Chalkbeat

Jennifer Custer drops out of race for Chicago school board president

2026-08-27T20:35:15+00:00

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Jennifer Custer, an incumbent school board member, is withdrawing from the race to be the first elected Chicago Board of Education president.

In a statement, she said she filed paperwork Thursday with the Chicago Board of Elections to withdraw. Custer was the only candidate in the race whose petition signatures were not challenged.

“I am exiting because it became abundantly clear that various special interests are prepared to spend millions of dollars in this race,” she wrote in the statement. “Going up against that kind of spending in our political system creates an uphill battle that I ultimately decided I did not want to put my family, endorsers, volunteers, and supporters through.”

Custer did not make an endorsement, but left the door open to doing so. Four other candidates remain: Jessica Biggs, a former CPS principal and incumbent school board member; Hilario Dominguez, former political director for the Chicago Teachers Union and former special education teacher; Victor Henderson, an attorney, and Sendhil Revuluri, a consultant and former vice president of the school board appointed by then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

“I know the other candidates in this race well, and I will ask the same question I have asked throughout my time on the Board: Who shares my North Star of doing what is best for our children?” Custer wrote.

The former suburban educator and mom of three narrowly won her seat in 2024 over Michelle Pierre, who is now running again to represent district 1b. Custer had the support of the Chicago Teachers Union, but forged a more independent path over the past two years serving on the board.

Recently, she was the only no vote on the board’s decision to put two non-binding referendums about raising new revenue for CPS on the November ballot. Both questions were put forward by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s allies and Custer was the only one of a more independent bloc of school board members to attend the meeting. She was also the lone no vote against hiring Chicago Public Schools CEO Macquline King as the permanent leader.

In July, Custer joined with six other school board members to vote against an amended budget that assumes $150 million more in state revenue. She also voted against taking out a high-interest loan last year to reimburse the city for a portion of a payment to a municipal pension fund that supports non-teaching staff and retirees in CPS.

Custer’s fundraising lagged behind the other candidates in the race. One of her top donors has been the political action committee of the Operating Engineers Local 150, where her husband, Jeremy, is the political director. In April, she told Chalkbeat one of her biggest campaign expenses has been child care, which is a permissible expenditure under state campaign finance laws. Arranging care for her children had allowed her to visit schools, meet with potential supporters, and attend board meetings, she said.

In her statement, Custer thanked her campaign staff and her family, “especially my three little ones, who have seen less of me than they deserve,” she wrote.

Prior to serving on Chicago’s school board, Custer worked as a paraprofessional, and classroom teacher and administrator in school districts in Wisconsin and Chicago’s suburbs. She served for two years as president of the teachers union in Itasca and was an assistant principal and interim principal in Addison School District 4.

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

Chicago Board of Education 101: Know the basics of the soon-to-be elected board guiding Chicago Public Schools

2026-08-20T10:00:00+00:00

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If it seems like you’ve heard more about Chicago’s school board in the past two years than ever, it’s for good reason.

That’s because for the first time after 30 years of mayoral control, the Chicago Board of Education will be fully elected in November. No matter what involvement you might have with CPS — as a teacher, a parent, an administrator, a student, or a community member — all registered voters can cast a ballot for one representative from their local electoral district and one person to lead the board as president.

It’s historic. It’s unprecedented. But if you’re not tapped into CPS school board politics, it might also be confusing.

Here’s everything you need to know about the school board and the shift from mayoral control to elected representation.

What is the Chicago Board of Education?

The city’s school board is the primary entity tasked with creating the vision and setting priorities for Chicago Public Schools. Its role differs from that of CPS’ central office, led by CEO Macquline King, which handles more of the district’s day-to-day operations.

The Chicago Board of Education shares many responsibilities with school boards across the country. It is meant to follow several guiding principles laid out by the Illinois Association of Schools Boards, including clarifying the district’s purpose and monitoring its progress toward the goals it sets.

Chicago’s school board is enshrined in state law, but its structure has proven malleable in reality. Most notably, in 1995, as part of a broader state legislative package to improve CPS’ academic performance, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley was given responsibility for appointing a five-member board — known as the Reform Board of Trustees — to spearhead transformative reform.

In 1999, it reverted to its old title as the Chicago Board of Education and increased its membership to seven people. It grew to 21 people after 10 members were elected in 2024 and were joined by 11 mayoral appointees.

What does Chicago’s school board specifically do?

Some Chicagoans may be most familiar with one of the board’s core functions: making financial decisions. The school board has the power to raise local property taxes and decides how to allocate local revenue and streams of state and federal funding to schools.

While more granular spending decisions are usually left to school and district administrators, the board’s budgetary clout can supersede their authority. This was demonstrated in the board’s latest budget approval last month, when a narrow majority of members voted to rescind hundreds of staff layoffs that King’s office had made to address the district’s more than $700 million budget deficit. The board instead built in a revenue assumption that state lawmakers would provide $150 million more than they had already allocated.

Another one of the board’s key powers, hiring a district leader to fill the roles of CEO and superintendent, has been in the spotlight for much of the past year. After choosing someone to head the district, the board evaluates that person’s performance.

Important paperwork, such as collective bargaining agreements with labor unions and contracts with charter school operators, also requires board approval.

A school board is supposed to be responsive to the communities it serves. In Chicago, the board now has power to gather community input through referendums. It also must gather input on proposed changes to district policies.

Receiving community input is one of the main functions of the Chicago Board of Education, which can included feedback from Chicago Public Schools students themselves.

It’s not always easy to reach a consensus on these recommendations. The board now has 21 members, each with differing views on how best to serve CPS students and educators.

Why do we have so many school board members in Chicago?

We know, 21 people is a lot of school board members. Chicago has one of the largest elected boards among major U.S. cities. It dwarfs Illinois’ average of about seven school board members per district, according to Ballotpedia.

The Illinois General Assembly passed a bill in 2021 to triple the board’s membership from seven to 21 people, including the board president.

A desire for better representation on Chicago’s school board — rather than unceasing mayoral control — played a large part in adding more members. To determine how those members would represent different parts of Chicago, state lawmakers passed separate legislation in March 2024 dividing the city into electoral districts.

The expansion received mixed feedback. Some education advocates applauded the move, while others feared the large school board would create a messier policymaking process.

As a compromise, lawmakers created a transition period that started in 2024 with the election of 10 members who joined 11 mayoral appointees for a two-year hybrid period.

Why didn’t Chicago always vote for school board members?

Outside Chicago, elected school boards aren’t a novel idea. Most school boards in Illinois and across the U.S. are elected.

Illinois legislators initiated the process to fully elect the board by 2026 in the same law that put 21 members on the Chicago Board of Education. Despite pushback from some local groups and former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the bill passed the legislature and was signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2021.

Demands for an elected school board long preceded the bill’s passage, with prominent organizations such as the Chicago Teachers Union championing the change as a way to hold the board accountable to families and educators. Several decisions made by the appointed board had soured public perceptions of the governing body, including its unanimous vote approving former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to close about 50 schools, which disproportionately affected Black students.

As part of the path to a fully elected board, lawmakers required half the board to be elected in 2024. The other half remained mayoral appointees. Voters delivered disparate results on what local factions they wanted to represent them by voting in four CTU-backed candidates, three pro-charter candidates, and three independents.

Two years later, Chicagoans will be deciding who represents them in all 21 board positions.

Does that mean I have to vote for my school board member every two years?

It depends where you live in your district and what year it is.

Each of the 10 districts Chicagoans voted in during the 2024 election had about 275,000 residents and has since been divided into two subdistricts. Voters will elect a candidate running in their half of the district, referred to as the “a” or “b” subdistrict. That means each district will produce two elected school board members.

Per state law, members elected to replace mayoral appointees will initially serve two-year terms, while those taking office in subdistricts represented by members previously elected in 2024 will serve four-year terms.

The term lengths will swap starting in the 2028 general election. So, a school board member elected this year to serve a two-year term will be up for a four-year term if they win reelection in 2028.

What’s in it for the CPS board members? Do they get paid?

No, members do not get paid for serving on the board. Illinois state law prohibits it, although members can be reimbursed for related job expenses. Serving on the board averages about 25 to 30 hours per month for members, according to the board’s website.

Some current board members have quit their day jobs to give more of their time to the position. Critics argue the lack of pay disincentivizes working parents and teachers from running for office and have called on state lawmakers to legalize some form of compensation. An effort to make that change fizzled out in the House earlier this year.

Opponents of board compensation contend that creating salaries for board members would siphon money away from already underfunded school resources.

For now, board members are compensated with something a bit less tangible: influence over the fourth-largest school district in the country.

Makiya Seminera is a reporter covering how the state and federal government affect education in Chicago and across Illinois. Contact Makiya at mseminera@chalkbeat.org.

A divided Chicago school board adds referendums on new revenue to November ballot

2026-08-13T19:24:26+00:00

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For the first time in its history, Chicago’s school board voted Thursday to put two questions on the November ballot gauging voter opinions on proposals to bring in more money for the deficit-plagued district.

One referendum would ask voters if they support a statewide millionaires tax to raise money for public education. The other would ask if they would favor a new financial penalty on the owners of vacant city land to steer additional dollars to Chicago Public Schools. The school board needed to decide on these questions before a Monday deadline to add them to the ballot.

Because both are non-binding, neither would compel the state or the city to enact the new taxes and turn the revenue over to the district. But supporters of the referendums hoped they could put pressure on state and city decision-makers. Last spring, state lawmakers considered a binding referendum to enact a millionaires tax to fund education and provide property tax relief on the ballot. But the measure failed.

In response to board members arguing the referendums do little to ease CPS’s immediate fiscal pressures, board President Sean Harden argued the board should pursue more urgent fixes but also let the public weigh in on possible longer-term solutions.

“What we have before us is a window of opportunity — pretty short in nature — to activate and use a new muscle,” he said.

The special meeting initially lacked a quorum. Some board members who showed up — largely those appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson or elected with backing from his former employer, the Chicago Teachers Union — accused their colleagues of boycotting to derail the referendums. Some of the missing board members decried the hastily called special meeting to vote on what they described as half-baked proposals and said it conflicted with prior commitments or work. The meeting was eventually reconvened, with two board members supportive of the referendums joining virtually.

The debate about the referendums comes a couple of weeks after a majority on the board rallied around a high-stakes budget gamble: They rejected educator and staff layoffs under CEO Macquline King’s budget proposals. King had argued the layoffs were a responsible way to address the district’s deficits after years of shrinking enrollments and a growing workforce. Instead, the board opted to balance the budget by assuming an influx of additional state revenue. If state lawmakers do not approve that revenue during a November veto session, the district would likely face disruptive midyear cuts and other fallout.

Angel Velez, the board vice president, invoked a growing gap between what Illinois’ formula considers “adequate” district funding and the amount CPS receives. The tax on high earners is a favored proposal of Johnson, who appointed Velez.

“This is fundamentally about how we build the public support needed to move our schools from scarcity to adequacy,” Velez said during Wednesday’s board meeting to review this month’s agenda.

Cydney Wallace, another Johnson school board appointee who introduced the vacant lot question, said the thousands lots across the city are eyesores that impact public safety and cause other issues. She cited research suggesting that developing vacant urban land leads to improvement in residents’ mental health.

“Safe passage to school should also include healthy, cared-for blocks,” she said Wednesday.

Some board members voiced concerns about how the city would target vacant land for the new financial penalty without inadvertently punishing owners who plan to develop it. Supporters of the proposals argued that it will be up to the city to work out the details.

Jennifer Custer, the sole no vote on both ballot questions, said the board must focus on finding immediate solutions to the district’s budget crisis rather than soliciting voter opinions about proposals other agencies would have to enact.

“I don’t see these as being actionable items,” she said. “I see them as window dressing to a larger problem.”

Like Custer, the Civic Federation, a nonpartisan watchdog group based in Chicago, noted in a statement that referendums make little headway in addressing CPS’ pressing financial challenges and urged the board to stay focused on fixes that it can directly control.

Jessica Biggs, a board member who like Custer is currently running for school board president, said the last-minute special meeting showed a board term “rife with chaos and disorganization.” But she said she would have backed the millionaires tax referendum if she had been able to attend.

“I have been clear that I believe it is long past time to require the very wealthy and big corporations to pay their fair share so we can fully fund our schools,” she said in a statement.

At Wednesday’s meeting, the board also appointed a new chief lobbyist to lead efforts to secure the additional $150 million from the state that the board baked into its amended budget. Iris Millán, now the associate vice chancellor of government affairs and civic engagement at City Colleges of Chicago, will become CPS’s new chief of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs — a position vacant for more than a year.

Some board members, such as Michilla Blaise, ripped into colleagues who missed the Thursday meeting, accusing them of “lack of leadership.” On social media, Blaise referred to them as “the recipients of Billionaire Mike Sacks donations” — a Chicago hedge fund executive and donor to Democratic causes — invoking a line of attack against non-CTU-aligned school board members that the union has embraced ahead of the November school board races.

Several school board members criticized the hastily called meeting to take a vote, saying they couldn’t miss work or other commitments, especially after a marathon board meeting the previous day. One member, Che “Rhymefest” Smith, said the last-minute meeting to vote on proposals he said lacked detail or teeth showed “really poor planning on someone’s part.”

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

The Chicago Board of Education voted to reverse layoffs, but CPS says not all positions can be restored

2026-08-12T21:06:13+00:00

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Despite a directive from the Chicago Board of Education to reverse hundreds of layoffs across Chicago Public Schools, district officials said they can’t afford to reinstate every position cut earlier this summer.

The board’s 11-7 vote revised CPS’ proposed budget, assuming the district will get an extra $150 million in state funding, with $100 million of that going to help reverse hundreds of layoffs, including teachers and support staff. Even if that money comes through, it won’t be enough to bring back everyone who was cut, district officials said Tuesday night.

While students will see many reinstated teachers and other staff on Aug. 24, the first day of school for most students, not all laid-off educators will be able to return. CPS has not said how many employees will get their jobs back.

CPS sent out surveys Tuesday night to principals asking about their most pressing staffing needs related to students and academics and separately asked laid-off teachers if they’re interested in returning to their schools. The surveys, which Chalkbeat obtained, provide the clearest information educators have received on next steps since the board adopted its revised budget roughly two weeks ago. Teachers will be notified of possible reassignments between this weekend and the first day of school, according to the teacher survey.

Principals, whose budgets were finalized in June and likely have scheduled classes, will not have to reopen their budgets, district officials said. Instead, the district will use the survey results to hire back “selected positions” centrally and assign them to schools, the district’s acting Chief Talent Officer Jerry Taylor wrote in the survey.

The rehiring process excludes positions meant to reduce class sizes or those associated with special education, CPS said, which has a separate appeals process, Taylor wrote to principals.

During a Tuesday night webinar for families, Chief Education Officer Karime Asaf said officials are working to implement the adopted budget, but it will take time.

Asaf added that “every decision we make will always put students first, and we will always be honest with you about what is happening.”

One CPS principal addressed the school board Wednesday to decry the uncertainty and disruption that attempting to reverse layoffs is creating. Jeff Finelli, the principal at Edison Park Elementary, said restoring some positions, particularly those of assistant principals in small schools, is worthwhile. But he said kicking off the year takes months of “meticulous, relentless planning,” and rethinking staffing at this late stage is a “massive, unnecessary distraction.”

“Instead of focusing on our students and staff, principals will be forced to navigate logistical nightmares with no current answers,” he said. “This breeds confusion and takes our focus away from what’s most important.”

CPS had warned the board against revising the budget to include more money than expected, because a funding shortfall could result in midyear cuts. Securing more state funding this fiscal year would require a three-fifths majority approval from state legislators in both the House and Senate during the November veto session.

Hundreds of employees received layoff notices last month before the budget vote, including Andrew Feigenbaum, who taught third grade math and science and led an after-school club at Oscar DePriest Elementary School in the West Side’s Austin neighborhood.

CPS says 65 to 85% of laid-off teachers typically get rehired into vacant positions at other district schools. Feigenbaum said he’s applied to about 30 schools since learning of his layoff in mid-July but hasn’t heard back from any.

Feigenbaum, who has taught in CPS for two years, said he had received almost no clarity about next steps between the board vote and the district’s survey Tuesday night. He hopes to be rehired at DePriest.

Feigenbaum said he was frustrated that teachers were laid off before the board’s vote — which is typical at CPS — and wished the district would decide on a budget earlier in the spring. After teaching for more than a dozen years in other districts, Feigenbaum said the layoff experience at CPS has “kind of soured me to the district.”

“This is, like, all you see on the news — ‘the board voted to rescind the cuts’ — (but) what does it actually mean?” Feigenbaum said. “Now we fill out some survey so that maybe we’ll get our old job back, and maybe we won’t.”

Two of the major unions representing CPS workers are split on the board’s decision.

The Chicago Teachers Union pushed board members to revise the budget to pressure the state to boost dollars for CPS, which the state considers to be 70% adequately funded, and pointed to supportive statements from some key state lawmakers. On Wednesday, the union held a press conference to continue pressuring state officials for more money.

But SEIU Local 73, which represents thousands of support staffers, is skeptical more funding will come and warned that midyear cuts would devastate its members and students. Earlier this week, the union formally requested a detailed plan from CPS leadership and the board by Aug. 27 outlining what cuts would take effect without state funding and what protections it would provide to workers and families.

The union also asked state legislators, including House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, who previously said he would push for more school funding, to make concrete commitments and provide detailed plans for approving additional CPS funding during the fall veto session.

Mila Koumpilova contributed.

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

These Chicago school board incumbents face no opponents. What does that mean for voters?

2026-08-07T20:27:06+00:00

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Katrina Kasten, a mother of two CPS students on the North Side, remembers a lot of political flyers and canvassers at her door two years ago when the city’s first school board elections were underway. That year, the North Center resident had six candidates competing for her vote.

Now, there’s just one person running in her district: incumbent Ellen Rosenfeld.

“I always appreciate when there’s more than one candidate on the ballot, because it brings to light conversations — people are forced to share their plans a little bit more than when it’s just an unopposed slate,” Kasten said.

Instead of courting voters at block parties and farmers’ markets as she’d originally planned, Rosenfeld said she doesn’t have a campaign operation because no one filed the 500 signatures needed to run against her.

She isn’t the only incumbent who entered the race without any challengers. Angel Gutierrez, who represents parts of the Southwest Side, also is running unopposed. Petition challenges have knocked even more candidates off the ballot, leaving three additional districts uncontested.

This November, Chicago voters will for the first time choose all 21 members of the Board of Education, ending more than three decades of mayoral control. But after a yearslong fight to establish an elected school board, the lack of competition in some districts raises questions about how often voters will be able to choose who represents them — or if the new board will favor insiders and incumbents.

Nine of the dozen people interviewed for this story who live in Rosenfeld’s or Gutierrez’s districts said they wished they had more choices in November, even those who liked the incumbents.

A combination of factors likely led to both races being unopposed: Gutierrez and Rosenfeld easily won their districts in 2024 and are backed by powerful officials and organizations, possibly scaring off potential opponents. Serving on the school board is similar to a part-time job but it’s unpaid, which could deter people who would otherwise run.

Some competition is good in electoral politics, said Joanna Klonsky, a political consultant who helps run Democratic campaigns and is currently working on elected board member Jessica Biggs’ run for school board president.

“It’s better for our democratic system (and) it’s better for the candidates because it requires them to engage in robust debate,” Klonsky said, adding that election season can be an opportunity for unopposed candidates to build a following for years to come.

Gutierrez and Rosenfeld won big in the 2024 election

Rosenfeld and Gutierrez, who are running in vastly different districts, each dominated in the 2024 election.

Last election, 10 of the 21 board members were elected, and candidates ran in larger districts. Rosenfeld competed against five others in district 4 and won almost 42% of the vote. Gutierrez won his district with almost 63% of the vote against a teachers union-backed candidate.

Now, each candidate is only running in the half of the district where they live. A Chalkbeat analysis of last year’s election results at the precinct level show signs that both Gutierrez and Rosenfeld could have put up a strong fight if they were opposed this year. Gutierrez won double the number of votes as the second-place winner in precincts that overlap with the subdistrict he’s running in now, while Rosenfeld won by a margin that was almost as large.

“Other potential candidates probably looked at that and decided to pass,” said Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools.

INCS says it supports both candidates.

Gutierrez described himself and Rosenfeld as “physical representations” of their districts.

Gutierrez’s Southwest Side district, 8a, encompasses the Ashburn, Chicago Lawn, West Lawn, Clearing, and Garfield Ridge neighborhoods. It is more than 60% Latino, more than double the share of Latinos citywide, according to data analyzed by the University of Chicago’s To&Through Project, which uses the most recent available U.S. Census data. Roughly a quarter of people have college degrees, less than the city as a whole. About 40% of households earn $100,000 or more, and 83% of high schoolers in the area attend CPS schools.

In Rosenfeld’s district of 4b, 75% of residents are white, more than double the rate of the city overall. They’re also wealthier and more educated than the city as a whole: 62% of people earn more than $100,000, and 86% have a college degree. Just over half of high schoolers attend a CPS school.

Gutierrez’s district is more politically conservative while Rosenfeld’s is more liberal. But they have one similarity: During the 2023 mayoral runoff election, voters in both areas rejected Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teachers union organizer and progressive, and voted for Paul Vallas, the more conservative candidate and former CPS CEO.

Gutierrez and Rosenfeld have been criticized by the Chicago Teachers Union. CTU did not respond to a request for an interview about not backing a candidate in these districts this election.

Because of Rosenfeld’s and Gutierrez’s commanding wins in the 2024 race, the political makeup of their districts, and who they were backed by in the last election, opponents may have decided it wouldn’t be worth their resources to jump in, according to multiple Democratic political consultants and other observers.

Rosenfeld and Gutierrez were endorsed by organizations other than the union, such as the anti-CTU Chicago Democrats for Education, and many local elected officials. In 2024, Rosenfeld was endorsed by more than a dozen elected officials, including state lawmakers who helped create the elected school board, the Chicago Federation of Labor, and the 44th and 47th Democratic Ward Organizations, the latter of which her husband leads. Gutierrez was also backed by many elected officials, including powerful 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn, and the Chicago Laborers’ District Council.

Unpaid nature of the job may have scared off competition

The lack of candidates could be because many people still don’t know about Chicago’s elected school board, political consultants said.

One survey of more than 1,300 Chicago adults found that two-thirds didn’t know the school board will be fully elected next year. Several voters in Rosenfeld’s and Gutierrez’s districts who spoke with Chalkbeat for this story couldn’t remember who they voted for in 2024 or didn’t know there was an election this year.

Being on the school board is an unpaid job with long hours, which could deter people who can’t afford not to work or don’t have flexible jobs that allow them to take on the extra responsibilities of board member.

Nicole Woods, whose 4-year-old daughter will soon attend Francis Parker, a private school in Lincoln Park, was surprised to hear no one else is running, given how strongly the community pushed back this spring against Parker’s plans to expand.

“With so many people fired up about that, it’s kind of interesting that no one is fired up about being on the school board,” she said.

But as Woods and her young daughter hustled to a piano class on a recent weekday afternoon, she considered her packed schedule and said with a laugh, “I mean, I don’t think I would want to do it.”

It’s costly and labor intensive to run a campaign. Even if a candidate collects enough signatures to get on the ballot, they may face a challenge alleging their signatures aren’t eligible, which can require hiring expensive attorneys, causing some people to drop out. And if candidates make it on the ballot, they must spend months hosting events, talking to voters, and collecting donations to pay for mailers, websites, and campaign staff.

It can also be difficult to run without the backing of special interest groups with money and resources, like charter school advocates and the teachers union.

Voters say they want a choice

About half of the residents Chalkbeat spoke with said they either recognized Gutierrez or Rosenfeld or found the names familiar. None knew about the candidates’ track records or voting history while in office.

Rosenfeld said she thinks voters view her as accessible and saw the lack of a challenger as “a big compliment.”

“I believe that’s because the voters have watched me on this board the last couple of years and seen me remain moderate, remain reasonable, remain calm,” she said.

Gutierrez said he tries to represent all kinds of interests. He highlighted his “yes” vote on last year’s budget plan that the union and mayor’s office opposed and his approval of the latest teachers union contract.

“I represented this district, and everybody, everyone — the unions, my residents — very well, I think,” Gutierrez said.

Voters in Gutierrez’s district, he said, value local elected officials who are responsive and can deliver on “constituent services,” like making sure the streets get plowed after a snowstorm.

One of those voters is Rose, a mother of three in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood near Midway Airport, who said she met Gutierrez on election day in 2024.

Rose, who declined to share her last name, said she told Gutierrez about her concerns with safety at Kennedy High School, where her daughter was a junior at the time. Gutierrez told her he’d look into those concerns if he was elected.

Since then, Rose’s daughter graduated, but Rose doesn’t feel that safety at the school has improved.

Gutierrez said he’s heard some reports of bullying at Kennedy and it’s “on his list” to think about solutions. He noted, however, that his job is to help set the direction for the district and “not really interject myself into the day-to-day operations of schools.”

What matters to Rose is that she doesn’t feel like her safety concerns were addressed. As she stood on her porch with a Class of 2026 Kennedy High School sign piercing her front lawn, she said, “I think we should have another voice.”

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

Chicago’s school board rescinded many layoffs with uncertain money. What’s next?

2026-07-31T23:38:15+00:00

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A divided Chicago school board passed a nearly $10 billion budget late Thursday that preserves jobs but relies on an additional $150 million in state funding that may not materialize.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Macquline King, whose proposal included cuts that the board amended, swiftly sent an email to parents sounding an alarm and floating the possibility that school may not start on time Aug. 24.

“As it stands right now, though, we do not know if we will be able to secure the short-term financing needed to pay our employees in September, which would effectively shut down the district just as staff and students are set to return,” King said in her Thursday night email to families.

Multiple financial experts say that is unlikely because the district should be able to secure a short-term loan, albeit with high interest.

Last year’s budget avoided cuts to the classroom. This year’s budget drama is set against a larger political backdrop. CPS has long argued that the state underfunds the district under Illinois’ school funding formula. A majority of board members, most appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, are betting the state will act. But state lawmakers and the governor have already approved a budget, and changes now would be difficult.

Coming months before a November election in which every seat on the school board will be on the ballot, competing views over the budget could prove to be a core campaign issue.

Here’s what parents should know about what’s happening, what it could mean for schools, and what might happen next.

Will school start on time?

CPS did not respond to questions about why schools might not open as scheduled. But a delayed opening is unlikely and unprecedented.

Previously, CPS said that passing a budget Thursday would allow the district to secure short-term borrowing by Sept. 2, just in time to make the Sept. 4 payroll.

CPS needs the loan to make up for late county property tax payments. That loan, designed for government bodies facing short-term cash flow needs, would help cover a missing $400 million of $700 million the district needs for operations in September, according to a memo CPS sent board members this week that Chalkbeat obtained.

Experts said the district will probably be able to secure loans in the time frame it needs.

But, it’s going to cost the district more in interest.

“It’s probable, if not almost a near certainty, that they’ll end up paying more for it because of the budget as well as the short time frame,” said Lisa Washburn, managing director at Municipal Market Analytics, Inc., a market and credit analysis research firm.

Lenders may want to scrutinize CPS’ finances more than usual because the approved budget relies on uncertain money, which could slow down the process, said Justin Marlowe, a municipal finance expert at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy.

“(Investors) haven’t done that so far, but a budget that assumes a bunch of state revenue that may or may not arrive is good reason to ask tough questions you’ve never asked before,” Marlowe said in an email.

What if CPS doesn’t have the cash it needs to pay staff?

There are legal consequences for missing payroll, including violations of multiple state labor laws and union contracts that could result in lawsuits and criminal charges, the district wrote in its memo.

It could also mean no school.

“Because employees cannot be compelled to work without compensation, missed payroll will likely result in immediate strikes, walkouts, or work refusals that will halt district operations,” the memo said.

The district could ask its unions for grace on paychecks. CTU and the principals union supported the modified budget plan, but SEIU Local 73, which represents thousands of support staffers who are among the district’s lowest paid, opposed it.

In 1980, Chicago Public Schools was locked out of the bond markets and failed to make payroll multiple times. Then-Gov. Jim Thompson convened city leaders, school officials, unions, and bankers to broker a deal to bail out the troubled school system. They created a separate body known as the School Finance Authority, which could access the markets and get the district the money it needed. This became the precursor to mayoral control in 1995.

Now, CPS is transitioning back to local control, with a hybrid school board made up of 11 mayoral appointees and 10 members elected in 2024. All 21 seats are also on the ballot this Nov. 3, adding a layer of electoral politics to the tensions.

What are the chances the state sends CPS more money?

Revising state revenue for Chicago schools upward by $150 million would require an amendment to the state budget, which passed in May. Any changes require a three-fifths majority of state lawmakers. That’s 36 votes in the Senate and 71 votes in the House, including legislators who don’t represent Chicago and would likely seek funding for their districts, too.

Gov. JB Pritzker said Friday that state funding for school districts is already a “known quantity,” and that if Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch has a plan for adding supplemental funding, as he implied Wednesday, the governor hasn’t seen it.

“He seems to have a plan or is planning to put something together, and so I look forward to seeing that,” Pritzker said.

It’s not clear whether there are enough votes for such a measure to pass during a veto session in November. Even if it did, that money would likely come through later in the school year.

Pritzker noted that the state has increased K-12 education funding by about $3 billion since he took office in 2018. CPS has seen state revenue increase by nearly $1 billion in that time. The district’s budget has grown from about $6 billion in 2018 to just under $10 billion this year.

CTU and aligned school board members argue that the state’s formula for distributing money to schools, which changed in 2017 before Pritzker took office, promised to get all schools to an adequate funding level by 2027. The state is not on track to hit that goal but the union is putting pressure on Pritzker, Welch, and other state lawmakers to do so.

Will teachers who were laid off from my school be rehired?

The modified budget plan calls for spending $100 million to rescind layoffs that happened earlier this month. Another $50 million would go toward easing a hiring and spending freeze later in the school year.

Nelsen Gerew, chief of internal and public affairs at the Chicago Fund for Public Education, said CPS could give money back to schools and let them handle rehiring, or the district could reverse its own cuts, which would be more complicated.

“Is the idea that we’ll try to get schools back to where they were (last school year)?” Gerew said.

Principals have been working with budgets approved in June and have likely rearranged class schedules for the upcoming year. Teachers who were laid off may have been rehired elsewhere. The CTU contract allows a tenured teacher who has been laid off to return to a school within 10 months if there’s a vacancy and they’re rated proficient or higher.

Will there be midyear cuts at my school?

If the money the school board is expecting from the state doesn’t come through, schools may be forced to cut staff and other resources in the middle of the year to make up the difference.

However, other sources of revenue could increase. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson could declare a larger surplus from special taxing districts known as TIF, or tax increment financing, meant to spur economic development. Last year, he did, and CPS got $576 million. This year, CPS initially projected $200 million in TIF surplus and revised it earlier this week to $285 million. This revision allowed them to remove furloughs from its initial budget plan.

Johnson faces reelection in February 2027, although he has yet to announce his intentions.

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

Seeking to reverse layoffs, Chicago school board approves budget, assuming more state money will come

2026-07-31T01:50:09+00:00

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Bucking warnings from Chicago Public Schools CEO Macquline King, the school board amended and narrowly passed a roughly $10 billion budget proposal Thursday that assumes the district will receive $150 million more in state funding than projected.

Eleven board members voted to reverse hundreds of school-based staff layoffs included in King’s proposal, heeding the demands of the Chicago Teachers Union and the principals union.

Appointed board members Anusha Thotakura, Debby Pope, Cydney Wallace, Angel Velez, Ed Bannon, Emma Lozano, Karen Zaccor, Michilla Blaise, and Norma Rios-Sierra, as well as elected board members Jitu Brown and Ebony DeBerry voted to increase the state funding projection of $2.78 billion by another $150 million.

Elected board members Angel Gutierrez, Carlos Rivas, Che “Rhymefest” Smith, Ellen Rosenfeld, Jennifer Custer, Jessica Biggs, and Therese Boyle voted no. Elected board member Yesenia Lopez abstained.

