story of gentrification, when higher-income families move into a working class neighborhood and drive up property values. She’d seen property demolitions and pricey single family housing go up across Edgewater, the formerly working class neighborhood where she grew up.

She has also seen the impact in her daughter’s school, where Zaimi became principal in 2015. These days, she said, rent is “unaffordable for many of our families.”

A decade ago, nearly 73% of students at the school, Helen C. Peirce School of International Studies, came from low-income households, according to district data. Last school year, that figure was just over 34%.

Zaimi’s school is not alone. Ten years ago, 85% of Chicago Public Schools students came from low-income households. Now, that figure is 73% — a 12 percentage point drop — according to district data from the 2022-23 school year. Chicago Public Schools considers a student “economically disadvantaged” if their family’s income is within 185% of the federal poverty line. This year, that threshold is $55,500 or less for a family of four.

The drop, experts say, is driven by several factors, including gentrification, population and enrollment shifts, as well as a potential dissatisfaction with district schools.

Even though the number of students from low-income families has dropped, nearly three-quarters of the district’s student body is still considered “economically disadvantaged.” But if the downward trend continues, Chicago schools could continue to see fewer dollars than expected from the state, which funds districts in part by considering how many students from low-income families are enrolled.

For individual schools, such as Peirce, the decline has led to the loss of Title I money, federal dollars sent to schools with high shares of low-income students. But as the school has become more mixed-income, it has also become more racially diverse: Last school year, Peirce was 47% white and 32% Hispanic, compared to 17% white and 62% Hispanic 10 years ago.

As the district enrolls a smaller share of students from low-income households, Chicago’s schools continue to look different from how they did a decade ago, especially in rapidly changing neighborhoods. That shift raises questions about who schools are serving, how they should be resourced, and what the district — and the city — can do as it continues to lose students.

Low-income drops happening across Chicago, but steeper in some neighborhoods

Peirce is one of more than 200 schools that have seen their share of students from low-income families drop by more than the districtwide decline of 12 percentage points, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of the district’s public school enrollment data from the 2022-23 school year.

The analysis of the past decade also found:

While overall enrollment has also fallen, it’s still outpaced by the loss of students from low-income families. The district enrolled 31% fewer students from low-income families than in 2013, as the district’s overall enrollment dipped by 20%.
When looking at neighborhoods, schools in Lincoln Square and Irving Park, on the North Side, and West Elsdon, on the Southwest Side, saw a median 20 percentage point drop or more in students from low-income households since 2013. That’s more than any other community area.
Nine of the top 10 schools that lost the largest shares of students from low-income households were located on the North Side, across gentrifying neighborhoods.
Half of them enrolled more children last school year than they did 10 years ago, bucking citywide trends.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, 73 schools saw increases in their share of students from low-income families. One-third are on the South and West sides — regions that have also lost the most residents between 1999 and 2020, according to a 2022 report from UIC.

CPS officials use two methods to find out which students are from low-income households. They automatically count students who receive certain government aid meant for low-income families, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits. And they collect forms handed out at the start of the school year that ask families to report their income, which in the past helped the district determine students who qualified for free or reduced price lunch.

In 2014, CPS became eligible for the federal universal free meals program for districts that serve at least 40% students from low-income families. With less pressure on schools to collect the forms, which are not mandatory, some have suggested that the district may be collecting fewer of them, potentially skewing the data about low-income families.

A CPS spokesperson said it could be “one of several reasons” behind the drop in the district’s share of low-income students. However, district officials declined to share the rate at which forms have been returned over the past decade, instead asking Chalkbeat to file an open records request for that information.

There’s some evidence that those forms do not get filled out, particularly among new students, said Elaine Allensworth, who studies education policy and is Lewis-Sebring Director of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research.

In the 2014-15 school year, 86% of preschoolers and 81% of kindergartners were listed as coming from low-income families, on par with children in other grades, district data show. The next school year, after the district became federally eligible for universal free lunch, around 62% of preschool and kindergarten students came from low-income families, while figures in older grades shifted just a couple percentage points from the previous year.

“That says to me new families that are coming into CPS are not signing up for free lunch,” Allensworth said, who added that population shifts are also a likely contributing factor.

The current data for early grades could also signal that CPS is likely to see its low-income population decline further. Last school year, nearly one-quarter of preschoolers and close to half of kindergarteners were from low-income families, compared to more than three-quarters of students in nearly all of the older grades.

Multiple principals told Chalkbeat they don’t believe missing paperwork is a big contributor — or that it is a factor at all — since their funding heavily relies on collecting those forms.

Another factor in the drop of low-income students could be a slight uptick in families seeking out private schools. Of Chicago’s low-income families, 10% were enrolled in private school in 2021 — an increase of 3 percentage points from 2019, according to an analysis of Census data by Jose Pacas, chief of data science and research at Kids First Chicago. That’s after little change since 2012, the last time there was a similar increase.

That coincides with the COVID pandemic when CPS switched to virtual learning, as well as the launch of Illinois’ tax credit scholarship program, which began in the 2018-19 school year. The program grants tax credits to people who fund scholarships for low-income students who want to attend private schools. That program is expected to sunset this year.

Some low-income parents, like Blaire Flowers, say they’re frustrated with the lack of good school options available in the neighborhoods they can afford to live in. Her daughter takes two buses to a charter high school miles away from their home in Austin on the West Side because Flowers wasn’t able to find a school she liked in their own neighborhood.

West Side parent Blaire Flowers, pictured in the center, is surrounded by four of her five children.

The mother of five also fears that CPS won’t provide her 4-year-old son who has autism with an adequate education. She’s already struggled to secure bus transportation for him this year, and she’s heard frustrations from parents of older students with disabilities who have had trouble securing services they’re entitled to.

If Flowers left Chicago, she’d follow in the footsteps of many friends and family members, some who found the city too expensive, she said.

“Everyone I know, that I was close to, has left the city,” Flowers said.

As neighborhoods gentrify, schools face stark choices

The demographic changes in Chicago Public Schools are largely a reflection of a changing city, experts said.

From 2010 to 2020, Chicago’s population grew by 2%. The median household income also grew by more than $20,000, according to U.S. Census estimates. But during that time, the school district saw enrollment decline by 60,000 students. In recent years, the city’s population has dipped by 3%, driven in part by an exodus of working class families.

“The share of working class families in Chicago is decreasing with time, as its industry and economy shifts toward white collar jobs that skew upper class, college educated,” said William Scarborough, the lead author of the UIC report, who is now an associate professor of sociology at the University of North Texas.

School closings, including the mass closures under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, may have also pushed some working-class families to leave the city if they lost a beloved neighborhood school, Scarborough added. More people left the majority Black census tracts that experienced those 2013 school closures versus similar areas that did not, according to a WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times investigation.

As schools lost students, some principals doubled down on enrolling the kids who lived in their neighborhood.

That’s what happened at Alexander Hamilton Elementary School in Lake View on the North Side, which saw one of the biggest drops in the share of students from low-income families. In 2013, Hamilton enrolled nearly 40% of children from low-income households, according to district data. That dropped to roughly 9% last school year.

James Gray, who was the principal from 2009-17, inherited an enrollment crisis when he took over Hamilton, which had narrowly escaped closure. The school enrolled 243 students when he arrived – roughly half of the almost 500 it served in 1999. He set out on what he called a “guerrilla effort” to sign up more neighborhood children, offering tours of the school, hosting weekend events and open houses, and even venturing to the park to chat up parents of toddlers — or potential future students.

Gray was successful. By the time he left, enrollment had jumped back up to about 480 students. He noticed that his students were increasingly coming from wealthier families. They were also more white. But that’s who lived in the neighborhood.

In 2013, the school was 47% white, 12% Black, 30% Hispanic and 4% Asian. Last school year, 73% of students were white — on par with the racial makeup of Lake View — while just 3% were Black, just under 13% were Hispanic, and nearly 4% were Asian American. (Hamilton’s current principal did not respond to a request for an interview.)

Though the shifts at individual schools can be stark, the racial breakdown districtwide has only changed slightly. As of last school year, the district’s students were 4% Asian American, 11% white, 36% Black, and 46.5% Hispanic. Ten years ago, 3% were Asian American, 9% were white, 40.5% were Black, and close to 45% were Hispanic.

Research has shown that students in diverse schools, both socioeconomically and racially, perform better academically than schools that are not integrated.

At the same time, families who become the minority may not feel as included or even shut out from their schools. As more neighborhood white families enrolled at Hamilton, Gray said, he received an anonymous note that said he had “driven Black and brown families away.”

It also stung when former students would visit and notice improvements at the school — bankrolled, in part, by parent fundraising efforts — such as new hoops and backboards in the gym and a new science lab.

They would say some version of, “Oh Mr. Gray, I wish you could have done this while I was here,” he recalled.

“They realized their experience was different from the kindergarteners or first graders’ experience over time,” Gray said.

While the demographic shifts have led to more income and racial diversity at some schools, that diversity could be fleeting as gentrification continues to push longtime neighborhood families out.

John-Jairo Betancur, professor of urban planning and policy at UIC, said as property values “dramatically” increase, families — and their children — leave for other neighborhoods or the suburbs, causing enrollment in the local schools to drop. At the same time, birth rates are declining in Chicago and more households do not include children, Betancur noted.

That has happened in Logan Square, home to Lorenz Brentano Math & Science Academy elementary school.

Similar to Hamilton, Brentano was at risk of closure due to low enrollment in 2013. Principal Seth Lavin’s priority when he became principal in 2015 was to bring in more students. He, too, was successful through various efforts, giving more than 100 school tours his first year, he said.

Today, the school enrolls almost 700 children, a 62% increase from a decade ago. But the school looks different. Roughly 39% of students come from low-income households, a nearly 50 percentage point drop from 2013 when 88% did. The school has also become more diverse: Half of Brentano’s students are Hispanic, just over a third are white, and about 5% are Black. A decade ago, 85% of students were Hispanic, while 5% were white, and 4% were Black.

Lavin said he is worried that gentrification has already “pushed out a lot of families” and will continue to do so, leading to a “great sense of loss” for families who have long called Logan Square home, and believe Brentano is at the heart of their community.

“It’s heartbreaking that even as we grow, and there’s expansion and the programming and things we didn’t have before that we’re able to get because of enrollment growth, that we’re losing families that should have those things, too,” Lavin said.

‘We have to keep kids in neighborhoods’

Lavin can spot six buildings outside of Brentano that have been renovated and hiked up rent prices in the last several years. He said the city “desperately” needs affordable housing and a pathway to home ownership.

“If we want to keep kids in neighborhood schools, we have to keep kids in neighborhoods,” he said.

Mayor Brandon Johnson has said that building more affordable housing and boosting neighborhood schools are priorities for his administration. Specifically, the mayor wants to grow the district’s Sustainable Community Schools model, which provides extra money for wraparound support and programming.

Separately, Johnson’s vision for school funding would alleviate pressure on principals to enroll more children in order to have a well-resourced school, or even to avoid closure. Though in the past more students meant more funding, CPS officials have been shifting toward funding schools based on need, not just enrollment. But that comes as the district stares down financial challenges, including a fiscal cliff as COVID relief dollars are set to run out.

If the city does nothing to address issues such as affordable housing, Chicago will shift toward “a city that primarily serves elites,” said Scarborough, the author of the UIC report.

District officials have not yet researched the trend around losing students from low-income families, a spokesperson said.

But many principals have noticed these shifts for years.

Even with how her community has changed, Zaimi’s school has two counselors and more staff focused on academic intervention. Still, she wishes she had more funding to hire a parent resource coordinator who could work with families, as well as instructional coaches who could help new teachers or those using new strategies in the classroom.

After all, she emphasized, her students have a lot of needs, regardless of their income. And, last year, more than one-third — about 370 — came from low-income families. That’s larger than the enrollment of entire schools in Chicago.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Thomas Wilburn is the senior data editor for Chalkbeat. Reach Thomas at twilburn@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools reverses policy that docked pay from teachers taking religious holidays

2023-08-31T18:42:54+00:00

Chicago Public Schools teachers will no longer be docked pay when taking a religious holiday.

The Board of Education approved the change last week, overturning a yearslong policy that deducted the cost of hiring a substitute from the teacher’s salary. Different types of substitutes are paid at different daily rates, ranging between $170 to $264, according to the teachers union contract.

“I have friends who couldn’t afford to take off for Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur because they couldn’t afford to lose that money,” said Wendy Weingarten, a physical education teacher at Lasalle II Magnet School, who’s advocated for a change since 2016.

Teachers will still get three paid days off for religious holidays, such as the Jewish holy day Yom Kippur. But now, they must provide seven days advance notice before taking their holiday, instead of the previously required two days.

In a statement, district spokesperson Samantha Hart said the change was the result of feedback from teachers, school leaders, families, and others in the community.

“This is an important first step in ensuring that CPS’ holiday pay policy better reflects the values and diversity of the District and our staff,” Hart said.

During the board meeting, Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates said it was “shameful” that the policy had remained unchanged for so long.

Chicago’s public schools are off on seven federal holidays, including Labor Day, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day and Memorial Day, according to the calendar.

Weingarten and Davis Gates noted that the district’s holiday schedule aligns with Christian holidays. While not denoted as an official holiday, Christmas is included in the district’s two-week winter break. Good Friday is typically included at the end of the weeklong spring break.

The district said the old religious holiday policy for teachers stretches back at least a decade. Weingarten, who has worked for CPS for 25 years, said she’s always been docked pay for taking off on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah.

Eliminating that requirement will cost the district about $250,000 a year, a spokesperson said.

Weingarten said she began formally pressing the board for a change in 2021, when the start of the school year clashed with Rosh Hashanah. But she didn’t receive an explanation for why the district didn’t want to change the policy.

The next year, Weingarten said she filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which investigates employee discrimination. She does not know the status of that complaint. She mentioned it to district officials during a joint meeting this April with the teachers union and CPS over the school calendar, after getting pushback about changing the religious holiday policy.

A district spokesperson did not directly say whether the policy change was sparked by the federal complaint. However, they said the change was a “preliminary step in remediating the inequities related to pay,” and that the district will review other board rules “to ensure our policies reflect the values of our diverse workforce.”

Correction: Sept. 1, 2023: A previous version of this story said Wendy Weingarten began advocating for a policy change in 2014. She began advocating for the change in 2016.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

After first week of classes, hundreds of Chicago students with disabilities waiting for bus routes

2023-08-29T17:50:44+00:00

A week into the new school year, hundreds of Chicago students with disabilities were still waiting to receive bus service, officials said.

A total of 733 students with disabilities, who are legally entitled to transportation under federal law, were waiting for bus service as of Monday, according to a spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools. Additionally, 10 students living in temporary housing, who are also legally entitled to transportation, had yet to be assigned to routes.

Lacking half of the drivers it needs, the district decided this year to limit bus transportation to students with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness. These students can alternatively choose to receive stipends of up to $500 a month to cover transportation costs, which families of close to 3,270 children have done, the district said. The district is continuing to receive new requests for transportation, a spokesperson said.

For the families who haven’t accepted the stipends, the lack of bus service can be challenging, especially for students with disabilities who have varying needs. Working parents may not have the flexibility to drive their kids to school, and taking public transportation may also not be feasible.

The district said its policy is to pair students with routes within two weeks of their request, and it appears to be making progress. As of Thursday last week, 1,045 students with disabilities were waiting for a seat on a bus — about 300 more than the number at the start of this week. The district has also shrunk travel times for most students with disabilities, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez announced at last week’s board meeting.

However, that progress is happening as the district said it would not provide bus service this year to other students, including those attending selective enrollment and magnet schools. Those students have instead been offered Ventra cards, including another card for a companion, such as a parent.

Parents of some of those children, who are also struggling to accommodate their children’s commutes, sharply criticized the decision during a Chicago Board of Education meeting last week.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Board President Jianan Shi said he understands “the challenges that this has on families.” But he believes the district is doing better, citing the improvement in commute times for students with disabilities, as well as the district’s efforts to address the driver shortage by planning to boost pay.

“CPS has the responsibility to serve our students with special needs and our students experiencing homelessness, and I believe we are doing that,” Shi said.

During last week’s meeting, chief operating officer Charles Mayfield said that even as the district has employed marginally more drivers, it has received more transportation requests. As of Aug. 19, the district employed 678 bus drivers, 22 more than it did at roughly the same time last year, a spokesperson said. The district has received just over 1,000 more requests for transportation as of this August compared to last year.

This is at least the third year that Chicago Public Schools has struggled to provide bus transportation for all students who are typically eligible. Last year around this time, roughly 3,000 students with disabilities were on routes that were longer than an hour, while more than 1,800 had not been routed, officials said.

The Illinois State Board of Education has taken notice of these issues. In 2021, state officials placed the district on a corrective action plan to ensure it was providing bus service to all students with disabilities whose Individualized Education Programs called for it. One year later, the state instituted a second corrective action plan to shorten commutes for students with disabilities.

Chicago bureau chief Becky Vevea contributed.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago shortens bus routes for most students with disabilities, while others wait for service

2023-08-24T22:14:56+00:00

Just 47 Chicago Public Schools students with disabilities are on bus routes longer than an hour, an improvement over last year when that figure was roughly 3,000 and 365 children had trips lasting longer than 90 minutes, district officials said Thursday.

“We are working to get that number down to zero,” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez during Thursday’s Board of Education meeting.

The progress comes after more than 8,000 students who may have been eligible for bus service in the past, including those in selective and magnet schools, were told in late July they would not receive busing, but can instead receive free Ventra cards, including for one companion, such as a parent.

Martinez said again Thursday that the district was focused on providing busing to students who are legally entitled to it, such as students with disabilities and those in temporary housing.

CPS officials did not immediately share how many students are waiting to be routed as of Wednesday. As of the first day of school, 7,100 students were on bus routes, and another 3,100 chose the stipend, according to a Monday press release from CPS.

The district has blamed an ongoing nationwide bus driver shortage. In late July, officials said they had just half of the roughly 1,300 drivers they needed.

At Thursday’s meeting, some parents whose children could not get busing, including Patricia Rae Easley, blasted the district. Easley lives in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side and has a daughter enrolled at Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park on the South Side — a route familiar to Mayor Brandon Johnson, who also lives in Austin and has a son enrolled at Kenwood.

“I’m trying to reach out to him,” Easley said. ”Maybe we can get in on their carpool.”

Charles Mayfield, the district’s chief operating officer, suggested CPS is not far from shortening long rides for students with disabilities. Three-quarters of those remaining 47 students who are on rides longer than an hour are on routes that are 61-66 minutes long, he said.