District officials pushed the school board to approve the budget this week so they could secure short-term borrowing by Sept. 2 — two days before paychecks go out — and avoid a “de-facto shutdown” of schools. In a statement after the vote, a spokesperson said the district “cannot guarantee that CPS will receive financing in time for the September 4 payroll” given the board’s changes.

“Failing to meet payroll is unacceptable,” the statement said. “This places the District at significant risk of being in violation of the law and collective bargaining agreements. It may also damage our credit rating and severely restrict our future borrowing capacity for capital projects and operational needs. Most critically, any disruption in pay directly threatens the stability of our schools, impacting our students, families, and dedicated staff.”

The vote came after hours of public testimony and an unusual two-hour recess. During that time, CPS lawyers provided legal advice about amending the budget, according to multiple sources.

Earlier this week, after a push from SEIU Local 73, CPS took furloughs out of its proposal by increasing the amount it expects to receive in special taxing district dollars, known as TIF surplus dollars, which are controlled by the mayor and City Council.

But board members and the Chicago Teachers Union want more pressure on state lawmakers, who have not yet fulfilled a goal to fund all schools to what it considers 90% adequacy. The state considers CPS funded at 73%.

“If we’re not including the state in this conversation, we are fooling ourselves and we are robbing our kids of opportunities,” said appointed board member Michilia Blaise, who introduced the plan to revise King’s budget. “Let’s make it clear to our students that cuts to school communities will not come lightly.”

With the state’s veto session scheduled for November, it’s not clear any new money would come in time for this school year.

Some key Democratic lawmakers have promised to help boost school funding, including House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch. At the board meeting, State Senator Robert Martwick, who represents parts of the Northwest Side and some suburbs, told board members he will fight for more funding.

King warns of consequences to revising her budget proposal

Before the vote, King defended her budget plan, noting that CPS has lost 45,000 students in the last seven years but has hired 10,000 more staffers. Despite school-level cuts, she noted most laid off staffers are rehired in other vacant positions and highlighted an increase in special education and bilingual staff.

She also warned of the risks of assuming more state funds will come through. King recalled her time as a principal in 2017, when CPS had adopted a budget expecting more state funding than previous years that didn’t come through after then-Governor Bruce Rauner vetoed related legislation. CPS imposed big cuts, and King had to lay off staff at her school.

“This was severely disruptive to my students,” King said. “Those are the faces that I see. Those are the conversations that I recall, and that is why I put forth the recommended budget that I did.”

School board has a heated debate

Board members were starkly divided.

Several elected board members not aligned with the teachers union and Mayor Brandon Johnson underscored the risks of assuming there will be more state money.

Elected member Jennifer Custer called the idea of expecting a $150 million increase in state money a “hallucination.” Elected board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith said he will help advocate for more funding from the state and the city.

Smith, a rapper and songwriter, recited a poem he crafted in response to one delivered during public comment by a CTU member: “They say the mayor owes a billy, give it again and again, and don’t make us look silly,” referencing the $1 billion in TIF dollars the mayor and City Council surplused last year, of which CPS got $577 million.

Board president Sean Harden warned TIF surplus is not a guarantee either.

At least a dozen school staffers, clad in bright red CTU shirts, urged the board to revise the budget and push the state to pay up. Several teachers said teacher layoffs mean bigger class sizes and breaking relationships with students.

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates acknowledged the difficult decisions King and her team faced and laid the blame on state lawmakers, including Gov. JB Pritzker. She said the union will help CPS pressure the state.

“Let’s assume that doing this together makes it impossible for people to keep telling us no,” said Davis Gates, who is also the president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. Board member Jitu Brown also said he believes the “political will” to boost state education funding is there.

Dian Palmer, president of SEIU Local 73, which represents 16,000 support staffers, remained skeptical that a majority of state lawmakers will agree to increase CPS funding.

“Unsecured revenue cannot pay our (Special Education Classroom Assistants) rent in September,” Palmer said. “It cannot guarantee a bus aide on the bus when school opens. Our students do not get to wait for Springfield to make up its mind, and neither should this board.”

Kia Banks, head of the principals union, supported an amended budget. She said she was encouraged that Illinois House Speaker Welch is interested in boosting funding.

“If (funding) doesn’t come through, like in 2017, it’s devastating, and I don’t think they would want that on their record,” Banks said of state lawmakers.

But Justin Marlowe, director of the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy, said the state now has “far less” incentive to act. If the state can’t come up with the money, “CPS will have to own the consequences,” he said in an email.

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

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson appoints Connie Anderson to CPS school board

2026-07-30T01:48:51+00:00

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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is appointing Connie Anderson to the school board, giving her an incumbent advantage ahead of November’s election when all 21 seats are up for grabs.

Anderson filed candidacy paperwork in May to run to represent District 10b on the city’s Far South Side. Now, she’ll fill the vacancy left by Olga Bautista, who stepped down in March. Anderson is one of five candidates still facing a challenge to her petition signatures.

The appointment is likely Johnson’s last one as 30 years of mayoral control comes to an end in Chicago. Currently, the city’s school board is made up of 11 mayoral appointees and 10 people elected in 2024.

It is not clear if Anderson will be sworn in at Thursday’s school board meeting when the board is poised to take a critical budget vote. The board office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the Chicago Tribune reported that a spokesperson said Anderson would be sworn in at a later date.

However, Johnson appointed Ángel Vélez on the eve of last year’s budget vote and board records show he voted on the budget the next day. Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Anderson is the parent of CPS graduates, according to a news release from the mayor’s office. She spent 12 years involved with Friends of Ogden, the parent fundraising arm of a public school in the city’s Gold Coast.

The mayor’s office said she was involved at the school during a controversial 2018 merger between the relatively high-income, racially diverse school and Jenner Academy of the Arts, a majority Black, low-income school that long served families in public housing.

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

Union representing Chicago school support staff makes Board of Education endorsements

2026-07-23T21:03:39+00:00

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The union representing Chicago school support staff is splitting with the teachers union in its support of candidates in several key races, including school board president.

SEIU Illinois State Council announced Thursday morning its endorsing Jessica Biggs in the race to lead the first fully elected 21-member school board. The union already donated $10,000 to Biggs’ campaign last December. SEIU announced last week it would endorse more than a dozen candidates running as school board district representatives.

The SEIU’s endorsements diverge from the Chicago Teachers Union, which is backing their own political director Hilario Dominguez for school board president. That means two unions are backing opposing candidates in 10 school board races and are aligned on five.

The split between SEIU and CTU is significant: Both unions give money to their endorsed candidates and provide boots-on-the-ground to canvas, phone bank, and get out the vote. These endorsements also carry weight with union members when they vote. SEIU represents more than 16,000 CPS staff and more than 100,000 workers statewide. CTU represents 30,000 educators.

“Sometimes our interests align. Sometimes they don’t,” said Trumaine Reeves, executive vice president of SEIU Local 73, the chapter representing CPS support staff, including janitors, crossing guards, bus aides, and special education classroom assistants.

Reeves noted the alignment with CTU on candidates Ed Bannon, Ebony DeBerry, Norma Rio Sierra, Claudia Peralta, and Anusha Thotakura. He said choosing Biggs for the president role came down to her experience.

“She knows firsthand the impacts of the budget, how fully funding or underfunding at a school-based level impacts the school community. She lived it firsthand,” Reeves said. “We felt like out of the five candidates running, she’s the most qualified.”

Biggs is a current school board member representing parts of downtown and the south lakefront. She’s also an organizer with Southwest Organizing Project and has been since she was let go by CPS in 2018 from her job as principal of Burke Elementary. WBEZ reported her termination came after the Inspector General said she altered attendance data and allowed staff to transport students without proper paperwork.

Biggs, who has successfully appealed being placed on the CPS do-not-hire list, says she was targeted because she was a critic of the district’s move to privatize janitorial operations. SEIU represents school janitors and pushed CPS to end their agreement with Aramark in 2024, a decade after the initial privatization.

Tensions rose between SEIU and CTU in 2024 when the teachers union put a proposal on the table in bargaining that could’ve taken work away from SEIU members. It would’ve given CPS administrators the ability to use teacher assistants represented by the CTU and special education classroom assistants, or SECAs, represented by SEIU almost interchangeably.

Mayor Brandon Johnson won his seat in 2023 with the help of SEIU. But in 2025, that union’s support appeared to be waning. Johnson faces reelection in 2027.

On Wednesday, the CTU posted on social media to label Biggs as a candidate backed by billionaires and people who closed 50 schools in 2013. The union highlighted $17,300 in donations Biggs received last year from Michael Sacks, a donor to former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, as well as a $1,000 donation from David Vitale, who served as school board president in 2013, and $2,900 in donations from former CPS CEO Janice Jackson. Jackson was a high school principal in 2013.

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to note SEIU Local 73 represents school bus aides, not bus drivers.

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

Teachers and CTU tell Chicago Board of Education to reject proposed budget cuts, furloughs

2026-07-20T23:02:09+00:00

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More than a dozen teachers and their union pushed the Chicago Board of Education Monday to reject the district’s $9.88 billion budget proposal that includes all-staff furloughs and a spending freeze in the middle of this upcoming school year.

During one of two required budget hearings, teachers discussed how the district’s proposed budget — which also includes staff cuts to help close a $732.5 million deficit — would hurt them and their schools and would exacerbate problems that educators are already facing due to recent budget woes.

For example, a teacher in the Austin neighborhood said Monday that teachers across four grades at her school have already received layoff notices, meaning each of those grades would have just one teacher, and at least one class could have as many as 47 kids, based on current enrollment estimates, she said. That figure would violate the Chicago Teachers Union’s contract with the district.

Another teacher at Funston Elementary School in Logan Square said her school couldn’t get more custodial or pest control help as it dealt with a rodent infestation.

The comments during Monday’s hearing signal sharp tensions over a budget proposal that CPS revealed last week and wants its board to approve in ten days.

The Chicago Teachers Union estimates that the proposed furloughs, which would happen on staff professional development days, would mean a 2.3% pay cut for its members. The union has made two key demands: The state should hold a special legislative session and raise revenue for schools, and CPS should sue Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas for repeatedly late tax bills, which has meant late revenue that CPS and other school districts rely on.

In an interview with Chalkbeat Monday, CPS CEO Macquline King described her budget plan as “very painful.” Proposing furloughs was the hardest decision she and her team made, in part because they would happen on days meant for educators to improve their work with students, she said. King added that she hopes elected officials in a position to help CPS will consider the impact of furloughs when making decisions.

“What I do believe is really important is that there is a sense of urgency in order for Chicago Public Schools to make payroll in the fall,” King said to Chalkbeat. “We really need the budget to pass because ultimately we do not want to disrupt services to our students.”

Emila Zoko, acting CPS budget director, said furloughs and the mid-year spending freeze are “options of last resort” and avoidable if the district gets an additional $200 million in revenue, such as from special taxing district dollars from the city known as tax increment financing — or TIF — surplus. CPS is already assuming it will receive $200 million in TIF surplus in its budget proposal.

The district is already laying off more than 760 teachers and 800 paraprofessionals, most of whom the district expects to rehire at other schools with openings. Overall, the district, which employs about 37,000 people in schools, would cut a net total of 164 school-based employees. The district, where enrollment has declined, also laid off 162 central office and citywide employees earlier this month.

Still, the layoffs mean the neediest students may lose contact with an adult they have come to trust, staffers said during the hearing.

“Think about how this impacts our [unhoused] students — what happens when those people in their lives are not there to make sure they feel safe, secure, and thriving?” said Tiwanda Parker, a college and career coach who said she was laid off.

Board members legally have until the end of August to pass a budget, but district leaders want the board to adopt a plan by July 30. That’s because, in order to make up for late Cook County property tax revenue, CPS needs a few weeks to take out a short-term loan to pay for daily operations, including payroll, at the start of the school year, according to Wally Stock, acting chief financial officer. That process will require CPS to have an approved budget, Stock previously told the board.

CPS says it’s owed at least $250 million from the last round of late tax payments alone. Pappas’ office told the Chicago Tribune the figure is closer to $70 million or $80 million.

The district does not have cash to provide a cushion as it waits for the tax dollars, and in the last year, borrowing to fill the tax-revenue gap has cost CPS about $40 million in interest, Stock has said. On Monday, Stock said he is talking to the county on possibly getting access to an interest-free bridge loan that typically isn’t available to CPS, but even that wouldn’t be large enough to get the district through its bills from September to October.

Board of Education members focused on ways to raise more funding but diverged on how to get there.

For example, Che “Rhymefest” Smith, an elected board member, focused his questions during the hearing on how much more TIF dollars City Council and Mayor Brandon Johnson could send to CPS to avoid furloughs and a midyear spending freeze. Elected member Jitu Brown, however, said it’s not realistic to expect more TIF after receiving a record amount last year, and said the district should instead build in the possibility for more state funding.

Budget officials said their numbers are rooted in historical projections. CPS has received at least $200 million in TIF surplus dollars every year since 2023.

The budget proposal wouldn’t implement a spending freeze and furloughs until January, providing CPS leaders “a window of time” to attempt securing more revenue, Stock said.

CPS held a second budget hearing Monday evening. People can view it on the district’s YouTube channel.

Mila Koumpilova contributed.

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

More than $1.8 million raised in Chicago school board election, as contribution caps are lifted in race for board president

2026-07-17T20:25:10+00:00

This story was published in partnership with WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times.

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Campaign fundraising in the race to serve on Chicago’s first fully elected school board is picking up momentum, with $1.8 million raised since last October and contribution caps now lifted in the competition for president.

A WBEZ and Chalkbeat analysis of money candidates received from Oct. 1, 2025 to June 30 found the majority of that total – $1.2 million — went to people running to lead the 21-member board. The board president is the only member who is elected citywide.

Attorney Victor Henderson gave himself half-a-million dollars in loans, which lifted donation limits for all five candidates vying for the president role. These candidates have done the most fundraising, with the exception of former Chicago Teachers Union organizer Hilario Dominguez, who has reported no donations so far. The other candidates for president are Jessica Biggs, Jennifer Custer, and Sendhil Revuluri.

Seventeen school board candidates have brought in less than $10,000 and nine did not file a report for the period from April 1 to June 30. Illinois law requires that candidates begin reporting campaign money once they’ve raised or spent $5,000.

The sizable early donations point to the historic nature of the race. In November, for the first time, Chicago residents will elect all 21 members of the school board, which is currently half-appointed by the mayor and half-elected. For three decades before that, the mayor controlled the board.

Although the school board president does not get to vote on board decisions unless there is a tie, that person plays an outsize role in helping set the board agenda and the tone during meetings. Sean Harden, a Mayor Brandon Johnson appointee who serves in the role now, is not running for the seat.

It’s no surprise that fundraising for that role is heating up, said Hal Woods of the education advocacy group Kids First Chicago.

“You need to be able to build a ground game and campaign infrastructure that covers the entire city, and you have a competitive race with really credible candidates,” he said. By looking strong early, Woods said, “You are showing the donor class you are the horse to get behind.”

Meanwhile, the CTU, the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, and other organizations that have said they plan to spend big on school board races are largely holding their fire for now, as several candidates are still facing challenges to their attempt to get on the November ballot.

The Illinois Network of Charter Schools’ war chest is by far the largest among political action committees with a stake in the election at more than $4 million. That’s fueled by sizable checks from wealthy residents, including some outside of Chicago. The charter advocacy group, which got outspent by the CTU in the 2024 school board election, hasn’t yet thrown its support behind a candidate for president or made formal endorsements in the 20 district races.

The teachers union, which is backing Dominguez for board president, brought in $500,000 since April 1. It spent about $250,000, some of it on defending candidates, including Dominguez, against challenges intended to knock them off the ballot. The CTU’s coffers get replenished with union dues.

The Illinois Network of Charter Schools and two other political committees, the Common Ground Collective and The Urban Center, have been bolstered by big donations from Paul Finnegan, the chairman of the private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners.

Since April, campaign records show Finnegan, whose address is listed in Evanston, has given almost $1 million to seven school board candidates, including Custer and Biggs, and a handful of political groups interested in the school board race.

Fundraising push heats up in board president race

Illinois campaign law limits individual contributions to candidates to $7,300, while corporations and labor unions can contribute up to $14,600. But if a candidate contributes more than $100,000 to his or her own campaign, like Henderson did, or if a super PAC spends more than that amount in support of a candidate, those donation limits fall away for all contenders in that race.

Henderson said he decided to make a sizable loan to his campaign because “if I’m asking other people to invest, they want to know that I’m doing the same thing.” Henderson also said his campaign staff suggested that he do it and, since he’s never run for elected office before, he listened to them. He now has a commanding fundraising lead with about $659,000 between his loans and donations from supporters.

Henderson, who is a member of the Urban Prep Charter School network’s board, said he has met with some of the political action committees, including those of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and CTU, and would be happy to take donations from them.

But he wants special interest groups to know that, regardless of whether they donate to him, he wants to work “with them” not “for them.”

“I’m not going to carry anybody’s water,” he said. “There’s too much politics in CPS, and that’s not the right thing to do.”

Other candidates for president said they are not daunted by Henderson’s campaign cash.

Biggs, a current board member, raised just over $154,000 as of June 30, most of it in smaller contributions from individuals. She said she didn’t think the lifting of contribution limits in the hotly contested race would shift the dynamics considerably.

“I’m continuing to build the broadest coalition possible,” she said. “It’s what this moment calls for.”

Biggs was outspent roughly 10-to-1 in her South Side district in 2024, but handily won her current seat representing district 6b, which includes Bronzeville, Hyde Park, and other neighborhoods.

Sendhil Revuluri, a former vice president of the board appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, also said he didn’t expect the lifting of the spending cap to make a major difference. He has raised more than $311,000 so far, including $68,000 that he loaned to his own campaign. He said he tapped his broad professional network to get other donations from across the country.

Still, Revuluri said his campaign is focused on student outcomes and experiences.

“The money is not the goal,” he said. “It’s a means to reach voters and get my message across.”

Custer, an incumbent board member who represents parts of Chicago’s Far Northwest Side, also raised mostly small amounts from individual donors. She says she was surprised the limit was blown so early, but she expected the race would be an expensive one.

“To commit in a citywide race, you are going to need a significant amount of money,” she said. Like other candidates, she says she’ll take money from PACs as long as they know that her “north star is always what’s good for the children”

Dominguez, the CTU’s pick for president, has not reported any donations or expenses. He said he’s going to do his best to raise enough money to compete, but, in the end, he’s hoping that “people power” will fuel his campaign. He said he and his team will be “hitting those doors hard.”

“We’re always going to have to rely on the organized power of moms, of educators, of students,” he said.

Special interest groups prepare to spend big

A number of organizations with connections to Chicago Public Schools are gearing up to jump into the political fray, including the race for school board president.

Andrew Broy, executive director of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, said the group plans to make endorsements in August and then start spending more.

“We want to be competitive in all the races where we see a pathway to victory,” he said.

He said the citywide presidential race will be expensive, estimating that the cost of mailers and other outreach to voters across the city would easily surpass $1 million.

In the 2024 school board race, the CTU’s two political action committees spent $4.3 million on races, but rather than donate directly to candidates, they spent a lot hiring companies to create mailers, conduct surveys, and organize canvassing in support of particular candidates. CTU announced 15 endorsements earlier this week and chose to sit out six races.

Service Employees International Union Local 73, which represents support staff in CPS, also announced their endorsements this week. After decades of being seen as allies, SEIU has recently had some public disagreements with CTU, including over who represents school support staff.

In the 13 races where SEIU endorsed candidates, only four are also endorsed by the CTU. Some, like Che “Rhymefest” Smith and Angel Guiterrez, have consistently voted against the current school board majority, which is aligned with CTU.

Dian Palmer, president of SEIU Local 73, one of three SEIU local affiliates in Illinois, said the union was not going to endorse a presidential candidate, but they are now considering backing someone. She’s hopeful her union can help balance some of the big-money interests getting involved in the race with door-knocking and member donations.

“The amount of money is mind-boggling,” she said.

SEIU’s two PACs had about $719,000 on hand at the end of June.

Other groups are starting to dip their toes in the school board races. The Common Ground Collective, led by staffers from former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez’s cabinet, has made some donations to incumbents who are up for reelection, including Biggs and Custer.

Rooted & Ready, a PAC affiliated with U.S. Rep. Delia Ramirez, a CTU ally who represents parts of Chicago and the west suburbs, cut $3,500 checks to school board candidates Claudia Perlata, Jason Dónes, and incumbent Norma Rios Sierra, all endorsed by the CTU. The group hasn’t yet made contributions in the president’s race.

Correction 6/17/26: This story has been corrected to include contributions that were inadvertently omitted in the process of analyzing campaign finance data from the Illinois State Board of Elections website. It was also corrected to include the accurate school board district that Jessica Biggs represents.

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

Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Contact Sarah at skarp@wbez.org.

CTU endorses 15 school board candidates, throwing weight behind incumbents, mayoral picks

2026-07-14T01:16:22+00:00

This story was published in partnership with WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times.

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The Chicago Teachers Union announced Monday it will endorse only 15 candidates in the upcoming school board race in which all 21 seats are up for election — a decision that could make it difficult for the union to hold onto its majority.

The union will back 10 incumbents who they supported in the election two years ago or were appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson. Johnson, a former organizer for the CTU, is an ally of the union.

Notably absent from their list of endorsements is Yesenia Lopez, who won in 2024 with the union’s endorsement, but occasionally voted independently of other CTU-aligned school board members over the past year and half.

CTU last month endorsed their political director Hilario Dominguez in the citywide race for school board president. There are four other people running for that seat.

In the six districts where the CTU did not endorse anyone, it was because the race had only one candidate or there’s no candidate aligned with the CTU.

One of the five non-incumbents getting CTU’s nod is Tameka Walton, who the union said is mounting a write-in campaign. Walton’s petition signatures were challenged and the Chicago Board of Elections is expected to make decisions on petition challenges Tuesday.

Angel L. Velez, the incumbent vice president of the board who was appointed by Johnson and filed to run for his seat in district 9a, also announced on social media last week that he did not have enough valid signatures to stay on the ballot. That leaves Brittany Bailey Preston, the wife of state Sen. Willie Preston, as the only candidate in the race.

Juan Rangel, the CEO of the Urban Center, a political action committee paying for many of the petition challenges, said Cydney Wallace, a Johnson appointee running in 8b is also expected to be removed from the ballot. CTU did not include Velez or Wallace in their endorsements.

The CTU has been seen as a politically powerful force, especially after getting Johnson elected, but it remains to be seen how much their endorsement matters.

In the first school board election in 2024, the union endorsed in all 10 races and only four of their candidates were victorious. Still, the union had a friendly school board because Johnson appointed 11 people, giving them enough backers to have a majority on the 21-member board.

CTU-backed candidates would have to win 11 races to hold onto a majority. The CTU’s two political action committees had a balance of less than $200,000 as of March 31, the last time quarterly filings were due. New reports are due out on Wednesday.

The union also boasts more than 30,000 members that can knock on doors and get out the vote, which will be important in the Nov. 3 election where turnout could be low.

Kimberly Walls-Kirk, chair of the CTU’s political action committee, says the union’s endorsements carry weight with voters because they trust teachers.

“I’m the parent of a child who graduated from a Chicago Public School. I’m a teacher in Chicago Public Schools,” she said. “So if I have a vision of what learning conditions look like for my child, then I, as a teacher, am one of the best people to endorse a candidate.”

A handful of other political action committees have already raised more than a million each and have already started donating money to candidates.

Rangel said he was surprised that the CTU wasn’t more organized as they approached this election. The Urban Center PAC is supported by centrist billionaires and pro-charter groups.

“The CTU has a reputation of having first-class, first-grade political operations, but I think they’ve been kind of sloppy on this this time around, and I’m not sure the exact reason why,” he said.

Dominguez, the CTU’s endorsed presidential candidate, blamed the lack of challengers in some races on the fact that it is a volunteer position that is essentially a full-time job, he said.

Andrew Broy, the president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, said that based on 2024 election results, the power of a CTU endorsement is a “mixed bag” — more helpful in some well-to-do or gentrifying areas such as the North Side and Logan Square, and less so on the Southwest and Northwest Side. Overall, he said, recent opinion polls suggest the union’s popularity has dipped.

“That might blunt the positive impact of a CTU endorsement,” Broy said.

Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on X @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter. Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.

Johnson-aligned Chicago school board members continue push for more funding from Springfield

2026-07-08T22:17:58+00:00

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Chicago Board of Education members aligned with the mayor again pushed Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday to hold a special legislative session to allocate more funding to public schools.

Their calls come as Chicago Public Schools finalizes a roughly $10 billion budget proposal for the coming school year. Officials have been working to close a more than $700 million deficit projected earlier this spring.

Schools had to approve their proposed budgets in early June, but the district has yet to release full details around what might be cut. The Chicago Teachers Union joined Mayor Brandon Johnson-aligned board members at Wednesday’s press conference outside the Board of Education headquarters where they called for state lawmakers to again consider raising education funding through progressive tax policies that target wealthy individuals or corporations.

Khari Humphries, the city’s deputy mayor of education and youth, also joined elected board member Jitu Brown and appointed members Michilia Blaise, Karen Zaccor, Norma Rios-Sierra, Emma Lozano, Angel Velez, Cydney Wallace, and Debby Pope.

Illinois lawmakers attempted to begin the process to raise education funding through a millionaire’s tax, but that legislation ultimately stalled before they adjourned at the end of May.

“If the Hippocratic Oath in medicine says, first of all, do no harm, can the state of Illinois say they have not done harm to Illinois children?” Brown said to reporters.

CPS is expected to publicly reveal its budget plan by mid-July and wants the board to approve it by July 30, but some board members said that timeline feels rushed. A delay in Cook County property taxes has placed extra pressure on the budget, officials said.

The state budget increased education funding for school districts by $350 million this year for a total of $9.2 billion. But many districts, including CPS, are still short of what the state’s evidence-based formula considers as an adequate level of money. Even if lawmakers reconvene this summer, it’s not clear how quickly any extra money would make it to school districts like CPS.

“We are facing decisions that no city should ever have to make,” Humphries said during the press conference.

The district is expecting about $100 million from the city’s special taxing districts, known as TIF dollars, which the mayor and City Council control. That’s a fraction of the more than $500 million in TIF last year for CPS, a portion of which went back to the city for pension obligations.

Brown said board members are asking the city to release more TIF dollars. Humphries said he can’t say whether the city will do so. At a board meeting later Wednesday, acting chief financial officer Wally Stock also said CPS is “not trying to be aggressive” but is also having those discussions with the city.

During Wednesday’s meeting, however, CPS CEO Macquline King said the district is working through “different avenues” for help, including pressing the county for some relief.

“There is a sense of urgency,” King said.

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

Chicago school board says candidates can’t accept donations from district vendors

2026-07-08T20:30:13+00:00

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As Chicago’s school board election heats up, the current Board of Education voted Wednesday to not allow candidates to accept campaign donations from current or prospective vendors of Chicago Public Schools.

School board members — nearly all of whom are running in the Nov. 3 election – approved a resolution over the matter in a 16-1 vote during a meeting to review the agenda for the board’s full meeting later this month.

Elected board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith voted no.

Board president Sean Harden, who isn’t running, introduced the resolution.

“This resolution seeks to inoculate the board from any sense of impropriety or give vendors the sense that they have to pay to play,” Harden told board members last month when he first introduced the resolution.

On Wednesday, Harden said he asked the Better Government Association for its feedback on the resolution, and the good-government group described it as meeting a “high water mark.” BGA president David Griesing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The district relies on vendors for a range of services, from academic intervention to student assessments to school lunch.

City law prevents entities that do more than $10,000 of business in a 12-month period with city agencies from donating more than $1,500 a year to a political candidate. Harden’s resolution goes further: It calls on school board members to not accept any donations from current vendors, vendors who have applied to win a CPS contract, or outside lawyers who contract with CPS.

If board members accepted donations from vendors before Wednesday’s resolution, they should either recuse themselves from future votes involving those vendors or return the donation and notify the district’s general counsel and ethics officer, the resolution says.

In a text message, Smith said he voted no because the resolution appears as if it’s “targeting certain donors while allowing the most egregious political financiers and influencers go unchallenged,” referencing PACs and super PACs.

A spot check of Smith’s most recent campaign finance filings show a $250 donation from Cozen O’Connor, a law firm that has a contract with the board. Jessica Biggs, an elected board member who is running for board president, also received a $1,000 donation from the firm on April 30. Both Smith and Biggs had previously voted against increasing payments to the firm last year.

During last month’s meeting, some elected board members said the resolution should include labor unions that have contracts with CPS. The Chicago Teachers Union, through two separate political action committees, has been a major donor in school board campaigns. Harden said his focus was on vendors, and if others want more restrictions, they should introduce additional resolutions.

Smith has also received money from the SEIU Illinois Council PAC, as recently as December. The political arm of that union, which represents support staffers in CPS, also gave to Jessica Biggs, Yesenia Lopez, Jennifer Custer, Carlos Rivas, and Therese Boyle in December.

“I’m saying if we’re going to change the rules to limit the appearance of impropriety, there’s more authentic, effective ways to do it,” Smith said over text.

Illinois campaign finance records also show both Smith and elected board member Carlos Rivas each recently received $1,000 from Anthony Fiore, vice president of Open Kitchens, one of two food service companies with a multimillion dollar contract to provide free school meals in CPS.

Last fall, Fiore gave to a handful of other school board members, including Ellen Rosenfeld, Therese Boyle, and Jessica Biggs, according to state campaign finance disclosures.

Smith said he hasn’t yet decided whether he will recuse himself from future votes or return donations, and Rivas said he must consult with his attorney. Biggs said she won’t return the donations. She will recuse herself from a future vote on the law firm but will consult with ethics officials on whether she should recuse herself from future votes regarding Open Kitchens. Rosenfeld and Boyle did not immediately return a request for comment.

Biggs added that the resolution, which references vendors, feels “performative” and does not prevent individuals like Fiore from personally donating to campaigns. Fiore owns a 49% stake in Open Kitchens and his mother owns the other 51%, according to board records.

School board policy establishes several ethics and conflict-of-interest rules for board members, including that they should recuse themselves from voting on matters that involve contracts with entities that a board member may have an economic interest in. Board members must also file statements of economic interest every year.

Harden said he’s also trying to prevent a situation where so many board members recuse themselves from a vote due to a vendor’s campaign contribution that it becomes impossible for the board to do its job and decide on a given contract.

Still, resolutions are nonbinding, and this one involves the honor system: Board members themselves would be responsible “for confirming that potential donors are not CPS vendors or prospective CPS vendors or outside counsel serving the Board.” Campaign contributions are, however, publicly available on the state board of elections website.

The resolution doesn’t outline possible repercussions for board members who accept donations from vendors.

“I would encourage us to work together again on a comprehensive legislative proposal, take it to Springfield and get it passed, and then it would actually be binding,” Biggs said during last month’s meeting.

Becky Vevea contributed.

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

Chicago school board candidates won’t be removed from ballot due to ‘dual-circulation’ argument

2026-06-30T22:25:07+00:00

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A decision Tuesday by the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners prevents dozens of school board candidates from being removed from the ballot.

In a 3-0 motion, the board ruled against multiple objectors who said the candidates collected signatures improperly by working with petition circulators who had also circulated petitions for partisan candidates in Illinois’ March primary — known as “dual-circulation.” Chicago’s school board races are nonpartisan.

Adam Lasker, general counsel for the board, said this ruling is not technically final, but the board members do not intend to change their opinion.

For the first time, all 21 seats on Chicago’s Board of Education are on the ballot in November’s general election. In May, 51 people filed nominating petitions, but 28 now face challenges that argue they don’t have enough valid signatures to have their name printed on the ballot.

Many of those challenges made the “dual-circulation” argument. The Electoral Board met at 10 a.m. on Tuesday to hear arguments on the dual-circulation objections questioning the legality of 22 school board candidates’ petitions.

What is the “dual-circulation” argument?

By Illinois election code, a circulator cannot petition for candidates from two different parties in the same election cycle. Another section states that unless it creates some inconsistency, nonpartisan candidates are treated as independent candidates, which counts as a party affiliation.

Ed Mullen, an election lawyer representing multiple candidates, argued that the dual-circulation law should be judged on its intentions, which were to prevent a candidate from switching party affiliation during a single election cycle. He also noted that candidates had no choice but to run as nonpartisan in the school board election.

Candidate lawyer Ed Mullen delivers an argument against sustaining the dual-circulation objections.

“You’re not switching party affiliation,” Mullen said. “Democrats run against independents, New Party, and Republicans. Nonpartisan runs against nonpartisan. They are not adverse to each other.”

Mullen also addressed voter confusion, saying that since the circulations were months apart and for different offices, it would not be confusing to voters to have the same circulator distributing a partisan petition in the primary and a nonpartisan petition for the school board.

Michael Kasper, lawyer for the petition objectors, argued that an Illinois Supreme Court ruling, McCaskill v. Municipal Officers Electoral Board for the City of Harvey, that held dual-circulation prohibition does not apply to nonpartisan elections applied only to consolidated elections in odd-numbered years. It doesn’t apply to the general election on which the school board ticket will be run, and thus nonpartisan candidates should be treated as independents, Kasper argued.

Kasper also argued that having petitioners circulate for nonpartisan candidates was confusing to voters, since petitioners would be asking for signatures for nonpartisan candidates when they’d previously been doing so for partisan candidates.

“The voters are confused when this circulator shows up at the doorstep with an independent petition,” Kasper asked. “But they’re not confused when that same person shows up at the same door on the same day with a nonpartisan petition? Come on.”

Objector lawyer Michael Kasper diagrams his argument that petitioners need to maintain party alignment throughout an election cycle.

What did the board decide?

After hearing the statements, the electoral board’s general counsel Lasker said that even if the objectors’ arguments stood, they were bound by legal precedent established by cases like McCaskill.

Lasker also said asking candidates to keep track of whether circulators were previously affiliated would have placed a tremendous burden on their campaigns.

After the statements were made, all three members of the board voted in favor of dismissing the dual-circulation challenges.

The Board of Election Commissioners will resolve the other objections on a case-by-case basis. Hearings are scheduled per-candidate with hearing officers, with the last on July 8. The final decisions are made by the Board of Election Commissioners after those hearings are complete.

Lasker says those hearings won’t change the board’s ruling on this decision.

The final decisions may still be appealed after they are made, in which case the objection would be retried in an appellate court.

Most candidates who have received the dual-circulation objection will have signatures above the threshold required to earn a place on the ballot, even if all other petition objections stick. Candidates who are facing other objections that could place them below the threshold still may not have enough, but will no longer face the dual-circulation objection.

“I think this is really an objection that was created to sow chaos in the election,” Mullen said in an interview with Chalkbeat. “And in that respect it worked, but on the legal perspective it didn’t.”

The board also moved to drop objections against three candidates after two objections were withdrawn and another was overruled.

This means Aaron “Jitu” Brown (5a) and Katherine Dunneback (9b) will appear on the ballot this fall. Rosita Chatonda (10b) still has one objection case pending, but another objection against her petition was dropped.

Chicago’s school board is supposed to have a noncitizen advisory board. It still doesn’t exist.

2026-06-29T21:00:54+00:00

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When state legislators created Chicago’s elected school board, they also required the city’s mayor to name a noncitizen advisory board, meant to give people without citizenship a more formal voice in school board matters since they cannot vote or run in elections.

But about four months ahead of this year’s school board races — and 18 months after the city’s first elected members were seated — Mayor Brandon Johnson still hasn’t created that advisory panel.

“There is no clarity on this,” Socorro Diaz, a mother of three Chicago Public Schools graduates who is interested in serving on the panel, said in Spanish through a translator. “How is this going to be organized? Because education is too important.”

This year, Chicago will transition from a partially elected school board to a one that is fully elected. The election for all 21 school board seats is Nov. 3.

The panel is supposed to advise the Board of Education on various issues that impact noncitizen children, including on how to create an “inclusive learning environment” and more generally sharing perspectives from noncitizen families. State law maps out almost no instructions for the mayor: It doesn’t establish a deadline for the mayor to create the advisory board, the number of people to appoint, or even whether any of the picks must be immigrants or noncitizens.

For parents who had pushed for this board, its absence felt especially deep last fall during an intense federal deportation campaign in Chicago known as Operation Midway Blitz. At the time, the mayor’s office told Chalkbeat that it was finalizing applications for the advisory board, but it was figuring out how to protect people interested in participating without putting them in the crosshairs of the federal government.

That application still doesn’t exist. The mayor’s office did not answer a question about the status of the application, but in a statement last week, a spokesperson said they hope to create the board by the fall.

“Given the nature of recent immigration enforcement, the Mayor’s Office is working to develop a process that allows community members to participate safely and confidently,” said mayoral spokesperson Griffin Krueger.

Some parents have suggested the mayor’s office can appoint at least some people who may be citizens or legal residents but can still act as representatives for noncitizens.

Kids First Chicago, an education advocacy group that lobbied for the creation of the noncitizen advisory board, had pushed the mayor’s office last year to name the panel, especially as immigration enforcement kept families from sending their kids to school.

Claiborne Wade, a member of Kids First’s Fair Governance Task Force and parent of CPS students, said he can understand the mayor’s office’s concerns, especially with a federal government that is targeting immigrants and noncitizens.

Not having the panel in place, however, means that the board is potentially not hearing from certain immigrant communities whose kids are in CPS, who “do have a voice, too,” he said.

Diaz, who is currently on the Eric Solorio Academy High School Local School Council, first got involved in parent councils almost 25 years ago, when she learned that one of her daughters, at the time a 6-year-old newcomer from Mexico, was not receiving help in understanding English in school, she said. She recalled seeing her daughter set aside in a corner of her classroom, and Diaz repeatedly pushed the principal for help.

Since then she’s participated in LSCs and bilingual advisory councils, too, and believes it’s important for parents to get involved, she said.

When she learned about Chicago’s first school board elections, she felt a mixture of emotions: happiness that parents would get to choose who made policy decisions for the district but sadness that she and others who aren’t citizens wouldn’t be able to cast votes or run for office.

She feels the advisory panel is an advocacy vehicle for parents who can’t be at board meetings or are fearful of revealing their identities. To Diaz, it’s frustrating to not know what’s happening with the panel.

“They need to start being more transparent,” she said.

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

In this fall’s Chicago school board elections, many voters may only have one candidate to choose from

2026-06-12T22:05:12+00:00

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For three decades, Chicago voters have not had a direct say in who represents them on the city’s Board of Education.

And many may not have much of a choice again this fall, despite an otherwise historic election in which all 21 school board seats are on the ballot in November’s general election.

That’s because 17 races could end up with just one candidate if challenges to their petition signatures are successful. That’s on top of the two seats up for election that have just one candidate.

This year, 28 candidates — more than half the current field of 51 candidates — are at risk of getting knocked off the ballot. The Urban Center, a pro-school choice, politically centrist organization, is behind at least 14 of those challenges.

Most of the candidates facing challenges — including four of the five people running for board president — could be wiped from the ballot due to a claim that the way they collected signatures violated election law. Most of The Urban Center’s challenges include this claim.

Known as a dual circulator argument, the challengers say that some people who helped candidates collect signatures were not allowed to do so because they had already circulated petitions for other candidates during the March primary election. Chicago’s school board races are nonpartisan and were not part of the primary.

If the electoral board agrees, they could make a single ruling that would result in thousands of voters across 14 districts having just one school board candidate on their ballot.

For candidates, fighting petition challenges can be time-consuming and expensive, which can cut into campaigning or cause them to withdraw from the race and leave voters with fewer choices. Election attorneys and challengers, however, say the process ensures candidates are following the law and are people who voters want on the ballot.

In 2024, 47 candidates filed to run, and 31 remained on the ballot.

In Chicago, petition challenges are often backed by powerful special interests as a tactic to narrow the race.

The Chicago Teachers Union was behind many of the challenges in 2024, when 10 of 21 board seats were up for election. This year, other special interests are employing the tactic.

Robert Sylvester, vice president of The Urban Center and chair of their political action group, told Chalkbeat and Board Rule his group is working with other political organizations and longtime elections attorney Mike Kasper on their challenges — more than half of which target candidates who are current mayoral appointees on the school board, have previously been backed by the union, or lean politically progressive.

“The democratic process is important to me and Urban Center,” Sylvester said in an interview. “We challenge to make sure people play by the rules.”

Asked if The Urban Center targeted candidates who don’t ideologically align with it, Sylvester said, “We challenged anybody we thought didn’t have the requisite signatures or that they didn’t follow the rules around the circulators.”

The basis for challenging candidate petitions

Candidates for school board running to represent the district they live in were required to collect between 500 to 1,500 signatures on a form known as a nominating petition. Those running for board president, which is a citywide office, were required to collect 2,500 signatures.

But there are very specific rules for what counts as a valid signature: Signers must be registered to vote at an address in the same district as the candidate, they cannot sign multiple petitions for the same race, and, though it may be obvious, the signature can’t be forged.

Victor Henderson, a newcomer candidate running for board president, is facing one of the more serious challenges: Two objectors have accused him or someone on his team of fraudulently altering his signers’ addresses in order to make the signatures valid.

A handful of objections are over more technical matters. For example, one objector claimed that current appointed board member Norma Rios-Sierra, who is running in district 3a, should be knocked off the ballot because she didn’t include a hyphen in her last name on her nomination paperwork. Candidate Marlo Bennet faces two challenges arguing they did not identify the subdistrict they’re running for and should therefore be disqualified.

Nearly two dozen challenges include the “dual circulator” argument and cite a part of election law that says “no person shall circulate or certify petitions for candidates of more than one political party, or for an independent candidate or candidates in addition to one political party, to be voted upon at the next primary or general election, or for such candidates and parties with respect to the same political subdivision at the next consolidated election.”

Another section of election law says that where applicable, the law also applies to nonpartisan candidates.

The point of the law is to prevent “political gamesmanship” or a “sore-loser” situation, such as someone switching to run as an independent in the same election season, said Ross Secler, an elections attorney and partner at Odelsen, Murphy, Frazier and McGrath, who cited previous Illinois Supreme Court rulings over the issue.

Secler, who is representing objectors in two challenges but is not making the dual circulator argument in either of them, said he doesn’t see how dual circulators violated the spirit of the law in this situation. The March primaries were unrelated to local school board races.

Normally, a challenge is resolved once a hearing officer reviews the case, issues a recommendation, and the electoral board takes a final vote on whether the candidate gathered enough valid signatures to be on the ballot.

Connie Anderson is running in district 10b and is one of the candidates facing the dual circulator argument. Anderson’s husband, Clifton, has also challenged the petitions of Anderson’s opponent, Rosita Chatonda.

Anderson is getting legal help from the CTU to defend her petitions — an offer CTU leaders made to all candidates shortly after challenges were made public.

“We are blessed that an organization came in and said, ‘We will help you even if we haven’t endorsed you because we believe in your vision,’” Anderson said. “We align in that way.”

During the 2024 school board races, the union was behind challenges against 19 candidates. A CTU spokesperson said the union did not back any challenges this cycle and could not immediately confirm which candidates the union has offered legal help to.

Julie Metea, a spokesperson for the Electoral Board, said that attorneys involved in cases with the “dual circulator” argument asked the Electoral Board to rule on the issue once instead of having several different hearing officers decide on individual cases.

Metea said that the board is tentatively planning to hold one hearing to decide on this issue, but that isn’t final.

Candidates who escaped challenges breathe sigh of relief

Several candidates facing these objections didn’t return calls or declined to comment on the record about their cases.

Some current and former candidates said they escaped challenges because they did a lot of research or didn’t rely on paid circulators, who candidates pay per signature.

Jennifer Custer, a current elected board member who is running for board president, escaped a challenge, meaning she’s guaranteed to be on the ballot.

“We made sure to just check everything before we even started petitions and make sure that we were following the law,” Custer said in an interview.

When Anthony Hargrove ran for school board in 2024, he largely relied on a paid circulator who was tasked with securing 500 signatures. Then, Hargrove faced a petition challenge and was knocked off the ballot after many of his signatures were deemed invalid. Last time, it cost the father of four expensive attorney fees and time to fight the challenge.

Chicago elections, he said, can feel “like a frat that’s really, really impossible to get into.”

Hargrove is running again this year for district 5a on the West Side, and he changed his strategy for getting on the ballot. He got advice from retired politicians. He read the law. He said he didn’t pay anyone to collect signatures, and instead, he, his wife and others spent evenings and weekends knocking on doors and attending community events to collect hundreds of more names than he needed. Then he went to the county building to make sure his signatures were valid.

Last week, after repeatedly refreshing the Board of Elections website, he saw that no one had challenged his petitions.

“It was like, ‘Oh my god, I made it. Oh my god, I’m a candidate,’” Hargrove said.

Isaiah Pinzino and Norah D’Cruze contributed to this report.

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

Maureen Kelleher is the founding editor for Board Rule. Contact Maureen at maureen.boardrule@gmail.com.

After delay, Chicago school board renews charters amid revamped oversight

2026-06-10T18:15:14+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education renewed contracts Wednesday with six charter school networks after a controversial move in late May to put off the vote.

The board approved contracts for more than a dozen schools, for terms that range between four to seven years.

Elected board member Yesenia Lopez, who helped pass a resolution last year calling for tighter charter school oversight, was the only person to cast no votes but did not say why. She voted no on renewing contracts for the Acero, Chicago Collegiate, Chicago Mathematics and Science Academy, and Intrinsic charter school networks, and she abstained on the vote for Christopher House Charter School.

These are some of the longest term lengths that the board has approved in recent years, but Chicago Public Schools officials said these new contracts are paired with a revamped oversight process that involves checking in on schools midway through their terms and flagging possible financial missteps earlier than it currently does.

The newer oversight process comes after a year of upheaval and financial turmoil in the charter sector that led to several closures, including the more recent midyear closings of two ASPIRA charter network high schools, forcing hundreds of kids to find new schools months before the end of the year.

The board approved contracts for the following networks with the following renewal terms:

Academy for Global Citizenship for seven years
Acero for five years
Chicago Collegiate Charter School for four years
Chicago Mathematics and Science Academy for four years
Christopher House for four years
Intrinsic for four years

The vote was delayed last week after many board members pushed district officials for more information on how they planned to tighten charter oversight. Those board members, who are aligned with Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union, a sharp critic of charters, raised concerns that a network like Acero would earn one of the longest contract terms after several of its schools closed last year.

That day, other board members decried the effort to delay renewals as children and families needed to know the future of their schools. No school the board was considering was on the chopping block. In an unusual move, both board President Sean Harden and CPS CEO Macquline King pushed the board to approve the renewals and said the discussion about accountability would be ongoing.

Karen Zaccor, an appointed board member who wanted stronger oversight and pushed to postpone the vote last month, praised the district’s new oversight process, saying that it offers “frequent opportunities for intervention if needed.” She believes the new process can help stave off sudden closures, such as at EPIC Academy, which announced its closure plans last spring, just months after the board had renewed the school’s contract.

Still, she said, “This year and this cycle are a test — a test of how well our systems work to flag problems in a timely way and an intervention’s implemented in order to minimize harm.”

The Illinois Network of Charters praised the longer terms and a greater emphasis on academic performance as part of the district’s new oversight measures, but still criticized CPS for waiting until the summer to tell charter families and staff how many more years their schools would survive.

Jodie Cantrell, chief of public affairs for INCS, described the delay as a political move for which “children pay the price.”

Before Wednesday’s vote on Acero, appointed board member Debby Pope said she’s still concerned about how Acero handled its abrupt closure plans last year. The board at the time voted to absorb five of the seven schools Acero wanted to close. Still, Pope said she’s “very glad we have strengthened the provisions for ongoing oversight.”

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

Dozens of Chicago school board candidates could get knocked off the ballot

2026-06-04T16:31:47+00:00

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More than half of the 51 people who filed to run for one of 21 seats on the Chicago Board of Education may not make it on the ballot.

That’s after 28 potential candidates had the validity of their petition signatures challenged.

Petition challenges allow registered voters in a candidate’s district to challenge the validity of signatures on their petitions. If the Chicago Board of Elections invalidates enough signatures, it can remove a candidate from the list. This year’s deadline to certify the ballot is Aug. 27.

Four of the five people hoping to be elected at-large to serve as school board president are at risk of being removed. Jennifer Custer is the only unchallenged candidate and will secure a spot in that race.

All nine of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointees currently serving on the school board running to keep their seats are facing challenges to the validity of their signatures. Two elected members aligned with Johnson — Aaron “Jitu” Brown and Yesenia Lopez — have also had their petitions called into question. Johnson’s appointed school board president Sean Harden is not running for election.

Elected incumbents Therese Boyle, Ebony DeBerry, Angel Gutierrez, Carlos A. Rivas Jr., Ellen Rosenfeld, and Che “Rhymefest” Smith escaped challenges and will all be on the ballot in November. Both Rosenfeld and Gutierrez are running unopposed in district 4b and 8a, respectively.

Only two of 21 races — in districts 2a and 4a — are currently guaranteed to have more than one candidate. Incumbent Ebony DeBerry and Bruce Leon, who ran in 2024, went unchallenged and are set to compete in 2a, while Ellen Sherratt and Angel Alvarez made it on the ballot in 4a. Hector Morales could survive a challenge to compete in 2a, as could 4a incumbent Karen Zaccor.

Surviving a petition challenge can require an attorney and take multiple weeks. The time-consuming and costly nature raises questions about ballot access for less resourced candidates. Removing political opponents through petition challenges has also been held up as an example of old-school, Chicago-style politics and were famously used by former President Barack Obama during his first campaign for state senate in 1996.

Chicago school board candidates were required to collect 500 to 1,500 valid signatures from voters in their districts and those running for board president had to collect 2,500 signatures from registered voters in Chicago.

In 2024, 47 people filed to run, but only 31 candidates remained by election day.

This November’s election marks the first time all 21 seats on the Chicago Board of Education will be up for election, ending 30 years of mayoral control. Since 2024, the board has been half-elected and half-appointed.

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

Here are the 51 people who filed to run for Chicago Board of Education

2026-05-27T16:39:54+00:00

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Fifty-one people are running for a seat on Chicago’s Board of Education this fall — the first time city voters will elect all 21 members.

Candidates had to file petitions with signatures from voters in their district by Tuesday night to appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.

This November’s election will complete Chicago’s transition to an elected school board, ending 30 years of mayoral control in the nation’s fourth-largest school district.

All 10 of the people elected in 2024 are running for re-election and two face no challengers. Ellen Rosenfeld and Angel Gutierrez are the only candidates in 4b on the North Side and 8a on the Southwest Side, respectively. All current mayoral appointees besides Board President Sean Harden are running to keep their seats. Several ran unsuccessfully in 2024.

Harden, who was appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson in 2024, has long said he wouldn’t run in this year’s election.

Five people are running for the citywide position of school board president: elected board members Jessica Biggs and Jennifer Custer, Chicago Teachers Union political director Hilario Dominguez, former appointed board member Sendhil Revuluri, and attorney Victor Henderson.

But there’s no guarantee that all 51 current candidates will make it onto the ballot. That’s because of petition challenges, which allow registered voters in a candidate’s district to challenge the validity of signatures on their petitions. If the Board of Elections invalidates enough signatures, it can remove a candidate from the list. Candidates for board president must collect 2,500 signatures of registered voters in Chicago; all other candidates must collect 500 to 1,500 signatures of voters in their districts.

The challenge process, which typically runs about six weeks, can also be time consuming and involves hiring costly attorneys, which can push newer or less resourced candidates out.

In 2024, more than 45 candidates initially filed to run for school board. By the fall, 31 candidates remained due to petition challenges or people withdrawing on their own.

The deadline to object to a candidate’s petitions is June 2. The Board of Elections will finalize the ballot in late August.

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

Chicago school board elections kicks off with the first day of candidate filing. Who is trying to run?

2026-05-18T18:23:03+00:00

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The first step toward Chicago’s historic school board elections is officially underway, as candidates lined up early Monday to file paperwork to enter the races.

By 8:30 a.m., a line of more than 20 people buzzing with excitement to file paperwork had already formed in downtown Chicago. Some hopefuls were accompanied by family or campaign staff, while others clutched their documents alone.

But showing up to the Board of Elections site wasn’t just about submitting paperwork in a punctual fashion. Many of those early risers were after something they see as an added bonus: Those who arrive by 9 a.m. on the first day of candidate filing are entered in a lottery to be the first name listed on November’s ballot.

For the first time, all 21 members of Chicago’s Board of Education will be up for election. It’s the last step of a multi-year process — kickstarted by the state legislature — to transition away from having Chicago’s mayor appoint members to the board. Chicagoans got a taste of that shift in 2024 when they voted for half the board’s members. Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed the remaining 11 members, including the board’s president.

Candidates are vying for seats representing 20 districts across Chicago, in addition to another spot for president of the board. Term lengths vary by district, with some expiring every two years while others — including the board president — last four years.

People running for a school board need to collect between 500 and 1,500 valid signatures from voters who live in the hopeful candidate’s district. In the case of the Chicago Board of Education president, candidates need at least 2,500 valid signatures. Not all candidates who showed up Monday will end up on the Nov. 3 ballot, as they can be challenged on the validity of their signatures and possibly disqualified.

Candidates walk inside the Chicago Board of Elections Supersite in downtown Chicago to file paperwork on Monday, May 18, 2026.

From Monday’s showing, the races are already shaping up to showcase a mix of familiar faces and newcomers. The contest for school board president so far includes former board vice president Sendhil Revuluri, and current elected board members Jessica Biggs and Jennifer Custer.

Several current board members — some who are facing election for the first time — submitted their candidate paperwork in hopes of continuing to represent their district come November. Other current board members already had campaigning experience under their belt.

Collecting signatures for this year’s election was much easier for Anusha Thotakura, who represents District 6A, because her district is much smaller than when she first ran in 2024. Another big difference Thotakura has noticed is the engagement from Chicagoans in the race.

“Before, a lot of people in the city didn’t even know we had a school board or what the school board did,” she said. “And now, more people know about what’s going on. They have issues they want to get involved with, and a lot of that is sparking this increase in participation.”

Realtor LaPamela Williams, who filed to run in District 5A, poses for a portrait inside the Chicago Board of Elections Supersite on Monday, May 18, 2026.

For others waiting in line, winning election would mean the first time serving on the board. Personal experience in Chicago schools was the primary motivation for LaPamela Williams, a realtor looking to represent District 5A. Growing up, Williams said her mother sent her to a high school outside her neighborhood so she could get a better quality education. Williams doesn’t want other families to continue having to make that choice.

“I want to see a different run school system, especially in my district,” Williams said.

The filing period ends May 26. That’s when another long line of candidates will likely form to snag the last spot in the ballot order, which is also determined by a lottery.

Makiya Seminera is a reporter covering how the state and federal government affect education in Chicago and across Illinois. Contact Makiya at mseminera@chalkbeat.org.

A Chicago school board investigation failed to uncover source of media leaks

2026-05-08T16:04:03+00:00

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A controversial monthslong investigation failed to uncover whether any school board members leaked the identities of CEO finalists and other information to the media.

In November, school board President Sean Harden hired a law firm to find out who revealed the identities of two finalists for district CEO. He later expanded the scope of that inquiry to include a leak alerting a reporter to a December special meeting to adjust a property tax levy the day before it was announced. The investigation by Salvatore Prescott Porter & Porter has drawn criticism, particularly when it came to the special meeting, which was public and scheduled shortly before the winter holidays to discuss a tax increase.

Harden told Chalkbeat Friday he feels the investigation was worthwhile in setting up a shared understanding of how to conduct board business — even if it did not yield the identity of any leakers. He said the leaks damaged trust on the board and with the public, resulted in social media posts and coverage lacking sufficient context, and allowed board members gearing up for board elections in the fall to “curry favor” with reporters.

He said he doesn’t yet have the final law firm invoice, but believes the inquiry cost about $25,000.

“I feel this was the right thing to do,” he said. “Hopefully, this will be an investment the community can benefit from.”

But one school board member running for board president in November, Jessica Biggs, condemned the inquiry as “petty politics at the expense of taxpayers and the public trust” in a Friday post on X.

“This Board should be focused on student achievement and growth,” she wrote. “This ‘investigation’ is an example of everything that is misguided about our current leadership.”

The disclosure of the CEO finalists — one of whom immediately distanced himself from the search — was seen at the time as a move that scuttled the national search process and led to additional months of seeking a top leader. Board members had signed nondisclosure agreements in a bid to encourage applications by leaders in other large districts, who might be reluctant to advertise their interest in leaving their current posts. Ultimately, the school board hired the interim CEO, Macquline King, whom members had enlisted to fill in last summer.

Released by the board office Thursday evening, the law firm’s report says there was insufficient evidence to find the source of the leaks, noting the refusal by multiple board members, including Biggs, to turn over their personal cell phones for examination. Two of the 21 board members, Che “Rhymefest” Smith and Ellen Rosenfeld, declined to cooperate with the investigation entirely and did not speak with the attorneys. Two reporters the firm asked to interview — WBEZ’s Sarah Karp and Paris Schutz, at FOX at the time — also refused.

A search of more than 9,000 emails and other documents also did not uncover any clues.

The report does include a summary of discussions the lawyers had with board members about the motivation behind the leaks. Members offered differing takes on what might have spurred the disclosures.

But, the report said: “Whatever the motivation of the leaks, all witnesses agreed that the leaks made the Board look divided and untrustworthy. Relatedly, many witnesses commented on the tension and distrust within the Board between the appointed and elected members.”

The report also discusses the possibility that someone other than a board member leaked the CEO finalists’ identities.

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

More than $550,000 has poured into historic Chicago school board races

2026-04-17T21:45:03+00:00

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Data analysis by Thomas Wilburn

More than six months ahead of Chicago’s historic school board races, candidates are starting to ramp up fundraising — and political action committees are gearing up to spend big.

About 40 active school board candidate committees have already raised roughly $555,000 as of March 31 since last October, according to data Chalkbeat analyzed after a deadline this week to file campaign cash disclosures for the first quarter of 2026 with the Illinois State Board of Elections.

More than a third of that total represented the haul of Sendhil Revuluri — a former school board vice president running for the at-large role of board president — giving him a commanding fundraising lead so far. Two incumbents also running for board president — Jessica Biggs and Jennifer Custer — raised about $60,000 and $50,000, respectively, in the same period.

For the first time in the city’s history, Chicagoans this November will elect all 21 members of the school board, which has long been handpicked by the mayor. In 2024, residents chose 10 members, and Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed the rest, including the president. These latest races come at a high-stakes time for Chicago Public Schools, which faces swelling budget deficits, declining enrollment, and other challenges.

The 2024 races drew more than $13 million in campaign cash, an analysis by Chalkbeat Chicago found at the time. With all seats up for grabs, spending on this year’s races is expected to handily outpace that amount, which dwarfed that spent on school board elections in cities such as Denver and Detroit.

The last time around, heavy spending clearly helped propel some candidates to their seats on board, whose members serve without pay. But the races also showed the limitation of campaign cash. Some of the candidates with the most modest war chests, such as Biggs, bested much better funded opponents. Of the nine candidates in contested races backed by the Chicago Teachers Union — the biggest spender on those board elections — three made it onto the board.

The teachers union is once again poised to clash with charter and other school choice proponents, though these groups are waiting until the candidate field is more complete. Candidates will formally file to run between May 18 and 26. The Illinois Network of Charter Schools had more than $3.2 million in cash on hand as of March 31, by far the largest amount among super PACs expected to get involved in the school board races. Super PACs can spend without limitation on races, but they are not allowed to coordinate directly with candidate campaigns.

“We’ll be a very substantial part of the outside spending for sure,” said Andrew Broy, the network’s executive director. “We’ll try to be involved in as many districts as possible.”

Now that the state’s primary elections are over, school board candidates are starting to kick off their fundraising in earnest.

A $68,000 loan to his own campaign makes Revuluri the biggest donor to school board political committees so far. Trailing him are billionaire Michael Sacks and Allstate Corporation CEO Thomas Wilson, who both late last year donated the legal limit of $7,300 to each in a group of elected school board members who have banded together to parry the influence of a Johnson-aligned majority.

Sacks also donated to the Common Ground Collective, a new political action committee led by cabinet members of former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who was pushed out by Johnson. The Sacks donations were previously reported by WBEZ.

Broy, the charter network’s head, said its focus for now is identifying candidates aligned with its pro-school choice mission and helping them get on the ballot. The network’s super PAC has drawn large checks from big-pocketed donors such as James Frank, the executive chairman of the board of Wheels Inc. As in 2024, the group will hold off on spending in earnest until closer to the election. But Broy said he expects spending to ramp up earlier this time around.

“Incumbents are going to want to get a jump on their opposition,” he said. “They’ll try to get an advantage by striking first.”

Broy expects the network will again back several members it funded heavily in 2024, such as Carlos Rivas and Angel Gutierrez.

Following heavy spending on primary races, the CTU’s cash on hand is now paltry in comparison, at about $126,000 at the end of March. But it’s poised to get replenished with member dues in the coming months.

A spokesperson for the union said the CTU will follow its customary process in which members review candidate questionnaires and other information to determine “who are champions for public schools and who are serving billionaire donors set to close schools.”

SEIU Illinois Council PAC, affiliated with the union representing support staff in CPS, made contributions to some elected incumbents late last year. The union has been a close ally of the CTU in previous years, but following disagreements last year might diverge in which candidates it backs.

The March primary races dominated political giving so far this year, making it hard to gain fundraising momentum for fall contests, said Custer, the school board member who is running for the districtwide board president role. She said her committee has been able to raise about $25,000 in the past couple of weeks, an amount that’s not reflected in her Board of Elections filing.

“It is definitely ramping up now,” she said. “I’ve been spending a lot of time on the phone.”

Custer said she is approaching “people prominent in the education spaces in and around Chicago” and circling back with donors to her 2024 campaign, including friends and family members. Custer was endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union in 2024 but has clashed repeatedly with the union during her time on the board. “I don’t think they’ll come to me,” she said.

Custer said her major campaign expenditure so far has been child care, a permissible expense for candidates for office. Lining up care for her children has allowed her to visit schools, meet with potential supporters, and attend board meetings, she said.

With about $236,000 raised so far according to his campaign, Revuluri, who served as school board vice president during the pandemic, has pulled ahead among candidates who have formed committees to run in November.

Besides the loan to his campaign, his haul comes almost exclusively from individual contributions from across the country. He said he has tapped his extensive professional network, but the bulk of donations are from Chicagoans who have responded to his message of “effective governance that really puts our students at the center.” He said the current board has been too mired in political struggles, which he believes gives him an edge over incumbent rivals.

Revuluri said he is focused on low-cost campaigning, including meeting a goal of speaking with more than 10,000 voters, so he will hold off on most spending until the months leading up to the election.

“We have to meet voters where they are — once they have really tuned in,” he said.

Chalkbeat Chicago reporter Reema Amin contributed to this report.

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

Chicago Public Schools to stay open May 1 during nationwide protest — at least for now

2026-04-09T23:01:09+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools will stay open May 1 for now, despite a push from board members and the Chicago Teachers Union to allow teachers and students to join a nationwide protest that day, in part against the Trump administration.

But it’s still possible schools will close that day, since a majority of Board of Education members support the move.

In a statement issued Thursday afternoon, interim CPS CEO Macquline King — who will begin leading the district permanently July 1 — said she’s recommended that school should stay open. She added that if the board wants to cancel classes, it must convene a special meeting and take a formal vote “as soon as possible.”

“Our staff, students and families need a clear understanding of what to expect on May 1,” she said.

Union leaders have pushed for the day to be a teacher-directed professional development day — for which students are off from school — so that teachers and students could participate in the national day of “no school, no work, no shopping.” The protest is meant to advocate for raising taxes on the rich, reining in immigration enforcement, and more funding for schools, union officials have said.