The district’s recent transportation struggles stretch back at least two years. In order to spur more hiring of bus drivers, Mayfield said the district has hosted several hiring fairs and is planning to work with bus companies they contract with to raise driver pay by $2.25. Currently driver pay ranges between $20-25 an hour.

The district was able to accommodate all students with disabilities or those living in temporary housing who requested transportation by the end of July, after extending the sign-up deadline twice, officials said at the time. But they could not guarantee immediate service for families who signed up after that.

Families can opt for stipends of up to $500 a month until they get routed. On Thursday, responding to criticism from some families, Mayfield described the transportation changes this year as a “tough decision that we all needed to make.”

Easley, the parent whose child attends Kenwood, said she pulled her daughter out of a private school so that she could attend the sought-after South Side school as a seventh grader this year.

She was caught off guard with CPS’s announcement three weeks ago that she wouldn’t get bus transportation. Easley said she has no use for the free Ventra card because she doesn’t feel public transit is safe enough for her daughter. That commute would involve two buses and a train, she said.

So she drives her daughter 40 minutes to Kenwood.

“It’s definitely not only an inconvenience but an expense,” Easley said. “An unexpected expense when we’re paying for gas that’s $4.57 a gallon.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

First day of school: Chicago Public Schools reopens under a new era of leadership

2023-08-21T21:28:02+00:00

Chicago Public Schools is officially back in session.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, the first Chicago mayor in recent history to send his children to public schools, kicked off the first day of classes by joining educators, Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates outside Beidler Elementary School on the West Side.

Under a sweltering sun at 8:30 a.m., Johnson greeted parents and children in front of a chorus of reporters and cameras, before ringing the ceremonial bell to start the school year.

The joint appearance with Davis Gates, Martinez, and other district and union officials was unsurprising for the union-friendly mayor who came up through the CTU’s ranks, but still a break from the past when the union and City Hall officials would visit schools separately.

Despite the district facing a number of challenges ahead, including unreliable bus transportation, ongoing enrollment shifts, and an influx of immigrant students, Johnson focused on a new era of collaboration at the city’s public schools.

Later in the morning, after touring two other campuses, Johnson visited Kenwood Academy, where his son is now a sophomore.

Speaking to a history class, he likened the first-day icebreakers the teacher was doing to what he’s doing as the city’s new mayor.

“I hope that you will lean into the collaborative approach that your teacher is taking, because that is what we’re doing as a city,” Johnson told the students. “We’re building relationships, we’re collaborating so that we can make collective decisions together that ultimately can help transform people’s lives.”

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates, and other city hall, school district, and union officials pose for a photo inside a classroom at Kenwood Academy on the South Side.

CPS claws back from enrollment losses

Visiting Beidler was a symbolic choice for the mayor. The school narrowly escaped closure about a decade ago and is now part of a program Johnson wishes to expand: the Sustainable Community Schools initiative, which aims to provide wraparound services and more programming for students and families.

But Beidler is among several other schools in the program that have lost at least a quarter of their enrollment since the initiative started.

The official enrollment count will not be known until after the 20th day of school in September. But last year, 80,000 fewer students were enrolled in Chicago Public Schools than there were a decade ago and it is now the nation’s fourth largest school district. Chicago’s declining enrollment predated the emergence of COVID-19, but continued during the pandemic.

And for many parents and kids arriving at Beidler Monday morning, more pressing thoughts — like wishing for a great year — were at the forefront. Dondneja Wilson hoped that her daughter, who started preschool, would “grow, and learn, and have fun.”

“She likes kids a lot, so I feel like that’s going to be her favorite part,” Wilson said.

Dondneja Wilson and her daughter pose for a picture outside of Beidler Elementary School.

Last year, data from the last day of school in June obtained by Chalkbeat showed little change in overall enrollment. However, the number of English learners grew by more than 5,000 students. District officials have pointed to the increase as an approximation of how many migrant students have arrived on buses in the past year.

Chicago is seeing an influx of newcomers, many of whom are seeking asylum, arriving by bus from the southern border in Texas.

The number of bilingual teachers in CPS has dipped since 2015, even as the English learner population has grown, according to a recent Chalkbeat analysis. While 6,900 teachers have earned bilingual education endorsements — more than ever before, according to the district — it’s unclear how many are actually assigned to teach bilingual education.

Educators and immigrant advocates have expressed concerns about whether schools can properly support these new students. Jianan Shi, president of the Board of Education, said the city’s new welcome center for migrant students on the West Side has enrolled “hundreds” of newcomer students. He’s requested more information on the system’s overall strategy for supporting newcomers.

A classroom door welcomes students in Spanish at Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park.

Outside Beidler, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez told reporters that “the biggest challenge” is ensuring that all newcomers are registered in school, but he said the district is well-positioned to serve them, noting that Chicago has one of the largest bilingual and dual language programs in the nation. About one-fifth of the city’s students are English language learners.

“The challenge we have right now is, again, keeping up with all the new asylum-seekers that are coming in, going to them, making sure that we’re able to register them, assess them,” Martinez said. “But we’re doing that as we speak now.”

Transportation woes continue on first day

Transportation woes that have plagued the district for the last few years also cropped up on the first day, as parents reported problems with bus routes and trips that took more than an hour.

Laurie Viets, a CPS parent of three children – two of whom have transportation written into an Individualized Education Program – said the district promised to have all transportation issues resolved by last Friday.

However, Viets found out on Friday that one of her children, a seventh grader, was not going to have transportation and another child, a first-year high school student, would have a long bus route. Today, it took 70 minutes to get to school; it’s normally a 12-minute car ride, Viets said.

Viets said she wished Chicago Public Schools would have given her more time to prepare for changes in the transportation plans. Now, she won’t have transportation for one of her children for up to two weeks and she is concerned that her other child will be on the bus without air conditioning in extreme heat until they shorten his route.

The district’s bus problems stem back to 2021, the first year back to full-time, in-person school after COVID forced CPS to close buildings in March 2020. Students were left waiting on the first day and beyond for buses that never showed. In emergency mode at that time, the district began offering $1,000 stipends for rideshare services such as Lyft and Uber. But the transportation troubles continued well into the school year.

Last year, some 365 students were waiting for bus routes the first week of school and in September, district officials said they were still working to reduce 90-minute rides for some students.

The district has blamed and continues to point to a nationwide bus driver shortage as causing the transportation troubles. It signed a $4 million contract with a longtime vendor and bus-routing software company to try to fix the issues.

But last month, on July 31, district officials announced that it would not be able to transport roughly 8,000 students on the first day of school. They offered $500 monthly stipends to families of CPS students with disabilities or those in temporary living situations. Both groups are legally entitled to transportation. The district said at the time that 3,000 students had chosen the stipend option.

Davis Gates called the transportation troubles “a disaster” and a “failure of privatization.” CPS contracts with private bus companies to provide students with transportation. Davis Gates said she would like to see the district bring busing “in-house” and experiment with having its own fleet of buses that could start small by covering field trips and sporting events and then grow.

“These are Band-Aid approaches. I have not seen anything transformative or revolutionary in this space. And again, three strikes you’re out,” she said. “This isn’t a good way to start the school year with respect to transportation.”

The district has previously increased pay rates for bus driver companies, and is hoping to do so again this year. Martinez said he hopes that will help fill the driver shortage.

Viets, the parent worrying about her children’s transportation, said more needs to be done.

“Next year, if CPS is going to start by Aug. 21, by Aug. 1 they should know what the routes are,” said Viets.

If Chicago finalizes plans the Friday before the start of school, she said, the district is “not giving parents any kind of respect at all. They’re not giving us an opportunity to make other plans when they mess up.”

As Viets noted, the extreme heat also adds to worries about long bus rides. The weather also raises concerns about conditions inside buildings once students arrive.

Air-conditioning, aging buildings prompt push for green schools

With temperatures expected to reach 100 degrees this week, Martinez said his team worked “around the clock” to ensure classrooms are equipped with air conditioning this week.

Martinez said every classroom has at least a window unit, a key union demand during the CTU’s 2012 strike that was implemented a couple of years later by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Still, in some cases, hallways are not air-conditioned, Martinez said.

Johnson has touted “climate justice” as a key focus of his administration and reiterated Monday that includes schools.

“Having buildings that are retrofitted, as well as an economy that’s built around green technology, some of that is top of mind,” he said.

Davis Gates used this week’s weather forecast to illustrate climate change’s impact on the city and why it underscores the urgent need for a new CPS facilities master plan, which hasn’t been updated since 2018. She added that building greener schools will be one issue the union will bargain over ahead of its contract expiration in 2024.

The school calendar’s pre-Labor Day start is an issue Davis Gates would immediately bargain over, she said. The late August start date began in 2021, matching up with many suburban districts.

The union was not able to bargain over the school calendar in 2019, Davis Gates said. But the passage of a 2021 state law reinstating some of the CTU’s bargaining rights could allow the calendar to be back on the table. The union’s contract expires next June and it’s likely the district and new mayor will begin negotiations with the teachers this winter.

The larger issues that officials highlighted were likely not top of mind for many students, such as 5-year-old Pierre, who started kindergarten at Beidler.

Asked what he was most excited about this school year, Pierre replied, “Playing.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education, and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago public schools run by principals given more independence saw better student achievement: study

2023-08-03T21:55:39+00:00

Eight years ago, Chicago Public Schools launched a program that gave certain principals more control, such as more flexibility over budgets and being freed of extra oversight from district leaders. It was an effort to reward effective veteran school leaders with “more leadership and professional development opportunities.”

Now, a new study by a Northwestern University professor shows that the initiative — known as the Independent School Principals program, or ISP — resulted in better test scores and school climates and could be a cost-effective way to improve schools.

The analysis looked at 44 elementary schools that joined ISP between 2016 and 2018. Those schools saw pass rates for state reading and math tests grow, on average, by about 4 percentage points more than similar schools that weren’t part of ISP, according to the study. (Comparison schools were chosen based on things like demographics and test scores.)

The findings suggest that schools can benefit from more empowered principals, who are “closer to the ground” and may have a better sense than district leaders of what their students need, said C. Kirabo Jackson, an education and social policy professor at Northwestern who conducted the study.

But there are some caveats, Jackson said. The ISP schools with the best test score results were also run by principals who are considered “highly effective,” as determined by teacher ratings and other evaluations. Less effective principals saw test scores grow at a slower rate. Other studies have found mixed results when giving schools more autonomy, Jackson noted in his study.

The benefits of such a policy depend on “the capacity of the leaders to manage on their own,” said Jackson.

Test scores don’t show the full picture of how well students are doing, Jackson said, and his study found mixed results in other areas. For example, ISP schools on average had better ratings for school climate. But he found no evidence that these schools saw better student or teacher attendance.

The ISP initiative was launched under former Mayor Rahm Emanuel as part of an effort to pair principals with “more leadership and professional development opportunities,” according to the district.

Currently, district leaders identify veteran principals to apply for the program and then evaluate them based on several criteria, including their school’s test scores, their “five essentials” survey data and a series of interviews, according to the district.

A spokesperson did not respond in time for publication on whether there were minimum test scores that schools had to meet in order to be eligible.

Jackson noted that nearly all of the elementary schools he evaluated were highly rated by the state. In all, 86% of the city’s current 63 ISP schools — which also include middle and high schools and one early childhood education center — were rated either commendable or exemplary by the state, according to the most recently available Illinois Report Card information.

In addition to less oversight and more budget flexibility, ISP school leaders also have more power over professional learning for their staff and more flexibility over principal evaluations. In exchange, principals must meet several requirements, including maintaining or improving school performance, remaining compliant with district wide policies, and remaining as the school’s principal for at least two years.

Having more power over professional learning was among the biggest boons for Patricia Brekke, principal of Back of the Yards High School, who joined the ISP program in 2016. Her school, like others, used to spend time addressing student needs in ways that district leaders recommended.

While she considered those good strategies, her staff didn’t have extra time to focus on other issues they believed to be important, such as drilling down on students’ analytical and essay writing skills.

For the past seven years, she and other teachers have created their own professional development sessions to, in part, improve kids’ analytical skills. Her team draws on good examples from their own classrooms, including taking videos during the school day, so that teachers can see how their own colleagues are approaching instruction, Brekke said.

“I’ve got a lot of brilliant teachers, and their ideas really pushed me, I think, to be a better principal, you know?” Brekke said. “And it was really important for me to have them around the table and identify our problems of practice.”

Jackson only studied elementary schools, so he doesn’t know the program’s impact on high schools.

SAT scores at Brekke’s school were within five percentage points of the district’s. But Brekke said she’s noticed her students demonstrating “elevated” writing skills that go beyond a classic five-paragraph essay response.

“They’re really starting to think more deeply about text,” Brekke said.

Jackson found another bonus of the program: Principals “tend to remain in their schools” even after the two-year requirement. That is by design, said Jerry Travlos, a former ISP principal who now works as a district leader.

Travlos conducted a study, which Jackson cites, and found that ISP principals largely preferred the autonomy they got under the program. Extending more power to veteran principals is also a “retention strategy,” he said, at a time when school leaders are heading for the door.

Brekke, who has been an educator for 32 years, said she sometimes misses the camaraderie that comes along with a traditional network like most of Chicago’s public schools. But she loves being able to “geek out” and customize instruction for her students.

“Having those kinds of conversations are really just so refreshing and encouraging and motivating,” Brekke said. She paused and added, “Maybe it’s contributed to why I’m still here.”

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

8,000 Chicago Public Schools students won’t have bus service on first day of school, district says

2023-07-31T23:43:11+00:00

More than 8,000 Chicago Public Schools students will not have bus service on the first day of class on Aug. 21, a problem the district blames on an ongoing bus driver shortage.

With only half of the 1,300 drivers needed to transport students who require bus service, Chicago said it will instead prioritize transportation for students with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness. Both groups are legally required to receive transportation to school.

For some students with disabilities, bus service is a requirement on their Individualized Education Programs. More than 7,100 such students have signed up for bus service so far, officials said. (Siblings of students with disabilities can still receive bus service if they attend the same school.)

This is the third year in a row in which the return to class has been marred by transportation woes that have left thousands of students without transportation or with long commutes. The district, which contracts with outside companies to provide transportation, has attributed bus service snarls in previous years to nationwide driver shortages.

In an effort to help fix ongoing transportation problems, the district in March approved a $4 million contract with Education Logistics Inc., known as EduLog, to schedule bus routes, determine start times for summer school and assign bus vendors during the school year. The contract is set to run through June 30, 2026.

This year, in the face of continued bus service troubles, the district will instead offer Ventra cards to general education students and one companion, such as a parent, “for as long as they are without school bus transportation,” according to a news release from Chicago. These families may have the option to get bus service “at some point” in the school year but the timing for that is not yet clear, said Charles Mayfield, chief operating officer for Chicago Public Schools.

Last year, Chicago provided bus service to 17,275 children, or about 5% of students.

“There’s been a nationwide shortage, and I think that is not an easy thing for any K-12 [district] right now,” Mayfield said Monday in an interview with Chalkbeat. “Even if you Google search bus driver shortage, you get a number of school districts that have the same issue that we’re having today and they are making adjustments similar to where we are, to try to provide alternatives.”

As of Friday, the district said it could guarantee bus service on the first day of school for students with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness, after Chicago twice extended a sign-up deadline this summer, Mayfield said. But it can’t guarantee immediate service for families who sign up now. The district is required to link those families to bus service within two weeks of their request for transportation.

As an alternative, CPS is offering families of students with disabilities and those in temporary housing up to $500 in monthly stipends to cover transportation costs. So far, 3,000 students have chosen this option, officials said.

The continuing transportation issues have Chicago parent Laurie Viets bracing for yet another chaotic start to the school year. Two of her three children have district-provided bus service written into their Individualized Education Programs.

This year, she said the district has been more proactive since parents have raised concerns about bus services issues over the past few years. Over the summer, Viets received a couple of phone calls from the district asking if she would like to take the $500 stipend, but she declined. She said she prefers that the district provide bus service for her children.

Viets only learned the district had yet to figure out routes for students when she talked to a district representative last week.

“I have no hopes at all that transportation will show up,” said Viets. “I’ve got three kids, three separate schools in three different parts of the city. We’re going to be scrambling to get the two that need transportation to school because I guarantee we will not have transport on that first day.”

It is a familiar scenario for Viets – last year, she said she couldn’t get transportation for one of her children for about six weeks – and for thousands of other CPS families.

In the 2021-22 school year, when students returned to classrooms after COVID shuttered buildings, the district did not have bus services for 2,100 students on the first day of classes. At the time, the district provided families with $1,000 to help with transportation and even reached out to ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft for support.

At the start of the next school year, the district was able to route 15,000 Chicago Public Schools students to classes but hundreds of students with disabilities dealt with long commute times. At the time, the district reported that 365 students with disabilities had to deal with commute times of 90 minutes or longer and could not arrange transportation for 1,200 students.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Samantha Smylie is the state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education, and the state board of education. Contact Samantha at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago schools with mostly Black student bodies share less information about LSCs: report

2023-07-27T21:17:13+00:00

Chicago families on the South and West sides were less likely to have access to information about their Local School Councils, compared with their North Side neighbors, according to a new analysis about the 2021-22 school year.

The report, released this week by advocacy organization Raise Your Hand, also found that most schools — 61% — had at least one parent vacancy on their Local School Councils, or LSCs. These school-based elected bodies, made up of parents, other community representatives, and students, can make school-level decisions, such as evaluating and selecting principals and voting on the annual campus budget.

The findings suggest that white and more affluent parents are more likely to have access to accurate LSC information and LSCs without parent vacancies. On top of the neighborhood disparities, schools with mostly Black student bodies were less likely to have updated information online about their LSCs, compared with schools citywide. They were also more likely to have at least three parent vacancies on their LSCs.

Last year, following LSC elections with significant voter turnout, more than 1,400 vacancies remained, mostly on the South and West sides, Chalkbeat found at the time.

“Vacancies make it impossible for the schools that need LSCs the most to have effective LSCs,” the just-released Raise Your Hand report said. “This means student needs are ignored, budgets are cut, and more.”

On the city’s North Side, schools were more likely to list basic information on their websites about their LSC, the report found. That information includes a mention of the LSC’s existence, meeting times, agendas, minutes, a list of current members, and contact information for those members.

For example, an average of 67% of schools across the Far North, North, and Northwest sides had LSC meeting times listed on their websites. In comparison, meeting times were listed for less than a quarter of schools, on average, in neighborhoods across the South and West sides, according to the report.

“This lack of transparency and accessibility is unacceptable and leaves parents feeling frustrated and powerless,” the report said.

Other findings include:

About one third of all schools have an LSC meeting time posted online, while the same is true for 14% of schools with student bodies that are at least 90% Black.
32% of all schools have three or more parent vacancies. The same is true for 36% of schools on the South and West sides, and 23% of schools on the North sides as well as the Loop.
42% of schools with more than 90% of Black students have three or more parent vacancies.

Raise Your Hand said that school websites have not changed even after they raised some of their findings with Chicago Public Schools “months ago.” The group has urged CPS to ensure websites have updated information, including meeting times and locations, a list of current LSC members, and contact information for the LSC.

After Raise Your Hand members revealed some of the study’s findings at a Wednesday Chicago Board of Education meeting, Board President Jianan Shi said the district “has to do better.” Shi is the former executive director of Raise Your Hand.

In a statement, CPS spokesperson Evan Moore noted that the district saw a record-breaking 6,145 people apply for LSC positions last school year. He touted district efforts to raise awareness about LSCs, including roughly 100 “engagement sessions.”

Still, Moore acknowledged the need to improve and said officials are reviewing Raise Your Hand’s study.

“As a District, we are committed to continuing to work to improve awareness and access to this important democratic process,” Moore said.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago swears in new members to city’s last fully appointed Board of Education

2023-07-19T19:58:21+00:00

Chicago’s Board of Education ushered in a new era of leadership Wednesday by swearing in five of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointees.

The new members, who include vocal critics of the system, took an oath of office during a meeting to review agenda items ahead of the board’s full meeting next week. They will be part of the last fully appointed board before it shifts to an elected body in 2025.

As board members introduced themselves, Mariela Estrada, director of community engagement at the United Way of Metro Chicago, recounted being a “fierce” parent advocate. New board president Jianan Shi, former executive director of influential advocacy organization Raise Your Hand, noted that he is the first educator appointed as board president.

“I am used to sitting on your side of the glass fence,” new board member Mary Fahey Hughes told the audience at the meeting. Fahey Hughes formerly worked for Raise Your Hand as a parent liaison for special education and is an outspoken advocate for students with disabilities.

The inclusion of board critics at the decision-making table is in some ways similar to Johnson’s path, who rose to power through his teachers union ties.

Earlier this month, Johnson nearly cleaned house by appointing six new board members, who come from advocacy, philanthropy, and business backgrounds. In addition to Shi, Estrada, and Fahey Hughes, the mayor also tapped Michelle Morales, Rudy Lozano, and Tanya Woods (read more about each here). Lozano and Morales were not present at Wednesday’s meeting; a spokesperson for CPS did not explain why but said they will be sworn in at the board’s July 26 meeting.

The only holdover from former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is Elizabeth Todd-Breland, who will be the board’s vice president.

All seven members’ terms end Jan. 1, 2025, when the city’s partially elected, 21-member school board will be seated. Several members highlighted that shift. Todd-Breland called her term a “bridge” to that elected board with “so much hope and optimism for Chicago Public Schools.”

Wednesday’s agenda review meeting was the third of its kind, allowing board members to publicly ask questions about agenda items ahead of the meeting where they’ll vote.

During the meeting, members reviewed and asked questions about a slew of agenda items expected to come up for approval next week, including a new agreement for marketing services, the opening of a comment period for a new parental leave policy for CPS employees, and a renewed contract for math tutoring.

One agenda item — about X-ray machines in school — signaled a possible shift in approach that Johnson’s appointees may bring to the board.

Shi asked a school safety official whether there is research that such machines, which are meant to detect weapons, make schools safer. The official said it’s hard to determine exactly what makes schools feel safe, but that such machines have found weapons in the past. Last month, the old board approved a slightly costlier contract for campus police.

Shi asked that district officials engage in “actual community dialogue” on school safety policies as the district continues work on its Whole School Safety initiative. The CPS official said it’s the district’s goal to get more “buy-in” from the community.

Board members like Shi have also previously expressed interest in making meetings more accessible to the public, such as working parents who can’t attend the meetings that are held downtown during weekday mornings.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago opens school enrollment center for migrant children and families

2023-07-17T20:28:56+00:00

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Recently arrived migrant families on Chicago’s West Side will get help with enrolling in school, receiving free school supplies, signing up for public benefits, and getting vaccinated at a new “welcome center” run by Chicago Public Schools and the city.

Mayor Brandon Johnson and city and district officials unveiled the new center at Roberto Clemente Community Academy, a high school in the city’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, on Monday. Officials said the center is a pilot effort — possibly the first of several such facilities across the city.

They also called it a centerpiece of a broader plan they have promised for better serving migrant families across the city, though the center will only help smooth the transition into the district for those living in the Humboldt Park and West Town neighborhoods.

The center, which will work with families by appointment only starting later this week, is estimated to cost roughly $750,000, according to CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who described it as a “very small investment” from the district’s operating budget.

More than 10,000 migrants have arrived in Chicago since August, many sent on buses from Texas by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Roughly half are staying in temporary shelters, including police stations. Hundreds of school-aged children are among the new arrivals, though the school district has not shared exact numbers. Helping these families find permanent housing and easing children into local public schools are key challenges facing the Johnson administration.

The Chicago Teachers Union, which helped carry Johnson — a former union organizer — to victory in April, had criticized district officials for not doing more to support newly arrived migrant students. Union leaders said some schools were overwhelmed by an influx of such students and scrambled to provide translation and other basic services.

District leaders have said they were working on a detailed, comprehensive plan for helping migrant students, to be released before the first day of school on Aug. 21. That bigger plan is still to come, Martinez said Monday.

Johnson said the area around Clemente was one of the city’s most densely populated with newcomer immigrants.

“We’re going to stand on the shoulders of our ancestors, and we’re going to bring people closer together to make sure that the families who have been here have the full force of government and families who wish to call Chicago their home also have the full force of government,” Johnson said at the Monday press conference.

Martinez balked at saying exactly how many migrant students enrolled in the district this past school year — it’s in the thousands, he said — or how many the district expects to serve in the fall. That latter number is too fluid, he said, but he promised to have an update at the start of the school year.

Johnson said his office will track “outcomes with this center” in order to improve how it operates and also use it as a model to potentially expand to other neighborhoods.

At the new “welcoming center” on the high school’s second floor, families will make their way through several classrooms to get a string of services, officials said. Children will get an English language screening, receive free supplies, and get assigned to a school.

Martinez said the high school students will be assigned to Clemente while younger children will be enrolled at one of eight nearby elementary schools — Chopin, De Diego LaSalle II, Mitchell, Moos, Pritzker, Sabin, and Talcott.

“These are migrant families who come here to seek their dream, and we’ll be part of that dream,” said Martha Valerio, the community coordinator at Clemente, standing in front of a table piled with coats, running shoes, and backpacks. “We are all going to receive them with a warm smile.”

Families will meet with a social worker and get help signing up for medical, dental appointments, and public benefits, such as food assistance and Medicaid.

“These are the types of services we have to provide across the entire city,” Johnson told journalists in front of the center.

According to WBEZ, some migrants are now living in tents, rather than police stations or crowded shelters, as they wait for permanent housing. School-aged migrant children are eligible to be classified as Students in Temporary Living Situations – a status that protects children without permanent housing.

Meanwhile, some teachers have been volunteering their time this summer to get students ready for school.

Earlier this month, the police department opened an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against officers, including one accused of impregnating a recently-arrived teen, at a west side police station. The investigation prompted city officials to move migrants out of police stations.

Johnson said at the Monday event that the investigation is ongoing, with an update slated for Tuesday.

Reema Amin contributed.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Calling all youth: Chicago’s Mayor Johnson wants your ideas for his first city budget

2023-07-14T19:22:46+00:00

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is looking to the next generation for help on his first city budget proposal.

The former middle school teacher and union organizer is holding a budget roundtable discussion exclusively for Chicagoans ages 13 to 24. The July 25 event on the ninth floor of Harold Washington Library is an addition to the usual round of July budget engagement meetings.

The city is offering a perk: Five young people who participate, who are at least 16 years old, will be randomly chosen to win two four-day Lollapalooza passes.

In a statement, Johnson said the roundtable “allows our young people the opportunity to chart their own path in fulfilling that vision for hope, and become stewards for their own futures and eventual leadership of our city.”

The invitation comes as Johnson is stepping up efforts to get young people more involved in government decision making. His transition team recently recommended the creation of a paid youth council — which would resemble an existing youth commission created by his predecessor Lori Lightfoot.

City officials are inviting youth to share ideas directly with the mayor on various elements of the city’s budget, including affordable housing, homelessness, community development, arts and culture, mental health, safety, and infrastructure. But schools are not included on that list.

The Chicago Public Schools budget, which must be approved by July 1, already has been passed for the upcoming school year. The school board last month approved a flat $9.4 billion, with roughly half going directly to schools.

But financial challenges loom, with school district officials expecting a budget shortfall of $628 million by the 2025-26 school year with the depletion of federal pandemic relief funds. As Chicago shifts to an elected school board, the district may also have to pick up more costs currently paid by the city.

The next city budget will cover the 2024 calendar year. The City Council is required to pass a budget by Dec. 31 — but historically does so before Thanksgiving, and planning starts in summer. From June to September, the city’s budget office reviews departmental expenses and solicits public feedback. Mayors submit their budget proposals to the City Council by Oct. 15, which also includes a public hearing.

Typically, the mayor’s office releases a budget forecast in August. But in a rare move before leaving office, Lightfoot and her financial team released a midyear budget forecast that projected a relatively small shortfall of $85 million.

Doors to the youth budget discussion will open around 4:45 p.m., and the event will start at 5:30 p.m. City officials said there will be limited seating for adult chaperones, who cannot participate in the discussion. Youth can register here.

Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Public Schools violating state law on use of restraint, timeout in school, state says

2023-06-07T16:25:45+00:00

This story has been updated to include additional comment from Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez.

Chicago Public Schools has put students — especially those with disabilities — at risk by not training staff on the proper use of physical restraint and timeout as required under state law, a nearly-yearlong investigation by the Illinois State Board of Education has found.

Documents obtained by Chalkbeat Chicago show that untrained staff restrained or secluded students for long periods of time, used outlawed methods of restraint, and restrained students who were not a threat to themselves or others.

The state has repeatedly warned CPS since the fall that it is not complying with state law on restraint and timeout. In multiple letters sent to the district this school year, the state cites the district for not properly training staff and not notifying parents within a legally required 24-hour time frame when a child has been restrained at school. The state defines physical restraint as holding a student or other methods to restrict a student’s movement.

In a letter dated April 18, the state board outlines a number of violations by the district. Among them:

CPS failed to report 15 incidents involving restraints that took place between Feb. 1 and March 8. Four incidents were not reported to the state board’s reporting system, and in 10 of 23 incidents reviewed, parents were not notified within the required time frame.
From Feb. 1 to March 8, the district reported seven incidents of either physical restraint over 15 minutes and timeouts or isolated timeouts over 30 minutes. But CPS did not clarify if licensed educators or therapists were involved to conduct an evaluation. The district also did not provide evidence that the staff involved were trained.
In some reported incidents, students were restrained for even longer periods of time: 45 minutes at Prussing Elementary School and Nixon Elementary School, one hour at Jones College Prep, and one hour and 15 minutes at Peterson Elementary School.
The district reported two incidents of prone physical restraint — when a student is placed face down and pressure is applied to their body to keep them in that position — on Jan. 30 and Feb. 9 at Roosevelt and Fenger High Schools, respectively. The state outlawed prone physical restraint at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year.

In the letter, the state warns that the continued use of physical restraint, timeout, and isolated timeout “by untrained staff demonstrates that CPS is jeopardizing the health and safety of CPS students and staff.”

Terri Smith, a Chicago parent and advocate for students with disabilities, said the state findings echo her concerns about the district’s practices.

“Just when I think I’ve seen the worst, I see something worse like this,” said Smith. “They’re putting children at risk knowingly, wantonly, and maliciously. Everyone can see that they have made a conscious decision not to keep our children safe.”

Over her time as a parent at Chicago Public Schools, Smith said, she has lost confidence in the district to do right by students with disabilities — and believes many of the parents she works with feel the same.

When asked about the violations Wednesday at an unrelated press conference with Mayor Brandon Johnson, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said complying with state law is a “top priority” and the state’s requirements will be met “this summer before the school year starts.”

“We will make sure that this is corrected. Not only that, we’re going to make sure also that the programs get strengthened,” Martinez said. “This is an area that has been a challenge in our district for the last two decades, but we’re gonna fix it.”

State investigates Chicago in effort to reduce restraint in schools

The state opened a “systemic complaint investigation” in October after the district reported numerous instances of restraint performed by untrained staff, according to a letter dated Nov. 30, 2022. The use of restraint, seclusion, and timeout to discipline students in Illinois schools has been under scrutiny for several years.

In 2019, ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune published a joint investigation that uncovered how districts around the state were secluding students in isolated rooms, or quiet rooms, as a form of discipline. A majority of students featured in the investigation were students with disabilities.

In 2021, the Illinois general assembly passed a law that prevents school staff and educators from locking students in isolated seclusion rooms and limits the use of restraint and time out on students.

During a compliance check with Chicago Public Schools in August 2022, the state board found the district continually reporting violations to the 2021 state law — many included incidents where students were restrained or put in timeout by untrained staff and the use of restraint took place when students were not a threat to themselves or others.

In late November, the state board sent CPS a list of action items to complete to comply with the state’s law.

The district was required to notify all Chicago Public Schools parents of the violations contained in the November letter and findings in the April 18 letter.

On May 26, the district sent an email to parents and guardians — after 4 p.m. the Friday before Memorial Day weekend — to notify them that the district is working with the State Board of Education to address violations for restraint and seclusion.

The state also required the district to set up an email address where parents can submit concerns about restraint and timeout incidents. Parents can look up who’s trained in restraint and timeout at their schools and submit concerns to PRTO@cps.edu.

As of May 26, CPS officials said, 3,546 district staff had been trained in de-escalation and physical restraint training through a contractor called QBS LLC. But 422 still need to receive training. The state board requires two staff members per school building to be trained — a requirement that had not been met as of the April 18 letter.

The state board is still working with the district to comply with state laws for restraint and timeout, according to Jackie Matthews, a spokeswoman for the State Board of Education.

“Student safety and well-being is our number one priority, and these requirements were put in place as essential precautions to protect students,” she told Chalkbeat.

In an emailed statement to Chalkbeat, a CPS spokesperson said the district remains “committed to continually reviewing and improving our services, working closely with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and all partners, including parents and advocacy groups, to co-design an improved system that not only is in compliance with all State and Federal education requirements, but meets our own high goals for excellence.“

If Chicago does not come into compliance, the state could put the district on probation. If the school district still fails to comply after at least 60 days, it could lose state recognition, resulting in a loss of state funding and blocking sport teams from participating in state athletic associations. In 2021, some districts were placed on probation for not complying with the state’s mask mandate during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Matthews said putting a district on probation is the last resort and the state board will continue to provide assistance to help students.

Students with disabilities are often restrained in classrooms

In one case cited in the state’s April 18 letter, a student with disabilities was restrained on three days within a 30-day period and the staff involved in the restraint — security officers, a special education classroom assistant, and a school counselor — were not invited to attend the student’s Individualized Education Program meeting.

Such incidents can reinforce the mistrust that students with disabilities and their families have in Chicago Public Schools, which has a history of failing to meet their needs. In 2016, Chicago was found to be denying services to students with disabilities leading to state oversight, fell behind on creating or updating Individualized Education Programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and failed to offer transportation to students when school buildings reopened in 2021.

Frank Lally, an education policy analyst at Access Living — a nonprofit organization that advocates for Chicagoans with disabilities — said one of the major victories from the 2021 law limiting the use of restraint and timeout was ensuring that parents would be notified if a child was restrained.

But in Chicago, that is not happening, the state found.

“That struck me because there is a lack of trust between the district and parents of students with disabilities going back several years,” Lally said. “It’s kind of disheartening.”

Students have legally binding documents spelling out what supports and interventions they should receive, including which staff should support them when behavioral issues arise. In many cases, these are in the student’s Individualized Education Programs or Behavioral Intervention Plans. However, staff must be trained in de-escalation and physical restraint to intervene when a student has a behavioral issue.

Teachers union calls for firing top district leaders

Last week, the Chicago Teachers Union called for the firing of Stephanie Jones, the district’s top official overseeing services for students with disabilities. The union’s House of Delegates took a vote of no confidence in Jones last Wednesday for her “dismal failures to protect the district’s most vulnerable students, continued violation of special education laws and the creation of a toxic workplace.”

“Tonight our members said, enough. Enough with the lack of services and support, enough with ignoring the needs of our students, and enough with violating state law,” CTU president Stacy Davis Gates said in a statement.

Chicago Public Schools reported to the state board that Jones was the designated official responsible for restraint and timeout policies and incidents, according to the April 18 letter. Designated officials should maintain a copy of records, be notified of every incident by the end of the school day on which has occurred, and receive documentation or any evaluation of any incident that exceeds 15 minutes of physical restraint or 30 minutes for timeout, according to the state board.

Jones told the state board on Dec. 23 that she gave this authority to her team and to Erin Miller, then a manager at the Office of Diverse Learners and Support Services.

Miller left Chicago Public Schools on March 3 and her team set up a rotation, with each staffer taking one day of the week to review restraint and timeout data.

According to the board’s April 18 letter, Jones doesn’t meet the “requirements that the designated official must complete and is not acting as the designated official” and no other CPS staffer has taken on the duties.

As a result, the state board said, “CPS does not have a designated official who is informed and maintains RTO data as required.”

A group of teachers who challenged CTU leadership during its last internal election has also called for the ouster of other top district leaders, including CEO Martinez. In a statement, they said the violations extend “far beyond” Jones’ office.

The group of teachers — the REAL caucus — also called on the district to remove all police officers from schools, a decision currently left to Local School Councils. There have been instances of school resource officers using restraint on students in the past, such as a high-profile 2020 incident at Marshall High School. The teen whom officers dragged down a staircase sued the city of Chicago and was eventually awarded a $300,000 settlement.

A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools responded to the teachers’ call for removing Jones and Martinez in a statement, “Our top leadership at CPS has been committed and transparent about the need for improved systems, strategies, and services to support our most vulnerable students through our Office of Diverse Learner Supports and Services.”

Becky Vevea contributed to this story.

Chicago Teachers Union chief of staff named city’s deputy mayor of Education, Youth, and Human Services

2023-05-11T18:55:11+00:00

Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, a former teachers union organizer, has named chief of staff at the Chicago Teachers Union and former high school history teacher Jennifer “Jen” Johnson to be the city’s next deputy mayor of Education, Youth, and Human Services.

Jen Johnson replaces Jaye Stapleton, who was appointed to the job last year after outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot promoted Sybil Madison from deputy mayor of education to chief of staff.