The disagreement could be an early test of King’s leadership of the district, which is confronting a range of challenges.

Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former CTU organizer and close ally of the union’s, previously said he supports letting students miss school on May 1, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

But confusion over whether the day would be off began Wednesday, after a memo from King leaked to the press. King’s memo, dated Tuesday and delivered to board members, said she wanted to keep classes in session in order to “ensure continuity of instruction, maintain safe and supervised environments, and minimize disruption for families,” including providing access to free student meals, according to a copy of the memo obtained by Chalkbeat.

She also noted that in a recent survey, 113 schools — or roughly one-fifth of all schools — reported a range of activities happening May 1, including field trips, college-decision day events, sports events, and make-up AP testing, the memo said. Just over 100 schools said they had out-of-school activities planned, including prom and senior night.

Those activities, which required “months of planning and financial commitments” could be difficult to reschedule as the district gets closer to the end of the year, the memo said.

Board members are split on calling the day off.

But also this week, the Chicago Teachers Union filed a grievance against the district, claiming CPS had violated its contractual agreement when planning this school year by failing to work with the union to schedule one professional development day for the 2025-26 school year.

In a letter dated Monday, CTU president Stacy Davis Gates wrote that the contractual language was negotiated “with the express purpose of accommodating a day of civic action on May 1.”

King notes in her memo that the provision cited by the union is set to take effect next school year, not this year. The school board adopted its calendar for next school year, when May 1 falls on a Saturday.

The union has also pointed to a state law allowing middle and high school kids to participate in a civic event. But in her memo, King said the law allows those students to take one excused absence a year for such an action and doesn’t allow a district-wide day off.

The grievance and the matter of May Day came up during the board’s closed session on Wednesday, board members said. King asked board members to weigh in and presented them with multiple options, including to keep schools open. A majority of board members, who are aligned with the mayor, voiced support for canceling classes on May 1, and some of those who were opposed stated that King had switched her position after the board’s closed session.

Debby Pope, an appointed board member, said board members shared many perspectives, including concerns for working parents. Pope said she supports closing schools May 1 because the nation is in “unprecedented times” and that “education takes many forms,” including participating in or learning about protests.

Other board members have stated staunch opposition, including Jessica Biggs and Jennifer Custer, both elected board members who have announced their runs for board president.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Biggs said, “The academic calendar has been set. Key end of year activities are planned. Our teachers are working hard to wrap up the year on a focused note. And our families count on our schools to do what they say.”

Custer started a petition online calling for school to stay open.

On Thursday morning, King joined a call that included leaders from CTU, the city’s principals union, and the mayor’s office so that they could plan for different scenarios, but no final decision had been made, according to Kia Banks, president of the principals union. Banks said all parties are trying to be “aware of our civic responsibilities while preserving or protecting our learners.”

A source close to CTU said it has been in “productive meetings” figuring out plans with the district, the principals union and the mayor’s office.

It remains unclear how staff in other unions, such as those who represent custodians and other support workers, would be affected or if they were included on the Thursday morning call.

Board President Sean Harden issued his own memo to King and some of her top cabinet members on Thursday, expressing the board’s support for King to “operationalize a day of civic action” on May 1.

King responded the same day, telling Harden that she was sticking by her statement that the district’s position “is to remain open May 1.” She also reiterated her call for the board to publicly vote on the matter.

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

After debate, Chicago school board denounces Trump-backed push for school choice

2026-04-08T21:32:17+00:00

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As Gov. JB Pritzker weighs opting Illinois into a Trump-backed tax credit scholarship program, the Chicago Board of Education decided after an impassioned debate to push him to avoid it.

The board voted 15-0, with three abstentions, to adopt a resolution Wednesday that denounces the Trump administration’s efforts “to expand and incentivize voucher or publicly funded scholarships for private schools” and criticized private schools as nontransparent institutions.

The resolution comes as more than half of U.S. states — largely led by Republican governors — have opted into the new program. Two Democratic governors have also decided to opt into it. It will provide dollar-for-dollar tax credits to donors who give up to $1,700 to scholarship-granting nonprofits. The funds can go toward certain expenses for students enrolled in private or public schools or home-schooled children whose families make up to 300% of the local median income. For a Chicago family, that means earning less than roughly $233,000 a year.

It’s unclear if districts can directly benefit from the money.

Elected board members Che “Rhymefest” Smith, Ellen Rosenfeld, and Therese Boyle abstained from voting. Smith and Rosenfeld said they felt the matter should be directly discussed with Pritzker and his team, while Boyle is unsure how she feels about the program.

Before the vote, board members debated over whether they should take up the resolution or shelve it and discuss the matter directly with lawmakers. Board president Sean Harden, who is appointed by the mayor, said board members could both vote on a resolution and approach the governor’s office for a discussion.

“[The governor] looks for leaders to make statements around what their values are,” Harden said.

Some left-leaning politicians, including Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, have embraced the program. Pritzker has privately shared with Mendoza his reservations about opting into the program, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Rosenfeld motioned to postpone the vote because she felt the resolution’s public nature was “politically motivated.” She said she’d rather go to Springfield to ask Pritzker to oppose the program.

Springfield lawmakers have been in session since the start of the year, but the school board has not yet voted on a legislative agenda.

“Politics don’t belong in the boardroom,” Rosenfeld said.

Elected board member Jitu Brown said he couldn’t “disagree more” with Rosenfeld, that the nature of the board is political, and part of that is debate.

“Until we’re able to have honest grown-up conversations about why we have the positions we have, then we’ll play this game (of) ‘I don’t want to do politics,’” Brown said. “If you don’t want to do politics, then you shouldn’t be on the school board.”

Appointed board member Debby Pope said indefinitely pushing the resolution back “totally diminishes” its power.

Boyle said she’s still unsure how she feels about the tax credit program.

“Before being asked to make a decision on this I wish I could hear from the governor and his team – like why is it taking him so long to make a decision?” Boyle said.

Several groups, including the Chicago Teachers Union and Illinois Families for Public Schools, have strongly denounced the new program as a tactic to siphon students and funding from public schools and asked Pritzker not to opt in.

Opponents have pointed to school choice programs in other states to argue why a program to expand private school access in Illinois won’t necessarily benefit low-income students. In states with universal education savings accounts or voucher programs, a large share of participating students are from affluent families. Many attended private school before the voucher program was launched.

There have been some local efforts to push Pritzker to opt in. The libertarian-leaning think tank Illinois Policy Institute pushed for a ballot advisory question on the issue during last month’s elections in more than two dozen counties, most of which are suburban or rural and voted for Trump in 2024. Most voters in those places signaled support for the program.

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

Chicago school board names Angel Vélez as new vice president

2026-04-08T17:28:52+00:00

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In a split decision, the Chicago school board on Wednesday chose a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant appointed to the board last year by Mayor Brandon Johnson as its new vice president.

The board voted 9-7 for Angel Vélez to replace former board vice president Olga Bautista, an appointee who stepped down last month. The vice president performs the duties of the board president, such as presiding over meetings, if the president is absent.

Johnson appointed Vélez — who has also studied education policy — last August to fill a vacancy ahead of a pivotal budget vote. Vélez represents subdistrict 9a, which covers South Side neighborhoods that span from Canaryville to Auburn Gresham.

Vélez earned support for his vice presidency from other board members who have been more aligned with Johnson, including appointees Cydney Wallace, Debby Pope, Norma Rios-Sierra, Ed Bannon, Michilia Blaise and Karen Zaccor, as well as elected members Jitu Brown and Ebony DeBerry.

Elected board member Yesenia Lopez was also nominated for vice president and earned votes from elected board members who have been more critical of the mayor’s office: Che “Rhymefest” Smith, Therese Boyle, Ellen Rosenfeld, Carlos Rivas, Jennifer Custer, and Jessica Biggs.

Vélez and Lopez each voted for themselves.

The board did not discuss the vote further.

In a recent interview, Vélez spoke about his desire for more unity on the board. Vélez, who is Black and Latino, said he didn’t sign on to a letter last week pushing soon-to-be permanent CEO Macquline King to hire more Latinos in her cabinet because he felt it was more divisive than helpful. He said it would have been better for board members and organizations to first speak with King about the demands.

“If we unite, we can ask for more funding,” Velez said. “If we stay divided, not a lot is going to get done.”

The mayor currently appoints 11 of the board’s 21 members, including the president. He has not yet named a replacement for Bautista, and his office did not respond to a request for comment.

All 21 seats on the board will be up for election this November, and the board will be a fully elected governing body starting next January.

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

Chicago school board to vote on resolution urging Pritzker to reject public funds for private school

2026-04-06T21:19:32+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education plans to vote Wednesday on a resolution urging Gov. JB Pritzker to reject efforts by the Trump administration to support private schools with public funds.

Pritzker, a vocal critic of President Donald Trump who is running for reelection as governor, has not yet made a decision about whether to opt Illinois into a federal tax-credit program.

The resolution doesn’t explicitly name the new federal tax-credit program, but it denounces Trump administration efforts “to expand and incentivize voucher or publicly funded scholarships for private schools.” It also criticizes private schools as bodies without enough guardrails or public transparency.

The federal program would provide dollar-for-dollar tax credits to donors who give up to $1,700 to scholarship-granting nonprofits. In states where the governor opts into the program, those funds can go toward certain expenses for students enrolled in private or public schools (or home-schooled children) whose families make up to 300% of the local median income — or for a Chicago family making roughly $233,000 a year or less.

Federal officials have said public schools can also benefit from the program but haven’t solidified rules for how. For example, it’s unclear whether the money could be used for tutoring provided by public schools or be restricted to outside tutoring groups.

More than half of U.S. states, mostly run by Republican governors, have opted in. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis is the only Democratic governor to officially do so, while North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein said he plans to in the future. A handful of other Democrats who previously opposed the program said they’re now reconsidering.

The board’s resolution argues that “the diversion of public funds for private education weakens not only public schools but other vital public goods and services such as transportation, healthcare and efforts to preserve the environment.”

Such a resolution isn’t surprising from Chicago’s school board. Many board members have taken a stance against the Trump administration in other areas, including its deportation campaign in Chicago in the fall and its cancellation of millions of dollars in federal grant funding for CPS. A majority of the board is also aligned with the Chicago Teachers Union, a major ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson, which is staunchly opposed to the program.

But there have been some splits among Illinois politicians. Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who is considering a run for Chicago mayor this year, called for the state to opt in via an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune. While Pritzker hasn’t announced a decision, he has expressed reservations: He texted Mendoza that governors who haven’t yet opted in “are waiting to understand how much of the money can be used for publics and exactly how states can keep the money from supporting schools that teach values that are racist or antisemitic or anti-American,” according to texts obtained by the Chicago Tribune.

For her part, Mendoza wrote in a Tribune op-ed that “rather than funding Trump’s agenda in D.C. or sending more of our dollars to Republican-controlled states already taking advantage of Illinois taxpayers, I would much prefer that an Illinoisan be able to redirect $1,700 to support their own school community.”

Some education advocacy groups have asked Pritzker not to opt in. Additionally, the advocacy arm of Illinois Policy Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank, persuaded more than two dozen Illinois counties and townships to include a non-binding advisory question on their recent primary election ballots about the program. Most of the questions didn’t mention that the program relies on tax credits, and at least one of those counties incorrectly described the program.

Still, a majority of voters in places with the ballot question approved of Pritzker opting in, according to a tally of results from Illinois Policy. Most of those counties are suburban or rural areas that voted for Trump in 2024. (Cook County, the state’s largest, and Chicago ballots did not have the advisory question.)

The federal program comes three years after Illinois lawmakers allowed a different private school scholarship program to sunset. That program, known as the Invest in Kids scholarship, allowed individuals or corporations to donate to scholarship-granting organizations, which then provided tuition aid to low-income, private school students.

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

Macquline King, interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools, hired as permanent leader

2026-03-30T18:55:05+00:00

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The Board of Education voted Monday to name Macquline King as Chicago Public Schools CEO, ending a rocky yearlong search for the district’s permanent leader.

The board voted 18-1 to hire King, who has been the district’s interim leader since last June, when former CEO Pedro Martinez left after being fired without cause. Elected board member Jennifer Custer voted no.

The board officially picked King last week over Sito Narcisse, the former superintendent of East Baton Rouge Parish schools in Louisiana who was named another finalist earlier this month.

King is poised to face a $520 million projected budget deficit. She’ll also be in place through school board elections this year and when a new, fully elected board is seated.

As interim chief, King has been forced to navigate some major issues during her nine months on the job, including closing a $734 million budget deficit that sparked a fight with the mayor’s office, the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign, and upheaval in the district’s charter sector.

In remarks following the vote, King emphasized that she would build relationships in government and communities and would center students in her decisions. She highlighted bright spots in the district, including more recent student achievement in math, but also acknowledged problems ahead and said she’ll be “the most vocal advocate” in pushing for more state funding for CPS.

“We cannot and we will not allow financial headwinds to jeopardize those hard won victories and our students’ confidence,” King said.

Later, during a press conference, King said that in order to close a budget deficit that could rise as high as $1 billion, “everything has to be on the table so that we don’t compromise the progress that CPS students have made.”

King hasn’t rolled out major policy changes in her time so far, though last fall she was interested in reorganizing the district’s network offices, which help manage principals.

Several board members spoke in support of King ahead of the vote, saying that she’s a homegrown candidate who has earned the full-time role by displaying calm leadership over the past nine months. Board members raised a number of issues they want to work with King on, including budgetary pressures, supporting Black students, and addressing the district’s underenrolled schools.

“What mattered most to me — the fact that there are so many pressures on you, but you’ve always centered students,” said elected board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith.

Appointed board member Ed Bannon nodded to the rocky search for a new CEO that lasted about a year — but said that “the trip was worth it.”

“The path might have seemed a little rough at times, but as the saying goes, this is what democracy looks like,” Bannon said.

In an interview following the vote, Custer told reporters that she voted no because school leaders in her community said they did not feel like King has been communicative enough with them. She said she informed King of her vote ahead of time and wants to “figure out how to move forward.”

King started in CPS as a teacher in 1994, ultimately becoming a principal in 2007 until 2022. During that time, her work was both highlighted in the news and scrutinized by district officials in two incidents, once for failing to immediately report allegations of abuse and another time for failing to do a background check for a volunteer. She has said those critiques, which did not result in formal discipline, are the result of her not having enough staffing and support at the time.

She began working for Mayor Lori Lightfoot as an education policy advisor in 2022 and stayed in that role under Mayor Brandon Johnson until taking the job as interim schools chief last summer.

Union leaders and organizations share support for King

Unions, community organizations and elected officials welcomed King to the permanent CEO role as someone who navigated major challenges in the past year, has been willing to engage with them and, unlike other previous CEOs, rose up through the district’s ranks.

During public comment ahead of the board’s vote, Jackson Potter, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, lauded King for overseeing the unprecedented, midyear transfer of students out of two shuttering ASPIRA charter network high schools. He noted other challenges ahead of CPS, including the projected budget deficit and a federal government that has pulled funding from the district.

“We can’t stave off the harm that is on the horizon without being in lockstep in our advocacy and vision,” Potter said. “I look forward to doing more of that transformation together in a moment that requires all of us to do more.”

The city’s principals union has previously shown public support for King. That union’s president, Kia Banks, said Monday that she knows King and the union will not always agree but that King has so far “demonstrated a willingness to engage directly with school leaders,” creating a solid foundation for their relationship going forward.

In an interview last week, Dian Palmer, president of SEIU 73, the union that represents thousands of school support staff workers, said she’s most excited about stability for the district with a leader who worked her way up through the system and understands Chicago’s complexities. Palmer said King has been “patient and kind” about her union’s concerns, even when they didn’t agree.

For example, last summer the district’s budget cuts included laying off hundreds of unionized custodians. At the same time, the union supported King’s plans not to include a short-term loan in the budget in fear that future high-interest repayments would result in staff layoffs.

“I am really looking forward to her working with the union — at least that’s what she says,” Palmer said. “She wants to work with us and really have a positive atmosphere for education, for the students, not just the service workers, who we represent, the custodians, the [special education classroom assistants], but also for the teachers.”

Daniel Anello, CEO of education advocacy group Kids First Chicago, welcomed King’s appointment, noting in a statement that she “has already navigated a number of complex challenges related to the district’s finances, attendance, and more” and has shown “a clear commitment to putting students’ interests first, without yielding to political pressure.”

Anello also supported a three-year contract, which he said will mean stability for CPS as the board transitions to a fully elected body next year.

The national search process started last year with community meetings and a detailed wishlist for what the board would look for in a candidate, including “significant” experience in public education that involves working with students, a record of focusing on equity and improving student outcomes, experience working with labor unions, and financial management experience — an area King doesn’t have formal experience in but oversaw the district’s budget proposal last year.

But after finalist names leaked and one of the candidates dropped out in the fall, the board decided to conduct more interviews. By February, as the board narrowed down candidates, the board’s search firm, Alma Advisory Group, departed and six elected board members said they’d lost confidence in the search, accusing the mayor of meddling, which he’s denied. Those board members called for retaining King as the interim chief until the new board is seated.

King had applied for the job of CEO in 2021, but the board at the time, appointed by Lightfoot, picked Martinez. Then several months into her time as the interim chief, she again applied last fall for the permanent job amid the board’s search to replace Martinez but was not advanced as a finalist.

By then, at least seven board members who are also mayoral allies disagreed with her budget proposal that was ultimately approved. And separately, other board members appeared caught off guard after she pitched a plan to reorganize network offices.

In recent months, some organizations called on the board to keep King in place until at least a new elected board is seated in January. King was then added back into the mix in recent weeks.

Remel Terry, president of the West Side branch of the NAACP, said her organization is “excited” that King will stay. The organization has felt left in the dark about the search process, Terry said, and asked the board twice to pause the search and retain King permanently through next school year. It was disappointing that King was taken out of consideration in the fall even though “she has already demonstrated her ability to lead this district under pressure,” Terry said.

The group will keep a close watch on how the district’s Black Student Success Plan — which has been under federal scrutiny — will be implemented, Terry said. She also expects King to stay as communicative as she has been with organizations like hers, as well as parents, as she takes on the permanent role.

“Having access and being able to speak directly to concerns and issues is a very important piece,” Terry said.

This story has been updated to include comments from Macquline King and members of the Chicago Board of Education.

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

Chicago Board of Education to vote on hiring interim CEO Macquline King as permanent leader of CPS

2026-03-26T17:59:06+00:00

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After a yearlong national search for Chicago Public Schools’ next leader, the Board of Education will vote Monday on whether to permanently hire interim CEO Macquline King, a Chicagoan who rose up through the district’s ranks.

The board’s meeting will start at 10:30 a.m. Monday at its downtown headquarters, where it will consider approving a contract with King with a salary of $380,000, according to an agenda posted on the board’s website Thursday.

If approved by the board, the term of King’s contract would begin July 1 and last through June 2029, according to the board’s agenda. The resolution to approve a contract for King says the board has offered King the job, and she has accepted. .

The vote would also cap a rocky search process that’s been a test for how Chicago’s partially elected board could choose a schools chief differently from the past, when mayors would essentially make a pick without much public input. The board’s search process laid out last year acknowledged that it would seek the mayor’s input on its finalist candidates.

Last month, however, a group of six elected board members — including the search committee’s chair, Jessica Biggs — accused the mayor’s office of sabotaging the search, which Mayor Brandon Johnson has denied.

King has been serving as the district’s interim leader of the more than 316,000-student district since last June, when former CEO Pedro Martinez left after being fired without cause.

Martinez had received a five-year contract with a starting salary of $340,000 when hired in 2021 by a board that was fully appointed by then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Martinez made about $360,000 when he left CPS.

The other finalist was Sito Narcisse, the former superintendent of East Baton Rouge Parish schools in Louisiana, who has been trailed by a mixture of controversy and loyal supporters during his nearly 20 years in education.

Meisha Porter, former leader of New York City schools, was also a finalist, but she withdrew her name after the board announced the candidates’ names on March13.

Johnson interviewed King and Narcisse and called the conversations “fruitful” in a press conference earlier this week. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Norma Rios-Sierra, a mayoral appointee to the school board who sat on the board’s CEO search working group, said the mayor has given “his blessing” to hire King.

Rios-Sierra said the search process has had its “ups and downs,” but she’s excited to have King on permanently.

“I think she has shown her ability to just kind of take on the work that it is to be the Chicago Public Schools superintendent,” Rios-Sierra said. “We needed someone who understood the city, who understood the complexity of what we’re doing.”

King initially taken out of consideration for the job

King’s inclusion on the finalist list was initially a surprise.

She had applied last fall for the job, but the board did not advance her as a finalist at the time. After finalist names were leaked in November and one of those candidates dropped out, the board conducted more interviews and revealed a new list of finalists two weeks ago, which included King.

Two school board members previously told Chalkbeat they received a call from Board President Sean Harden the day before finalist names were announced publicly, saying King would be added to the list, and that Harden had garnered a majority of support from board members to add her.

If appointed, King will face mounting challenges at CPS, including a projected budget deficit to close this summer for the next school year. She’ll also be in place when a new, fully elected board is seated in January, raising questions about how she’ll build relationships with any new board members, who will have the power to keep or replace her.

But King isn’t new to some of these issues. The former principal and City Hall aide led the district through a bruising battle over how to close CPS’ $734 million budget deficit last summer, in which she opposed the mayor’s plan to take out a loan in order to balance the budget and cover a much-debated pension cost. That budget, however, also saw a slew of cuts, including hundreds of custodians and hot meals for kids.

King has also overseen the city’s schools through the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign, creating a “command center” for schools to call for extra support, the federal government’s decision to withhold millions of dollars in grant funding, and upheaval in the district’s charter sector.

In September, King had considered a massive reorganization of the district’s network offices, which operate as a sort of middle management between the district’s top leaders and schools. But she appeared to pause the plan after pushback from board members and some principals.

She has earned some public support for her leadership so far, including from the principals union and the West Side branch of NAACP.

Rios-Sierra, who voted no on King’s budget proposal in the fall, said she’s been impressed by how King has been communicative with other government agencies, including City Council and the state legislature. She also noted King’s work in overseeing the transfer of hundreds of students out of ASPIRA charter network’s shuttering high schools and her response to increased immigration enforcement.

“When we asked CPS to move with a sense of urgency when ICE was coming, I think she absolutely listened and did everything she could to communicate with parents and principals,” Rios-Sierra said.

King became a CPS teacher in 1994 at Robert Nathaniel Dett Elementary School following a brief stint at a private school. In 2007, King became principal at Alexandre Dumas School, and by 2013 she was principal at Courtenay Language Arts Center in Uptown, where she was highlighted for her participation in a leadership program for new school leaders.

Her first year as principal at Courtenay was when the school merged with former Stockton Elementary, meaning King was tasked with creating harmony between both school communities. While some acknowledged the difficult task ahead of her, others described part of the school as a “war zone” that was marred with student fights, and they accused school leaders, including King, of not doing enough, according to a DNAinfo story at the time.

King then was hired to work on education policy at City Hall under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and stayed under the Johnson administration until being hired for the role of interim CPS CEO. She had previously applied for the CEO job in 2021, but the board at the time hired Martinez.

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

Board has undergone a rocky search process

The board’s search process to find a replacement for Martinez has been fraught.

Last spring, the board created a working group to lead the process and hired the search firm, Alma Advisory Group. The district held public meetings to collect feedback on what the community wanted to see in a new schools chief.

A survey conducted last summer as part of the search process found that 42% of the more than 2,700 respondents wanted someone with “strong and clear communication.” Thirty-nine percent wanted someone with “innovation, strategic thinking, and problem solving,” and 37% want someone who seeks and responds to feedback from students, parents, and staff.

After conducting a nationwide search, the board received more than 100 applications.

But after finalist names were leaked in November, several board members soured on the process, and by February, Alma parted ways with the district. Biggs and five other elected officials decried the loss of Alma.

Those six elected members that raised questions about the process also called for the board to pause the search process until after school board elections this year and keep King until January 2027, when the new fully elected board will be seated. The West Side branch of the NAACP has also called to keep King in place through the 2026-27 school year, saying they had a “serious concern” about the legitimacy of the board’s search.

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

Sito Narcisse, Chicago Public Schools CEO finalist, drew praise and controversy in previous jobs

2026-03-25T00:06:40+00:00

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In the three years that Sito Narcisse, a finalist to be Chicago Public Schools’ next CEO, led East Baton Rouge Parish schools, he experienced a rollercoaster of support and backlash in the community.

The board there narrowly voted not to renew his contract in late 2023. His supporters praised his initiatives, including linking high schoolers to college-level coursework, while those who voted no raised concerns over spending fueled by federal COVID relief dollars and low employee morale.

Narcisse has also faced some controversy in other jobs, including criticism of his leadership of a public high school in Boston.

How Narcisse navigated his time in East Baton Rouge and other places provides clues on how he could lead the nation’s fourth largest district.

Unlike the other finalist, interim CPS CEO Macquline King, who grew up in Chicago and rose through the ranks of CPS, Narcisse has worked as an educator and administrator in at least a half-dozen cities and states, including Pittsburgh, Boston, and Washington, D.C., over nearly 20 years.

But like King, he’s had only one superintendent job.

Narcisse did not respond to a request for an interview for this story.

East Baton Rouge is far smaller and less diverse than CPS: It has 12% of the students, and nearly 70% of students are Black. But it has some similar needs: More than three-quarters of East Baton Rouge Parish students were considered “economically disadvantaged” in 2025, compared with roughly 70% in Chicago, according to district records.

Student academic results were mixed during Narcisse’s tenure, which included the pandemic and its aftermath. The share of kids in grades K-3 who scored “at benchmark” on end-of-the-year literacy screeners grew by almost 5 percentage points during his time as superintendent.

But for students in grades 3-8 in in each of those same years, the percentage of students who scored at the “basic” level on their state reading and math tests toggled between 23-24% — with a dip to 22% in math during Narcisse’s last school year, according to district data. In that same time period, CPS students in grades 3-8 who had met or exceeded proficiency in their state reading tests grew from about 21% to 30% and fluctuated from about 16% to 18% in math.

Average ACT scores were 17 during his time, with one increase to 18 — the state average — in the year before he left, comparable to CPS. Graduation rates fluctuated, landing at the same place they were when he started: about 73%. CPS graduation rate went from 79% to 80% during that same time period.

Supporters laud Narcisse’s ideas, but he faced controversy

Michael Gaudet, who was president of the East Baton Rouge Parish school board when it hired Narcisse, described the former superintendent as a “deliberate and decisive” leader who centered the needs of students. He praised Narcisse’s work to add literacy coaches for teachers in struggling elementary schools and help draft a blueprint for literacy.

”The biggest thing that he always emphasized was that to be effective, it has to be done at scale, and it has to be sustainable, and so, you know, that was kind of always one of his guiding principles,” Gaudet said.

His supporters also highlighted his “Pathways to Bright Futures” program, which allowed students to earn college credit and even an associate degree with a local community college.

Not everyone embraced the idea. Some parents and teachers didn’t want ninth graders to be limited to dual enrollment courses, arguing some colleges prefer Advanced Placement, the local newspaper The Advocate reported. District officials later said high schoolers would only be required to take one advanced class, which could include AP.

“That has been one of our landmark programs that our kids are still benefiting from through this very day,” said Dadrius Lanus, an East Baton Rouge Parish school board member and an ally of Narcisse’s who served as board president during Narcisse’s tenure.

Narcisse’s critics point to issues over school transportation and a leadership style that sometimes kept the public in the dark.

In Boston, Narcisse served as the headmaster of the district’s historic English High School from 2009-2012. Under Narcisse’s leadership, the Boston Globe reported, three-quarters of staff left and he instituted controversial changes, including same sex classrooms. The newspaper also reported that state education officials were withholding funding due to a lack of improvement at the school, which had faced academic challenges long before Narcisse.

Storm Matthews, a longtime middle school teacher and education advocate in East Baton Rouge who was previously a delegate for the Louisiana Association of Educators and is highly critical of Narcisse, pointed to an incident when board members were in the dark about Narcisse’s idea to close an alternative middle school — which Matthews discovered while looking through his proposed budget and alerted local reporters, the Advocate reported. After the revelation, Narcisse presented a plan to the school board for the closure about a month before teachers would return from summer break, and the board ultimately rejected it.

Problems with student bus transportation also dogged Narcisse during his time as superintendent. Similar to other districts, including Chicago, East Baton Rouge faced a driver shortage after the pandemic, and the district’s school bus fleet had been in disrepair before Narcisse came to town, according to Gaudet and Lanus. But those issues were compounded by bus driver concerns over pay and working conditions, such as overheated buses, leading to a “sickout” in August 2023.

In response, hundreds of people attended a special board meeting, and some called for Narcisse to resign, the Advocate reported. That day the school board rejected Narcisse’s plan to stagger school start times as a possible solution to create more reliable bus service.

District saved more money under Narcisse, but some criticized his spending

Narcisse was also charged with how to spend more than $200 million in COVID relief dollars from the federal government. Local financial audits found that East Baton Rouge, like other districts, significantly increased spending with the influx of the federal funds, and district officials said in 2023 that they would use about a quarter of the money on expenses that they typically cover with local revenue, the Advocate reported.

Despite that, those audits found that the district had set aside a record amount of money in its reserve, or rainy day, funds, though such spending couldn’t be kept up as the money ran out.

Narcisse also caught heat after some students said that an event called “Day of Hope,” billed as a college and career fair the district put on in partnership with a local organization, had religious overtones and included discussion of suicide and forgiving rapists, while transgender students said they were bullied. At the time, Narcisse said his office had made “exhaustive” efforts to verify the claims but found no evidence. Gaudet said a subsequent investigation did not find evidence, either. Two parents later filed a lawsuit against Narcisse and the board.

School board elections in 2022 brought on new officials who pushed back on Narcisse.

In May 2023, just over a year before his contract with East Baton Rouge was set to expire, Narcisse interviewed unsuccessfully to oversee Broward County, Florida schools. He told board members about the interview but said he was still interested in staying.

But in December 2023, the school board decided not to renew Narcisse’s contract by a close vote of 5-4, and Narcisse resigned the following month.

Two of the members who voted no declined to comment for this story, and the others did not respond to a request for an interview.

The Advocate reported that at least one of the board members who was previously supportive of Narcisse voted no, in part because he was concerned about how much money the district had spent using COVID dollars. Another board member, who was a longtime teacher, said she’d seen employee morale dip during Narcisse’s tenure.

Since leaving East Baton Rouge, Narcisse has launched an education consulting company called SJ Apple, which appears to be based in Florida. Narcisse also hosts an education podcast called Unlearned and Unlimited, through which he’s interviewed former superintendents and experts.

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

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 Board of Education picks finalists for next CPS CEO: sources

2026-03-06T22:07:29+00:00

The Chicago Board of Education has identified multiple finalists for the next CEO of Chicago Public Schools, according to three sources familiar with the situation.

The board picked finalists during its Wednesday meeting in its closed session, the sources said. One of the sources said the board is advancing three people; the other sources declined to specify a number. A second source said there’s a small chance that the board may decide to add applicants to the finalist list.

In a previous interview with Chalkbeat, appointed board member Norma Rios-Sierra said the board had a goal of identifying at least three finalists.

All sources, who requested anonymity to share private discussions, declined to reveal finalist names. One source described the finalists as “very strong,” and another said they have experience leading large urban districts.

The board passed a resolution last year saying the next CEO must have a superintendent’s license.

“What seems to be moving forward is keeping with the timeline and by this spring, being able to name someone and give them an offer,” said one of the sources, adding that an eventual pick likely wouldn’t start until the summer.

The next round of interviews and an eventual pick for CEO could happen as soon as within the next month, but an exact timeline isn’t yet clear, two of the sources said.

The district has been without a permanent leader since former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez left last June. Macquline King has been serving as interim since and applied for the CEO job but didn’t advance to a finalist round.

The process has so far been bumpy. The search appeared to be coming to a close last winter before multiple news outlets revealed finalist names kept under wraps — New York City schools chancellor Meisha Porter and current Denver superintendent Alex Marrero. After Marrero appeared to drop out, the board began interviewing more candidates. But last month, the board’s search firm Alma Advisory Group parted ways with the district.

In late February, a small group of elected members — including elected board member Jessica Biggs, who chairs the search committee — accused the mayor’s office and its allies of derailing the search, which the mayor’s office has denied. Those board members have advocated for keeping King in place until a new fully elected school board is sworn in next January.

Some of the candidates earned a majority of support to be advanced as finalists but did not get unanimous backing, which some board members also raised concerns about, one source said.

In a statement, the Chicago Board of Education office said “there are no updates to provide at this time.”

Sources said Harden and board office staff did not outline or present specific next steps on the search during the Wednesday meeting, but their understanding is that finalists will interview with board members and the mayor.

Originally, the board had created a community panel that would also interview finalists, but it wasn’t clear among the sources if such a panel will still conduct interviews.

The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

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

After possible building sale, Chicago Public Schools agrees to lease space for Acero Santiago

2026-03-05T17:52:04+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education has agreed to rent the building housing Acero Santiago charter school in the West Town neighborhood, avoiding a potential sale and loss of the school site.

The property at 2510 W. Cortez St. is owned by the Archdiocese of Chicago, which had put the building up for sale last July.

Last week, the board approved adding the building to its master lease agreement with the archdiocese, a move that also added the buildings of other Acero charter schools the school board took over last year to prevent Acero from shuttering those schools.

In total, Chicago Public Schools will transition five Acero schools — De las Casas, Cisneros, Fuentes, Tamayo, and Santiago — into district-run schools by the 2026-27 school year.

“I’m not gonna lie, this past year, especially the last six months, have been so scary because we knew that the CPS board members wanted to save us, but then we didn’t know if we’re going to have a building,” Reyna Rodriguez, a Santiago parent who pushed for CPS to keep the building, told reporters during a press conference Monday. “It feels like a dream.”

During that press conference, elected board member Carlos Rivas, who represents the area that includes Santiago, said the board’s vote means CPS will lease the building for at least the next decade.

The lease agreement represents the latest development in CPS’ gradual and unprecedented takeover of these charters, as other schools in Chicago’s charter sector face financial challenges, closures, and some accusations of mismanagement.

CPS did not respond to a request for comment. Archdiocese spokesperson Yasmin Quiroz said the sale was planned after the school faced closure last year but it changed course once CPS “expressed its desire to retain the school.”

“In recognition of the important service the school provides to the local neighborhood, the parish decided to retain the building and lease it to CPS rather than sell it,” Quiroz said in an email to Chalkbeat.

The cost of the master lease agreement with the archdiocese will increase by about $2 million with the addition of the Acero buildings, to a total of roughly $7 million for the next fiscal year.

Rivas said he began pushing to keep the building after being “caught off guard” by the archdiocese’s listing of the building, which at the time was reported to be $6.75 million.

On the first day of school at Santiago, parents and teachers held a press conference decrying the possible sale and pressing CPS to intervene.

Rivas and Ald. Gilbert Villegas, who also represents the area, told reporters that the “X-factor” in negotiations with archdiocese was twofold: The continued pressure from Acero parents to keep the school and an agreement with the archdiocese that it could still sell off a church building on the Santiago site that’s separate from the school.

Correction: A previous version of this story mistakenly said CPS had taken over Acero Octavio Paz; it did not, and that campus was closed.

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

Chicago school board Vice President Olga Bautista steps down

2026-03-04T20:03:42+00:00

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Olga Bautista, the vice president of the Chicago school board and a staunch ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson, is stepping down from the board.

Bautista, the co-executive director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force, said she will also step away from professional commitments after winning a new sabbatical award from the Chicago Frontlines Fund, an organization that makes grants to environmental justice nonprofits.

Bautista was appointed by Johnson in 2024 after an entire largely Johnson-appointed board resigned amid a clash between the district’s administration and the mayor’s office over district funding. The board she joined went on to fire then-district CEO Pedro Martinez in late 2024, and she continued serving after a partly elected board was seated in January 2025.

Bautista has remained a close Johnson ally on the board: She was one of seven members on the 21-person board who voted no on the district’s budget last fall when a majority of the board backed it, flouting the mayor’s push to include a controversial pension reimbursement to the city and take out a high-cost loan to afford it.

Bautista, who has two children attending the district, steps down as campaigns for all seats on the board, which will be up for grabs in November, are getting underway.

In a statement Bautista read at the start of a Wednesday board meeting, her last, she nodded to the key moment of transition for CPS as she departs the board: The district is still looking for a new permanent schools chief as the city prepares to select a fully elected board for the first time.

“I’ve left jobs before, but none that mattered as much as this position,” a visibly emotional Bautista said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said Johnson plans to fill the vacancy left by Bautista’s departure before fall’s school board elections, and he thanks her for her service on the volunteer board.

“She has been a dedicated voice for safe, well-funded schools and meaningful community engagement in shaping the future of public education,” the statement said.

Allies of the mayor will continue to hold a majority on the board after Bautista steps down.

In a statement, the Chicago Frontlines Fund said it established the new sabbatical for environmental leaders so they can take six months off for “intentional rest and reflection” to prevent burnout.

Fellow board members — largely those also aligned with Johnson — praised Bautista’s service on the board and her advocacy for environmental causes in the city. They described her as a supportive, welcoming presence on the board, willing to offer guidance during late night phone calls or over fresh-made guacamole at her home. Board President Sean Harden thanked Bautista for helping him ease into his role when he was “a deer in the headlights” during his first board meeting.

“I am a little upset you’re not taking me with you,” joked Harden, who has said he is not running in the fall school board elections.

Michilla Blaise, who along with Debby Pope was a fellow appointee to the 2024 board, commended Bautista for her steady leadership.

“We were thrust into a storm of epic proportions,” Blaise said. “I didn’t know Olga at the time, but we were immediate sisters.”

This story has been updated to include a statement from the mayor.

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

Chicago school board adopts calendars for next two school years

2026-02-26T22:14:26+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education unanimously adopted calendars Thursday for the next two school years after initial pushback on having the first semester end after winter break.

The calendars for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years will include 176 days for student attendance, four Teacher Institute Days, four school improvement days, four professional development days, and two days for parent-teacher conferences.

The first day of next school year will be Aug. 24 for K-12 students and Aug. 25 for pre-K students, about a week later than this year. For the 2027-28 school year, the first day will be Aug. 23 and 24, respectively, for K-12 and pre-K students. Students would again get a week off for Thanksgiving break and a two-week winter break under both calendars.

But unlike this school year, the first semester would end after winter break, meaning final exams would occur after break — prompting concern from some board members when the calendars were first presented in January.

“The No. 1 concern I hear from students is about mental health, and having a break as an opportunity for resetting, recovering, and spending time with their families is really important,” appointed board member Anusha Thotakura said during a January meeting to review that month’s board meeting agenda. “If you have testing for second quarter after winter break, students won’t have that opportunity to reset, relax, and come into the new year energized.”

In order to have the first semester end before winter break, CPS would have to make certain shifts on the calendar, Nicole Milberg, chief of teaching and learning at CPS, has said. CPS considered getting rid of the full week of Thanksgiving break and moving more professional development days to the second semester, but that scenario would require starting school long before Labor Day in order to meet state requirements for school days.

Board members asked CPS to reconsider the calendars and survey families again on what they wanted. At a meeting earlier this month to review Thursday’s agenda, officials said 55% of the 22,000 people surveyed preferred ending the first semester after winter break. Another 37% of people wanted the option of ending the first semester before break, and 8% wanted to start school a few days earlier and also have a shorter Thanksgiving break. It was not clear how many of the respondents were high school students, parents, or staff.

Board members did not discuss the calendars further before their vote.

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

Some board members claim ‘sabotage’ as Chicago school board and search firm tasked with finding new CEO part ways

2026-02-13T00:39:35+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education is parting ways with Alma Advisory Group, the search firm tasked with helping the school board find a new CEO, according to a statement from six of the board’s 10 elected members.

The statement, obtained by Chalkbeat, does not specify when or why Alma wrapped up its work on the search. The board members who signed it — Carlos Rivas Jr., Ellen Rosenfeld, Jessica Biggs, Angel Gutierrez, Therese Boyle, and Che “Rhymefest” Smith — say they now want interim CPS CEO Macquline King to stay in the job until a new, fully elected school board is seated next January.

The end of Alma’s contract is another twist in the CEO search process, which began last spring and appeared to be coming to a close in the late fall, only to seemingly come to a halt. Former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez left the district in late June after he was fired without cause, and the district has not had a permanent CEO since.

Search firms generally remain involved until a pick for the role is announced and in some cases might help with negotiating a contract.

The statement, which praised Alma’s work with the board, claims mayoral appointees “sabotaged” the search process and the mayor and “his allies” have “started running political interference.”

After this story published, the Chicago Board of Education office said in a statement that Alma will work with the school board for the next 30 days to “ensure a seamless transition into finalist interviews,” then remain on retainer with the district for future executive-level searches. The statement described Alma offering “extensive support,” including screening more than 100 candidates, and said the board is “deeply grateful” for its work.

The statement, which said the application window for CEO candidates closed Feb. 6, did not provide an explanation for Alma’s exit.

But another elected school board who has repeatedly voted in agreement with that group of elected members said Thursday she still feels optimistic about the search. Jenni Custer said the board is on the cusp of selecting several finalists for the CEO role, though members haven’t decided how many and whether all of them will be named publicly.

“We have a lot of great candidates left in our pool,” she said. “We need to see this through before we say the process has been unsuccessful.”

Custer said that in her understanding, the board and Alma parted ways because of a mutual sense that the search firm’s work was done at this point: “Alma has taken us as far as they can, and now the ball is in our court.”

But Smith, one of the statement’s signatories, said he witnessed mayoral appointees “sideline” Alma when it recommended “best practices” for the search. Smith declined to offer more details about what exactly prompted Alma’s exit.

“Now that Alma has left, how can you trust this process? Who’s leading it?” Smith said.

The school board is currently 11 members appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson and the 10 elected members.

Chicago Public Schools referred Chalkbeat to the Chicago Board of Education office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Board President Sean Harden and Monica Santana Rosen, the head of Alma did not respond to requests for comment.

After this story published, the mayor’s press office said in a statement that the allegation by these board members is “baseless and inaccurate.” The mayor’s office has not intervened in the CEO search or interviewed any candidates, the statement said.

The mayor’s office, in turn, accused board members of leaking names of candidates to the press — a matter that Harden hired a firm to investigate. It’s unclear where that investigation stands.

Each of the board members who signed Thursday’s statement had voted against hiring King as the interim CEO last year. And last fall, board members chose not to advance King as a finalist for the permanent CEO job before the process was halted when other finalist names were reported by Chalkbeat and the Chicago Sun-Times/WBEZ.

Later in November, school board members said they were “recalibrating” the search process. It’s unclear exactly where in the search the board is at or how close it is to choosing a candidate.

But during a board meeting Tuesday, Biggs and Smith publicly praised King’s leadership.

“I just wanted to take this time to just say thank you: Thank you for balancing the budget, thank you for visiting schools, thank you for inspiring confidence in our partners and thank you for being here and being a competent leader,” Smith said.

The board members’ calls to keep King are now in line with a broader call from the West Side NAACP and a coalition of Black-led groups, which want King to stay until at least a newly elected board is seated next year.

The question of the mayor’s role in selecting the district’s next leader has hung over the search, with some board members concerned that Johnson would exert control through his appointees. Smith said the board had at one point invited the mayor’s office to share what it wanted to see in the search process, but Johnson’s team said no.

The city’s mayors have traditionally hand-picked the district’s top leader, but there was an expectation that Johnson would play a more hands-off role amid the transition to a fully elected board.

Tensions on the board rose after the names of two finalists, New York City’s former top education official Meisha Ross Porter and current Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero, were leaked to the media late last year, disrupting the search.

The Thursday statement from board members noted “names of finalists have been leaked, progress has stalled, and major decisions have been put on hold” — and it blamed interference from the mayor’s office for these disruptions.

“By making it impossible for a professional firm to see this through, Mayor Johnson and his appointed board members have shown that they are either unwilling, unable, or uninterested in finding a qualified CEO/Superintendent to lead CPS into the future,” the statement said.

Custer said she hasn’t yet seen clear evidence that Johnson’s office is meddling in the process.

This story has been updated with comment from board member Che Smith, the mayor’s office and the Chicago Board of Education office.

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

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

After debate, CPS pitches keeping end of first semester after winter break for next two school years

2026-02-11T21:00:27+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools is recommending school calendars for the next two years that keep the end of second quarter after winter break, despite some recent concerns from school board members.

If approved by the school board at its Feb. 26 meeting, the calendars for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years would include 176 school days for students, four teacher institute days, four school improvement days, four professional development days, and two days for parent-teacher conferences.

For next school year, the first day would be Aug. 24 for K-12 students and Aug. 25 for pre-K; those days would be Aug. 23 and Aug. 24, respectively, for the 2027-28 school year, according to the draft calendars.

Winter break would start Dec. 21 next school year and Dec. 20 the year after that.

CPS proposed these calendars for approval at last month’s board meeting but pulled them from the agenda after some board members raised concerns they heard from parents of high schoolers. The parents argued that worrying about tests during break wasn’t good for students’ grades or their mental health.

CPS officials conducted a new survey and created three options for calendars, Nicole Milberg, chief of teaching and learning, told board members Wednesday. The district received more than 22,000 responses to the new survey, which was open from Jan. 21 through Jan. 27. Responses were divided about equally among students, staff, and parents, but she noted that they were not able to separate out how many of the responses were from high school families and staff.

A majority – 55% – of people surveyed preferred the option the district is recommending, in which the first semester would end after winter break; 37% of people preferred option 2, which would end the first semester before winter break; 8% wanted the option of starting school a few days earlier and have a shorter Thanksgiving break.

Milberg previously told board members CPS considered getting rid of the full week of Thanksgiving break and moving more professional development to the second semester in order to accommodate a pre-winter break end to the first semester. But it wouldn’t be possible to meet state requirements for school days in that scenario without starting school long before Labor Day.

“All three have merits and drawbacks,” Milberg said. “I’ll leave it to you to make the difficult decision.”

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

Chicago school board to reopen applications for Black Student Achievement Committee

2026-01-28T20:49:02+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education is reopening its application for joining the district’s Black Student Achievement Committee, the board office announced Wednesday.

The board had originally opened applications in late November with a deadline to apply by Dec. 15, 2025.

The application will be reopened Feb. 2 with a deadline of Feb. 9 “to ensure that all key stakeholder groups have a fair and accessible opportunity to apply following the holiday season,” said Shelia Pegues-Porter, board communications manager, in an email. Chicago residents, including students, parents, and CPS employees, can apply to serve a 1-year term on the committee.

The new application window comes as advocates have expressed concern about the delay in establishing the committee, which was officially launched last April and is required by state law.

The board office did not say how many applications it has received so far.

The Black Student Achievement Committee is supposed to help the district implement its Black Student Success Plan, which focuses on boosting the share of Black teachers, reducing Black student suspensions, and implementing more culturally relevant lessons in schools.

The plan, released last February, faced an immediate legal challenge and investigation from the Trump administration, which has opposed diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Trump officials say CPS’ efforts to focus on Black students violates other students’ civil rights, which CPS has denied. The Trump administration has also said it will withhold millions of dollars in magnet school grants if the district forges ahead with the plan. CPS has defended its efforts and says it will not shelve the plan.

The committee will have 14 seats. As of last month, the board had sent about 500 applications to people interested in joining the committee, according to elected school board member Jitu Brown, who will chair the committee.

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

Chicago Public Schools 2026-27 and 2027-28 calendars are on hold

2026-01-28T16:06:15+00:00

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The Chicago school board has sent district officials back to the drawing board on the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school calendars members were poised to approve this week.

Some board members questioned earlier this month whether the district could wrap up the first semester before winter break, so high school students would not have to do end-of-semester testing after the holidays. They argued that worrying about tests during the break and taking them after two weeks away from the classroom isn’t great for students’ mental well-being or academic achievement.

“The No. 1 concern I hear from students is about mental health, and having a break as an opportunity for resetting, recovering, and spending time with their families is really important,” said board member Anusha Thotakura at a recent meeting to review the board’s January agenda. “If you have testing for second quarter after winter break, students won’t have that opportunity to reset, relax, and come into the new year energized.”

District officials said at the time that ending the school year’s second quarter before winter break would be impossible without an unusually early start to the year. But they agreed to conduct a follow-up survey of students, parents, and staff to gather feedback about potentially revising the calendar. The deadline to complete that survey was Tuesday at noon, roughly two days before this week’s meeting.

“Given how close the survey deadline was to the Thursday Board meeting, it is not on the agenda for January 29th to account for the District to have a reasonable period to process results, and then for the Board to consider those results before casting a vote,” the school board office said in a statement Tuesday.

Under the calendar unveiled earlier this month, the 2026-27 school year would start on Aug. 24 and end June 11. CPS parents have perennially called on the district to firm up the calendar well in advance, and officials at the agenda review meeting two weeks ago had celebrated bringing it to a vote earlier than in previous years.

The district had surveyed students, parents, and employees during the fall, garnering more than 14,000 responses. Significant majorities told the district that they wanted calendars for the next two years this winter as well as fairly consistent summer breaks. Only 10% said they wanted the school year to start more than two weeks before Labor Day.

Nicole Milberg, the district’s chief of teaching and learning, told members that the district was able to wrap up the first semester before winter break this school year because Labor Day fell relatively early on the calendar and because CPS leaders opted for a second semester significantly longer than the first one. But this coming school year, because of a later Sept. 7 Labor Day, starting two weeks before the holiday means students will have three additional weeks after winter break to wrap up the semester.

The district looked into eliminating the full week off for Thanksgiving and moving more professional development days for educators to the second semester, said Milberg, who is herself a CPS high school parent. But a pre-winter break end to a semester that meets state seat time requirements still wasn’t possible without starting school well before Labor Day.

“We do absolutely know and understand the challenges we are presenting,” Milberg said. “There is no perfect calendar.”

But a number of school members nevertheless pressed the district on the timing. Some said a semester end before winter break could help get seniors’ grades to colleges where they apply sooner — and would align with the City Colleges of Chicago semester for those who take dual enrollment classes there.

And when it came to end-of-semester testing, board member Ellen Rosenfeld said, “Quite frankly, the retention they might have after two weeks of break is not the same.”

Thotakura asked the district to conduct a follow-up survey, clearly asking respondents if they would be OK with starting school more than two weeks before Labor Day if it means ending the semester before winter break.

“I don’t think that 10% reflects how many people would be happy to cut their summer a little short if that means the second quarter can end before break,” she said.

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

5 things to watch in 2026 in Chicago Public Schools and across Illinois

2026-01-16T12:00:01+00:00

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2026 is a big year for Chicago Public Schools.

The school board is looking for a new CEO as it stares down a possible half-billion-dollar budget deficit. And later this year, the city will hold school board elections — this time for every seat.

On the state level, there are questions about what education funding and child care will look like as the Trump administration threatens to withhold federal funding for Illinois child care services.

Here are five things we’re watching this year.

Who will be the next leader of Chicago Public Schools?

When Chalkbeat previewed 2025, we wondered who the next CEO would be. That question remains more than a year later.

The school board began searching last spring for CPS’ new CEO, who is charged with carrying out the board’s vision for the district’s schools and recommending policy changes for board approval.

The board was expected to choose one of two finalists by the end of 2025. But the process appeared to come to a halt in November after the Chicago Sun-Times, WBEZ, and Chalkbeat revealed finalist names. Later that month, one board member said they were “reconsidering the process,” while another said they were rescheduling finalist interviews. A November statement from the board said the process is “ongoing.”

Whoever is hired will face thorny issues like chronic absenteeism, budget problems, and declining enrollment. Notably, that person will be less than a year into the job before a new, fully elected school board takes over in January 2027.

Who will Chicago elect to be on the school board?

Chicago voters will elect a new school board on Nov. 3. But unlike the last election in 2024, voters will choose all 21 board members, including an at-large president.

Currently, the mayor appoints people to 11 of the seats, including board president.

Many board members have said they plan to run, but board President Sean Harden has said he won’t. Candidates who win seats currently held by mayoral appointees will have two-year terms; those who win seats held by elected members will have four-year terms.

It will also be key to watch who is donating to candidates’ campaigns. Last election, some of the biggest spenders were political action committees tied to the Chicago Teachers Union, Illinois Network of Charter Schools, and Urban Center.

Prospective candidates can begin Feb. 24 to collect petition signatures from registered Chicago voters – a requirement of getting on the ballot. The lists of signatures must be submitted to the Chicago Board of Elections between May 18-26.

By Aug. 27, the Board of Elections will have a final list of who will appear on the November ballot.

Are we in for another budget fight at CPS?

The short answer is, probably.

Chicago Public Schools and its school board navigated a bruising budget process last summer as it grappled with a $734 million deficit, or about 8% of the operating budget. Board members argued over whether to take out a short-term loan to cover expenses and whether to forgo a pension payment to the city. They ultimately avoided a loan and direct cuts to classrooms but slashed elsewhere, including vacant positions at central office, custodians, and hot meals.

For the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, CPS officials have so far projected a $520 million deficit, and it’s unclear if more federal cuts are coming. Board members may need to consider cuts right as many run for election. Some may try to find more revenue, such as lobbying the state for more money or changes to help alleviate the district’s structural deficit.

But the state is also facing a challenging financial picture.

What can we expect from the state budget?

The Illinois State Board of Education wants a $350 million increase to the main funding stream for school districts. The 4% increase, if ultimately approved by state lawmakers, is in line with past years, but some organizations say that increase is not enough, especially in the face of possible federal cuts. Roughly one-third of Illinois school districts are considered 90% or more adequately funded, according to state figures.

The state is facing a $2.2 billion deficit. Still, the legislature is unlikely to provide much less than the amount ISBE requested.

Illinois House Speaker Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, one of the state’s most powerful Democrats, wants a new tax on millionaires. And some groups, including the Chicago Teachers Union, have been pushing since last year for state leaders to impose new taxes on Illinois’ wealthiest residents and corporations. If such proposals go through, it’s possible some of the additional revenue will flow to schools.

But the state has many other areas of government to focus on, including a possible loss of federal dollars for child care and social services assistance.

What will child care look like?

There are fresh concerns about child care after the Trump administration announced a plan to freeze about $1 billion in federal assistance for Illinois child care for low-income, working families and other social services programs.

Tens of thousands of Illinois children are in programs supported by those federal funds, including 152,000 kids who attend programs partially funded by the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant, according to Pritzker’s office. Thousands of other children go to licensed child care providers who receive federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF, dollars, the governor’s office said.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the administration from withholding that money. But if the Trump administration is successful, the loss of these funds could mean a drastic drop in the state’s child care providers and could leave many families without help, advocates and policy experts have said.

Some unions and state lawmakers are calling for Illinois to expand funding to keep those programs afloat through new taxes on corporations and billionaires. It’s unclear if there is broad appetite on the state level to do so.

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

Poll: two-thirds of respondents unaware of Chicago’s elected school board

2025-12-12T20:25:56+00:00

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Roughly two-thirds of Chicagoans surveyed don’t know that the city now elects school board members, according to a new poll commissioned by the parent advocacy group Kids First Chicago and conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago.

Of 1,361 Chicago adults surveyed, just 10% could name their school board representative, the poll results showed. Awareness of the shift to an elected school board was higher among Chicago Public Schools parents and lower among young people and those who identify as Black and Latino. It was also lower in certain parts of the city, particularly on the west and south west sides.

The findings come two months before potential candidates can start circulating petitions to get on the ballot for Chicago Board of Education in 2026. All 21 seats will be up for election on Nov. 3, 2026; 20 are elected from specific districts and one school board president will be elected citywide.

A former school board appointee and CPS parent has already declared his candidacy for the board president seat and a handful of current board members have told Chalkbeat they plan to run.

Chicago held its first school board elections in 2024 with voters choosing 10 members to join 11 mayoral appointees on a new 21-member Board of Education. More than half of registered voters cast ballots for a school board representative, which some observers considered “pretty impressive” in the context of school board elections, which often suffer from very low turnout.

Micaelan Valesky, manager of data science for Kids First Chicago, said the results indicate “a major information gap around one of the most significant changes in CPS governance in decades.”

“This highlights a need for both targeted and widespread outreach, providing bilingual resources that explain when the election is, how the transition works, what power the Board of Education has, and who the prospective board members are,” Valesky said.

According to the Chicago Board of Elections, people interested in running for school board in 2026 can begin collecting signatures from voters in their district on Feb. 24. They must file at least 500 valid signatures between May 18 and 26 in order for their name to be printed on the ballot. Candidates for school board president must collect at least 2,500 valid signatures from across the city.

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

Chicago Public Schools finds buyers for three vacant schools

2025-12-03T22:50:42+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools has identified buyers for three former school properties on the South and West Sides, two of whom are planning to build new housing and a third who wants to open a community center.

The district is seeking the Chicago Board of Education’s approval at its next meeting on Dec. 18 to sell the old Bontemps Elementary in Englewood on the South Side for $75,000, the old Henson Elementary in North Lawndale on the West Side for $25,000, and the former Shedd Elementary, which last served as a satellite building for Bennett Elementary, in Roseland on the Far South Side for $25,000. All three buildings closed in 2013.

The proposed sales come after CPS put 20 properties on the market in May. Stephen Stults, the district’s director of real estate, said they got bids for 12 properties.

Chicago’s struggle to repurpose dozens of vacant school properties has taken more than a decade. The district has made multiple past attempts to sell them and many either had no buyers or pending deals fall through. CPS spends roughly $75,000 to $150,000 annually to maintain each vacant property, Stults said.

“We really want to put these buildings back to productive use,” Stults said. “The longer they sit there, the more they deteriorate, the harder it is to redevelop them, and the less value that we can get for them.”

School board member Michilla Blaise urged CPS officials to lean on the 21 board members elected and appointed to represent their communities to help get the old schools repurposed.

“We all have community contacts. We all have organizations that might be helpful to you. And we can also reach out to elected officials in the area,” Blaise said. “CPS is in the business of educating students, not necessarily being a landlord to derelict properties. So I understand the impetus to want to unload these properties … but we have to move thoughtfully.”

The potential buyer for the old Shedd Elementary building at 99th and Indiana Ave. is the Peace for Preston Foundation, led by Dionne Mhoon, the mother of slain Chicago Police Officer Aréanah Preston. Two years ago, Mhoon launched a GoFundMe to support the foundation and raise money for a community center in honor of her daughter. Mhoon’s bid for the old Shedd school is $25,000.

Elected school board member Carlos Rivas said Wednesday he was Preston’s college counselor in the 2015-16 school year when he worked at Noble’s UIC College Prep.

“She was such a determined young lady and graduated from Illinois State in three and a half years because of her determination,” Rivas said. “She had such a bright life ahead of her, and she did so much for her community.”

“I am so incredibly proud that we’re going to be honoring her and using this building in this way for the Peace for Preston Foundation,” Rivas added.

There was some interest in the old Shedd school in 2017 from a private Christian school and another buyer, but neither bid had the backing of the local alderperson, according to South Side Weekly.

The board resolution says Peace for Preston wants to offer youth recreational programming, educational programming, youth mentoring and counseling, mental health support, job readiness and vocational training, wellness programs, and access to health care support, as well as GED and financial literacy courses.

Both buyers for Henson and Bontemps want to demolish the old schools and construct new housing.

In the case of Henson, buyer Melvin Bailey of MKB Business Strategies told Chalkbeat that he plans to build about 27 single family or two-flat homes on the property.

At least one other shuttered CPS school property is now home to dozens of single family homes. A developer bought the old King Elementary in 2017 in Tri-Taylor and built 30 homes that came on the market in 2020.

MKB’s $25,000 bid was not the lowest received. There was another for $30,000 from Calling Water LLC. Stults said the community meeting was contentious and both proposals had supporters, but Bailey’s plan for redevelopment had the support of the local alderperson, Monique Scott.

In May 2018, the Board of Education approved a bid for Henson’s property from the Single Room Housing Assistance Corporation, which offered $55,000. The group put forward a plan to convert the school into 80 mini-studio apartments for low-income people, including veterans, single mothers, and people with disabilities. The sale never closed.

Devereaux Peters, a former WNBA player turned affordable housing developer, is offering $75,000 to purchase the Bontemps school in Englewood. According to the board resolution, the plan is to demolish the school and build two affordable housing buildings. One would have 72 units with various amenities, including a fitness center and coworking space. The second building would have 60 units for seniors “who wish to downsize while remaining in the community.”

Stults said the current Bontemps structure has no working plumbing, electric, or mechanical systems. He said there was a community meeting in October and the local alderman, Stephanie Coleman, supports the project.

In 2017, the school board approved a $50,000 bid for Bontemps from IFF, a nonprofit lender and developer based in Chicago. But like Henson, that sale never went through.

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.

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.

Suburban Chicago charter appeals to state after local board votes to close its campuses in 2027

2025-11-20T20:31:25+00:00

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Two suburban Chicago charter schools are appealing to Illinois’ state superintendent to stay open after the local board of education voted to close the campuses in 2027 unless contract renewal terms can be reached.

The charter closure decision and subsequent appeal comes as North Chicago District 187 is transitioning away from state oversight. Like Chicago, the school district will have a fully elected school board in 2027 after roughly a decade of state control. It will continue to have a state Financial Oversight Panel until 2031.

North Chicago District 187’s Independent Authority, which is a hybrid school board made up of state appointees and elected officials, voted in late September to wind down the operations of two LEARN charter school campuses, citing the inability to reach a contract agreement. Earlier this year, the same board voted to grant LEARN a seven-year contract renewal.

“We’re in this gray area of operating schools without a contract to do so,” said District 187 Superintendent John Price. LEARN 6 and LEARN 10 campuses have operated without a formal charter contract since 2021 and 2022, according to the resolution and documents obtained by Chalkbeat.

Price told Chalkbeat Wednesday the first preference would be to reach a contract agreement, rendering the wind-down plan moot. “Clearly, the district wants the schools to be open. We’ve offered a seven-year renewal,” he said.

Andrew Broy with the Illinois Network of Charter Schools said it’s “very common” for a charter school to operate without a contract or under the terms of a previous one after the authorizing school board votes.

“Just like if a union contract is pending for years, it rolls over,” Broy said. “The same thing happens in charter school contracts today.”

One key sticking point in the contract talks between District 187 and LEARN has to do with a school building on the Naval Station Great Lakes base that LEARN has directly leased from the federal government since it opened in 2012. District 187 said it has applied to directly lease the building and is proposing to sublease it to LEARN under the same terms. But the two parties have not reached an agreement on the arrangement.

District 187 is also currently building a new facility for district-run Forrestal Elementary with federal funds.

LEARN President and CEO Greg White has said the network cannot agree to a new contract until all the financial terms, including the building lease for LEARN 6, are sorted out. He said closing the campuses would be short-sighted given their success.

“It was actually the work of ISBE and the Navy and families in North Chicago is why we’re there,” White said. “We’ve had a long-term relationship, a very positive relationship, with the Illinois State Board.”

He said Thursday ISBE should grant the appeal because state law says “if a district chooses not to renew a charter, it must be able to place every student in a higher-performing school. There are no higher-performing elementary schools in North Chicago.”

LEARN’s two campuses in North Chicago are rated “commendable” on the most recent state report card and collectively, they serve 800 of the district’s more than 3,500 students. LEARN officials noted no other District 187 elementary schools received a commendable or higher rating. The local high school, however, is also rated “commendable.” ISBE is in the process of revising those labels for school performance.

In Illinois, charter schools can only be authorized by local school districts. If a local school board denies a charter application or terminates it, charters can appeal to the state superintendent. There are currently nine state-authorized charter schools that won appeals in the past.

LEARN’s appeal was submitted on Tuesday, kicking off a process involving a third-party hearing officer who makes a recommendation to ISBE. The timeline would not likely result in a decision before February or March.