Johnson taught at Lincoln Park High School from 2003-2013 and left the classroom around the same time as Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, who will be sworn into office Monday. The two are not related.

Both were part of a grassroots movement led by the teachers union focused on social justice, community organizing, and pushing back against top-down school reform policies, including the closure of public schools and the expansion of privately-run, often non-unionized charter schools.

“These appointments reflect our policy priorities and strategic goals as we set a bold agenda for the next four years,” Mayor-elect Johnson said in a statement. “Together we can achieve our vision for sustainable, thriving communities, responsive services for our children and most vulnerable, and a budget that illustrates our values as a city.”

Chicago Teachers Union chief of staff Jennifer “Jen” Johnson has been appointed to be the city’s next deputy mayor of Education, Youth, and Human Services.

Jen Johnson’s appointment is a signal Chicago Public Schools could enter a period of labor peace with the teachers union for at least the next four years. At the bargaining table, she has sat across from past deputy mayors, who have historically served as the mayor’s representative in negotiations.

On the campaign trail, Brandon Johnson faced repeated questioning about how he would handle contract talks with his former employer, to which he replied during one debate: “Who better to deliver bad news to friends than a friend?” The current CTU contract expires in 2024.

A spokesperson for the mayor-elect declined Chalkbeat’s request to interview the new deputy mayor Thursday.

As CTU chief of staff, Jen Johnson supports and represents 30,000 rank-and-file educators and union leadership. Recently, she spoke with Chalkbeat about the district’s rollout of a universal curriculum bank called Skyline. She applauded the effort, but said the union does not believe it should be mandated as that would take away teacher autonomy.

Jen Johnson has been at the bargaining table multiple times over the past several years and gave updates to the press and the public during the negotiations over virtual and in-person learning in 2020 and 2021 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and during an 11-day strike in 2019.

Chicago remained fully remote longer than many school districts, returning in-person on a hybrid basis in the spring of 2021.

During talks in the summer of 2020, Jen Johnson said the district’s proposal for a six-hour virtual school day was not age-appropriate for the youngest students and lacked an infrastructure to serve students with disabilities and English learners.

“You have too much screen time and not enough prep time,” she said at the time. “You can’t impose in-person school on at-home learning.”

In a speech at a labor conference in 2012, Jen Johnson called herself a “born Michigander” whose dad also taught high school history for 34 years in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She said her grandfather taught high school English in Winnetka, a wealthy suburb north of Chicago, and mentioned that her mother wrote a book in 1970 “about her experience being the only white student in an all-Black public high school called Marshall on the West Side of Chicago in 1966.”

“I knew from a very early age that I wanted to be a history teacher and that I wanted to work in public schools,” Jen Johnson said at the time.

According to a press release from the Mayor-elect’s transition team, Jen Johnson has sat on the boards of the Illinois Federation of Teachers Executive Board, Grow Your Own Illinois, and the Illinois State Board of Education State Educator Licensure and Preparation Board.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago’s elected school board is coming soon. Here’s what you need to know.

2023-05-04T20:36:02+00:00

Chicago voters will soon see a new office on their ballots: school board.

In November 2024, voters will elect 10 members to the Chicago Board of Education as the city moves to a 21-member school board that will eventually be fully elected.

The transition marks a dramatic change for Chicago Public Schools, which has been under mayoral control since 1995. Before that, school board members were seated through a nomination process.

The law — and its subsequent trailer bill — spells out a number of rules, regulations, and processes that have to be followed before Chicagoans are voting in school board elections every two years.

Here’s a closer look at some of the details – and outstanding questions.

How will the Chicago Board of Education change?

According to the school board’s website, it is “responsible for the governance, organizational and financial oversight of Chicago Public Schools.” Its mission statement promises “to set goals and standards and make policies that make a high quality public education system available to the children of Chicago.”

Currently, seven people are appointed by the mayor. They can step down or be replaced at virtually any time. Under mayoral control, the school board has been criticized by some as a rubber stamp that made decisions behind closed doors.

Advocates who lobbied for the elected school board wanted to change that and after many years of lobbying, lawmakers passed a law in 2021 to transition to an elected school board. That law expands the size of the board from seven members to 21. For two years starting in January 2025, the board will be a mix of elected and appointed members. By January 2027, it will be fully elected.

At that point, the school board will resemble Chicago’s current City Council — except instead of 50 aldermen elected from 50 wards and one mayor elected by all of Chicago, there will be 20 members elected from 20 different districts and one school board president elected at-large.

When and how will school board members be elected?

The first Chicago school board elections will be held Nov. 5, 2024. Ten members will be elected from 10 yet-to-be-determined districts representing different areas of the city. Those members will each serve a four-year term and will be up for re-election in 2028.

By Dec. 16, 2024, Mayor Brandon Johnson must also appoint 10 members from those same 10 districts to serve two-year terms. The 10 mayoral-appointed seats will switch to being elected to four-year terms in November 2026. Those seats will represent different districts at that point and will be up for re-election in 2030.

The mayor will also appoint a school board president by Dec. 16, 2024 from anywhere in the city to serve for two years starting in 2024. In Nov. 2026, all Chicago voters will elect a school board president at-large. That person will also be up for re-election in 2030.

In all, 21 new school board members — half elected, half appointed — will be sworn into office in January 2025. By January 2027, all 21 members will have been elected. From that point on, school board elections will be staggered, with half the seats up for reelection every two years.

Who can — and cannot — run for the elected school board?

Chicagoans who want to run to represent their community on the school board will have to collect 250 signatures from voters who also live in their district. Candidates for school board president will have to collect 2,500 signatures from registered Chicago voters.

Similar to other elected offices, candidates will have to submit those petitions to the Chicago Board of Elections a few months before the election in order to get on the ballot and could face challenges to the validity of their signatures. However, the threshold is far lower than other offices, like mayor, which requires 12,500 valid signatures to get on the ballot.

The dates for when school board candidates can start collecting signatures to get on the November 2024 ballot are not set yet, according to spokespeople with both the city and state Board of Elections.

A number of Chicagoans won’t be able to serve on the school board, according to the legislation.

School board members cannot be employees of Chicago Public Schools or employees or owners of companies that hold contracts with the school district. It is not clear, however, if a candidate could run and then resign from those jobs in order to serve. Like other school boards across Illinois, members also cannot hold other elected offices.

One point of contention that has come up during public hearings is that non-citizens are not allowed to vote in school board elections or run for office. This disqualifies many public school parents in Chicago and is a departure from a separate state law that allows non-citizens to vote in and serve on Local School Councils, which oversee budget and leadership decisions at individual schools. The law does call for the creation of a non-citizen advisory board appointed by the mayor, but it does not spell out what powers or responsibilities that group would have.

How will my school or community be represented?

This is perhaps the most critical — and most up-in-the-air question. The short answer is: No one knows yet.

State lawmakers from both the House and Senate have been hosting public hearings to gather feedback on how they should divide the city into districts from which school board members will be elected. The next hearing will be held virtually on Friday, May 5.

The law states “the City of Chicago shall be subdivided into 10 electoral districts for the 2024 elections and into 20 electoral districts for the 2026 elections.”

It’s not clear if lawmakers plan to draw both a 10-district map and a 20-district map by the statutorily required July 1 deadline.

State Sen. Kimberly Lightford, who represents parts of Chicago’s West Side and a handful of near western suburbs and is chairing the senate’s Special Committee on the Chicago Elected Representative School Board, said the group is evaluating input from the public, including “proposals that suggest a map with 10 districts, and submissions that call for 20 districts.”

State Rep. Ann Williams, who represents parts of Chicago’s north side and chairs a working group of House Democrats focused on Chicago’s elected school board maps, said the number of districts drawn in the next two months is still “to be determined.”

Like all electoral maps, the elected school board districts have to be “compact, contiguous, and substantially equal in population and consistent with the Illinois Voting Rights Act.”

Several groups are already advocating for representation and have proposed maps, including Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and Kids First Chicago.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson’s win reflects local and national shifts on education

2023-04-12T20:35:00+00:00

The direction of public education in Chicago changed last week when voters elected a teachers union organizer and former middle school teacher to be the city’s next mayor over a former schools chief and education consultant.

Brandon Johnson, 47, clinched victory with 52% of the vote over Paul Vallas, 69, and will be sworn in as mayor on May 15.

He comes to the job with more experience in public education than most, if not all, previous mayors. Johnson will also be the first mayor in recent memory to hold the title of a public school parent. And he’ll be the last with the power to appoint the school board.

But most significantly, Johnson brings a teachers union-friendly perspective that rejects many of the education ideas that once dominated Democratic politics and defined Vallas’ career: a focus on accountability for schools, teachers, and students, market-based school choice, and top-down decision-making from the mayor. Support from Democrats for those ideas began to erode years ago, making Johnson’s rise part of a bigger national shift.

“The former bipartisan ground that the Paul Vallas-esque reformers used to occupy, where do they stand anymore?” said Sarah Reckhow, a political scientist at Michigan State University who studies education policy. “The ground has shifted beneath them.”

Brandon Johnson announced his bid for Chicago mayor on Oct. 27, 2022. His win over Paul Vallas on April 4, 2023 marked the culmination of a years-long effort by the Chicago Teachers Union to influence public policy beyond the classroom.

Johnson’s win is also a win for local progressives, who see it as the culmination of years of effort. His education agenda — which closely mirrors policy papers put out by the Chicago Teachers Union over the past several years — calls for more funding for traditional public schools, higher pay for teachers, and additional social services for students.

Emma Tai, executive director of United Working Families, which endorsed Johnson and helped turn out the vote with an army of field organizers, said Johnson’s victory comes after a “years-long journey” of “sustained, aspirational” organizing.

“Both (Donald) Trump’s secretary of education and (Barack) Obama’s secretary of education endorsed Paul Vallas and he lost,” said Tai. “A working-class majority defeated a bipartisan, wealthy donor consensus on public education. And I think that any Democrats with national aspirations or presidential aspirations need to pay pretty close attention to that.”

Johnson’s victory follows a decade of growing union strength

The start of Johnson’s political career can be traced to the summer of 2011, when he left the classroom to become an organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union.

For more than a decade prior, Chicago had been a testing ground for a vision of school improvement that relied on accountability and pushed publicly-funded, privately-run charter schools as engines of improvement.

In this worldview, held by Democrats and Republicans alike, teachers unions were seen as stubborn barriers to progress, intent on preserving an adult-centered status quo.

When Johnson became an organizer, Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s first chief of staff, had just been elected mayor and Illinois lawmakers had passed a new law reforming teacher tenure and limiting the Chicago Teachers Union’s ability to strike. It was one of dozens of laws passed across the country — in red and blue states alike — aimed at weakening the collective bargaining rights of teachers.

That did not sit well with classroom teachers.

A year earlier, a high school chemistry teacher named Karen Lewis had been elected as the new president of the Chicago Teachers Union on a platform promising to oppose charter school expansion, stop neighborhood school closures, and take on high-stakes testing and accountability.

The headquarters of Chicago Teachers Union sit on Chicago’s Near West Side.

Lewis and Emanuel became foils on the future of public education in Chicago — and nationally. They battled over seemingly everything — how long the school day and year should be; how teachers should be evaluated and compensated; and eventually, whether or not 50 public schools should be shuttered.

Though Emanuel succeeded in shuttering 50 schools, Lewis said the “fight for education justice” would “eventually move to the ballot box.”

“Clearly, we have to change the political landscape in this city,” Lewis said on the day the school board voted on the school closures in 2013.

That moment galvanized more than just the teachers union. Tai, now the head of United Working Families, said those closures prompted her to get into politics.

“I was like, ‘Oh, I don’t want them to be able to do this anymore,’” Tai said. “What’s it going to take so that I never have to be at a Board of Education meeting again, watching as Black parents are dragged out by white jacketed security guards while they’re crying? I never want to have to see that again.”

Johnson was one of the boots on the ground for the teachers union during this time, convening groups of teachers from schools on the South and West Sides and building coalitions with community organizations.

He helped elect City Council members in 2015 and supported Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s bid for mayor when Lewis was sidelined by a brain tumor. In 2018, Johnson ran for a seat on the Cook County Board of Commissioners and won — a victory Lewis applauded in a letter to teachers when she resigned as CTU president.

But in 2019, the union’s endorsed candidate for mayor, Toni Preckwinkle, lost to outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot in a landslide. That fall, teachers went on strike for 11 days and although the union secured some significant wins, the protracted fight left some teachers and parents frustrated. Still, this spring, the union’s existing leadership won re-election.

Chicago Teachers Union members rallied outside City Hall on the 11th day of their strike in 2019.

Johnson’s ascension to mayor is now an ironic — and perhaps fitting — end to three decades of mayoral control over Chicago Public Schools, a major priority of the union’s. In an interview last week, Johnson told Chalkbeat that he still supports eventually relinquishing control to an elected school board now that he’s been elected.

“Anyone else would say, ‘Well, now that we have it, we’re good because we have our mayor. So let’s keep it. Let’s keep mayoral control,’” he said. “That would miss the moment … We still believe that democracy is the best form of governance for our public school system.”

Mayoral campaign becomes an indictment of education reform

The union had tried and failed twice in the last decade to put an ally in the mayor’s office. But Vallas was a different kind of opponent, and the union capitalized on growing skepticism among Democrats about his education record.

He rose to prominence in 1995 as the first CEO of Chicago Public Schools after the state legislature handed control of the system to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. He became a leading advocate for and adopter of the education-reform playbook touted by both Democrats and Republicans throughout the early 2000s.

Defenders of Vallas say he fixed entrenched problems and improved outcomes for students. But others, including the CTU, say he left a “trail of destruction” in the places where he worked — which Johnson supporters highlighted during an event on the city’s South Side just weeks before the election. Vallas supporters disrupted that event and called their claims “completely untrue.”

Still, Johnson’s campaign continued to focus on Vallas’ complicated schools legacy, even releasing a two-minute ad with parents from New Orleans and Philadelphia talking about teachers being fired during Vallas’ time leading those districts.

Paul Vallas represented a different kind of opponent for the Chicago Teachers Union, which had tried twice to put an ally in the mayor’s office.

Peter Cunningham, founder and board chair of Education Post and former assistant secretary at the U. S. Department of Education, said Vallas — and his record on education running school systems in Philadelphia, New Orleans, and Chicago — were mischaracterized and unfairly maligned. Vallas advocated for more than just school choice and high-stakes accountability, he said. For example, he started a program that still exists to provide Chicago Public Schools students with free eye exams and eyeglasses and developed a school-based teen pregnancy program. He built more than 70 new school buildings — including the one where Johnson eventually taught middle school.

“I would not say the reform movement was a failure in any sense,” Cunningham said. “I would say that it had considerable successes.”

And even though Johnson’s campaign criticized Chicago’s system of school choice that Vallas helped to build, he has taken advantage of it for his three children, two of whom attend a magnet elementary school and one who attends a neighborhood high school that is not his zoned school. That’s a reflection of the way Chicago Public Schools has been reshaped by the changes of the last two decades in ways that are likely to outlast any mayor.

“We’ve seen a lot of improvement in Chicago over the last 15 years,” said Elaine Allensworth, Lewis-Sebring director of the UChicago Consortium on School Research, which has studied Chicago Public Schools since 1990.

More students are graduating high school, going to, and finishing college. Student learning accelerated between 2009 to 2014 — with students gaining six years worth of education in five — according to research out of Stanford University. Out-of-school suspensions have decreased.

“No matter what you think about the reforms of the last 30 years, that’s not the question,” Cunningham said.

“The question is: What do you want to do in the next 10?”

The work beyond the classroom walls begins

The vision laid out by the teachers union more than a decade ago will come to fruition on May 15 when Johnson is sworn in as mayor.

Now, he will have the chance to tackle the issues beyond the classroom, beyond the school building, beyond the district administration. As he moves from an outsider advocating for a certain ideology to decision maker, Johnson will face the realities of governing a city known for its provincial politics, despite being dominated by Democrats.

Johnson will be responsible for a police department grappling with reforms mandated by the federal government and a public health department still dealing with a global pandemic. He’ll oversee multiple city agencies that determine when libraries are open, whether trains run on time, how businesses are licensed, and how to manage garbage pickup and alley rats.

Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson spoke at a City Club of Chicago luncheon during his campaign for mayor.

Allensworth said educators have an “innate sense” of how those different sectors — such as transportation, public health, and safety — all impact public schools.

“I do hope that having that knowledge will help him be a good strong coordinator of all those different services in the service of young people in Chicago,” she said.

And although Chicago Public Schools has seen a lot of improvement, the pandemic stymied some of its progress. Chicago’s scores on the nation’s report card last year dropped in math and flat-lined in reading. Long-standing gaps between students of color and their white peers remain. The district’s handling of students with disabilities is being monitored by the state, after a 2018 report found it delayed and denied services to those children.

“There’s so much more work to do,” said former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who led Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2008 and now heads a nonprofit focused on violence prevention.

Duncan endorsed Vallas and in doing so, didn’t mention education or schools. In an interview with Chalkbeat, he said the mayoral election was as much about education as it was about public safety, noting that when students drop out of high school, they’re more likely to be shot and killed.

“The consequences here in Chicago for educational failure are pretty staggering,” Duncan said. “This is absolutely about education. It’s absolutely about breaking cycles of poverty and helping people have upward mobility and enter the middle class.”

Now, he said the city needs to rally around Johnson. And he applauded the former teachers union organizer for promising to double the number of youth summer jobs from 30,000 to 60,000 and make that employment program year round.

Johnson has also promised to fund the city’s public schools based on need, not enrollment, which has been declining for the past decade. With schools slated to get their budgets this month, it’s not clear if the formula for doling out money will change in time for next school year. He’s vowed to continue investing in support staff — such as social workers, school nurses, and librarians — which Chicago Public Schools has already started doing using federal COVID recovery money.

He’ll have to negotiate a new contract with his former employer, the Chicago Teachers Union, and decide whether to keep current district leadership, including CEO Pedro Martinez, in place.

Tai, with United Working Families, said Johnson’s win does not mean their work is finished.

“I don’t think it’s ever really over,” she said. “But it’s a game changer, a conversation changer, and once again, Chicago’s in the center of it.”

Patrick Wall contributed reporting.

This story has been updated to correct Peter Cunningham’s title.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Q&A: Chicago’s Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson on how being a public school parent will guide him

2023-04-06T18:30:05+00:00

Brandon Johnson took an unconventional path to becoming Chicago’s next mayor.

A decade ago, Johnson, 47, was teaching middle school at Jenner Academy of the Arts, which served mostly low-income Black students from the Cabrini-Green public housing complex. In 2012, he became an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union, and in 2018, he was elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

Now he will be the first mayor in recent memory with children in Chicago Public Schools and the last to have control of the school system before it transitions to an elected school board.