Nevertheless, more than two dozen parents of LEARN students from North Chicago showed up at ISBE’s monthly meeting Thursday to urge state officials to keep the two campuses open beyond 2027.

Jennifer Jerez, a parent of three current and former LEARN 6 students, said she enrolled her older children at the school because they were struggling “academically, mentally and even emotionally” at their previous school.

“They were struggling to read and write at 13 and 15,” she said. “I was desperate for help as any other parent, and so I applied to LEARN 6. There, my eldest flourished. He found his voice. He got into the honor roll, and he got accepted to a prestigious high school. He is now 22 in his third year at [Northern Illinois University], and is majoring in psychology.”

Jerez said her 6-year-old is now in first grade at LEARN 6.

“I am begging you to please, please, let him have the same opportunities that my eldest had,” she said.

“LEARN has given my children and so many others the opportunity to reach higher than they ever thought possible,” said Michelle Malcom, a parent of three current and former LEARN 6 students. “I ask you to grant LEARN’s appeal and reverse the district decision to close our schools. Keep these schools open. Keep hope, choice, high expectations alive for North Chicago.”

Tension between charter schools and their authorizing school boards is not new. But in recent years, in Chicago and Illinois, there have been more instances of charters closing.

Some charter closures have been voluntary, such as recent decisions in Chicago by charter operators to not continue operating certain campuses, prompting the city’s school board to intervene and keep some of the charters open as district schools. Others have been prompted by conflicts or financial mismanagement.

The state board has not always granted appeals. Last year, it denied an appeal by a charter school in Peoria after the local school board there voted to end its contract with the school.

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

Chicago school board votes to keep ChiArts open, close EPIC Academy

2025-11-05T00:08:46+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education voted Tuesday to end agreements with independent operators of two high schools after those operators decided they could no longer run the campuses.

The school board decided to keep Chicago High School for the Arts, or ChiArts, an integrated arts high school serving 559 students who had to apply and audition, open as a district-run school and provide $1.5 million for the transition. The contract school is known for its arts conservatory, which has special departments for creative writing, dance, music, theater, and visual arts.

After a contentious debate at a special meeting, the board also voted to wind down EPIC Academy, a charter school in South Chicago with 244 mostly Black students enrolled and provide the school with $1.4 million to stay afloat through the end of the school year. EPIC’s operators previously said they faced closure in the middle of this school year if they couldn’t find additional funding.

For ChiArts, several students, teachers, and parents who spoke to board members Tuesday demanded the board maintain the school’s arts “conservatory” and keep its teachers and “teaching artists” intact.

“You hold the livelihoods of more than 60 arts teachers, you hold the sanctuary of over 600 art students run toward in a world that frequently tells us we aren’t necessary,” said Maya Davis, a senior at ChiArts who said the school has helped her flourish as a young actress. “Let it be the haven I’ve experienced it to be.”

The debate around EPIC’s future began last week at the board’s regular monthly meeting for October. That’s when elected board member Jitu Brown introduced an amendment attempting to keep EPIC’s students and staff together at a high-performing school next year. But a vote was delayed to Tuesday after district officials raised concerns about the tight timeline for producing a plan and other board members asked for the district’s general counsel to review it.

Ultimately, the board voted to require the district to offer enrollment to students at a district-run school, as well as job opportunities for “qualified” EPIC staff at receiving schools. An amendment to Brown’s amendment removed the term “high-performing.”

“I can support it if this would get us to a resolution,” Brown said. “But historically, 88% of the people that have been impacted by school closings have been Black students. The overwhelming majority of those students did not go to a better school.”

Past research from the University of Chicago found that not only did the city’s school closings disproportionately impact Black children, but most of those students did not go to better performing schools.

“How do we make sure a child doesn’t go from one school that’s closing its doors in the middle of the night, then they end up at a school that’s going to be in discussions for school closings the next year?” Brown said. “This has happened over and over and over and over again, and this is the concern. Now if that’s acceptable, then say that.”

Elected school board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith, whose district includes EPIC Academy, said he doesn’t want to limit parents’ options.

“Parents choose different schools for different reasons,” Smith said. “What one person may consider high-performing may be subjective to another person. I speak with parents who send their children to a school because it’s the safest school in the district for their kid to go to, even though another school may have better academics.”

Some board members echoed concerns raised by the principals union about hiring autonomy. Other board members said the language merely offers opportunities for teachers to apply and doesn’t require principals to hire them.

During the meeting, appointed board member Debby Pope added an amendment — later approved by the board — that commits CPS to preserving ChiArts’ conservatory “to the greatest extent practicable” and look for other ways to financially support the school’s model going forward, including through partnerships with other groups. It committed board members to reconvene on the issue of funding to support ChiArts transition to a district-run school by its January board meeting, after it engages with the school community.

The board spent about four hours in closed session where it planned to discuss interviews it had conducted with candidates for CPS’ next CEO and decide on a list of finalists, Jessica Biggs, an elected board member helping to lead the district’s CEO search committee, told Chalkbeat before the meeting.

Becky Vevea and Mila Koumpilova contributed.

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

Chicago school board approves controversial $175 million pension payment to the city

2025-10-31T00:29:08+00:00

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The Chicago school board voted Thursday to make a pension reimbursement to the city after 18 months of controversy and leadership turmoil stemming from the payment. But there is one catch.

The board voted unanimously to authorize the $175 million payment to the city to support a municipal pension fund that covers city workers and some non-teaching district staff — but only if the entire $552.4 million tax surplus boost for Chicago Public Schools that Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed comes through.

Chicago’s City Council must approve that record level of funding from special economic development taxing districts, known as TIFs, as part of the 2026 budget the council must pass by the end of the calendar year. The proposed surplus would provide CPS with almost exactly the $379 million in TIF funding the district’s 2025-26 budget passed in August assumed — plus an amount equal to the pension payment.

The vote on the Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund marks the end — for now — of an intensely divisive chapter for the district that ultimately contributed to the departure of the previous CPS superintendent. Some hope it will build trust between the district and the mayor. Yet others worry about the timing, due to fiscal uncertainty and budget cuts. And the one-year agreement doesn’t resolve pension responsibilities in the longer term.

Some City Council members have said they think the surplus tax amount in Johnson’s proposal is too large. Before Thursday’s special board meeting, some board members said they would prefer to wait until the district actually receives the TIF money before approving the reimbursement.

The CPS budget approved in August said the district would only make the pension reimbursement payment if additional revenue from the city or the state came through.

But district officials assured the board Thursday that the agreement protects the district in the event that it does not get the full TIF amount proposed by Johnson. And some board members argued that approving the agreement now would send an important message of good faith to the mayor’s office and aldermen.

“This is something that as a board we voted on, and it’s important to keep our word,” elected board member Yesenia Lopez said.

Still, a couple of board members said that despite voting for the payment, they are concerned it would siphon away funds that could instead reverse cuts to district custodians, crossing guards, and other positions the district made this summer.

“It absolutely takes dollars away from the classroom and our school communities who need support now more than ever,” said elected board member Ellen Rosenfeld.

Rosenfeld and other board members also called for a longer-term plan to spell out responsibility for the pension payments and disentangle city and district finances.

The city is required by law to make annual payments to the municipal fund. But faced with ballooning payments in 2020, former Mayor Lori Lightfoot shifted a portion of it to CPS. That move angered the Chicago Teachers Union, Johnson’s former employer and close ally. The union lambasted Lightfoot, accusing her of balancing the city’s budget on the backs of students.

With backing from an almost entirely Johnson-appointed school board, former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez refused to pay the reimbursement, citing looming budget deficits. The clash over the payment led to the resignation of the entire school board and to Martinez’s firing by a new board handpicked by Johnson.

But current board members aligned with the teachers union and mayor have argued that chipping in for the pension fund is part of being a reliable partner to the city.

The district has seen some added financial pressures this fall, including federal grant funding the Trump administration has withheld over the district’s Black Student Success Plan and transgender student policies.

Under the new pension payment agreement the board approved Thursday, the district can subtract the $8 million in federal magnet grant funding it stands to lose from the pension reimbursement if it cannot recoup that grant loss in another way. However, as Lopez noted, the agreement doesn’t account for other funding the Trump administration might cut or withhold.

CPS funding has been top of mind for board members this week. Some members joined the CTU on a trip to Springfield Wednesday to lobby for more funding for CPS. Some members also held a Thursday morning press conference to press Chicago City Council members to back Johnson’s TIF proposal.

“We’re trying to be good partners across the board,” said appointed board member Michilla Blaise during the meeting. “We’re trying to make friends. We’re trying to bring home the bacon for CPS.”

In other business, the board voted to table until its next meeting Tuesday a resolution to approve spending $1.4 million to ensure that the financially troubled EPIC Academy, a charter high school on the South Side, can finish out the school year. The school is then slated to close next summer.

The decision to postpone the vote came after elected board member Jitu Brown proposed an amendment to that resolution calling on the district to craft a transition plan with input from the EPIC school community that tries to keep students and staff together at a high-performing school or schools.

District officials noted that the amendment could conflict with the district’s principals contract, which gives school leaders authority over hiring on their campuses. Some board members raised concerns about the last-minute introduction of the amendment, which ultimately failed a board vote.

Brown explained that he had conceived the amendment the previous evening while speaking with the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents EPIC educators, and the advocacy group Advancement Project on the way back from Springfield.

During public comment earlier in the meeting, Andrew Escalante, a social studies teacher at EPIC, asked the board for more engagement with the school community and a plan that keeps students and staff together as much as possible.

“We are people and as people, we deserve honesty, stability and a voice in what happens to us,” he said.

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

When will Chicago schools have a noncitizen advisory board?

2025-10-09T19:07:07+00:00

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As federal immigration agents ratchet up enforcement in Chicago, some advocates and parents are calling on Mayor Brandon Johnson to abide by state law and create an advisory board focused on the needs of noncitizen students and families for Chicago’s school board.

Illinois state lawmakers required the creation of a Chicago Board of Education Non-Citizen Advisory Board when it established an elected school board for the city under legislation passed in 2021. Lawmakers sought to provide the school board with an advisory panel focused, in part, on improving the outcomes and experiences of noncitizen students and sharing the perspectives of noncitizen parents, who cannot vote in school board elections. The law does not prevent U.S. citizens from serving on the advisory board.

But nearly nine months after the new school board was sworn in, the mayor has not yet established the noncitizen advisory board. State law does not specify a deadline for creating the board or how many people the mayor should choose.

“The current situation we’re living through with the heightened ICE raids in the city have proven why we need to have this advisory board — to be able to advise the school board and the CPS district on how to handle things like this,” said Jessica Cañas, chief of community engagement for Kids First Chicago, a parent advocacy group that helped push for the creation of the advisory committee.

In a statement to Chalkbeat, mayoral spokesperson Griffin Kreuger said Johnson’s office has hosted four meetings with “partners” about the establishment of the committee. He said the office is working to finalize an application for the board, including translating it into multiple languages. The office is also taking additional steps to ensure people’s safety, but did not share more details.

“Due to increased tensions driven by federal immigration enforcement the City has taken added precautions to uphold the safety of our partners,” Kreuger said.

The law doesn’t specify who should be appointed to serve on the board.

Both the noncitizen advisory board and the Black Student Achievement Committee, mandated by Illinois lawmakers in 2024, could run afoul of the Trump administration, which said it will pull $20 million in magnet school funding over multiple years for CPS, in part, because of a district plan to improve outcomes and support for Black students. The administration claims that the plan violates the civil rights of students who aren’t Black; CPS says the administration has not provided evidence of civil rights violations.

The Trump administration has also slashed funding for a federal office that focused on serving English language learners and rolled back guidance about the rights of English learners, many of whom may be noncitizens or have parents who are noncitizens.

Yesenia Lopez, an elected school board member who has been tracking how immigration enforcement is affecting schools in her district, said “it’s crucial” to create this advisory board in order for the school board to hear directly from immigrant students and their parents. But she noted the district is in a precarious position: The city is required to launch this board per state law, but it “contradicts what the federal government wants from us.”

Parents fearful amid federal immigration activity

Stepped-up raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, agents have put Chicago’s immigrant communities on high alert. During a school board meeting Wednesday, two parents raised concerns about immigration enforcement and said there was a need for a virtual learning option due to fears of ICE enforcement during school pickup and dropoff.

Other parents who spoke to Chalkbeat in favor of establishing the advisory board also called for the option to attend school remotely, and the teachers union previously called on the district to have a virtual learning option ready for families who want it. Asked Thursday if CPS should consider offering remote learning, Johnson said “we may have to explore and look at other ways in which we can keep people connected until we fully defeat the tyrant that is in the White House.”

Five things to know about immigration policy and Illinois schools

Board member Jitu Brown said school is the safest place for kids and it’s important for communities to be informed of their rights. But, he said board members have raised the question of remote learning to interim CPS CEO Macquline King, and that CPS shouldn’t table that possibility if that’s what many families want.

Elected officials and community organizations have launched school patrols during dropoff and pickup in certain neighborhoods to help alert families if federal agents are spotted nearby. After ICE raided a South Shore apartment building last week — an incident cited by a federal judge in a ruling that found ICE was making “warrantless arrests” in Chicago — and federal agents reportedly lobbed tear gas near a school in another incident, local elected officials and the union called for more support for immigrant students and their families.

CPS officials have emphasized that school is the safest place to be, and federal agents are not permitted in school buildings unless they have a criminal judicial warrant signed by a federal judge. District leaders have so far not offered remote learning options. Chicago schools, like many across the country, saw significant academic declines and negative impacts on student mental health between 2020 and 2022 when the COVID pandemic moved most learning online.

Advisory board should have been established sooner, some parents say

Valentina, a former CPS parent and longtime Chicago resident who is interested in joining the noncitizen advisory board, said immigrant family concerns could have been shared earlier and in a more formal way had the board been established.

“All children should have the opportunity that their parents raise their voice for equity,” Valentina, who is on the Kids First Parent Advisory Board, said through a Spanish translator. Chalkbeat is using a pseudonym for Valentina, who is not a U.S. citizen, because she is fearful of identifying herself publicly.

She added, “It doesn’t matter if the children come from a family that is a mixed family, like parents who have asylum, parents who have no status, parents who are not refugees — all children have a right to education.”

In a separate statement, Chicago Board of Education President Sean Harden said there will be updates on the application process for people interested in serving on the noncitizen advisory board in the “coming weeks.” He said the school board is committed to launching the advisory board, as well as the Black Student Success Committee and a committee focused on special education.

“The Board is making every effort to protect partners and stakeholders, and it supports the Mayor’s Office in doing so as well as they advance the work for the Non-Citizen Advisory Board,” Harden said.

Brenda Rivera, who also sits on the Kids First Parent Advisory Board, said one way to navigate those concerns is appointing both citizens and noncitizens to the board, and those who are comfortable can speak on behalf of people who are fearful of speaking publicly.

Norma Rios-Sierra, an appointed school board member who is also tracking immigration-related concerns, said she and some of her colleagues are interested in creating an “ad hoc committee” where board members can receive more information on how CPS is responding to immigration concerns and discuss other issues related to “crisis planning,” including the possibility of virtual learning.

Lopez, the elected school board member, said establishing the noncitizen advisory board right now should be done carefully in order to protect parents who are interested in it. She also wondered how the state might support Chicago if the Trump administration tries to penalize the city for establishing the committee.

“How can the state step in to provide financial support if we get more funding cut?” Lopez said.

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

16 quotes about being a Chicago Board of Education member

2025-10-08T10:00:00+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools is undergoing a major shift in governance. This year is the first time the Board of Education has 21 members — 10 elected and 11 appointed by the mayor.

Chalkbeat spoke to 15 current and one former board member about what it’s been like to navigate major issues, including passing a budget, hiring an interim leader, and figuring out how to be responsive to their constituents.

Over roughly 16 hours of interviews, board members shared insight into the challenges of navigating political divides, the obstacles in communicating with so many colleagues, the time commitment for this unpaid role, especially while balancing jobs and family, and other topics.

Many of those comments were included in a Sept. 17 story looking back at the new board’s first months on the job. But with the election of all 21 school board members looming in 2026, Chalkbeat wanted to share some of the insights that didn’t make it into that article. Here is more of what the board members interviewed had to say. We included audio clips from some of the interviews.

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

Chicago Board of Education members call for a solution to closure of EPIC Academy charter school

2025-09-25T22:20:47+00:00

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Several Chicago Board of Education members called Thursday for a solution to support students at EPIC Academy, a South Side charter high school that’s planning to close.

During a Chicago Board of Education meeting, some board members also asked for a deeper look into the district’s process for renewing contracts with charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run institutions that operate based on legal agreements with CPS.

EPIC’s independent board voted last week to close the charter school, citing enrollment declines and financial challenges. While EPIC leaders said they planned to close the school by the end of the 2025-26 school year, they have not ruled out closure before the end of the year. The Chicago Tribune reported that school officials are in talks with CPS for financial help, but the district’s finances are tight.

In May, the school board voted to approve a two-year renewal for EPIC on the district’s recommendation.

But by July, EPIC put up for sale a building it had purchased a few years ago to do a multimillion-dollar expansion that it hoped would improve facilities for students and draw more kids to the school.

EPIC’s impending closure comes months after the board decided to save and absorb five of seven Acero charter schools that were also slated for closure.

“It is beyond disappointing to see a community once again be disrupted by an abrupt closure,” said elected board member Yesenia Lopez, who sponsored a resolution this spring to tighten oversight on charter schools. “It is clear the process needs to be revisited.”

EPIC enrolls just over 250 students, about half the number it enrolled before the pandemic. Chicago’s charter sector has seen sliding enrollment for years, as have district-run schools.

Several EPIC students expressed frustration during Thursday’s meeting with EPIC leadership’s decision to close.

Ayomide Olatunji, a 17-year-old senior at EPIC, told board members that he and his classmates have “worked tirelessly” toward graduation and are in the middle of working with EPIC staff to apply for college. A midyear closure, he said, would “take away our sense of stability and strip this very moment we’ve been building toward for four years.”

The Chicago Teachers Union, which represents teachers at EPIC, called on the board to help prevent the school from closing midyear. Moving forward, union leaders want the district to turn EPIC into a district-run school or transfer all the charter’s remaining students to nearby South Shore High School so they can stay together.

“We should not have schools opening in the fall that have budget deficits that mean doors can close midyear,” said Jen Conant, the union’s charter division chair.

Some board members raised concerns about whether the district provided enough oversight before EPIC closed. Appointed board member Karen Zaccor said she wants a “more precise scrutiny of finances” for charters.

Elected board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith, whose district includes EPIC, said he supports the school and wants to look “deeper” into the issues contributing to the closure. Appointed board member Michilia Blaise, who represents the West Side, said she’s “ready to roll” with Smith on finding a solution to EPIC’s closure. She cited how difficult transfers can be for students.

“That’s heavy for a kid to show up at another school, and now they’re graduating with a bunch of kids who are graduating together, and they don’t know who they are,” Blaise said of a midyear closure.

CPS officials previously said their assessments of charters include slightly older financial data — which it considered as satisfactory for EPIC ahead of its renewal — and that the district doesn’t assess a charter’s future financial outlook. LeeAndra Khan, EPIC’s executive director, previously told Chalkbeat that the school informed CPS in January of its projected budget shortfall; CPS still recommended renewal for the school in May.

In a letter to EPIC families earlier this month, CPS officials said they would host a “joint initial parent town hall, host town hall meetings on an ongoing basis, and provide individual student support.”

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

Pressure and time: Chicago navigates its elected school board era

2025-09-17T10:00:00+00:00

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In the eight months since Chicago’s partially elected, partially appointed school board was seated, many of its members have had to exercise a muscle their predecessors weren’t required to flex: Figuring out what the public wants.

The 21-member Chicago Board of Education has already navigated most of the core functions of a school board, including picking an interim leader, approving the Chicago Teachers Union contract, balancing a budget with a $734 million deficit and grappling with the hotly protested proposed closure of seven charter schools. The board members have worked through these issues while wrestling with time constraints, internal politics, and external pressure that hasn’t existed before, according to interviews with 15 current and one former board member.

Take, for instance, Ebony DeBerry’s journey from community activist to elected school board member. After easily winning the race to represent a diverse, progressive pocket of the North Side with the backing of the Chicago Teachers Union, DeBerry faced a pivotal vote on Chicago Public Schools’ $10.2 billion budget proposal.

The budget plan had drawn opposition from the CTU and Mayor Brandon Johnson because it didn’t include a pension reimbursement to the city and a loan. DeBerry ultimately split with her allies and cast a vote in favor of the proposal, despite her own “strong distaste” for some of the district’s calculations, she said.

She did so because she wanted to listen to the people she represents, DeBerry said.

“It just keeps coming back to the constituents,” DeBerry told Chalkbeat the week before the vote. “That’s what I would love to do as an elected official: Do as I’m asked.”

Elected board member Ebony DeBerry said she is planning to run for reelection next year.

Previous Chicago school board members appointed by the mayor mostly did as the mayor asked. But now, school board members must consider what the broader public wants to see in schools, especially those who want to keep their seats through the next election in November 2026, when all 21 members will be chosen by voters.

The way board members navigate these major decisions and the political divide on the body provides a window into how this experiment in Chicago democracy is going so far — and how it could impact policymaking for the nation’s fourth largest school district for years to come.

Chicago school board members are unpaid

The 21 people leading Chicago’s transition to an elected school board are doing so on a volunteer basis. They’re working without pay and clocking at least an average of 25 hours a week, according to school board members interviewed by Chalkbeat.

Some are juggling the role with full-time jobs, and others have quit their day jobs. They go on school visits, host office hours, attend meetings, take phone calls, and read materials that are supposed to inform their votes, which multiple board members described as detailed and lengthy.

Chicago Board of Education President Sean Harden, a mayoral appointee who also runs a consulting firm, said he spends an unlimited amount of time on board business. His responsibilities also include communicating with board members and keeping in touch with the mayor’s office.

“It really never turns off,” he said. “It’s a Monday through Sunday scenario.”

Elected board member Jennifer Custer, a mom of three, including one under the age of 1, said she has a supportive husband and community of relatives and friends who can help with child care in a pinch. But her responsibilities at home mean she can’t make every obligation and often must get creative.

“Sometimes I take my kids with me to school visits, and schools are very welcoming and very warming to that when I have no other option,” Custer said. “I take my daughter to the board office all the time. You do what you have to do to do the work.”

Elected board member Yesenia Lopez and appointed board member Norma Rios-Sierra both said they quit their full-time jobs in order to have more flexible schedules to serve on the board. Rios-Sierra, a single mom, is earning some money through freelance artwork; Lopez said she will probably need to find another, more flexible job soon.

Angel Gutierrez, an elected member who works full-time, said he wishes he could hold town halls like other legislators, but “I have bills that I pay at home, I have a family to support.”

Former appointed board member Frank Niles Thomas said despite enjoying his time on the school board, he won't run in next year's elections.

Frank Niles Thomas was retired when he was appointed to the board last fall after the mass resignation of the mayor’s first appointed board. Thomas converted his dining room table at his South Side home into his office, and his days filled up with phone calls, answering emails, reading documents, and attending meetings.

Thomas loved serving on the board, he said, but he needed to earn money to support a relative in need.

”You got to have income to deal with it — and I didn’t,” Thomas said, who resigned in June.

Illinois law prohibits paying school board members beyond reasonable reimbursements related to their role. A push to provide pay for Chicago’s new board has so far been unsuccessful in Springfield.

“When we first fought for the elected school board, we definitely were talking about compensation, because we view it as an obstacle to parents if they couldn’t have this be their job,” said appointed board member Karen Zaccor, a retired teacher who was part of the decades-long effort to create an elected board. “That really is asking a lot.”

Factions and alliances emerge in key Chicago school board votes

In addition to the time demands, trying to bridge the board’s political divide can cause a level of “emotional pressure” that elected board member Jessica Biggs said she did not anticipate.

“The stakes are really high,” Biggs said. “Where I thought that there would be some more consensus around things that I see as sort of obviously in the best interests of kids, schools, and the system, everybody else doesn’t see it that way all the time or there are competing interests at play.”

Elected board member Jessica Biggs said she tries to create boundaries, such as an hour of "Do Not Disturb" time on her phone, in order to balance personal and board responsibilities.

Divisions on school boards are nothing new, but public debate and disagreement is unfamiliar when it comes to school governance in Chicago.

From 1995 through 2024, Chicago’s mayors picked people to serve on the city’s school board. By design, board members were aligned with City Hall and were often criticized for being rubber stamps for the mayor, who earned the credit or backlash for the state of the public school system.

That’s partly why observers of the school system were stunned when Johnson’s entire first appointed school board stepped down over disagreements with his office in October 2024, just three months before the new 21-member board was seated.

Several of the newly appointed members stayed on when the new board was sworn in this past January and tensions carried over. Five appointees who remained had voted in late December to fire former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who had sued those board members and would stay in his job for another six months. But many newly elected board members opposed Martinez’s firing.

Together, they faced an onslaught of problems that are at the heart of a school board’s responsibilities: the decision on who would replace Martinez, souring negotiations over the Chicago Teachers Union contract, and the planned closure of seven charter schools run by Acero, which the CTU, staff, and families protested for months.

In interviews for this story, several board members cited their decision in February to save five of the Acero schools and absorb them into CPS as a major accomplishment that maintained stability for families and students.

That vote was also one of the board’s early splits. Some board members wanted language that would allow CPS to check in one year if it was financially viable to absorb the schools. Without that language, three members who are often aligned voted against saving the schools — drawing backlash from organizations like the CTU and some Acero families.

But divisions and new political alliances continued to emerge.

In March, CPS needed to amend its budget in order to pay for upcoming labor contracts, including the new CTU deal. The mayor’s office wanted CPS to consider taking on a loan so the district could also reimburse the city for a $175 million municipal pension payment that had been debated for months.

Following the advice of CPS leadership at the time, seven elected board members signed a letter opposing paying the pension reimbursement amid CPS’s financial challenges. Because budget amendments require 14 votes — or two-thirds approval — the pension payment never happened.

Choosing an interim replacement for Martinez also proved divisive. Roughly half of the board wanted someone other than interim CEO Macquline King, a mayoral advisor who had been investigated multiple times by CPS without facing formal discipline during her time as a principal. Eleven board members — elected member Jitu Brown and 10 appointees — voted for King, while eight other elected officials voted no. DeBerry abstained and told Chalkbeat recently that if her vote had been decisive, she would’ve voted no in line with what she heard from her constituents.

Mayor Brandon Johnson and CPS CEO Dr. Macquline King smile for a photo during the first day back to school for CPS students at Mary E. Courtenay Language Arts Center, 4420 N. Beacon St., in Uptown on Aug. 18, 2025.

Despite the divisions that have played out in public, several board members pointed to a handful of issues they’ve agreed on, including ensuring the next schools CEO has a superintendent’s license — and sticking to that goal even after Harden reportedly wanted Johnson’s chief of staff to be considered for the job. They also supported establishing a Black Student Success Plan committee and unanimously passed the new CTU contract.

Multiple board members expressed frustration that they haven’t been able to dig more into education policy, and said many members agree on wanting to center the needs of children. Their disagreements are rooted in how to pay for things.

“It’s been about the money since we came on,” elected board member Therese Boyle said in an interview weeks before the budget vote. “The money is why the original board stepped down; the money is why Pedro [Martinez] had to go; it’s about the money now.”

Most board members interviewed said it’s difficult to have robust discussions with more of their colleagues because of the size of the board. They said it’s difficult to coordinate schedules, and additionally, board members can’t meet or talk in groups of six or more without providing notice of an official meeting, in order to comply with the Illinois Open Meetings Act.

That law is meant to ensure public bodies don’t conduct business in secret. But in practice, some board members argued, it means that by the time they get to a public meeting where the entire board can debate an issue, they’re sometimes already facing a vote. By then, they say, many board members have made up their minds.

Multiple board members also said they’ve tried to work with people they don’t typically align with. Boyle and appointed member Debby Pope, who have voted differently on some hot issues, both said they work well together on special education issues.

During the pension dispute this spring, appointed member Ed Bannon reached out to elected member Che “Rhymefest” Smith, who had signed the letter opposing it, to better understand his view, Bannon said. The two had a “great” discussion about the issues they could collaborate on, such as getting more parents involved in CPS, Bannon said. Smith confirmed the account.

“I do try to reach out to people I disagree with,” Bannon said. “I’m not saying I’m a saint about it and I do it all the time or that I’m expressing myself all the time to all these people, but I hope people think I’m making an effort.”

Who do Chicago school board members answer to?

Many board members said major interest groups and unions, as well as parents, push them on many issues, such as special education services, charter schools, and labor matters.

When asked if they felt pressure from any one group or person, including the mayor’s office, to vote a certain way, no one said yes.

In politics, money often translates into influence. Now, in Chicago, money can be spent on directly backing board members. More than $13 million was spent on Chicago school board races last fall. The top spenders, apart from candidates’ direct spending, were the Chicago Teachers Union’s political action committees, followed by two school choice PACs, the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and Urban Center.

“It’s politics now. There’s factions,” said appointed board member Michilia Blaise, a longtime political consultant who served on the city’s last fully appointed board but also ran against Jitu Brown in the last election before dropping out. “There’s people who have to, like, take care of people who gave them money for their campaigns. It’s people positioning themselves for whatever they’re gonna do later.”

On hot button issues, board members have often voted in line with those who supported their campaigns or appointed them. Of the seven board members who opposed CPS’s budget, six, including Blaise, were mayoral appointees.

On a resolution aiming to increase oversight of charter schools, five elected members abstained. Of those, two — Carlos Rivas and Gutierrez — were endorsed and got campaign donations from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, which opposed the resolution. The other three abstentions were Ellen Rosenfeld, Smith, and Boyle.

But board members have also broken ranks with their supporters or voted in surprising ways.

Custer was endorsed by the CTU during the election but has not voted in line with the union on some major issues, such as the Acero closures or in favor of a short-term loan.

Blaise proposed extending the renewal term for West Side charter school North Lawndale College Prep, which is in her district, for one year longer than what CPS proposed. Blaise was appointed by the mayor, who has been critical of charters in the past.

Charters make up about a quarter of the 105 schools in District 5, which Blaise and Brown represent.

Brown, who is also an ally of the mayor, is known for his decades of advocacy opposing the expansion of charter schools and the closure of neighborhood schools. He voted in favor of the resolution to tighten oversight on charters. But he also supported the renewals of a slew of charter schools in the spring, including Blaise’s proposal to lengthen the renewal term for North Lawndale College Prep.

Elected board member Jitu Brown ran unopposed in his election last year. He's unsure if he's going to run again next year.

“I have to get over my disdain for the charter industry,” Brown said. “I went to a few charter schools that were clearly schools that were doing the right thing, and I will support those schools, because at the end of the day [I ask], are you doing right by children?”

Appointed members said they don’t feel undue pressure from the mayor’s office to vote a certain way.

Still, elected member Rosenfeld, who represents wealthier North Side neighborhoods of Lake View and Lincoln Park, said the hybrid structure of the board “is a bit of a problem.” She said she knows her votes won’t make everyone happy, but her decisions are based on public feedback. When she considers how appointed members vote, “It’s like, is that how you really feel, or is that how somebody who appointed you told you to feel?”

More Chicago school board elections coming in 2026

Boyle represents part of District 9, including South Side neighborhoods with high voter turnout. The retired school psychologist said she can no longer go on her weekly trip to her neighborhood grocery store without someone recognizing her, which she credits, in part, to two old billboard ads with her face on them.

People have stopped her to talk about special education, the budget, and the former CEO, she said.

“Now I put on a little makeup before I go,” Boyle said, laughing.

Other board members, however, are working to introduce themselves to more people.

Zaccor, who ran unsuccessfully for the board last fall and was instead appointed by the mayor, said she knocked on neighbors’ doors this summer to ensure people know she’s their representative. Zaccor said she’s “probably” running again.

Rios-Sierra, who spent years working for a community organization, said she feels like a political “nobody” and wants to gain recognition.