Chalkbeat Chicago sat down with Johnson for a brief interview Thursday. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

How did you talk to your own children about becoming Chicago’s mayor?

I spoke with my children about them being children. Not about me running for mayor. Our conversations were more about, “What are the things that are important to them? What are the areas of support they need from me and their mother?” We had a thoughtful conversation about their own personal desires. And that conversation led into: “Daddy’s running for mayor. You all are an important part of Daddy’s story. But you’re not running for mayor. Daddy’s running for mayor.”

It was important for me to sort of lay some of the foundation around making sure that my children know that whatever adventure that I take on, it’s attached to my purpose, and that they too will have to find their purpose. I spoke to it and in the biblical sense. As Jesus said, “We don’t bury our talents. We double, we multiply them.”

It got them thinking more about their purpose, their talents, their gifts, and how they will make a contribution to society by utilizing their gifts. The transition from running for mayor and the conversation about being mayor was pretty similar. Obviously, there’s more details around security, but my children are chill.

You will be the first mayor in recent memory that has children attending the Chicago Public Schools, and I wonder what you think of that?

I think about that (in the context of) the question about my ability to negotiate contracts particularly for the Chicago Public Schools, because I am now responsible and tasked with negotiating from the perspective of the public schools, right?

The question came up repeatedly about my ability to do that. I’m going to be negotiating that not just as a mayor, but as a parent. I want parents and students to win a good school system, not a contract. That negotiation is actually far greater now as mayor of the city of Chicago having children in the public schools.

I’m not calling for a system to be better so that other people can experience it. I’m calling for a system to be better that works through the lens of someone who trusts the system to provide the education that will ultimately prepare (my children) to fulfill their purpose. I’m going to take the lived experience of not just as a teacher, as an organizer, but as a parent.

What were the things that were frustrating for me and my wife? I’m confident that whatever we were frustrated about, there are countless other parents who have that same frustration. That will be the impetus behind whatever decision is being made or whatever dynamics are being negotiated.

How do we not only help children fulfill their purpose? How do we make sure that parents that rely on this system for their children have an experience that is not just pleasant, but that motivates parents to continue to trust and believe in this system?

What do you think the election result and your win say about how Chicagoans feel about the approach to public education policy in this city under previous mayors?

I believe that my election sets us up to fulfill a promise of what public education should be about. There’s more of an acceptance and agreement around a system that is not just equitable and just, but a system that works for every single family in the city of Chicago.

That’s the message that they accepted — that you do not necessarily have to subscribe to a stratified system, where there are winners and losers, (but that) every parent who gets what they want out of the Chicago Public Schools.

If you talk to most parents, it’s a relief. Why? Why is it a relief? Why do parents make sort of the internal motion of: “Whew! I don’t have to worry about my child’s education!”? If that’s the response of parents where they have like this relief, generally speaking, then what’s the opposite response? When you don’t get what you want or need for your children?

This election is about really eliminating these pressure points. Where you can still be curious and searching juxtaposed to “Oh, my gosh, thank God we don’t gotta worry about that.” Do you understand what I’m trying to say? I hope so.

I think so. You’re saying that because we have a system where you “win” admission to a school, then you’re happy and relieved, but if you don’t, you are just in the struggle?

We want to eliminate the struggle and the pressure of: “How do I get to a release point where I can take a deep breath?” Because that in of itself is very hostile and traumatizing, as well. There’s this dynamic of you got to be grateful because you could be at this other place.

What are we saying? We literally have places in the city of Chicago that people dread going or they’re in fear of having to attend or somehow they’re going to lose the quality of instruction or won’t be offered the fulfillment of what education should be about.

I believe people have accepted that Brandon Johnson believes that public education is far more dynamic than a bubble sheet. It’s about the fulfillment of purpose, and what is available within our public school system that sets up all of our children to be able to find their purpose, discover their purpose, and be good to live it out.

You’ve been part of a movement, built by (the late CTU President) Karen Lewis, to kind of turn the tide in Chicago when it comes to public education and mayoral control of Chicago Public Schools. What do you think about being the last mayor with control of the city’s public schools?

Karen really loved the opera. As I understand opera — and I’m going down a rabbit hole here — there’s always tragedy and triumphs, right? That’s my general frame. And I know that’s a real simplistic way to look at an incredible art, so please be gentle, I do not want to piss off opera lovers. But there’s this tragedy. There is this tension. And then you start to get to a point where there’s going to be a very dramatic end to something that would have otherwise been a constant state of tragedy.

That’s how we look at mayoral control. And to know that our movement has culminated at the very time (mayoral control ends) and we are actually really true to our word. Because anyone else would say, “Well, now that we have it, we’re good. Because we have our mayor. So let’s keep it. Let’s keep mayoral control.”

And that would be a flat note, as Karen would say. That would miss the moment. I think it’s actually quite the crescendo of the movement that pushed the political dynamics around public education, and particularly the harm of mayoral control.

Even with us being in a position where we could impose our ideology onto an entire system, we are still saying that even with us having the ability to direct traffic, we still believe that democracy is the best form of governance for our public school system. So I think it’s an incredible crescendo to our movement.

You will have some chances to appoint members of the Chicago Board of Education. Do you have any shortlist of names? Do you plan to keep any current school board members?

Well, I don’t have a shortlist of names. What I do have, though, is a commitment to a process that is committed to equity in the distribution of the seats that I have the ability to assign. We will provide a process that allows for real community input. An equitable education really requires a dynamic, diverse makeup of experiences that I believe will be necessary to have the type of democratic structure that the city of Chicago has already united around.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Chicago schools are at a crossroads. The new mayor will determine the district’s next steps.

2023-03-28T23:01:03+00:00

Public education in Chicago is about to enter a new era, defined by the person elected mayor on April 4.

Voters will choose between Brandon Johnson, a former middle school teacher turned county commissioner who is also an organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union, or Paul Vallas, a former city budget director and Chicago Public Schools CEO turned education consultant.

Either candidate would bring more knowledge and experience in Chicago Public Schools to the job than most, if not all, previous mayors. It’s nearly impossible to untangle their identities from the debates over public education policy during the past two decades that have left Vallas and Johnson with different perspectives on critical education issues.

“You have two people who really come to this position largely as a result of their work in education,” said Robert Bruno, professor of labor and employment at University of Illinois.

Johnson has roots as a labor organizer and progressive politician focused on improving the lives of working class and low-income people. Vallas is a technocrat and policy wonk who built a career as a “fixer” and “turnaround specialist” for large, complex school systems.

Those experiences will shape their responses to the once-in-a-generation challenges and opportunities facing the nation’s fourth largest school district. The next mayor will write the final chapter in Chicago’s story with mayoral control, appointing school board members as the district shifts toward an elected school board. He will grapple with declining enrollment as federal COVID recovery money runs out and will negotiate the next Chicago Teachers Union contract.

Perhaps most importantly, the next mayor will shape how more than 300,000 students are educated — after three years of pandemic disruption and decades of inequity.

Chicago Teachers Union organizer Brandon Johnson faces former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas in an April 4 runoff for Chicago mayor.

The challenge ahead: Moving to an elected school board

Chicago’s era of mayoral control will end in 2027, when the next mayor is up for re-election. Vallas or Johnson’s first term will be a period of transition in which he will oversee the school system and still appoint more than a dozen school board members, ahead of and during the transition to an elected school board.

If voters pick Johnson, his election would be the crowning achievement in a decade-long grassroots battle waged by the Chicago Teachers Union against mayoral control and many of the controversial policies that came with it, like school closures and charter expansion. Johnson opposes adding charter schools and closing small district schools, of which Chicago has a growing number.

Vallas would bring a long history of expanding school choice and remaking big-city school districts. He’s signaled his approach wouldn’t precisely mirror the past, though, and recently said Chicago had enough charter schools.

They have also expressed different priorities for future board member appointments. Vallas has said he would endorse candidates for school board who align with his vision for the district. He also told Chalkbeat that he would work with the school board “as an equally elected official that is representing the needs of the community that elected them.”

Johnson, who advocated for the legislation creating the school board, has said he wants it to represent Chicago’s diverse neighborhoods “who are deeply invested and knowledgeable” about the communities they serve.

“We cannot have uber rich, arch-conservatives usurping the power that working people in Chicago fought so hard to win,” he told Chalkbeat in a questionnaire published earlier this year.

Reversing enrollment declines in a changing city

Chicago has lost more than 100,000 students since Vallas was schools chief.

When he left the job in 2001, there were roughly 435,000 students. Now, there are just over 322,000. Because schools are largely funded based on enrollment, this trend puts pressure on the district’s budget, even as Illinois has overhauled and increased funding for public education.

Creg Williams, a Vallas supporter who worked with him in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans, said the mayoral hopeful has experience re-enrolling students. After Hurricane Katrina hit, public school enrollment dropped from 65,000 students to 25,000, according to Louisiana state records.

“When we got to New Orleans, there were no student records, there were no teachers, there were no students,” Williams said. “We drove up and down streets, recruiting children who were walking up and down the streets with no place to stay, no schools to go in.” (Enrollment did increase under Vallas’ tenure in New Orleans, but it did not return to pre-Katrina levels.)

Chicago’s declining enrollment, like many cities across America, is driven not by a natural disaster but rather by declining birth rates and a confluence of factors pushing people to leave the city, including the loss of public housing, gentrification, crime, and past school closures.

These are problems the school system cannot fix by itself. City Hall, which has control over zoning, tax policy, and economic development, will play a key part.

Both candidates have talked a lot about making the city a place families want to live, but offer different paths for getting there. Vallas says neighborhoods need to be safe above all else and is proposing a crime-fighting strategy that staffs up the police department and keeps school buildings open on nights and weekends. Johnson has promised not to raise property taxes and wants to grow jobs for both the parents of public school students, and for teens and young adults.

Working with fewer federal dollars and a looming fiscal cliff

Those promises will cost money, and the next mayor will need to find it.

Last week, district officials warned that Chicago Public Schools is facing $600 million-plus budget deficits beginning in 2026, when a $2.8 billion windfall of COVID recovery money ends.

“These issues have been papered over by federal support, but we need to confront them head on,” district CEO Pedro Martinez said recently.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez recently warned school board members that the district is projecting annual deficits starting in 2026.

Johnson has said he will not raise property taxes, a primary source of funding for local schools. Vallas has not ruled out property tax increases, but has talked about pushing more money down to individual schools and cutting costs at the central office.

The mayor has other options.

Johnson has talked about getting state lawmakers to ramp up funding increases to the state’s funding formula so Chicago and all districts get to so-called “adequate funding” more quickly.

He – and district officials – have also suggested pushing the state to kick in more for Chicago teachers pensions, which have been underfunded since the mid- to late-2000s. Chicago Public Schools began skipping annual payments to the pension fund in 1995 under Vallas, and did so until 2004. When the 2008 financial crisis hit, state lawmakers again allowed the district to skip pension payments. Today, the fund is less than 50% funded and requires much larger annual payments, which also puts pressure on the district’s budget.

The next mayor could also undo decisions made by current Mayor Lori Lightfoot to shift costs for police in schools, crossing guards, and non-teaching staff pensions from the city’s budget to Chicago Public Schools. Neither candidate has signaled they would reverse those cost shifts.

Bargaining a high-stakes contract

The Chicago Teachers Union’s current contract expires in 2024. If history is any guide, negotiations will begin this winter under the leadership of the new mayor. Two of the last three contracts were settled only after teachers went on strike, and the next mayor will be under considerable pressure to avoid another one.

It’s clear from Johnson’s education platform that he would approach the demands of the teachers union as an ally.

“Now more than ever, we need a partner in City Hall willing to work with school communities to ensure smaller classes, adequate staffing for special and bilingual education and a school nurse in every school,” the union said in a recent press release. “Brandon Johnson is that candidate.”

Throughout the campaign, Johnson has faced questions over whether he would be impartial in negotiations with his own union, to which he recently responded: “Who better to deliver bad news to friends than a friend?”

Vallas has said he would be at the bargaining table with the teachers union if elected. He’s touted his experience negotiating contracts across multiple school districts, including two four-year deals in Chicago in the late 1990s. The city’s chief labor negotiator, Jim Franczek, recently told the Chicago Sun-Times those contracts provided “stability, flexibility, and predictability” to the school system, which had seen multiple work stoppages in the 1980s and early ‘90s.

“It wasn’t as if the Chicago Teachers Union were a bunch of pansies back then,” Franczek said. But even he acknowledged that the current teachers union is a different kind of bargaining partner now.

Since 2010 – under the leadership of the late former CTU president Karen Lewis — the CTU has pushed to negotiate more than just “bread and butter” issues like pay and benefits, to include broader social justice issues like affordable housing, homelessness, and environmental justice.

That broader approach to bargaining contributed to labor strife with newly-elected Lightfoot in 2019, when teachers went on strike for 11 days. Ultimately, the union secured significant wins to increase support staff, pay, and benefits.

Protesters with the Chicago Teachers Union march in downtown Chicago on Oct. 31, 2019.

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan alluded to that strike in his recent endorsement of Vallas — arguing that the CTU went to war with Lightfoot after she defeated the union’s preferred candidate for mayor in 2019. The teachers union has been clear in their dislike for Vallas, highlighting what they say is a “record of failure” and a “path of destruction” he’s left behind in the public school systems he led.

Vallas has not been shy about his disagreements with the teachers union. But he said the 2019 strike and the COVID-related work stoppages could have been avoided and has vowed to bargain in “good faith.”

Deciding how to measure school and student performance

Early in the pandemic, district officials halted the annual school ratings based on test scores, attendance, and other metrics. And last spring, district leaders announced the old system, known as the School Quality Rating Policy, would no longer exist.

The decisions have prompted a broader conversation about how schools should be measured — or if they should at all — that will continue under the next mayor.

For some, the pause on high-stakes accountability has been a welcome reprieve. The teachers union and others have argued it put too much emphasis on test scores and penalized schools serving high-need populations. A low rating could turn off prospective new families, contributing to a cycle of declining enrollment and continued disinvestment.

But for others, the lack of a system for measuring quality can leave parents and the public wondering: How are students and schools doing?

For two years, the district, the union, and several stakeholders, including Kids First Chicago, have been working together to develop a new, more “holistic” accountability policy. Hal Woods, the chief of policy at Kids First Chicago, said the school board is expected to vote on it next month.

“A new mayor might come in and say, pump the brakes,” Woods said. “Obviously, we hope not.”

It’s not likely Vallas would do that. He created Chicago Public Schools’ first accountability system — putting more than 100 schools on probation for poor academic performance before the federal No Child Left Behind law required districts to do so.

Johnson is likely to be more skeptical. He has said the district does not need its own rating system since the state already has one, and has said schools need more support and resources, not accountability.

The new policy, Woods said, aims to do just that.

“It should be a tool to diagnose where extra support is needed and what that support looks like,” Woods said. “That could be financial, it could be other forms of support.”

Chicago students and schools are facing a pivotal moment. Test scores have fallen. Mental health concerns are rising, particularly among young girls. Additional social workers, counselors, and school staff worry the extra resources still won’t be enough.

The city’s next mayor will have to face these challenges — and decide how to respond.

Mauricio Peña contributed reporting.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Vallas supporters disrupt Johnson event focused on Vallas’ schools leadership

2023-03-17T00:19:35+00:00

A press conference denouncing Chicago mayoral candidate Paul Vallas’ record running public schools devolved into a shouting match as his supporters interrupted an event for his opponent at Rainbow PUSH Coalition Thursday morning in Kenwood.

Supporters of Chicago Teachers Union organizer and county commissioner Brandon Johnson gathered ahead of the city’s April 4 runoff election to warn voters of what they called a “trail of destruction” Vallas left in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans — a narrative Vallas’ supporters said was “totally untrue.”

The dust-up underscored the stark differences between Vallas and Johnson — and highlighted a divided electorate. Both candidates are working to shore up support in majority-Black communities on the city’s South and West sides, where current Mayor Lori Lightfoot performed well in the Feb. 28 election.

Parent and activist Melissa Francis traveled to Chicago from New Orleans to share her experience navigating her hometown’s post-Katrina school system, which Vallas led from 2007 to 2011.

“Paul Vallas has never had families in his best interest,” Francis told the crowd of Johnson supporters. “Many citizens of New Orleans recognize Paul Vallas as a scammer.”

Others called Vallas “a thief and a liar” who left “a trail of destruction” in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

“He comes into our communities and pillages them and leaves,” said Gema Gaete, an activist who was part of a 19-day hunger strike in Little Village when Vallas ran Chicago Public Schools from 1995 to 2001. “We’re here to remind everybody that we don’t forget and he will be held accountable.”

As they began chanting “Vallas, Vallas, Vallas,” Johnson supporters bellowed, “We want Brandon,” in repetition.

Some Johnson supporters called Vallas backers “sellouts” and a few people got into one another’s faces. But the clash quickly ended and the Vallas supporters left the building.

On the sidewalk across the street, Vallas supporters held their own press conference to defend his education record and countered with their own experiences working with him in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

“Folks who are trying to paint him as a GOP, trying to paint him as a racist, it’s just totally untrue,” said Michael Johnson, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County in Madison, Wisconsin.

“We weren’t being antagonists or anything like that,” said Caliph Muab-El, an organizer with the Midwest Coalition for Stopping Violence, the group that held the counter press conference in support of Vallas. “We just want to get the message across that there is a different side to this whole story that they’re painting.”

Vallas’ legacy in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans has been the longtime subject of scrutiny. Johnson and other candidates have criticized his record in Chicago for putting schools on academic probation and not paying into the teachers’ pension fund. State law at the time allowed Mayor Richard M. Daley’s administration to use money earmarked for pensions to cover operating costs, as long as the fund remained healthy.

When Vallas left Chicago, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission hired him to run schools there after the state took over the public school system. He made dramatic changes, but left the system with a deficit.

Philadelphia City Councilwoman Kendra Brooks said school closures and destabilization of that city’s schools pushed her into politics.

“It was triggered by having someone as CEO come into our city, sell off properties, sell off buildings, steal money that is still unaccounted for, and walk away,” Brooks said.

Creg Williams, a former Chicago principal who was Chief of High Schools in Philadelphia under Vallas and also worked with Vallas in New Orleans, countered Brooks’ take on what happened in both cities.

“Paul did not devastate the community. The community was devastated when we arrived,” Williams said. He noted that in both Philadelphia and New Orleans, state lawmakers dictated some of the policies Vallas and other district officials put in place.

“There are stipulations in the law that you have to follow,” Williams said. “No matter what the people say, or no matter what you feel, or what you may want to do, you still have to follow those stipulations.”