“I think for me, it’s been a little bit of invisibility still,” she said. “I feel like I should take a little bit more time to get out there and connect with people and do my rounds and really have people see me and understand that I listen and that I can be of service.”

Nine of the 15 current board members Chalkbeat spoke with said they plan to run in next year’s school board elections: elected members Biggs, Boyle, Custer, DeBerry, Gutierrez, Lopez, and Rosenfeld, as well as appointed members Blaise and Bannon.

Another five — elected member Brown and appointed members Zaccor, Rios-Sierra, Pope, and Cydney Wallace — said they’re considering it. School board President Harden and former board member Thomas both said they will not run in 2026.

Wallace, a working mother of four, said she wants to see what kind of “grassroots help” she can get for a potential campaign.

“If I were to run, and my neighbors decided they didn’t want me on the board anymore, obviously I’d be bummed that I lost, but it would be like, ‘Oh no, not all of this free time and not doing all of this work for no money! Whatever will I do?’” Wallace said, laughing.

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

Chicago charter school EPIC Academy could close at the end of the school year

2025-09-15T23:27:55+00:00

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EPIC Academy, a charter high school on the South Side, may close by the end of this school year due to low enrollment — just months after the Chicago Board of Education extended its contract.

EPIC’s board of directors is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss shuttering the school, located at 8255 S. Houston Ave., because of enrollment declines and financial challenges, according to LeeAndra Khan, EPIC Academy’s executive director, and a letter sent to families Friday by Alfonso Carmona, the director of Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Innovation and Incubation.

EPIC enrolled 254 students as of Friday, according to preliminary enrollment data analyzed by Chalkbeat Monday.

“Despite our best efforts at trying to boost enrollment and trying to elevate our profile and kind of let the public know about some of our unique signature experiences and programming, we just have not been able to get enrollment back up to 500,” Khan said in an interview.

EPIC’s board notified CPS of the closure on Aug. 21, according to the board’s letter to CPS. The charter school held meetings for families on Friday and also sent them letters about the impending closure after CPS sent out its own letter, Khan said. André Golston, the head of security at EPIC and a Chicago Teachers Union member, said staff was notified a couple of weeks into the school year of the possible closure.

“Our ultimate goal is to provide school options that will meet the needs of all students for the 2026-27 school year,” Carmona said in the letter to families. “With that in mind, CPS will work with EPIC leadership to schedule a joint initial parent town hall, host town hall meetings on an ongoing basis, and provide individual student support.”

CPS’s letter also suggested that the school could close before the end of the school year, which Khan did not dispute but said is “not our hope.” Jennifer Conant, the charter division chair of the Chicago Teachers Union, said in an interview that a midyear closure would be “incredibly destabilizing and harmful” to the school community — a concern it has expressed to CPS.

The union and staff also plan to attend Wednesday’s EPIC board meeting to “demand answers,” including why leaders didn’t share sooner that a closure was possible, Conant and Golston said.

If EPIC Academy closes, it would be at least the 15th Chicago charter school to do so over the past six years and represents a continued trend of enrollment declines and financial problems in Chicago’s charter sector — issues the district also faces with its own schools.

The possible closure also raises questions about how, if at all, Chicago’s new school board might intervene as they did in another charter closure scenario earlier this year.

EPIC leaders hope for help from CPS

In February, about a month after the city’s new half-elected, half-appointed board was sworn in, the school board made the unprecedented decision to absorb and save five Acero charter schools planned for closure, following heavy protest from Chicago Teachers Union and Acero families. The district budgeted $20 million this fiscal year to absorb the Acero schools.

During EPIC’s July meeting, the board discussed CPS absorbing the school as one potential option instead of closure, as well as merging it with another charter, according to meeting minutes posted online.

“The only reason that idea was floated was because of the Acero thing,” Khan, EPIC’s executive director, told Chalkbeat in an interview.

Khan said she doesn’t know if CPS is willing to absorb the school, but “we’d love that” or other options “just so that our school community can stay together.”

Conant said the union would also support moving the EPIC students and staff together to another school as “a precedent of how you move a school into another school community to keep it whole, to keep the students and staff together.”

As a charter school, EPIC Academy receives public funding, but is privately managed. It operates under an agreement with the school district but is allowed to close so long as it provides notice to CPS. It wasn’t immediately clear how much time EPIC was required to give under its contract, but CPS said the charter operator followed legal parameters even with a new Chicago Board of Education resolution that aims to tighten oversight of charters.

Khan said the school’s leadership has been discussing dipping enrollment at board meetings and with its staff over the past several years. EPIC leadership informed CPS of its projected budget gap about nine months ago. She said the school used “every ounce of reserve” cash that it had left after investing in a new campus site that it’s now selling. During the July EPIC board meeting, board members discussed the charter network’s $1.4 million budget gap and the school’s six-year enrollment decline.

In May, the Chicago Board of Education approved a two-year contract renewal for EPIC, representing the shortest renewal term the board offered this year for charters. As conditions of EPIC’s renewal, CPS required the school to submit an annual report on disciplinary practices, show progress on properly serving students with disabilities, follow state and local laws on serving kids learning English as a new language, and ensure its teachers are properly licensed. CPS did not, however, flag concerns with the network’s finances or enrollment.

CPS reviewed EPIC’s financial performance for fiscal years 2023 and 2024 for this year’s contract renewal process, and rated EPIC’s financial performance as “meeting standards” on several indicators, which include the network’s net assets and how much cash on hand it has, a CPS spokesperson said. The network’s finances have received even higher ratings over the past eight years. CPS’s review looks at a “point-in-time” snapshot, the spokesperson said.

Conant said both EPIC and CPS failed to provide “oversight,” and neither “did that job well enough.”

“It’s really students and staff who will suffer if the school closes midyear or even at the end of the year,” Conant said. “It’s not fair to students, and so CPS really needs to come up with a plan to protect the school community.”

Like CPS, EPIC sees years of declining enrollment

EPIC Academy first opened in 2010 for a maximum student enrollment of 480, which was expanded to a maximum of 600 by 2015. But enrollment began to drop by 2019, when the school enrolled 521 students at the start of that school year. Enrollment at the school is about half of what it was before the pandemic.

Funding for the charter, which is more directly tied to the number of students, has dropped as the number of students has dropped, Khan said. Expenses have increased, including the cost of salaries, health insurance, and services for students with disabilities, she said.

Khan said the school tried spreading the word about EPIC Academy through radio and billboard advertisements, as well as home visits to potential students.

CPS enrollment has largely dipped over the past decade as birth rates have also fallen, but a wave of newcomers from Central and South American countries helped boost enrollment slightly over the past couple of years. That appears to have been temporary and preliminary data show the district’s enrollment is poised to drop again this school year.

In 2023, as EPIC’s enrollment dipped, Chicago City Council approved a $22 million renovation and addition for EPIC at the former St. Michael the Archangel Catholic School, which closed in 2018 due to low enrollment and is about a quarter of a mile from the school’s current site. Charter officials had hoped the new building would help grow the school’s enrollment to more than 600 kids in the short term, according to its website. The current school, located in a former CPS school, doesn’t have a gym, library, kitchen, “adequate” bathrooms, or computer labs, according to CPS.

But during its July meeting, EPIC officials discussed the sale of the St. Michael’s site, which is listed online for $3 million. An agent overseeing the listing told Chalkbeat that the site was listed for sale on July 5 and has attracted multiple offers.

Khan said a potential sale of the site could help save EPIC Academy for the next two years, but a structural deficit would still exist after that if student enrollment didn’t shoot up. She added that the South Chicago neighborhood where EPIC is located has three other high schools nearby, including Bowen, a neighborhood school. All are competing for the same students.

“So this is complicated: I don’t want Bowen to close, I don’t want EPIC to close, but we might have too many schools,” Khan said.

Conant, from the union, said that EPIC “used up important resources” when it tried to create a new facility, that should have been used on the current school site.

Golston, the school’s head of security, said most students are saddened by the possible closure and staff feel caught off guard.

“This news has devastated [staff], it has knocked the wind out of them, and so that’s why we’re going to push hard to try to keep our doors open and do what we have to do to continue to keep this building and these doors open,” Golston said.

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

Days before budget vote, CPS tells school board it can borrow in the future in a ‘true emergency’

2025-08-27T15:43:31+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools’ chief financial officer refuted several concerns raised by school board members in recent weeks about the district’s $10.2 billion budget proposal — and sought to reassure the board that it could borrow money in the future if there was a “true emergency.”

In a memo obtained by Chalkbeat, Chief Financial Officer Miroslava Mejia Krug said the district’s legal counsel advised that the school board can authorize emergency borrowing after the budget is passed through a simple majority vote, even though budget amendments typically require a two-thirds vote.

“This would ensure that any additional borrowing would be used to prevent cuts to schools and core district operations — in line with the request from many board members regarding a contingency plan in the case of a revenue shortfall,” Krug wrote in the memo sent Tuesday to board members.

Krug reiterated the district’s arguments that including a $200 million loan and a much-debated $175 million pension reimbursement to the city in CPS’s budget would result in cuts to schools. Currently, the budget proposal does not include either and only states that CPS would make the pension payment to the city if additional revenue comes through midyear.

She also repeated the district’s stance over the past year: That taking out a short-term loan without an immediate need would likely mean a downgrade in the district’s bond rating — which is similar to a credit rating — and result in high interest payments, potentially future cuts to schools, and impact the district’s ability to borrow in the future.

Krug said the district is concerned that a “market for additional debt may not exist” given that the district is already issuing $2.4 billion in new long-term debt. CPS has estimated that repaying additional loans could cost up to $194 million in interest, putting more pressure on future budgets already projected to have funding shortfalls.

The district’s debt-per-student ratio is among the highest in the nation among big school districts, Chalkbeat reported Monday.

Krug’s memo was sent to board members two days before the board is set to vote on the district’s budget proposal, which avoids beginning or midyear cuts to school funding but doesn’t include the pension payment to the city.

A majority of board members, made up of largely mayoral appointees and at least one elected official, have signaled their opposition to the district’s budget proposal because it excludes the pension reimbursement and has no plans for a short-term loan in addition to other borrowing the district does. Mayor Brandon Johnson, who advocated for CPS not to make the pension payment before he was elected, has said he expects CPS to make that payment as the city tries to balance its own budget for the new fiscal year.

Opposing board members have argued that not reimbursing the city is detrimental to its partnership with the city, and it’s the district’s obligation to fulfill that payment, which covers non-teaching staff, as it becomes its own elected body. The district began reimbursing the city under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, but stopped last year because of budget challenges. The board members have also asked for the option of a loan in case cuts are necessary during the school year.

But several elected board members support the budget proposal because they’re worried that taking out a short-term, high-interest loan would negatively impact the district’s financial future and take away from classroom spending. They also say reimbursing the city for pension costs right now is not the school district’s legal responsibility and is untenable as they work to close a $734 million deficit.

Krug’s memo outlines the possibility to borrow later in the fiscal year through a simple majority vote if the district faced a funding gap midyear.

CPS must pass a budget for the fiscal year that started July 1 by Friday or it risks not being able to legally spend money and could be labeled as a district in “financial difficulty,” according to state law and the Illinois State Board of Education. The Chicago Board of Education needs a simple majority to approve the spending plan.

However, Illinois state law requires a two-thirds approval vote from Chicago’s school board when it wants to amend its budget midyear. That issue became a flashpoint in the spring, when seven board members refused to approve an amendment that would have, in part, reimbursed the city with the $175 million pension payment — meaning the board did not have the two-thirds majority it needed. Krug says amending the budget for additional expenses like the pension payment would still require a two-thirds approval.

However, CPS’s legal counsel has determined that the two-thirds vote requirement only applies to new expenses or liabilities, the memo said. But taking out an emergency loan to maintain spending outlined in the current budget would only require a simple majority vote, Krug wrote.

Krug also sought to refute claims from some board members — largely mayoral appointees — that the district has overestimated how much money it will receive from the city in Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, surplus dollars, a pool of taxpayer dollars meant to spur economic development. The city can declare a surplus of those funds annually and in the past decade, has done so every year. CPS gets 52% of whatever is declared as surplus and roughly one quarter goes to the city’s coffers.

Krug wrote that several aldermen testified during the district’s budget hearings that they expect TIF dollars to be surplused because the city will also need those dollars to help close its own budget deficit.

The district has assumed this year that it will receive $379 million in TIF surplus, or $79 million more than last year, when Johnson surplused a record amount of these city dollars. The exact amount of how much will be surplused won’t be made public until Johnson presents his budget plan later this fall.

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

It’s the first day of school at Chicago Public Schools. Here are 5 things we’re watching.

2025-08-18T10:00:00+00:00

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As Chicago Public Schools students return to class this week, families may feel the effects of the district’s belt-tightening over the summer as it worked to close a $734 million deficit.

Even as the first day starts — Monday for K-12 students and Tuesday for those in pre-K — the district and Chicago Board of Education have not yet adopted a budget that covers this school year. The board, which is already divided on the district’s proposal, must legally adopt a budget by Aug. 29, and is expected to vote on a plan Aug. 28.

Families and kids may also feel the impact of changes related to the new Chicago Teachers Union contract, including smaller classes and more staff.

Across the district, Chalkbeat will be watching an array of items, including potential changes to federal policy, the district’s enrollment changes, and the state’s focus on school quality — and how those impact student learning and the public’s perceptions of schools.

Here are five things we’re watching this school year.

Will enrollment drop this year?

After more than a decade of dipping enrollment, Chicago began seeing a slight uptick in the number of kids attending CPS schools — likely due to the influx of thousands of migrant families from Central and South American countries.

Public schools have seen drops in enrollment across the nation for several reasons, including decreasing birth rates. Last year, a total of 325,305 students attended Chicago Public Schools by the 20th day of school, or the day the district officially counts how many students it’s serving.

But it’s unclear if enrollment will increase again this year, especially as immigration to the U.S. slows as President Donald Trump ramps up immigration enforcement.

Chicago Public Schools staff are instructed by the district not to allow immigration enforcement into their buildings unless they have a judicial warrant.

But advocates worry that Trump’s aggressive deportation goals will have a chilling effect. The president’s policies, they worry, could discourage newcomer kids not to attend school or even leave the city.

How well are Illinois students learning?

The state of Illinois is set to implement changes in measuring when students are proficient in core subjects and is reconsidering how it labels schools — potentially impacting the public’s understanding of how well students are doing.

The Illinois State Board of Education recently approved changes to cut scores that determine when a student is proficient in a subject and expects to see an increase in how many students are considered to be learning core subjects well. The changes came after state leaders said the previous cut scores did not reflect the reality of what students were learning or their ability to enter college without remediation courses.

The state also worked with dozens of teachers on collecting feedback for potentially changing its own learning standards and benchmarks for how well schools are doing. Chicago Public Schools also rolled out new school accountability dashboards this year, which are supposed to include more traditional metrics like test scores and information about students’ well-being.

With budget cuts and new teachers contract, how will school day change?

After nearly a year of contentious negotiations, the Chicago Teachers Union reached a deal with Chicago Public Schools in the spring over a four-year deal that, in part, implements a series of changes that students may notice in the classroom.

At the same time, CPS is planning tens of millions of dollars in cuts that could impact things like meals and how clean schools will be.

Under the new teachers contract, class sizes will be lowered to 25 students in kindergarten, and the contract requires a teaching assistant for classes with more than 23 students. In grades 4-8, the class size will decrease to 30 students.

The contract also adds hundreds of new positions over the next three years, including more teacher assistants, case managers for students with disabilities, and nurses. Unrelated to the contract, the district is also restructuring its special education department and implementing staffing changes related to students with disabilities.

And, kids could be getting more recess or time in enrichment classes. The contract increased preparation time for elementary school teachers by 10 minutes. Schools will meet this requirement by getting an additional 10 minutes of recess where schools are not currently following a state requirement for a half-hour recess, district officials have said. But schools may also add specialty classes to give homeroom teachers more prep time.

As it worked to close its $734 million deficit, the district announced more than $165 million in cuts. That included layoffs to central office and crossing guards, cutting 480 full-time custodial positions, and hot meals for students.

How could Trump’s agenda impact schools?

In some ways, the Trump administration has competing interests that could have sweeping impacts on Chicago’s schools.

Trump wants to invest fewer federal dollars in the nation’s schools — which almost resulted in a loss of about $60 million for CPS — and any funding restrictions could impact CPS’ already tight budget plan.

At the same time, his administration wants a hand in what schools teach. The federal government has opened a civil rights investigation into CPS’ Black Student Success Plan, claiming that the plan is a form of race-based discrimination that seeks more resources for “favored” students. CPS has declined to comment on the matter.

If the federal government decides the district has violated federal law, it could decide to punish the district by pulling funding or reaching a settlement that impacts the district’s approach to serving students with the most needs.

What’s next in CPS’ leadership saga?

Chicago Public Schools has experienced profound leadership turnover over the past year. Since October, the entire mayor-appointed Board of Education resigned, the former CEO was fired, and a new 21-member, partially appointed, partially elected school board was seated for the first time in Chicago’s history. That board then hired interim CEO Macquline King and is searching for a permanent CEO.

And King now finds herself in the crosshairs of the city and mostly appointed members of the board after proposing a budget that doesn’t include a pension reimbursement to the city or a loan.

The board hoped to find a new CEO as early as September, but it’s unclear how quickly it will narrow down candidates for interviews. Some have raised questions in recent months about who legally has the authority to hire the CEO.

Whomever the board chooses will be charged with overseeing the district as it faces financial pressures. And, if that person stays in the job through 2027, they will be the first CPS CEO to oversee the district with the city’s first fully elected board.

Becky Vevea contributed.

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

Chicago’s Acero Santiago charter school faces another year of uncertainty with potential sale

2025-08-14T23:06:24+00:00

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Outside the Acero Santiago charter school campus in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, Principal Melissa Sweazy greeted students and parents as if they were celebrities.

Under a sunny sky and one of the mildest mornings the city has seen all summer, Sweazy cheered and waved glittery maroon and gold pompoms as the kids, dressed in white shirts and navy blue pants or skirts, walked down a paper red carpet into the big brick building.

“Vivir Mi Vida” by Marc Anthony blasted out of a portable speaker perched in a planter near the entrance. “I missed you,” Sweazy said to one young student who hopped toward the front door. “Buenos dias, mi amor,” she called to another.

A mother asked Sweazy what was going on at the other end of the school.

“We’re just trying to make sure CPS buys our building,” the principal replied.

On the east side of the building, in sharp contrast to the first-day hugs and hellos, the scene was somber. Two elected officials hosted a press conference, surrounded by dozens of teachers, students and parents who held signs that said, “Save our school,” and “Not For SALE.”

Ald. Gilbert Villegas and school board member Carlos Rivas hold a press conference calling for Chicago Public Schools to purchase the building where Acero Santiago, a charter school, is located. The Archdiocese, which owns the school's property, has put the building up for sale.

Santiago and four other Acero campuses narrowly avoided closure this year, when the Chicago Board of Education took an unprecedented vote to save the campuses in February and turn them into district schools by the 2026-27 school year. Now, the school is facing a new obstacle: The Archdiocese of Chicago, which owns the school building, put it up for sale last month for $6.75 million, according to elected officials and a Zillow listing.

“The Santiago community is once again – once again – facing another threat of closure,” Ald. Gilbert Villegas, flanked by school board member Carlos Rivas, told reporters. “It caught many folks off guard.”

The split-screen action reflected a small, tight-knit school celebrating another year of existence, while grappling with a potential sale that the community worries could end with their building being razed by a developer.

In a statement, Yasmin Quiroz, communications and public relations manager for the Archdiocese, said the property where the school is located is part of the unified Our Lady of Unity parish, which has “multiple worship sites,” and the church campus where the school is located is “no longer needed.” Quiroz said there is no additional information about potential buyers or how the property might be used in the future.

It’s unclear what would happen if a developer or another private buyer purchases the campus. The school has a lease for the building through the 2025-26 school year, Quiroz said.

The Zillow listing says the neighborhood is in high demand, and the plot has the zoning to build 48 units.

Villegas and Rivas held the press conference to urge Chicago Public Schools to purchase the building. CPS has already proposed to budget $20 million this fiscal year for “incubation” costs as it works to transition the five Acero campuses into district-run schools, according to a district budget presentation this week. The district is facing its most severe budget crisis since at least the pandemic. However, Rivas argued that it’s possible to negotiate an affordable deal for the building. Part of the expenses CPS has already accounted for, according to Rivas, is fixing Santiago’s roof.

“If CPS is saying that they’ve earmarked millions of dollars to replace this roof on a building that isn’t ours, I’d much rather work on finding a deal with the Archdiocese to be able to take over this building,” Rivas said.

Acero, which will oversee the school until next year, did not respond to a request for comment. CPS did not say whether it is considering purchasing the property.

“Regardless of the building’s future ownership, the District’s primary focus is on ensuring a smooth and successful transition for all students and staff,” Sylvia Barragan, a CPS spokesperson, said in a statement.

Acero abruptly announced last fall that it would close seven of its 15 campuses, including Santiago. After pressure from staff and families, the Chicago Teachers Union, and the mayor’s office, the Board of Education voted in February to save five of the campuses and turn them into district-run schools. Some board members opposed the move because they wanted the opportunity to consider whether absorbing the schools would be a viable decision amid district financial pressures.

As district enrollment has largely dipped over the past decade, the same has happened in Chicago’s charter sector, prompting several networks to call for consolidations and closures.

Rivas said co-locating Santiago with a nearby district school is not an ideal option because doing so would require complicated coordination between two different sets of staffers and school leaders.

“I’d much rather that we try to get this done as fast as possible to ensure that our families know they’re here for years to come,” Rivas said. “We’ve already made that commitment as a board.”

Erick Alonzo, father of a fifth grader and eighth grader, said his girls felt relief when the board blocked the closure. Last year was “very hard” on his daughters, who have attended Santiago since kindergarten and faced the prospect of leaving their friends.

Alonzo’s older daughter will move on to high school elsewhere after this school year, but his younger child once again faces the possibility of leaving Santiago sooner than she anticipated.

“If they sell the building, then you know, she’s gonna have to start making new friends and going to a different school,” Alonzo said, before hugging his girls goodbye for the day.

The school’s close-knit culture was apparent Thursday morning as children and parents pulled up to the school.

Acero Santiago Principal Melissa Sweazy embraces a student on the first day of school. After months of fearing the campus would close, Acero Santiago staff and families are worried the building will be sold to developers.

Alexandra Pabon, joined by her 17-year-old daughter Isabelle, dropped off Pabon’s 10-year-old son. The family used to live around the corner and later moved about a half-hour out of the neighborhood but has continued coming back to Santiago. They like that the school, which enrolled just under 230 students last year, has small class sizes and everyone knows each other.

Isabelle, who attended Santiago from kindergarten through eighth grade, embraced an old teacher, who talked to her for several minutes.

“A smaller school like this, it seems like you’re getting less experience, but it’s actually more impactful for your life because you form kind of like a family bond, not just with your teachers but with your friends,” said Isabelle, a senior at an Intrinsic charter high school downtown. “The teachers still see me, and it’s like I never graduated.”

Just before the first day of school started Thursday, a little girl wept outside the front doors. As her mother knelt down to reassure her, a Santiago staffer approached and said, “C’mon, we’ll go find our friends.”

The staffer invited the mother as well, and the three walked in together.

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.

Illinois lawmakers offer no quick solutions for CPS during district finances hearing

2025-07-31T22:44:33+00:00

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Illinois state lawmakers did not express willingness Thursday to help Chicago Public Schools close its $734 million budget gap in the coming weeks.

Although some lawmakers agree they want to boost education spending, they did not commit to doing so during a public hearing held in downtown Chicago just a few weeks before the start of the school year on Aug. 18. Chicago’s school board has until the end of August to pass a balanced budget for this fiscal year, which began on July 1. The board is expected to vote on a spending plan at its Aug. 28 meeting.

“I’m hopeful that we can move past the rhetoric, the talking points and unrealistic demands, and get down to business about how we can do better by CPS and its students,” said Illinois Democrat Rep. Ann Williams, who represents neighborhoods on the North Side of Chicago and chairs the House Executive Committee.

Illinois has increased funding for K-12 schools across the state by more than $2 billion under a funding formula created eight years ago, of which $1.1 billion has gone to CPS. The state set a goal to “adequately” fund all school districts by 2027, but they’re projected to miss that deadline. According to the state’s formula last year, Chicago schools need almost $1.2 billion to be considered adequately funded.

The hearing was called at the urging of Democrat State Rep. Curtis Tarver, who filed a bill during the spring legislative session to reinstate the Chicago School Finance Authority, which oversaw CPS’s finances from 1980 until 2010. It made financial decisions for the district and had the authority to borrow money, issue bonds, levy taxes, and approve school budgets instead of the Chicago Board of Education, according to the Civic Federation, an independent, nonpartisan research organization.

During the hearing, Tarver sharply criticized the mayor’s popularity and his legislative team. School Board member Michilla Blaise, who was appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson, defended the mayor by highlighting his background as a teacher, to which Tarver said, “Part of the reason we are where we are is because of the ineffectiveness and sometimes ineptitude of the fifth floor,” a reference to Johnson’s City Hall office.

Chicago’s budget deficit is driven by multiple things, including rising costs and the district’s use of onetime federal COVID relief dollars to hire thousands more staff.

For weeks, the Chicago Teachers Union and some school board members have pushed the state to call a special session to address school funding issues and other impacts of federal cuts to social safety net programs.

State lawmakers and the governor have not said whether they’ll hold a special session before the regular fall veto session. Thursday’s hearing didn’t reveal an appetite to do so. After the hearing, Williams told Chalkbeat that she is interested in progressive tax ideas for raising revenue, but that calls for a special session are “gimmicky” and designed for “media attention.”

“Demanding special sessions when [the city and CPS] really weren’t there in May, when we were actually working on the budget, seems disingenuous to me,” Williams said.

The district, board members, unions, and civic groups have all floated various solutions for closing CPS’s projected $734 million budget gap. Those include borrowing money, more state funding, using more surplus dollars from a city pool of tax dollars meant to spur economic development, and forgoing a $175 million pension reimbursement to the city.

During her testimony to state lawmakers, interim CPS CEO Macquline King outlined current impacts of the shortfall, including cuts to crossing guards and hot meals.

“We cannot completely cut our way out of this situation,” King told lawmakers. “To do so would have a devastating consequence on the day-to-day operations of our schools and therefore the quality of our students’ education.”

Asked why lawmakers didn’t ask CPS officials more questions about the budget issues, Tarver said state lawmakers were “really just trying to better understand, as opposed to drill them with questions.”

Appointed Chicago school board members Blaise and Debby Pope, along with elected members Jennifer Custer and Ellen Rosenfeld, also testified about why funding cuts would negatively impact students and classrooms. But their joint testimony revealed differing opinions among the 21-person board on how CPS should solve its financial problems.

Blaise and Pope pressed state lawmakers to help CPS. Rosenfeld and Custer echoed calls for collaboration, but Rosenfeld said she’s not calling for a special session and doesn’t want the school board to take out a loan or reimburse the city $175 million for a municipal pension payment that covers some school staff. Custer said she’s not expecting the state to give CPS “a handout,” but wants lawmakers to work with the board on a solution.

Joe Ferguson, president of The Civic Federation, said a School Finance Authority might be an acceptable solution, but it wouldn’t need to operate as it did in the past. For example, it could have partial decision making power over budgets or veto power over contracts, but otherwise leave those powers in the hands of the school board, according to a report from the Civic Federation.

Tarver said he thinks the state “should have some say” over how the district spends its money. The state provides flexible education funding to all districts in Illinois and Chicago is the largest.

“I don’t know that [a School Finance Authority] needs to be in the same iteration that it was before,” Tarver said. “That was obviously 40 years ago. Things have changed.”

Multiple organizations, including the Chicago Teachers Union, called for more state money for public services in Illinois.

Half of the room was packed with members of the Chicago Teachers Union, which held a rally before the hearing along with other progressive organizations to pressure state lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker to raise revenue through new taxes, including on the state’s highest earners and corporations.

“Illinois has a Democratic super majority,” said Diane Castro, the CTU’s financial secretary, during the rally. “We are a blue state. We need that to mean something.”

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 school board moves to make more students eligible for accelerated coursework

2025-07-24T21:52:20+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education unanimously approved a policy Thursday that district officials say will expand who can become eligible to skip a grade or access accelerated coursework.

The policy will go into effect this upcoming school year and will help determine accelerated learning assignments for kids in the 2026-27 school year. Chicago Public Schools officials said the change is meant to expand accelerated coursework or opportunities to more students, noting that most who currently become eligible live on the city’s North Side.

Under the new policy, students in grades 4-6 can be eligible to skip a grade or take accelerated math and reading if their scores on state tests fall among the top 10% of their grade at their schools. Previously, students had to score “exceeding” on state tests to qualify, a score that roughly 4% of fourth and sixth graders and 2% of fifth graders attained last year, according to state data.

While board members didn’t discuss the change at Thursday’s meeting, elected board member Jennifer Custer and appointed board member Debby Pope both praised the changes at a meeting earlier this month to review Thursday’s agenda.

The changes will also eliminate external testing fees. Students who become eligible still need to meet a slew of other requirements, including attaining a certain GPA, scoring high on district exams, and passing additional assessments, in order to be approved to skip a grade or take accelerated math or reading.

District officials estimate that the changes will expand eligibility to 1,500 more students. CPS did not immediately say how many kids were eligible to skip a grade or take an accelerated subject last school year; according to WBEZ, roughly 80 students did so in 2022 and 2023.

The policy changes would also limit “double acceleration,” when parents apply for early entrance to kindergarten and a seat at a selective enrollment school, which already provides accelerated coursework. Now parents would have to choose either one of those options.

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

Chicago school board president says borrowing could solve CPS’s budget woes — but not in ‘isolation’

2025-07-23T22:51:10+00:00

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Chicago school board President Sean Harden laid out a case Wednesday for borrowing as “a viable option” for closing the district’s $734 million budget deficit. But he said it must be paired with long-term solutions to solve CPS’s larger financial crisis.

“The centerpiece is children and education, and if the tool that we have to protect that is borrowing, then that’s the tool that we’ll use,” Harden said in an unrelated interview with Chalkbeat. “But we’re also saying: ‘Give us different tools, and then we will use that.’”

The district must pass a balanced budget within 60 days of July 1, when the new fiscal year started. CPS hosted a series of public budget meetings last week, and is expected to present a budget update to the board this week. District leaders have said they plan to present a budget proposal to CPS next month, with a board vote expected at its Aug. 28 meeting.

Harden is one of 11 people — the majority of the school board — appointed by the mayor. Harden can only vote to break ties.

Former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez resisted short-term borrowing last year when City Hall floated it as a way to reimburse the city for pension costs and cover new labor contracts. That resistance led, in part, to Martinez’s firing and the mass resignation of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s first appointed school board.

But Harden said borrowing could be the only pathway to avoid “draconian cuts” to schools and said he doesn’t feel the public is connecting the dots between budget cuts and how they could impact students in schools. He made similar comments to WBEZ on Wednesday.

“We’re talking about significantly impacting educational experience,” Harden said, arguing that cuts could hurt the progress made by CPS students in the wake of significant academic declines during the COVID-19 shutdowns.

But borrowing shouldn’t happen in “isolation,” Harden said. That means looking for money down the road that could bring in additional sustainable revenue for the district to solve its long-term financial problems. That could include more “efficiencies” in CPS’s budget, examining declining enrollment and underutilization of buildings, pushing the state for more revenue, providing additional tax levying authority for CPS, and looking at pension obligations.

Harden also pointed to future revenue expected from expiring Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, districts, which represent a pool of city tax dollars meant to spur economic development.

Roughly half of the property tax revenue tied up in those districts would go to CPS once they expire — a point City Hall officials have previously pointed out when making the case for CPS to borrow money. By the end of 2025, CPS is expected to receive $54 million in additional property tax revenue from expiring TIF districts and another $117 million by the end of 2026 with amounts growing beyond that, according to data published by Cook County.

“The goal is to have this be a short-term strategy connected to structural change,” Harden said.