In New Orleans, Vallas faced criticism over “lack of transparency, inattention to the most disadvantaged students,” according to the Times-Picayune. Ultimately, student test scores improved at schools converted into charter schools, but at district-run schools, progress was uneven, according to New Orleans magazine.

If elected mayor, Vallas said he wants to keep school buildings open on nights and weekends, push more funding down to individual schools, and support a system of choice for families. Johnson’s platform emphasizes staffing all schools with enough teachers, counselors, social workers, nurses, and librarians and bolstering youth jobs programs.

Mauricio Peña contributed to this story.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

How former teacher Brandon Johnson organized his way to the doorstep of Chicago City Hall

2023-03-14T23:41:10+00:00

Brandon Johnson has knocked on a lot of doors in the last decade.

A former rank-and-file teacher turned Chicago Teachers Union organizer, Johnson has met with thousands of teachers, pounded the pavement on behalf of dozens of candidates, and lobbied state lawmakers.

Still, he had little to no name recognition as he launched his bid to become Chicago’s next mayor.

“A few months ago, they said they didn’t know who I was,” Johnson told a crowd of supporters when he made it to the mayoral runoff election on Feb. 28. “Well, if you didn’t know, now you know.”

Although Johnson may not have been famous in Chicago politics before he ran, he didn’t come out of nowhere. Johnson is the product of a grassroots movement led by the CTU over the last decade that has focused on issues beyond the classroom, like affordable housing, public health, environmental justice, and police reform. The outcome of Johnson’s race will be an important signal about the strength of that movement.

His progressive message broke through in a field of nine candidates, and he got about 21% of the vote — enough to secure a spot in next month’s runoff election.

Now, Johnson will go head-to-head in the April 4 election with former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, who got about 33% of the vote in February. The two candidates have very different visions for the future of the city’s school system. The district faces challenges disentangling its finances from the city as it transitions into an elected school board, declining enrollment, and academic disparities that widened since the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

Vallas has garnered support by touting his reputation as a “fixer” who can lead in difficult times. But he has faced scrutiny on the campaign trail over his complicated history with public schools in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.

Robert Bruno, a labor education professor at University of Illinois and longtime observer of the Chicago Teachers Union, said to some degree, Johnson’s journey from classroom teacher to political candidate came as a reaction to policies put in place by Vallas and like-minded officials.

“I think maybe Paul Vallas helped to create the conditions that made Brandon Johnson inevitable,” Bruno said.

Those conditions have prompted the CTU — and all of its organizing power — to try to put an ally into the mayor’s office before. In 2015, the union helped U.S. Rep. Jesus “Chuy” Garcia push then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel into a runoff, only to have him fall short with 44% of the vote. And in 2019, the CTU backed Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who made it to the mayoral runoff, but lost in a landslide to Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

In order to win on April 4, Johnson will likely have to more than double the number of votes he got on Feb. 28. That will be difficult, but not impossible, Bruno said.

“If he’s doing the work as an organizer, then he has to be contributing to the mobilization and the high engagement that you see, “ Bruno said. “And that might be his secret weapon.”

A middle school teacher joins a labor movement

Last fall, Johnson announced his candidacy for mayor, steps from where he taught middle school social studies. Decades earlier, Jenner Elementary Academy of the Arts served students from the nearby Cabrini-Green public housing complex. Now, it is a campus of the Ogden International School after a 2018 merger.

Tara Stamps, a former teacher who now works for the union coaching new teachers, recalled Johnson’s days at Jenner.

“He was very patient,” Stamps said. “He has a very calm demeanor. Brandon is not easily riled and you kind of need that when you’re going to be working with middle school kids.”

These qualities are important for a leader at a critical time for the city, Stamps said.

Stamps was Johnson’s mentor at Jenner and remembered advocating for him during the hiring process. He proved to be committed and connected to his students, and a necessary role model at the mostly Black school, Stamps added.

On the campaign trail, Johnson has shared his own memories of Jenner, such as the time students were displaced when the city leveled Cabrini-Green.

He’s also shared the time one of his students at Jenner told him: “You should be teaching at a good school.”

The comment caught Johnson off-guard. It also served as a call to action for him to address the lack of affordable housing, food insecurity, and gun violence — traumas that students carry into the classroom.

Along the campaign trail, Johnson has called for fully funded schools for all students and families regardless of ZIP code. “Every single child in the city” should get to have their needs met, Johnson said late last month.

After Jenner, Johnson spent about a year teaching at Westinghouse College Prep in East Garfield Park, a test-in selective enrollment high school in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. But then Johnson decided to start solving those problems students faced outside of schools. So in the summer of 2011, Johnson, current CTU President Stacy Davis Gates, and other educators joined an organizing initiative at the union.

They helped to get buy-in from rank-and-file members at school buildings, create partnerships with like-minded unions and community organizations, and worked to bring parents into their movement.

“Many of us became teachers to change the world,” Davis Gates said. “We wanted young people to have a good opportunity at dreaming and reimagining and transforming. And all of us have been committed to that dream as educators.”

Davis Gates said Johnson helped usher in a type of “common good” unionism that their work is about more than wages and benefits for school staff. Led by then-CTU President Karen Lewis, the union pushed a progressive agenda that focused on the broader socioeconomic challenges that affect students and families.

In announcing his campaign for mayor, Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson recalled his time as a middle school social studies teacher and the displacement his students faced as the city demolished Cabrini-Green.

Johnson hit the ground running as an organizer just as the union began strengthening its political identity, Stamps said. “He was very active” organizing members in school buildings, she added.

“We were breaking ground on this new kind of unionism,” Stamps said. “[It] not only just involved its members, but brought the community in as partners in this fight for a city and a school system that Chicagoans deserved.”

In 2012, the Chicago Teachers Union carried out its first strike in 25 years. The strike, which CTU used to highlight policies members said were hurting public education, attracted international attention. It also “reshaped the educational landscape in Chicago and across the country,” Johnson said in a statement emailed to Chalkbeat Chicago.

“Karen Lewis herself said it was a battle for the soul of public education, and about protecting the most democratic institution in America,” he said.

Bruno, the University of Illinois professor, said the strike is seen as a success by labor groups, in part because of the coalition-building done by organizers like Johnson.

From being educators to knowledgeable union stewards to informed about city and state laws, organizers have a diverse set of skills, Bruno said. “They’ve got to be really good coalition builders” because they’re trying to get people to take action, he added.

Since being hired by the union, Johnson has organized CTU members at schools primarily on the South and West sides. He’s also worked with community organizations and families who reside in those neighborhoods. It’s a job he still holds today, though the union said he’s been on leave since last November.

According to the union, while on leave, Johnson earns no salary, but like other CTU staff members on leave, Johnson “is allowed to utilize his unused accrued paid time off.”

That work, which is central to Johnson’s career trajectory, has also attracted skepticism. Some observers have said Johnson would be beholden to the CTU in a way that would not be good for taxpayers. Even fellow progressives who have been supported by the CTU, like Garcia, have raised questions about those ties.

“Will Brandon, if he’s elected mayor, be able to say that he is impartial?” Garcia, who ran for mayor but failed to reach the April 4 runoff, said in an interview with the Sun-Times ahead of the Feb. 28 election.

Garcia — who as of publication has yet to throw his support behind Johnson in the runoff — went on to question whether he would make the best decision for children and taxpayers.

Johnson has promised not to raise property taxes, but has proposed a slew of new taxes, mostly targeting corporations and wealthy individuals. He has also pushed back against the criticism, saying that he is grateful for the support from working class families, and that he would be a mayor for all of Chicago.

Electoral politics become crucial to the union’s mission

To the CTU, the policies put in place by Vallas and subsequent district leaders destabilized the public school system. That perspective prompted a new frontier for the union: electoral politics.

After 50 schools closed under then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Lewis took those grievances to voters and made the education system’s needs clear, Davis Gates recalled.

Johnson was a key part in those political campaigns. He helped organize members and allies’ campaigns for city council in 2015 and the state legislature in 2020.

Those efforts bore fruit. In 2015, Susan Sadlowski Garza, a school counselor, became the first CTU member elected to City Council. Union ally Carlos Ramirez-Rosa also won his aldermanic race. In 2019, Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez and other CTU allies were elected to city council seats.

And in the intervening period, Johnson decided to test his own appeal to voters. In 2018, Johnson won a seat on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, representing Chicago’s West Side and near western suburbs.

Not everyone in the union supports its focus on electoral politics. Some, for example, have said the union donated too much to candidates without a full accounting. Still, last spring, CTU’s leaders were reelected to their posts.

Johnson is the first rank-and-file member to ascend from organizer to CTU political director to mayoral runoff candidate since the union set out to get its members into elected office more than a decade ago. His rise matches Lewis’ vision of the union having political agency in every level of governance, as well as her policy priorities.

“We followed Karen’s lead and here we are today,” Davis Gates said. “We have an elected school board. We have our bargaining rights back. Our pensions are being funded.”

Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson will face off against former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas in the April 4 runoff election for Chicago mayor.

In his statement, Johnson said he views union organizing as key to developing a “coalition of people with interest and commission vision to bring that vision to life.”

“We have real issues in our city — the need to invest in people, the need for a public safety plan that works, the need to ensure schools are stable and predictable, and the need to grow our economy,” Johnson said.

His organizing experience, he argues, will help Chicago meet these goals.

The prospect of an organizer leading Chicago is promising to union members like Lori Torres Whitt, a 36th ward aldermanic candidate.

“I want a mayor who’s going to work with me, and make decisions for us with us,” Whitt said. “And that’s what you get with an organizer.”

Chicago High School for the Arts teacher Megan Pietz feels as though an organizer will leave the door open when it comes to making decisions.

“I feel like Paul Vallas is someone who closes that door,” Pietz said. “Being an organizer also means being willing to listen to and engage in a conversation, to engage in a discussion.”

Johnson performed well on Chicago’s Northwest and North sides, as well as some portions of the south lakefront, according to election results. But now he will have to persuade a divided electorate on the South and West sides of the city that voted for Lightfoot and Garcia.

Stamps said if anyone can do it, Johnson can.

“We earn the votes,” Stamps said. “We do the work. We out-organize and we out-work people. We knock on doors. We do the phone banks. We do the pop-ups. We do whatever is necessary to carry our message to the people. Because, ultimately, you want a people-powered campaign.”

Becky Vevea contributed to this story.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Lori Lightfoot could be the last mayor to control Chicago Public Schools. How has she done?

2023-02-16T20:55:50+00:00

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot stood on a freshly-installed rubber wood floor in the gymnasium of the new Belmont-Cragin Elementary and delivered a long list of “thank-you’s” from behind a podium emblazoned with the seal of the City of Chicago.

“I can still smell the freshness and newness of this building,” Lightfoot said before using oversized scissors to cut a blue fabric ribbon at the Jan. 17 opening of the new $44 million school, a project set in motion by her predecessor Rahm Emanuel.

It is one of dozens of ribbon cuttings the incumbent mayor is doing in the weeks before the Feb. 28 election in which voters decide if she gets a second term. Lightfoot is facing eight challengers, some with strong ties to the city’s public schools, including former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and former teacher and current teachers union organizer Brandon Johnson.

“Our job is to come, like the calvary, to the rescue with those resources so we can help you fulfill your dreams and aspirations,” Lightfoot said at the Belmont-Cragin ribbon-cutting, where she was flanked by students, teachers, and other politicians. “This new building is absolutely what that is about.”

Since 1995, Chicago’s mayor has had control over the city’s public schools — deciding where and when to construct or repair school facilities, appointing school board members and a CEO, and negotiating contracts with the teachers union.

Lightfoot could be the last mayor — or one of the last — to wield this kind of power over education in Chicago as the city begins to transition to an elected school board in 2024.

“This is a pivotal or critical time for schools,” said Dick Simpson, a longtime observer and fixture in Chicago politics and retired professor of political science at the University of Illinois Chicago. “It’s also a critical time overall in Chicago’s history.”

Unlike her predecessors, Lightfoot did not come into office four years ago promising big changes at Chicago Public Schools. She kept existing leadership in place and continued implementing outgoing Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan for universal pre-K for 4-year-olds. The one promise Lightfoot did make – to support an elected school board – shifted once she was in office.

Ald. Scott Waguespack, an ally of the mayor, said Lightfoot deserves credit for leading the school system through a once in a generation pandemic.

“Navigating that was something that was done partially on the fly, but also had a good set of directives that we had to stick to to make sure that the institutions survived, including CPS,” Waguespack said.

But what has Lightfoot done so far when it comes to education and what will she do with another four years?

Lightfoot prioritizes city money for school facilities

Deciding when and where to build new or repair old schools has been a core role of Chicago mayors, past and present.

Richard M. Daley’s Modern Schools Across Chicago program spent $1 billion to build 17 new facilities and renovate two others, mostly on the South and West Sides. Lightfoot’s predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, built new annexes in overcrowded areas where students tended to be more affluent and more white than CPS as a whole. He also closed 50 schools and mothballed or sold off the facilities in majority Black and Latino neighborhoods, before implementing a property tax levy in 2017 to bankroll new school construction.

The newly-constructed $44 million Belmont-Cragin Elementary at 6112 W. Fullerton Ave. sits next door to the Riis Park Fieldhouse on Chicago’s Northwest side. The project was set in motion by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and completed under Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

Lightfoot harnessed city funding for school projects, but focused spending on fixing up existing facilities, repairing aging roofs, and boilers.

“We’re picking off these projects that are long overdue all over the city,” Lightfoot said. “Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez is very committed to making sure that we really invest in the infrastructure, not just band aids and trying to patch things up.”

Waguespack, who is also chairman of the City Council’s powerful Committee on Finance, said the mayor wanted to focus more money from special taxing districts known as tax-increment-financing — or TIF — districts on public schools and public parks.

A Chalkbeat analysis of finance committee records shows roughly $215.8 million in TIF money was allocated to school construction projects between when Lightfoot took office in May 2019 and today. Roughly $128.5 million was allocated between May 2015 and May 2019. Many of the projects tackled in the past four years were for long-deferred maintenance, not new construction.

In response to a Chalkbeat Chicago candidate questionnaire, Lightfoot also touted “$600 million in investments for facility improvements at neighborhood schools” in Chicago Public Schools’ 2023 budget.

A review of Chicago Public Schools’ capital plan does show larger portions of the district’s construction budget coming from “outside funding sources,” which is primarily city TIF money and state grants. However, the capital budget has declined in the last four years.

Years ago, community advocates fought to have more say over school construction decisions in Chicago, even passing a state law that created a now-dormant task force to oversee and guide school facilities planning. The city is currently under moratorium on closing schools, which will lift in 2025.

Disagreements over school construction projects have heated up recently around a plan supported by Lightfoot to build a $150 million new high school on the Near South Side, even as the district continues to lose enrollment and grapple with severely underenrolled high schools, including those that currently serve students in the area and sit just south of the site where the new school is to be built.

In an interview with Chalkbeat Chicago, Lightfoot said she sees investments in school facilities as investments in the city as a whole.

“They’ve got to be done in coordination,” Lightfoot said of the city and the school district. “They’ve got to work hand in glove and that’s really what we’ve been trying to do.”

Clashes with the Chicago Teachers Union disrupt learning

By now, it’s no secret: the mayor and the Chicago Teachers Union are anything but allies. From an 11-day teachers strike in 2019 and a delayed return to schools amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021 to five days of canceled classes at the height of the omicron surge in 2022, the relationship has been on a tightrope made worse with every labor strife and a war of words.

Robert Bruno, a labor education professor at University of Illinois, described Lightfoot and CTU’s relationship as “very, very hostile,” and “difficult and strained.”

The deep level of distrust between the mayor and the teachers union is not without consequences.

The fraught relationship between Lightfoot and the union may even have complicated the district’s response to COVID and the return to in-person learning.

Chicago students stayed with remote learning longer than many other cities and states. Data released last fall showed the city’s math and reading scores on the “Nation’s Report Card” fell to what they were about a decade ago.

At the time, Lightfoot argued that a return to in-person learning would curb the adverse impact of remote learning, but the union said remote learning would protect students, their families, and teachers from severe illness and death. The push to return, the union argued, was tied to pressure from the business community.

Bruno said the mayor views the teachers union as a political body with the goal of undermining her leadership, and the union believes she’s “too beholden to corporate interest and not someone who has the best interest” of the school district’s large low-income working class and multi-ethnic population.

But the mayor’s difficult relationship with the teachers union pre-dates the pandemic. The CTU supported Lightfoot’s opponent in 2019 and when she stepped into office in May 2019, the political newcomer fresh off a landslide victory found herself in contract negotiations that dramatically fizzled out, leading to an 11-day strike in October.

Despite the acrimony, the teachers union secured $1.5 billion worth of concessions from the Lightfoot administration in a five-year contract that included raises for educators and support staff, hundreds of new staff positions, and $35 million annually to help reduce overcrowding in some schools.

Five months later, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down schools once again. Students didn’t return in-person until a year later — after an impasse over safety protocols, a threat to lock out teachers from remote platforms, and finally an agreement that made way for a hybrid model with staggered reopening starting in March 2021. But the following school year was again disrupted after holiday break, leaving parents frustrated and teachers feeling deflated.

These four years are going to be remembered as “dysfunctional,” Bruno said. “She obviously has to take some responsibility for that.”

Chicago teachers picket downtown in May 2022. Lightfoot’s conflicts with the Chicago Teachers Union characterized much of her first term.

Moving forward the person who wins the mayoral election will need “to pick up the pieces of that relationship” with the union, Bruno said.

Turning things around would not be unprecedented. Rahm Emanuel famously clashed with the teachers union early in his first term, prompting the first strike in 25 years. He reportedly used an expletive in a meeting with former CTU President Karen Lewis. But years later, she admitted their tensions had softened. After Lewis died, Emanuel told the Sun-Times that the two had even attended the ballet together.

Responding to the Chalkbeat candidate questionnaire regarding the acrimonious relationship and upcoming contract negotiations, Lightfoot wrote that regardless of their “previous differences,” her team was committed to ensuring Chicago teachers were among the “best compensated in the nation and have the resources and support they need to educate the next generation of Chicagoans.”

“Our children deserve no less,” she wrote.

Lightfoot changes tune on elected school board

While campaigning for mayor in 2019, Lightfoot supported a fully elected school board, saying parents deserved a seat at the table. Elected members should be parents with “skin in the game,” she told WBEZ at the time, and suggested requirements such as first serving on local school councils.

Lightfoot’s first appointees included a group with deep experience in education, including parents who previously served on local school councils, teachers, principals, and community advocates — a departure from her predecessors whose selections were often described as a “rubber stamp” by critics.

Lightfoot told WBEZ in 2019 there would need to be thoughtful discussions on the number of board members, criteria, and how elections for these seats were financed.

But Lightfoot’s support for a fully elected school board dwindled and she instead called for a hybrid model. As legislation moved through Springfield, the mayor criticized the bill, arguing that special interests would pour millions of dollars into the races as had happened in Los Angeles.

She also criticized the 21-seat board as a “recipe for disaster.” Nevertheless, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the approved bill in June 2021, setting the stage for a phased-in elected school board starting in 2025. Next year, the mayor will appoint 11 seats and 10 will be elected. Another election, in 2026, would elect the 11 appointed seats, resulting in a fully elected board by 2027.

Responding to a Chalkbeat election questionnaire, Lightfoot vowed to work with Pritzker to improve the existing law to “establish clarity and ensure that our schools, teachers, and students receive the representation and resources they deserve.” She added that non-citizens, in particular, should be allowed to serve on the school board.

“Non-citizens are a significant part of CPS communities as parents, Local School Council members, and elsewhere,” Lightfoot said. “In a welcoming city, it is unconscionable that Springfield banned non-citizens from serving on the elected school board.”

Her office has created a team focused on education and human services that will work in partnership with the new school board on shared priorities, she said.

The mayor’s record on education will be an important marker in this election, Bruno said.

“As long as mayors have control over the city schools,” he said, “then it’s going to be a big determinant, I think, of how people judge their record while in office.”

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Tony Sanders named next Illinois State Superintendent of Education

2023-01-31T17:35:49+00:00

This story has been updated.

Elgin’s U-46 Superintendent Tony Sanders has been named Illinois’ next State Superintendent of Education. He will begin his term on Feb. 23.

Tony Sanders.

After a nationwide search to replace outgoing superintendent Carmen Ayala who is retiring after 40 years in education, the Illinois State Board of Education announced Sanders’ appointment during a special board meeting on Tuesday.

“Dr. Sanders’ breadth of experience as superintendent of School District U-46 and his entire background have prepared him to take on this role,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement. “His focus on innovation, social emotional development, and academic excellence make him an extraordinary pick. I can think of no better person to lead the Illinois State Board of Education as we continue to invest in, support, and elevate our students and educators.”

Sanders has been superintendent of Elgin’s U-46 since 2014. It’s the second largest school district in Illinois serving over 35,000 students.

In a statement to U-46’s school community, Sanders said leaving the district is bittersweet because his family lives in the community, his children graduated from the district, and he enjoyed his time working with teachers and support staff who dedicated their time to improving the lives of students.

“While I have such a strong connection to U-46, I have always set my sights on serving in the role of state superintendent,” Sanders said in a statement. “It is the only position that I would consider leaving U-46 to accept, and the fact that I was selected is an honor that I cannot decline.”

As the next state superintendent, Sanders will be responsible for helping schools, educators, and students recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as federal relief funds are expected to expire by 2025. The State Board of Education recently recommended a $350 million increase for the state’s evidence-based funding formula and a 10% increase to the board’s early education block grant.

But education advocates have said that’s not enough. They want the state legislature to increase funding for K-12 schools by $550 million and increase early education funding by 20%.

As U-46 superintendent, Sanders was a part of the push to enact the state’s evidence-based funding formula in 2017. That formula provides more money to districts if they serve higher percentages of students living in poverty, English language learners, or students with disabilities. About half of U-46 students are low-income, 40% are English language learners, and 16% are students with disabilities.

As superintendent, Sanders managed U-46’s $660 million budget. Sue Kerr, president of U-46’s Board of Education, said in a statement that Sanders eliminated the district’s structural deficit and built up cash reserves.

Pritzker, who had a hand in selecting Sanders, recently promised to provide free preschool to all Illinois families in his second term. In Illinois, children are not required to attend school until age 6 and many districts, including U-46, only recently added full-day kindergarten. Sanders oversaw the 2016 rollout of a play-based, full-day kindergarten in Elgin, which the state board touted in announcing his appointment.

Sanders comes to the state’s top education job at a time of great need. The COVID pandemic wiped away a decade of academic progress and left students, parents, and educators grappling with broader social and emotional issues beyond school.

During Ayala’s time in office, the board of education added social-emotional learning hubs through the state’s regional offices of education and expanded high-impact tutoring to catch students up academically. As superintendent at U-46, Sanders created a new alternative high school to reduce expulsions and provide students with trauma-informed care.

For a while, the state board seemed interested in overhauling how it measures academic progress, shifting from the annual state test at the end of the year, known as the Illinois Assessment of Readiness, to an interim assessment taken multiple times a year.

That issue is still unresolved, but the State Assessment Review Committee presented a list of recommendations on improving the state assessment during this month’s board meeting. Ayala led the charge on this issue during her time in office.

Over the past four years under Ayala’s direction, the State Board of Education has worked to increase the number of teachers throughout the state. While the state had a teacher shortage prior to COVID-19, the pandemic exacerbated the need for more teachers in classrooms.

The state launched initiatives to get more bilingual teachers into classrooms and increase the number of students of color in teacher preparation programs. Some school districts have invested in Grow Your Own programs that support new educators while they are getting licensure.

During Sanders’ time as superintendent in U-46, he invested in the same program and the initiative supported 60 employees to receive full tuition reimbursement as they work on getting a license.

Kerr, president of U-46’s Board of Education, said in a statement that the district’s board of education will deeply miss Sanders.

“He has been active in numerous community organizations, has been a constant presence in school buildings, and districtwide events, and has never hesitated to reach out to state legislators and the media to advocate on U-46’s behalf,” Kerr said.

One of the state’s largest teacher unions, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, congratulated Sanders in a statement and said they hope to work with him to “achieve policies that center and engage our students and teachers, especially our Black and Brown students who are still recovering from the pandemic.”

“During Dr. Sanders’ tenure leading Elgin District U-46, he was a strong advocate for equitable policies for Black and Brown students,” said Dan Montgomery, president of IFT. “His visionary leadership helped improve district assessment data collection to better the student and teacher experience.”

Until Sanders begins his term as superintendent, Krish Mohip, the State Board of Education’s deputy education officer, will serve as interim state superintendent starting Feb. 1.

I’m stepping down from the Chicago Board of Education. With change coming, some thoughts on its future.

2022-12-07T18:38:16+00:00

When I was appointed to the Chicago Board of Education in June 2019, I knew my prior experiences — as a teacher, a Chicago Public Schools employee, an educator collaborating with over 30 districts, a CPS parent, and a member of a Local School Council — still might not prepare me for the duties of effectively governing our large and complex district. What I didn’t know was what awaited us in the months and years to come, including a global pandemic.

The heroic efforts of educators and district leadership have kept our district running, and we’ve even made progress in some important areas. CPS launched its equity framework. The Office of Safety & Security reimagined an approach to whole school safety. The board livestreamed and recorded its meetings, and opened new and revised policies to public comment. We’ve engaged community members to inform policy on school programming, funding, and accountability.

Sendhil Revuluri

Today is my final board meeting. As I step away from the toughest and most rewarding volunteer role I’ve ever held, I want to share some reflections I have about the changes and challenges our district has in store.

Our educators focus on student learning outcomes. Our school board should, too.

School systems exist to improve student outcomes. Having great buildings, happy parents, balanced budgets, or satisfied teachers are incredibly important and valuable. But they are the means, not the ends.

Over the last few years, my fellow school board members and I have committed many, many hours to the role, far beyond those visible in public, holding office hours, attending events, visiting schools, talking with stakeholders. But the current reality is that much of our time, attention, and energy is spent not on student outcomes — what matters most to our students and their families — but on the methods used to get there.

Our educators focus on our students to guide their practice. But in some of our most contentious board discussions, on topics such as school reopening, COVID mitigation, or the role of School Resource Officers, the loudest voices often centered adult interests, values, or concerns.

The school board should represent the voice of our community.

Our role as a board is to represent the vision and values of the community. Our main duty as a board is to listen to the community, form a coherent vision, then set, resource, and monitor focused goals that advance that vision.

So while discussions and decisions about effective methods are essential, they’re not our job as a board, but the domain of district leadership. For example, if we hear our community say “it is important that our students read well,” our role is to set a clear goal about student literacy outcomes. What approach or curriculum to use, selecting staff, and so on — that’s the responsibility of district leadership. Then the board must monitor the progress toward that goal.

Our community has varied ideas about which student outcomes matter most, and which means should be used to achieve them. As board members, we have different experiences, opinions, and priorities. We may not agree on everything, including which student outcomes are the most important. As a fellow board member once told me, “if we all agree, then some of us are superfluous.” But when we find areas of broad agreement, we will know where to set our goals.

Whoever is on the board, however they’re selected, what matters most is how they work.

Many Chicagoans have (and have shared) strong opinions about how board members are selected. These discussions often focus on beliefs about what is more democratic, but it’s far less frequent that people ask what will most benefit student outcomes. I believe that the composition of the school board or the method of its selection is far less important than whether it is governing effectively.

Advocates of an elected board have embraced democracy and argued for parity with other Illinois school districts. One can agree with them on these beliefs — as I do — and yet push further, to ensure that the board, however it is selected, governs the district in a way that delivers educational experiences that work better for all of our students.

This is especially crucial right now. Recent results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show that our students’ current achievement has been set back by the multiple effects of the pandemic. We must ensure this unfinished learning does not lead to a loss of future opportunity, especially given the challenges many of our students face accessing post-secondary education.

Our students need us to govern effectively, and there are tangible, evidence-based, and feasible steps to move in this direction. The steps are both well-defined and adaptable to local context, and with commitment and focus, can be accomplished in six months or less. We owe it to our students not to be distracted from these steps toward effectiveness by political preference, power dynamics, or adult needs.

Just as a classroom teacher assesses their students’ learning, the school board and the public will be able to see and monitor progress towards these outcomes in the whole district, allowing for adjustment and improvement along the way to deliver our students what they deserve.

We must ensure that board members, regardless of the selection process, are informed about their role, and skilled in how to govern to get results for our students. They must be ready to listen to the community, set clear goals, and be held accountable for student outcomes.

And the community must engage on the desired results — and not just at election time. Whether appointed or elected, I hope future board members will be selected based on their commitment, focus, energy, and ability to keep student outcomes first and foremost, rather than the opinions they embrace, the allies they bring, or promises to adopt specific methods.

If we don’t face facts about our buildings and budget, we will shortchange our students.

Like many large urban districts, our student enrollment has changed significantly — including an almost 20% drop in the last decade. While it’s helpful to understand the reasons for this decline, I believe it’s most important to best serve the students who are enrolled in the district now.

That won’t be easy with a finite and inadequate budget, as measured by the evidence-based funding methodology adopted by the state of Illinois. Data compiled by the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University shows that in some schools we spend far more per student while providing neither strong learning outcomes nor the rich and broad experiences they deserve. Our budget is currently balanced, thanks to a once-in-a-generation infusion of federal COVID relief. But as a recent report shows, in just a few years, continuing to do what we’ve always done will lead to annual deficits of hundreds of millions of dollars.

It is a time to choose: between preserving features of how the district has worked in the past and ensuring that our students’ futures are secure. We can’t move our buildings, but we can choose policies and spending to give our students the best possible educational experience we can with the resources and population we have.

At some point, choices to keep our existing buildings, addresses, or school names will impede the quality of students’ educational experience and their learning outcomes. While those spaces may have value to a person or a community, we can’t put that in front of whether our students are safe, learning, and thriving. We must look forward to their future.

One key lever that CPS could apply is making budget projections more visible. This form of long-term financial planning is a best practice recommended by the Government Finance Officers Association and is used by both the City of Chicago, under the direction of both Mayor Emanuel and Mayor Lightfoot, and Cook County.

When each of our students may be with our district for 14 years, a long-term perspective is essential. We are in a car heading for a fiscal cliff. While turning the car off our well-traveled road may be a bit bumpy, the reality of our finite resources means that the only alternative to making changes now is to turn abruptly in several years — causing nausea or injury.

Our choices will determine how well we deliver what our students need and deserve.

Like any big event in our own lives — a graduation, a wedding, or the birth of a child — this moment of governance transition may bring stress, but it also brings the joy of possibility. This is another opportunity to deliver what our students need and deserve. But if we don’t face and accept our current reality, it will be hard for us to change it.

To change, to adapt, to grow is hard — so hard most people don’t even try. But we can do hard things. And we owe it to our students to do so. Their futures, especially those most vulnerable and who are currently furthest from opportunity, are in the balance.

Sendhil Revuluri is a parent of two CPS students, a former teacher, and has served as vice president of the Chicago Board of Education since June 2019. He is stepping down this month.

Chicago school board moves to take over once-lauded charter serving Black boys

2022-10-26T22:35:09+00:00

Chicago’s school board moved Wednesday to take over two South Side charter campuses that specialize in serving Black boys — an unprecedented step to pull the school’s charter but preserve an academic model officials acknowledged has delivered for many students.

School board members voted unanimously to revoke the Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men’s charter. They forcefully rejected the school’s arguments for more time to prove they are on the right track, and voicing dismay at the school’s response to a sexual misconduct investigation involving the school’s founder.

Urban Prep leaders pushed back forcefully, calling on Mayor Lori Lightfoot to halt the district’s plan to take over its two campuses.

Urban Prep, which once received national recognition for steering its students to graduation and college admissions, has come under intense district scrutiny in recent years. Its founder, Tim King, resigned his positions as CEO and board chair this summer after a district watchdog report substantiated allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a former student — allegations King has strongly denied.

The district has also rung alarms about the school’s financial management, which is the focus of an ongoing district inspector general investigation, as well as its services for students with disabilities and the number of licensed teachers it employs.

In a Tuesday news conference on the Englewood campus and during Wednesday’s board meeting, the school’s leaders and supporters decried the district’s own track record of serving Black male students and said the school, run largely by Black men, has delivered better outcomes. They said Urban Prep has gotten its finances in order more recently, and accused the district of using the allegations against King to launch a takeover of the school.

But school board officials were unmoved.

“It’s an egregious report, and it should make everybody upset,” said board member Elizabeth Todd-Breland, referring to the investigation’s findings about King. “It’s shameful to me that the Urban Prep board had this information and did not act swiftly.”

However, district officials said Urban Prep has forged a strong academic model and a supportive environment for Black boys, who in Chicago and nationally have long faced the widest academic disparities. In an unusual move, district CEO Pedro Martinez said Wednesday the two campuses, which have a combined enrollment of about 370 students, will remain open under district management — either as free-standing schools or as programs of existing high schools. It plans to keep teachers and staff at the school.

“We want to make sure high-quality programs continue for children in Bronzeville and Englewood — it’s essential,” Martinez said. But, he added, “We cannot compromise. We need ethical behavior, and we need to make sure we are protecting our children.”

The school can appeal the district’s decision to the Illinois State Board of Education. The state took over a third Urban Prep campus in 2018 after the school board revoked its charter.

Tensions between school, CPS boil over

The inspector general’s report alleged King groomed and sexually touched a student who was 16 at the time. According to the report, the relationship continued after the student graduated, and he eventually came to work at Urban Prep; the report also says he continued to receive pay and benefits long after he stopped working there.

The district said the school’s handling of the investigation was troubling because it allowed King — who was featured on a 2010 People Magazine cover as “hero of the year” — to continue interacting with students after the inquiry substantiated the allegations.

Urban Prep also refused to email families about the investigation’s findings, and appointed King to two boards after he resigned, according to board documents.

Meanwhile, an ongoing district watchdog investigation is taking a closer look at the school’s finances. The district says that for years the school relied on district cash advances and high-interest loans to make payroll, racking up more than half a million dollars in finance charges in the process.

Yet Urban Prep still defaulted on paying salaries, leases, and vendors providing services for students with disabilities. The school was able to use a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan during the pandemic to balance its books, but a separate inspector general investigation found it inflated the number of employees on the loan application.

During public comment at the school board meeting and during a Tuesday press conference, Urban Prep officials and supporters decried the plan to revoke the school’s charter. They argued that district leaders can’t come in and replicate the charter’s climate and culture, which is steeped in the sense of identity and backgrounds of its leaders.

They touted the school’s outcomes, from its attendance rate to the 100% college acceptance rate that the charter has long made a cornerstone of its model.

(The rate of College Prep students who actually enroll in college within a year of graduation has plunged in recent years to 48% on the Bronzeville campus and 63% on the Englewood campus, according to state data.)

Troy Boyd, the chief operating officer, asked the board to at least delay the vote on revoking the school’s charter, insisting the school has done everything the district asked of it, and that its financial problems are a thing of the past. He called Wednesday’s vote “tragic.”

“The non-renewal of Urban Prep would mean the end of something that has been transformational for the city,” he said. “We won’t stop fighting.”

At the meeting, a string of students, dressed in the school’s uniform of navy blazers, red ties, and khakis, spoke about the impact the school has had on them, which many credited to the Urban Prep’s leadership and educator team of largely Black men.

Avery Barnes, a sophomore at the Bronzeville campus, said at the school he came to see his value as a Black male, built close relationships with educators, and went on several college visits as an underclassman.

“I feel like Urban Prep has already started the process of preparing me for adulthood,” he said, adding that, “Urban Prep Academies needs to be renewed simply because they make young Black males feel accepted and seen in a society where we are often predicted to go to jail or end up in an early grave.”

Kevin Scott, a senior at the Bronzeville campus, said the school gives students positive role models who look like them in the classroom and principal’s office. Unlike district-run schools, it remained open for in-person instruction throughout the 2020-21 school year, Scott, a National Honors Society member, pointed out.

“Urban Prep is more than just a school,” he said. “It’s been like a family, a safe place, a hangout and so much more.”

Urban Prep Charter Academy leaders and parents hold a press conference Tuesday afternoon in Englewood.

Inside Urban College Prep Englewood Tuesday afternoon, Dennis Lacewell, chief academic officer at the charter school, said the charter has made progress in rectifying past financial problems, and said Urban Prep officials had completed more financial reporting than at any CPS schools.

Leaders dismissed the district’s claim that the school has compromised its students’ safety. He also argued that the district has been unfairly attacking Urban Prep for some time by revoking the license for its downtown campus in 2018, and disparaging the charter to potential financial lenders.

“Despite CPS’ lack of success and commitment to Black male students, they have the audacity to think they can be successful taking over Urban Prep and turning it into a program of another CPS high school,” Lacewell added. “It is both ludicrous and infuriating.”

But school board members and district officials said they could not allow the charter’s current leadership to continue on. The board has granted the school a series of short-term extensions of its charter amid mounting concerns, in part because of its reluctance to cause any disruption to students at the height of the pandemic, members said.

“At this point, unfortunately, all doubt has been removed that the leaders of the organization do not have students’ best interests at heart,” board Vice President Sendhil Revuluri said.

Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

5 takeaways from the Chicago Teachers Union’s latest policy paper

2022-09-28T14:37:01+00:00

Mandate COVID vaccines. Hire more parents. Electrify all school buses. These are just a few of the proposals the Chicago Teachers Union is putting forward in a sweeping policy paper released today.

The document – “From Pandemic to a Real Path Forward” – is the third version of a policy brief first issued by the union in 2012. That paper – “The Schools Chicago’s Students Deserve” – was a first-of-its-kind move from a then-newly elected union leadership team led by the late Karen Lewis and became a roadmap for the union to move beyond bargaining over pay and benefits to advocating for broader political issues, such as affordable housing and violence prevention.

Now, as Chicago Public Schools continues its recovery from the pandemic that upended education and exacerbated pre-existing disparities for Black and Latino students, the union is calling on the district to make long-term investments by fully staffing schools, offering robust art programs, eliminating student-based budgeting, and more. Read the full report here.

“Short-term fixes for ‘recovery’ are not enough to mitigate both the harm of the pandemic and the harm of decades of segregation and disinvestment,” union leaders and some members wrote in the report. “Instead, the path forward requires a long-term commitment to students’ real needs, done in a way that recognizes the fundamental humanity of all students, not just those who happen to live in a select few zip codes.”

Here are some of the highlights from the report:

Require COVID vaccine mandate, other mitigation

In the face of emerging COVID variants, the union is recommending students, staff, families, and visitors entering any school building be vaccinated and boosted, if eligible. The union cited vaccination requirements for other deadly diseases as a reason to implement the requirement for the COVID-19 vaccine. The union also called for masking indoors and randomized testing unless students opt out.

The district has struggled to get students vaccinated. Across all district-run schools, the average school vaccination rate is 39.6%, a drop from May when the average school rate was 44.7%.

Majority Black elementary and high schools had an average vaccination rate of 23%, compared to majority Latino elementary and high schools, which averaged about 48.5%, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

Address student mental health

School districts across the country are grappling with how to deal with the mental health fallout from the pandemic. The Centers for Disease and Control Prevention released a survey in the spring that found 1 in 3 high school students experienced poor mental health during the pandemic. About 44% of students nationwide also reported feeling “persistently sad or hopeless,” according to the survey.

Chicago students have also had to contend with the impact of gun violence. Last year, more than 50 school-aged children were shot and killed and hundreds more were wounded, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Since January, 42 people 17 and younger have been shot and killed this year.

Chicago Public Schools must create school-based mental health clinics staffed by clinicians to address the multiple traumas, the report recommends. School disciplinary policies should be “trauma-informed and supportive,” the union writes.

The union’s recommendations also include: staffing each school with enough social workers and counselors to meet professional standards, training these clinicians in trauma-informed care, and staffing schools with restorative justice coordinators.

The district should also partner with community-based groups already providing mental health services, according to the union.

Put electric school buses and solar panels at every school

Chicago Public Schools has over $3 billion in deferred maintenance of buildings, some of which are nearly 150 years old. In the report, the union calls for long-range planning to prioritize capital improvements to campuses and building maintenance.

The union calls on the district to incorporate green building initiatives such as expanding solar panels to all school buildings and to train students in solar technology as part of an expansion of a solar manufacturing career technical education program. The CTE program could help train students to build and install solar panels at every school, according to the union’s vision.

Beyond the classroom, the union is also calling on the district to use clean energy by adopting a fleet of electric school buses. Funding for electric school buses could come from the recently passed bipartisan federal infrastructure bill and Illinois’s new climate and equitable jobs act.

The electric fleet, the union says, would help reduce carbon emission and reduce health consequences associated with diesel pollution.

Guarantee every school a librarian, nurse, counselor, and technology coordinator

The union’s initial policy paper in 2012 demanded CPS increase the number of counselors, nurses, social workers, and psychologists. This was a key issue – and win – during the latest round of bargaining in 2019. Building off the district’s agreement to ensure every school has one social worker and one nurse, the union is adding positions it deems essential: librarians and technology coordinators.

The goal, the union says, is to provide more individualized support to every student.

Key to guaranteeing every school has these positions, the union says, is funding them centrally, not from school budgets and regardless of enrollment. This is how district officials currently fund principals, for example.

Convert vacant schools to mental health clinics and affordable housing

There are dozens of vacant, boarded-up former schools across Chicago, most of them shuttered in 2013. The district put several up for sale and some were purchased by nonprofits, private schools, or developers, who converted them to luxury apartments.

But the majority remain vacant.

The union puts forward two ideas for reuse: Reopen mental health clinics shuttered by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel or turn them into affordable housing. At least one of the vacant school buildings – the former Von Humboldt school – was sold with the understanding it would become affordable housing for teachers. The project has stalled several times, but appears to be moving forward again.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

After 2020 slump, Chicago sees a surge in votes cast for Local School Council election

2022-05-26T18:40:57+00:00

Chicago Public Schools saw a significant increase in overall voter turnout during this year’s Local School Council election after a dramatic drop in 2020 when school officials navigated the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 110,700 parents, staff, students, and community members voted for council candidates at nearly 500 schools this spring. More than three times as many people cast votes in this year’s election than in 2020, when about 35,066 people voted, according to figures obtained by Chalkbeat through a records request.

Local School Councils, an example of hyperlocal school governance, are elected every two years. A facet of Chicago school governance since the first election in 1989, the councils vote on the annual school budget, approve the school academic plan, and select and evaluate principals.

The councils are traditionally made up of the school’s principal, six parents, two community members, two teachers, one non-teaching staff, and one to three students. For the first time in the district’s history, elementary students in the sixth grade and higher were eligible to serve one-year terms on their school’s LSC.

“This is the highest turnout we’ve seen since 2010,” Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova said during the April board meeting. “This level of engagement is a huge part of what our district needs to emerge from this challenging time and once again take our place as a national leader in urban education.”

More than 6,000 parents, staff, students, and community members ran for open seats during the April election, officials said.

The largest turnout was among students, who cast 71,142 votes – a dramatic increase from the 2020 election when only 4,869 students cast a ballot, data shows.

Chicago Public School staff voter turnout also more than doubled. About 15,257 ballots were cast in April, compared with 6,286 in 2020.

But parent and community voters only saw marginal increases of 2 to 3%, figures show. About 17,065 parents cast a vote in the spring election, compared with 16,802 votes in 2020. Parent voters turned out at higher levels prior to the pandemic when 28,888 cast in 2018.

In April, community voters cast 7,328 votes, compared with 7,109 in 2020. This group cast 9,741 votes in the 2018 election, figures show.

The district has struggled with tepid participation in the last decade. After the last election, about 900 seats remained unfilled — a situation that prompted a wave of appointments.

A few days shy of the district’s deadline in March, only 722 candidate applications had been submitted for 6,239 total positions on councils across 509 schools. About 307 schools had no candidates for open positions.

The district ultimately received enough candidates to reach a quorum at 485 schools. About 24 schools did not garner enough applicants to meet quorum, according to the district.

Vacancies from the election will not be known until July 1.The District’s LSC Relations Department will work with school communities to fill vacancies.

This story has been updated to include the date of the first LSC election.

Mauricio Peña is a reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering K-12 schools. Contact Mauricio at mpena@chalkbeat.org.

Talks between Chicago and its teachers union are stalled — but teachers will still return for first day of school

2021-08-18T21:44:33+00:00

With less than two weeks left before the school year starts, negotiations between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union are stalled. But whether or not the two groups can negotiate a reopening deal, teachers will still return to classrooms for the first day of school on Aug. 30, CTU president Jesse Sharkey said at a Wednesday press conference.

“We’re going into the school year, but we’re going into it without the safety provisions that would give us the confidence that we really feel like we need,” Sharkey said. “So we’re going to continue fighting.”

The union this summer has pressed the district to grow its vaccination program, expand social distancing guidelines from three feet back to six feet, clarify rules for student testing, and increase testing availability. The union also wants metrics for pandemic spread that would trigger school closures, among other safety measures to protect against the highly contagious delta variant.

In a statement, CPS spokesperson James Gherardi called the CTU’s demands “unscientific” and said the district is committed to the “health and safety of our students and staff.”

“All of the district’s health and safety protocols are in alignment with the health and safety guidelines recommended by the CDC, IDPH and CDPH, and in some cases go beyond them,” Gherardi said.

Nearly all CPS students will return to full-time in-person learning this fall, in line with a state board of education resolution. The district is offering a Virtual Academy for students with specific medical conditions, but signups are low, in part due to a lack of communication about the Virtual Academy’s setup. Some parents are organizing to advocate for expanded remote learning options, but the district has doubled down on its plan to limit virtual learning.

Chicago Department of Public Health commissioner Allison Arwady insisted last week that it is safe for students to return to classrooms, even as the city’s case count hits its highest level in months, most recently seeing a 4.5% positivity rate and 444 daily confirmed cases.

Chicago last Friday announced that all Board of Education employees who don’t have a medical exception must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 15 or be ineligible for work until they submit proof of inoculation or exemption. The CTU said that it welcomed the mandate and urged the district to commit to additional safety and recovery measures before schools reopen. The district has also committed to universal masking in school buildings and three feet of social distancing whenever possible.

Previous efforts to reach pandemic reopening deals have brought the district and the union to heated stalemates before.

Tense negotiations between the union and the district stretched for weeks last winter, delaying reopening for elementary and middle schoolers and establishing what experts called the most detailed, comprehensive framework for reopening nationally.

Teachers also refused to report to classrooms for two days in April before reaching a high school reopening deal that included a student vaccination plan, limits on the amount of time students spent in-person at the district’s biggest high schools, and accommodations for staff members who are medically unable to work in person or are caregivers for at-risk relatives.

But right now, teachers aren’t gearing up for an action that would delay the start of school, Sharkey said.

“If this winds up being a runaway surge where people are getting sick, being hospitalized, and dying … we’re not going to simply sit there and participate in mass spreader events inside of our schools,” he said. “We will take action before that happens.”

In Chicago, poor turnout at student vaccination sites perplexes school officials

2021-07-29T21:47:19+00:00

Three weeks ago, Chicago Public Schools touted the opening of three school-based sites for student vaccinations, as well as mobile clinics and home visits. Now, the district has the capacity to vaccinate up to 200 students a day, but fewer than 70 have been showing up.

District officials sounded perplexed when recounting those statistics Wednesday. South Shore Works vaccine ambassador Melody Jones, who’s 19, isn’t surprised.

Jones is part of a team of 10 young adults who have spent the past three weeks toting facts and pamphlets door-to-door and room-to-room to engage in dialogue with vaccine-hesitant Chicagoans. Based on the conversations she’s had, Jones said fear and misinformation are getting in the way. Students are learning the bulk of their information on vaccines from their parents and potentially unreliable media, allowing hesitancy to fester. Many aren’t sure what’s in the vaccine or how a dose could affect them.

“They say, ‘I got the flu shot, and I got sick off that,’” Jones said. “[They have] very limited experience with vaccines and shots, period. We try to ease that fear. ”

The campaign to get students and their families vaccinated comes as the countdown to the district’s reopening begins in earnest: Only one month remains before students are set to return to classrooms.

Yet coronavirus cases are rising sharply across the city due to the delta variant, and the window of opportunity for students to be fully vaccinated before the first day of school has closed.

Low vaccine uptake is concerning district officials and adding uncertainty to an already fragile start of school after a year and a half of disrupted learning. About three-quarters of available appointments and walk-ins are going unfilled at the district’s vaccine distribution points, which started opening the week of July 12. The vaccines are available to students and their families.

According to interim CEO Jose Torres, low demand is preventing the district from opening more school-based vaccine centers across Chicago and running them for longer hours. The district needs “the right messengers” to book those slots, officials said.

“We need teachers to tell their students to go get vaccinated. To tell their parents,” Torres said.

By mid-July, 44% of Chicago’s 12- to 17-year-olds had received a first dose of the vaccine and only 33% had been fully vaccinated, according to city data. That number includes CPS students as well as young people who attend private school or another form of education. As part of its reopening demands, Chicago’s teachers union on July 5 pushed for 80% of the district’s qualifying students to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1 through a mix of home visits and vaccines on school grounds. The district hasn’t yet committed to a vaccination rate target.

As of June 25, about 70% of CPS staff had received a first dose of the vaccine, and 82% of teachers had gotten their first shots, according to district data. New York City on Monday mandated that all teachers get vaccinated before schools open on September 13 or be tested weekly. Chicago hasn’t passed a teacher vaccine mandate yet.

After a person receives the first shot, it takes at least five weeks to build maximum protection from the virus: they must wait three weeks between their first and second doses, and two weeks after their second dose for the vaccine to act at its full potential. According to that timeline, July 26 was the last day a student could have received their first shot to be fully vaccinated by the first day of school.

The district had pledged to hire teens to conduct vaccine advocacy alongside other community-building activities through its Summer Kickback Series, but Jones says beyond her own team, she hasn’t met any other youth ambassadors.

Plenty of CPS parents are canvassing through city initiatives to encourage vaccinations, though. At a mid-July vaccine canvassing event in Bronzeville, Breakthrough Urban Ministries contact tracing supervisor Maya Johnson said through her advocacy, she’s found herself walking between two worlds. She’s vaccinated, and she’s pushing for other residents to follow suit, but her 18-year-old son has opted not to get a shot.

It’s a tricky tension. She understands that perceived risk will deter some from ever getting their shots. But that gap means it’s even more important for parents to get their shots, to ensure they don’t bring the virus back home to their children.

“We have a responsibility to the community,” Johnson said.

She’s hopeful vaccination rates will balance out enough to shield Chicago from the highly infectious delta variant. In the meantime, she’s leading her vaccine outreach with compassion. It’s all she can do.

‘Here to serve’: Five things to know about José Torres, interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools

2021-06-16T20:51:43+00:00

Two days into retirement, after a career in education spanning more than three decades, José Torres got an unexpected phone call.

It was Chicago Public Schools CEO Janice Jackson, asking the former Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy president if he wanted to serve as interim schools chief.

His answer? Yes.

“I’m here to serve. I’m not here to build my resume,” Torres said at a Monday press conference. “I actually was sitting under a palm tree yesterday in front of the ocean, thinking that I should get my head examined, but … we’re doing this for the mission and for the work.”

Pending board approval, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot named Torres interim schools chief Monday. City Hall has already said he’s not a candidate for a permanent role, but Torres, who spent six years as superintendent at Illinois’ second-largest school district, Elgin’s U-46, could be at the helm for several months depending on the speed of the search to succeed Jackson.

As interim CEO, Torres has a steep challenge ahead: he’ll need to oversee the initial stages of a full CPS reopening, work to address pandemic learning gaps, re-engage students and families, and revamp support for students with disabilities. And that’s just for starters.

Here’s what to know about the educator who has been thrust into a high-profile role atop the nation’s third largest school district.

He intends on fully reopening schools this fall.

Returning students to classrooms five days a week this fall is Torres’ number one priority, in line with the district’s May announcement. Citing student isolation as a barrier to well-being, he said at Monday’s press conference that he’ll work closely with parents, educators, and other stakeholders to make that happen.

Torres’ next priority is re-enrolling and re-engaging students and families in CPS, with a focus on early childhood education and the district’s oldest students. Torres also said he’s committed to maximizing summer learning programs to ensure students are prepared for in-person learning.

He started an equity office in the suburbs long before CPS did.

Under Torres’ guidance, U-46 saw its first Chief of Equity and Social Justice in 2011, well before CPS’ Office of Equity launched in 2018. The U-46 Office of Equity and Social Justice was built to promote closing the district’s achievement gap, and provided support for school leaders navigating district- and school-level conversations about race.

“The power of diversity is immediate and personal, especially when seen at the highest levels of organizations,” Torres said in a 2019 op-ed.

As superintendent, Torres started U-46’s “Ten Boys” initiative, which paired school administrator mentors with groups of boys within the district. He also launched the Superintendent’s Scholarship Program, which provided financial support for first-generation college students.

Torres praised Jackson at Monday’s press conference for her focus on developing a centralized curriculum, providing equity grants to schools struggling with enrollment, and expanding the pre-school system.

“The focus on equity under Dr. Jackson’s leadership is commendable,” he said. “Race, zip code, and socioeconomic status should not really predict the future, but in our society it has. But it cannot. It should not.”

He overhauled Elgin’s bilingual program.

In a district where about a third of students are English language learners, Torres implemented a dual language program. In a 2014 interview, Torres said the model, which started as a program for kindergartners, first- and second-grade students and added one grade level per year, was built on the motto: “You don’t have to lose a language to learn another language.”

The program was set up to allocate instructional time so that kindergarteners received 80% of instruction in Spanish, with that percentage decreasing each year until reaching 50% in third through eighth grade. The program currently serves more than 11,000 students through 11th grade.

During his tenure, Torres nearly quadrupled the district’s number of appointed principals of color, many of whom were bilingual. Torres said in a 2019 op-ed the move facilitated student growth and parent engagement.

At Monday’s press conference, Torres delivered his greeting in Spanish and then summarized his opening remarks in Spanish.

“¡Buenas tardes a todos!” he said. “Good afternoon, everyone!”

His career was not without controversy.

Torres ushered in a U-46 grading system that barred students from receiving zeroes for their work. Supporters of the scale said removing zero grades could increase student engagement, and that zero grades are unduly punitive. Critics said the scale would exacerbate grade inflation and credit students for work they didn’t do.

Additionally, Torres came under fire for signing a contentious 2010 manifesto titled “How to fix our schools.” The statement called for performance-based teacher compensation, hiring and firing regardless of seniority.

“As President Obama has emphasized, the single most important factor determining whether students succeed in school is not the color of their skin or their ZIP code or even their parents’ income — it is the quality of their teacher,” the manifesto said.

The manifesto further advocated for the expansion of charter schools, an unpopular concept with unions at the time.

As well, Torres was a 2005 fellow with the Eli Broad Urban Superintendents Academy, a reform-era training program that has been criticized for taking a business model approach to public education.

Torres and his wife are both teachers.

Before attending the Harvard University Graduate School of Education or taking higher visibility administration roles, Torres started his career as a middle school teacher and human relations specialist in Montgomery County Public Schools. His wife, Isabel Torres, is a board certified teacher and instructional coach in Elgin.

That classroom background is something he shares with Jackson, who leaned often on her educator resume when making tough decisions. Jackson said Torres’ educator experience, alongside his leadership work, will help him do the job well.

“Dr. Torres was the first person that I reached out to when we were trying to figure out who would be the right person to lead during this interim time,” Jackson said. “It makes it much easier to step away from this role … knowing that I’m leaving it in good hands.”