Still, attracting lenders could be difficult for CPS. The district has a junk bond rating status, which is similar to having a bad credit score. Additionally, its financial difficulties and challenges to find more revenue are well-publicized.

Any short-term borrowing the district does now is more likely to have high interest rates, which could mean costly debt payments in the coming years — potentially impacting classrooms in the future as revenue is diverted to pay off debt. Asked if it’s worth the risk of incurring high interest rates and failing to secure long-term revenue solutions, such as more state money, Harden said, “Yes” — but that failure shouldn’t be an option.

“I could make a just rationale for incurring [a high interest rate] in lieu of what would happen in terms of job loss, the atrophy that would occur in schools,” Harden said. “That domino effect is so significant that I would argue it pales in comparison to what we would incur in interest.”

The Chicago Teachers Union, a strong ally of the mayor’s, has advocated for a similar solution: borrowing now and finding sustainable revenue in the future, such as pushing the state to hold a special legislative session and impose greater taxes on the state’s highest earners.

Several board members and other organizations, however, have also advocated for not reimbursing the city for a pension obligation of $175 million, which CPS is not legally obligated to do but began paying back under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot, as well as having the city provide more TIF-related dollars to avoid borrowing.

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

Chicago Public Schools facing cash crunch as it works to close $734 million deficit

2025-07-09T22:59:22+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools is struggling to pay some of its bills and is facing increasing pressure to avoid layoffs as it searches for ways to close a $734 million deficit.

The district’s budget challenges are the most severe in at least the past five years and have already resulted in dozens of layoffs of central office staff and crossing guards. Officials said previously that school-based layoffs would happen in July and teachers union leaders are demanding retroactive raises be sent out as soon as possible.

This year’s budget will be the first approved by the city’s new partially elected school board.

District leaders must find a way to close the deficit either by finding more revenue, making more cuts, or borrowing money. Their plan must be approved by the 21-member Board of Education, which met Wednesday to hold an hourslong closed session and review its agenda for its full board meeting later this month.

The new fiscal year is underway, but the district isn’t expected to finalize a budget until Aug. 28. By state law, Chicago’s school board can approve a budget as late as the end of August.

So far, CPS has closed just over one-fifth of the budget gap through various cuts, including through layoffs and reductions in some contractual costs, budget director Mike Sitkowski told the board on Wednesday. Big pressures on the budget include rising costs for students with disabilities, who are legally entitled to additional support, and the cost of maintaining aging buildings, he said.

By 2030, the district’s deficit could be $1.3 billion unless the district finds more permanent, long-term revenue, Sitkowski said.

CPS’s budget gap this year could grow after the Trump administration announced last week it would withhold and reevaluate some streams of federal funding, which amount to about $60 million for CPS, Sitkowski said.

Board members asked several questions, including whether they need to factor in a much-debated $175 million pension payment to the city, which is not required by state law, and whether there is wasteful spending that the district could curb to avoid cuts. Though the district’s budget challenges have been shared with the board for months, multiple board members said they’re feeling unprepared.

Interim CPS CEO Macquline King said the district will hold five meetings from July 14 to July 21 to collect public feedback on how CPS should close its budget gap.

In a statement to families earlier this week, King said CPS is “currently working with state and local partners to maximize opportunities for additional revenue, including Tax-Increment Financing (TIF) surplus funds.”

CTU pushes for state legislative session to address funding

During a rally Wednesday outside Board of Education headquarters, Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jackson Potter called on CPS to avoid staff layoffs. Potter pushed for more funding, including from new state taxes and a city pool of tax dollars known as Tax Increment Financing, or TIF.

A private district presentation to board members in April offered one scenario: With a deficit of $734 million, CPS could cut 10% of funding that goes directly to schools. That April presentation also suggested that in order to close a smaller $529 million deficit, CPS would need to eliminate 1,600 school-based positions.

The current deficit figure includes the pension reimbursement to the city. It also does not assume that CPS will get roughly $600 million in TIF surplus dollars — something Martinez pushed for before his departure.

Mayor Brandon Johnson provided CPS with a record-high of roughly $300 million in TIF surplus dollars last fiscal year, and some observers have described the push for more as wishful thinking.

Service Employees International Union 73, or SEIU, which represents school support staff, and CTU have also called on more TIF funding, but teachers union leaders have also supported borrowing money and finding new revenue to pay it off.

Some school board members view borrowing as a short-term avenue to avoid painful cuts at schools, while others worry about high-interest debt repayments that will take money away from classrooms.

At its rally Wednesday, the teachers union demanded that Gov. J.B. Pritzker call a special legislative session in order to allocate more state funding to education funding in light of potential federal funding cuts. Several states, including New Mexico and Colorado, are considering calling special sessions in response to President Donald Trump’s tax bill that imposes cuts to social safety net programs.

Chicago Teachers Union members rally, in part, to push Gov. J.B. Pritzker to find more funding for schools.

The state created a new funding formula in 2017 that provides more money to all districts across the state, but prioritizes additional dollars to those with higher needs. Illinois lawmakers set a goal to fully fund all districts by 2027, but projections indicate they won’t make that deadline.

The state has typically provided an annual increase of $350 million in funding for all Illinois districts — though this year, that increase was $307 million. Since 2017, Illinois has increased what it spends on K-12 education by more than $2 billion, and in that time, state funding for CPS has increased by $1.1 billion. However, the formula says CPS is still $1.2 billion short of what’s considered adequate.

On Tuesday, Alex Gough, a spokesperson for Pritzker’s office, referred Chalkbeat to a statement last year from Pritzker saying he’d like to fund education more — and noted that the state hasn’t yet fully funded its own formula — but said, “Now the question is, where do you find the dollars to do that?”

On Wednesday afternoon, Pritzker’s office issued a news release that called Trump’s budget bill “destructive” and a “major setback for students across the nation.”

“Here in Illinois, we’ll do everything in our power to protect the public education systems we’ve worked so hard to improve and continue supporting students in every way we can,” Pritzker said in a statement.

Union officials said Pritzker should consider various revenue-raising strategies, including new taxes on capital gains and digital advertising.

“For the governor to say we’ve done everything we can is patently false,” Potter said. “We need to do more — that is their own commitment.”

Gough declined to comment when asked if Pritzker is considering calling a special session.

CPS could delay retroactive pay raises for union members

Separately, Potter also said CPS must pay the union’s members retroactive pay they’re owed after getting a new contract, noting that the district said it could afford those raises when it settled its new contract with CTU.

WBEZ first reported this week that the district may not have enough cash on hand until the fall to pay CTU members retroactive raises stemming back to last July, when their contract expired. The $100 million price tag represents the annual 4% raises included in the new contract, which was finalized this May.

Sitkowski told WBEZ that CPS will get a second tranche of property tax revenue from Cook County in the fall. CPS did not respond to Chalkbeat’s questions about the retroactive pay issue.

The district typically provides retroactive pay “when payroll has the tax receipts to enable the payment,” Potter said. Absent those county tax dollars, Potter said all emergency funding “options need to be on the table” in order to pay CTU members in a “timely manner.”

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

Chicago school board poised to change grade acceleration policy

2025-07-09T21:34:55+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education is considering changes to a policy allowing students to skip grades or take accelerated classes, which officials say will make access to accelerated coursework more equitable.

Among the changes would be the elimination of external testing fees and expanding eligibility qualifications to include students who score in the top 10% of their grade at their school. Currently, only students who are considered as “exceeding” state standards on the annual state test are flagged.

In CPS, accelerated placement means putting a child in a course or a grade that is higher than their grade level.

The changes, developed over the past eight months, were created with feedback from Local School Councils and school leaders, as well as “content area experts” and central office employees who focus on academics, according to CPS. If passed, the changes would be implemented this upcoming school year and will impact where kids are placed in the 2026-27 school year, according to the proposed changes.

The board is expected to vote on the proposed changes later this month.

In a statement, CPS spokesperson Quan Vu said CPS data show that significant disparities in grade and course acceleration persist, “with the majority of elementary acceleration applicants coming from the north side.”

CPS estimates that the changes will result in 1,500 more students having access to accelerated placement.

Accelerated math and reading and skipping an entire grade are options for students in grades 4-6, which they can pursue in multiple ways, including by being placed in a different classroom for that subject.

All eligible students would still “undergo additional screening … but they were previously excluded from even beginning the process,” CPS said.

Under the proposed changes, students looking to take accelerated math or reading would still need to perform in the 95th-99th percentile for any two consecutive district assessments in the subject in which the student wants to do accelerated work. Students must also have a 3.75 GPA per quarter for one year in the subject in question. The changes would get rid of a requirement to assess the student using the Iowa Acceleration Scale questionnaire, which helps schools consider students for academic acceleration.

For those seeking to skip a grade, the student must score in the 95th-99th percentile for two consecutive district tests in both reading and math. They must also have earned between a 3.7 and 4.0 GPAs in reading, math, science, and social studies in the previous year.

Once they’re eligible, students wanting an accelerated subject must score high enough on an additional test that is one grade level higher than in the subject they’re interested in. Those who want to skip a grade are evaluated by their school using the Iowa Acceleration Scale questionnaire, which CPS would keep in place for skipping grades. If they pass that, then they take a “variety of achievement tests” that are two grade levels higher than their current grade level and must score high enough on those.

The proposed changes would limit a practice known as “double acceleration” in the kindergarten entry grade. Currently, families can apply for both early entrance to kindergarten and selective enrollment elementary schools, which already have an accelerated curriculum.

The policy, if approved, would require families to choose either to accept acceleration at a non-selective school or to enroll in the selective program. The proposed changes would also allow families to appeal if their children are rejected for accelerated courses or skipping a grade.

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

Here’s what some Chicagoans want to see in a new Chicago Public Schools leader

2025-07-07T22:34:18+00:00

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The next chief of Chicago Public Schools should prioritize high-quality instruction, make schools feel safe, and have strong communication skills, said respondents in a recent survey conducted as part of the Chicago Board of Education’s search process for the district’s next leader.

Zencity — a company focused on community engagement and research — conducted an analysis of about 2,700 respondents that it recruited on its own, and separately looked at results of another 880 people who received the survey from a board member or Alma Advisory Group, the firm that CPS has hired to conduct the CEO search.

The survey, conducted between May and June, is one part of the board’s novel community engagement process as it searches for a replacement for former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who left CPS last month.

The mayor has typically chosen a CEO to lead CPS. Now, the district’s first partially elected, partially appointed board has taken over that responsibility. The board passed a resolution in April to launch a community engagement process, promising to center the public’s feedback in its choice for CPS’s next leader. It also passed a resolution requiring the CEO to hold a superintendent’s license, which has not been required since 1995 when the district went under mayoral control.

“Historically, CPS has not done a great job of involving community input and desire in a meaningful way,” said board member Jessica Biggs, who is the chair of the board’s transition team. “There are a lot of things that [the board has] disagreed on, but we were all really clear and aligned that we wanted our [CEO search] process to be centered around community engagement and dialogue.”

The board held 11 community feedback sessions and, separately, focus groups and panel discussions — resulting in conversations with more than 1,400 people, said Monica Rosen, CEO of Alma Advisory Group, which CPS hired to run the CEO search process, at a recent board meeting.

The public feedback will help the district tweak the scope of the job as Alma recruits and screens candidates, Rosen said. In June the board selected Macquline King, a former CPS principal and City Hall education advisor, as its interim CEO.

Zencity — which has worked with other big cities — said it used multiple strategies to ensure the survey “accurately reflects Chicago adults with children in public schools,” including a method called “rake weighting,” which weighs responses so that they don’t under- or over-represent the demographics of the population.

For the roughly 2,700 survey-takers that Zencity recruited on its own, just under half said they were a parent or family member of a CPS student, an educator, or a central office employee. Forty-three percent of respondents said they had no connection to the CPS community.

Zencity said 33% of respondents are Hispanic, 29% are Black, 28% are white, 6% are multiracial, and about 4% are Asian American. Overall, CPS’s student population is 47% Hispanic, 34% Black, 11% white, just under 5% Asian American, and almost 2% multiracial.

Most people took the survey in English, but it was also offered in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Polish.

When asked what student-related areas the next CEO should prioritize, the top answer, chosen by 32% of respondents, was high-quality instruction. Next was preparing students for careers. After that, 22% of respondents said they wanted to see an improvement in academic outcomes for kids, support of students from “diverse backgrounds,” and addressing inequities in learning opportunities.

Most people who responded — just over 60% — also rated current CPS instruction as positive. But among those people, CPS employees and parents were more likely to feel that way, while people with no connection to CPS were far less likely to say the same, “suggesting that first-hand exposure is more aligned with confidence,” according to Zencity.

On “operational” priorities, the top response — from 34% of survey-takers — was school safety. Thirty percent said they want the CEO to prioritize support for teachers, followed by 27% who want the focus to be CPS’s financial health.

Top survey responses varied by district, but Zencity highlighted the vast differences on safety. For example, 1 in 5 respondents from District 2B, in the city’s far Northeast neighborhoods, rated school safety as a top priority for the next CEO. But in nearby District 3, which includes Humboldt Park and Logan Square, nearly 1 in 2 respondents rated school safety as a top concern.

When asked about top attributes they want to see in the next schools chief, the top answer, chosen by 42% of respondents, was “strong and clear communication.” Thirty-nine percent said someone with “innovation, strategic thinking, and problem solving” skills, and 37% said someone who seeks and responds to feedback from students, parents, and staff.

Separately, board members and Alma distributed the survey on their own and reached an additional 880 people. Those results showed some similarities with the other responses and some notable differences. For example, most of these respondents want the next CEO to prioritize high-quality instruction for students, but also named CPS’s financial health as a top operational priority.

During the public feedback sessions, people shared pride for growing graduation rates, student achievement, and the district’s focus on equity and inclusion, Rosen said. But they also want the district to stabilize finances, expand post-high-school options, such as more career and technical education, address enrollment declines, “heal longstanding and historic harm” for different communities, particularly the Black community, and address mental health challenges.

Rosen said they heard frequently from people that “it just seems like the adults can’t get along” — a reference to the well-publicized conflict over the past year between CPS, the mayor’s office and the Chicago Teachers Union.

“Parents shared with us that the public fighting they’re seeing among adults in the system has been a distraction and perhaps worse, a bad model for their children,” Rosen said.

The CEO job was posted in April and garnered a “few dozen” applicants, Biggs said. Rosen said Alma will further refine the scope of the job based on the community feedback and begin formally recruiting people. The board’s goal is to have someone in place by the end of September.

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

100 students in a school meant for 1,000: Inside Chicago’s refusal to deal with its nearly empty schools

2025-06-13T09:00:00+00:00

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More than 4,000 students once crowded DuSable High School, then an all-Black academic powerhouse on Chicago’s South Side. Its three-story Art Deco building drew students with a full lineup of honors classes, a nationally known music program, and standout sports teams.

Nat King Cole played the piano in his classroom as a DuSable student. Harold Washington, Chicago’s first Black mayor, studied there. On Friday nights, teenagers zipped through its hallways on roller skates and danced in the gymnasium.

But at the turn of the millennium, enrollment plunged as Chicago closed a massive public housing complex nearby and a growing number of Black families left the city. Amid a national infatuation with smaller high schools 20 years ago, Chicago Public Schools conducted a grant-funded experiment to chop DuSable into three separate schools sharing a campus. What remains today, after that grant money ran out, is an enormous building and, inside, two tiny schools clinging to life.

One has about 115 students and claims the north corridors. The other, with only 70 students, takes the south wings. The inoperable pool is off-limits.

Hundreds of unneeded hallway lockers hide behind decorative paper and student posters of Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and former first lady Michelle Obama, whose father attended in the 1950s.

The two little high schools in Bronzeville share the same entrance and sports teams, but other things are doubled: two main offices, two principals, two assistant principals, two school counselors. Even though there’s a teacher for roughly every five students, the course offerings are limited.

Chicago Public Schools operates more than 500 schools and spends about $18,700 per student to run buildings that it considers well-utilized. At the DuSable schools, the cost is closer to $50,000 a student.

The DuSable schools are emblematic of an unyielding predicament facing the district. Enrollment has shrunk. Three of every 10 of its schools sit at least half-empty, and they are costly to run.

More critically, there are 47 schools, including those inside DuSable, operating at less than one-third capacity, by the district’s measure. That’s almost twice as many severely underenrolled buildings as Chicago had in 2013, when it carried out the largest mass school closings in the country’s history, Chalkbeat and ProPublica found. The most extreme example is Frederick Douglass Academy High School, which has 28 students this year and a per-student cost of $93,000.

Many of those schools are in historic buildings that need millions of dollars in repairs.

The costs are not only financial. Students in the city’s smallest schools have fewer courses to choose from and often miss out on clubs, extracurricular activities, and sports. Chicago’s underenrolled high schools are more likely to have lower graduation and college enrollment rates. They tend to struggle with chronic truancy and higher dropout rates, a ProPublica and Chalkbeat analysis found.

But officials in Chicago have chosen not to confront the problem of the city’s tiny schools. The teachers union and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who used to be an organizer and legislative liaison for the union, are quick to shut down discussion of downsizing. Widespread anger over the 2013 closures helped fuel the union’s rise to political power over the past decade; the union has also wielded the radioactive closure issue to undermine opponents, notably outgoing district CEO Pedro Martinez.

Union leaders, many community activists, and some researchers say closures disrupt displaced students’ learning and harm the city’s predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods, which were disproportionately affected by that earlier wave of closures. They argue the district needs to do much more to try revitalizing these campuses before it considers shuttering or merging them.

Helping to delay a reckoning: Since 2013, the district has operated under a series of moratoriums on closing schools, including one state lawmakers enacted with strong support from the teachers union. And a statewide school finance overhaul under former Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner increases or at least holds funding steady for districts even if enrollment declines.

Chicago has too many schools for the number of students it serves today, Martinez said in an interview with ProPublica and Chalkbeat. The district is spending too much on aging buildings, and it’s not providing a rich experience for students in many of its tiny schools, he said, adding: “They’re not having joy in that environment.”

But he said he inherited a closure moratorium and worked with school boards that had no appetite for closing or merging schools. “Our footprint is too large,” said Martinez, who leaves the district this month. “Every time somebody wants to address this issue, you see at all levels of politics, nobody wants to do it.”

He said he hopes a fully elected school board that will take over in 2027 will tackle the issue head-on, working closely with the communities it serves.

In a statement, the district noted its building utilization formula is “just one measure,” and it could overestimate available space.

The mayor’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

With public school enrollment declining across the country, a growing number of cities — Milwaukee; Denver; Flint, Michigan; Boston; San Francisco; Philadelphia — are grappling with the issue of underenrollment. Some plan to close schools.

But Chicago, the country’s fourth-largest district, operates on a larger scale: It has more students and more buildings than most other cities. The city’s school-age population, meanwhile, is on a downward trajectory, federal COVID-19 aid ran out this year, and the district faces a budget deficit of more than $500 million.

And yet, Chicago “doesn’t seem to be having an honest conversation about the challenges it’s facing,” said Carrie Hahnel, a school finance researcher with the nonprofit Bellwether.

The DuSable High School building houses two smaller schools, the Bronzeville Scholastic Institute and Daniel Hale Williams Preparatory School of Medicine. Unused lockers are covered with posters and decorative crafts.

‘A lack of political courage’

The 2013 closings of 49 Chicago elementary schools and one small high school were more than controversial. Families there felt that their communities were being torn apart as the city moved to shutter schools with long and rich histories. After protests and angry meetings, students were displaced to schools that were farther away from home. Neighborhood hubs were mothballed.

Deep distrust of Chicago Public Schools after the mass closures lingers, especially in Black neighborhoods like DuSable’s Bronzeville. University of Chicago research showed those closures set students back academically, though a small number who moved to high-performing campuses fared better. Some community groups and the teachers union in Chicago see schools as a public good; shuttering them is another mark of disinvestment.

That was the backdrop when a group of DuSable High School alumni grew concerned about dwindling enrollment at their beloved school and worried the district might target the building for closure. They approached CPS just before the pandemic with an alternative idea: Consolidate the two tiny schools at DuSable and focus classes on STEM careers.

The Bronzeville Scholastic Institute and the Daniel Hale Williams Preparatory School of Medicine would unite and revert to the name DuSable.

The alumni had no illusions that they could fully restore DuSable to what it once was. Compared to the school’s heyday, a much smaller number of school-age children live in Bronzeville today. But the alumni wanted more for the school.

The group met repeatedly with school and district leaders in DuSable’s wood-paneled social room, where trophies mark decades of athletic and musical excellence.

Officials told the group to get more input from current families at both schools — a daunting task given that the district would not provide their names or contact information. The plan fizzled out.

Hal Woods, now a policy director with the parent advocacy nonprofit Kids First Chicago, worked as the district’s school development director at the time and sat in on those meetings. He said the bottom line was that the plan smacked too much of a closure.

“We didn’t want to be seen with our fingerprints on this,” he said.

The Robert Taylor Homes — at one time the largest public housing project in the United States — once loomed over DuSable High School, as seen in these images from 1966. The complex was demolished by 2007, and DuSable High School never recovered from the loss of that student population.

Former school board President Jianan Shi, a Johnson appointee who served from 2023 to 2024, said rebuilding trust and planning for schools’ future with local communities at the helm takes time; it must begin now.

But, he said, “There’s a lack of political courage to have this conversation, and yet it’s often weaponized.”

Amid the uproar over the 2013 closings, Chicago’s then-mayor, Rahm Emanuel, vowed that his appointed school board would not close schools for five years. The state legislature then imposed a 2021 moratorium on closing Chicago schools until January of this year, part of a bill that changed the Chicago Board of Education to an elected, rather than mayor-appointed, body.

Today, Chicago has 634 schools, including 119 charter and contract schools run by outside entities, and a teachers union ally holds the mayor’s office. Last September, amid a power struggle between Johnson and Martinez, the Chicago Teachers Union publicized a facilities analysis that the district had done in late 2023, which included hypothetical scenarios for consolidating 75 schools, including Williams and Bronzeville. The union argued that even entertaining that idea was cause to fire Martinez immediately.

As the CTU pounced, Martinez pushed back, saying the district had concluded that no school would be closed while he was in charge — which he now says was really the school board’s decision. At the next school board meeting, he presented a new resolution that got unanimous support: CPS would not close any schools until 2027.

But the city’s demographic realities are not on hold. About 325,000 students enrolled this year, a drop of more than 70,000 from a decade ago. District officials project that three school years from now, there could be as few as 300,000 or, in a best-case scenario, as many as 334,000 students. Those estimates are based in part on the city’s sharply falling birth rates. Citywide, from 2011 to 2021, the number of births dropped by more than 43%.

Still, CTU leaders insist that the city is actually poised for a population turnaround. During President Donald Trump’s second administration, Chicago under Johnson can bill itself as a progressive refuge — a place that protects immigrants, abortion care, LGBTQ+ rights, and access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth and adults, said Jackson Potter, vice president of the CTU.

“We are going to need to be a citadel of protection,” he said, adding that the last thing the city wants is to shutter some of its schools, then see families arriving in these neighborhoods en masse only to find limited classroom seats.

The union’s real issue with school closures, Potter said, is that Chicago has done them without enough educator and community input and has rushed them, destabilizing other nearby schools.

An influx of immigrant families allowed CPS to stabilize its enrollment and the city to notch modest population increases in the past two years after a lengthy decline. But some demographers think the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown might mean these gains are short-lived.

Jim Lewis, a senior researcher at the Great Cities Institute, a research hub at the University of Illinois Chicago, is skeptical about the possibility of an influx of school-age children in areas with shrinking schools. Some gentrifying Chicago neighborhoods have drawn new residents, but they tend to be higher earners who generally have fewer kids.

Lewis cautions that people tend to overestimate the power of schools to attract residents. Studies have shown that crumbling schools can deter families, he said. But research also suggests new programs and attractive campuses can only do so much to draw them — unless those schools come with a complete package of job opportunities, safe neighborhoods, affordable housing, and more.

“I’m all for beautiful new schools,” Lewis said. “Do I think by itself it changes the demography of a place? I don’t think so.”

What to do about underenrolled schools and Chicago’s diminished school-age population is a decision for Chicago’s school board. Currently, 10 members are elected and 11 are appointed by the mayor. Next year, all will be up for election.

Some members, who said they could only speak candidly if they aren’t named, said the board must discuss solutions for tiny schools, including consolidation. But being branded “school closers” is a concern ahead of elections. Others said they’re open to discussing alternatives to school closings, including bringing health clinics or other family services into vacant parts of underenrolled schools.

“I think we have to talk about small schools as a result of historic racism, underfunding, neglect, and inequity,” said member Debby Pope, a former CTU employee. A conversation is going to be essential, she said, but with a moratorium on closings in place and the possibility that the board could extend it, “I don’t think this is the moment for that conversation.”

Dozens of Chicago schools are operating at less than one-third capacity.

Small enrollment, limited opportunities

About 5 miles southeast of DuSable is Hirsch High School, which was one of the district’s largest school building projects when it opened in the 1920s and once dealt with severe overcrowding. It’s gotten so small now that M’Kya Craig had taken all the electives the school offered by her junior year.

She was one of roughly 100 students at Hirsch, which could enroll 1,000. She browsed the school’s limited courses and decided to take yearbook for a second time. She was bracing to take the course a third time her senior year, but Hirsch added an African American literature class.

Craig appreciated that staff at the small school got to know her well, including a counselor who helped her get into Chicago State University. But she often felt frustrated by the school’s slim course offerings and scarce extracurriculars over the years.

“We lost a lot over the years due to being a small school,” she said.

Most of the district’s underenrolled schools serve students who do not participate in Chicago’s expansive system of school choice, where high-performing students test into selective schools ranked the best in the state, and other students find their way to magnets, charters, or strong neighborhood schools, often in wealthier parts of Chicago.

Many of the district’s small schools serve Chicago’s highest-needs students.

Hirsch High School on Chicago’s South Side opened in 1926 and has the capacity for 1,000 students. It currently has around 100.

At the Daniel Hale Williams Preparatory School of Medicine, one of the schools inside DuSable, junior Georgia Deaye was drawn to the school’s medical career program and loves the close-knit feel.

“The connection with teachers is way deeper than if I was at another school,” she said.

She participated in a summer internship program that Williams accesses through one of the larger district high schools and recently got her CPR certification. The most recent graduation rate at Williams was 93%, among the highest in the district. The graduating class was 14 students. There are a total of 70 students enrolled there, at a cost of $54,000 per student.

“Small schools are not always painted in a positive light,” said Williams Principal Leonetta Sanders, but the smaller environment is ideal for some students. In part because of its size, the campus hasn’t had to deal with gang problems or violence, she said.

“Safety,” she said, “is always money well spent.”

Some research has suggested that students tend to do better in smaller schools, notes Bruce Fuller, an expert at the University of California, Berkeley. But those findings apply to small-by-design campuses with healthy enrollments, not schools that have shrunk dramatically as families have moved away.

Fuller doesn’t think that student outcomes at those underenrolled schools have been studied rigorously because it would be too hard to control for factors such as the high needs of the students they tend to serve. “There’s consistent evidence that smaller can be better,” Fuller said. “But small in this life cycle of decline is a totally different story.”

In Chicago’s tiny schools, the limitations, even at a high per-student cost, are substantial. Bronzeville Scholastic Institute, the other school inside DuSable, used to be able to teach Spanish and French but now offers Spanish only. The school once offered Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses but realized it could not continue to offer both; it kept the IB program.

The schools have tried to make up for the limited course offerings by encouraging students to take online courses and dual-enrollment classes that local community colleges offer to high school students.

“You’ve got 12 kids in a class. The board is not going to pay for a calculus teacher,” Grace Dawson, who leads DuSable’s robust alumni group, said of the school district. Students are being “robbed” of opportunity, said Dawson, a former Chicago school principal.

Flush with federal COVID aid, the district added more than 7,500 new positions over the past four years even as enrollment kept declining. It also recently started guaranteeing a certain number of staff, including 10 teachers, at each school regardless of enrollment. Williams and Bronzeville, which used to share an assistant principal and a gym teacher, each hired their own. Douglass High School on the city’s West Side now has 27 employees for 28 students.

That includes six regular education teachers, six special education teachers, a school counselor, a college and career coach, a conflict resolution specialist, a restorative justice coordinator, and an assistant principal and principal. The cost to run the school is $93,000 per student.

“Is a Douglass student getting a $93,000-a-year experience? No,” said Woods of Kids First Chicago. “We can confidently say that. CPS pumps extra dollars into these schools so they can offer the bare minimum.”

The district, which handles requests for comment about individual schools, did not dispute the high per-pupil price tag at Douglass. It has said its new budgeting approach gives all schools a fiscal boost regardless of size.

David Narain, who was principal at Hirsch until 2023, said the school’s smaller size allowed his staff to focus intensely on a highly mobile student body, where many students came in reading at the third or fourth grade level. But it was challenging to build a school culture on a campus with so few students.

“You try to have a homecoming, but there’s no football team,” he said. “There’s nothing to come home to.”

And Narain understands the financial tension the district faces. “The writing is on the wall,” he said. “You can’t continue to run these schools and give them all of these resources.”

Williams Preparatory School, one of the schools inside DuSable, offers students a medical career program.

Old buildings, big expenses

In a district with a $10 billion budget, the overall spending on staff and programs at small schools can seem negligible. But keeping aging campuses running is costly no matter how many students are there. The average Chicago school building is 85 years old; dozens of them were built before 1900.

Analysis of capital spending data by ProPublica and Chalkbeat found that since 2017, the district’s 47 severely underenrolled schools — ones that sit more than two-thirds empty — have cost more than $213 million to maintain and renovate.

The emptiest buildings account for $400 million of the district’s estimated $3.1 billion in needed critical repairs. The DuSable building alone needs $21 million in urgent repairs.

Adding to the financial uncertainty at CPS is the Trump administration’s threat to withhold federal funding from districts such as Chicago that have maintained their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Education policy researcher Chad Aldeman, the former policy director of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University, said some closures or consolidations seem inevitable on the heels of Chicago’s massive enrollment losses. If the district doesn’t make a plan now — with community input and help to ease the transition for students — it could find itself scrambling later to reorganize in crisis mode.

“A lot of places that are closing schools are in financial distress,” Aldeman said. “They are trying to save money rather than thinking holistically.”

Closing schools can also carry steep costs. In 2013, the district spent big to add staff at schools that took in students, spruce up those schools, and move furniture out of the closed buildings.

Then there’s what to do with vacant buildings. The district is still trying to sell 20 vacant schools from the 2013 closures, which it pays to maintain.

CTU leaders, who pushed to add thousands of new school staff positions in recent contract talks, have long advocated spending more to breathe new life into underenrolled schools — an invest-and-they’ll-come theory.

Potter, the CTU vice president, holds up Dyett High School — which the district closed but later reopened after a CTU-supported hunger strike in protest — as an example of a “phoenix rising from the ashes.” Its basketball team won a state title this year. Though the school is still at 58% capacity, enrollment has stabilized at roughly 500 students, a benchmark CPS has used to weigh whether a high school is big enough.

“Why would you start with a question about consolidations when you can start with a question about support?” he said.

But recent years have tested the power of added investments to boost enrollment.

In 2018, the district and teachers union jointly launched an initiative to target 20 high-poverty campuses, including Dyett, with an additional $500,000 a year. They’ve used the money to partner with a local nonprofit to offer more services for students and families.

Some of these schools have since reported parent and student engagement gains. But with a few exceptions, they have steadily lost enrollment since then, in some cases dramatically.

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

Jennifer Smith Richards is a ProPublica reporter who writes about abuses of power — often focusing on schools and education — throughout the Midwest. Contact Jennifer at jennifer.smithrichards@propublica.org

Outgoing Chicago schools chief files defamation claims against teachers union and board president

2025-06-12T23:10:29+00:00

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Outgoing Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez filed defamation claims against the Chicago Teachers Union, its president, Stacy Davis Gates, and board President Sean Harden, according to court records posted Wednesday evening.

The claims were added as an amendment to his ongoing lawsuit against some current and former Chicago school board members. The amendment represents the latest escalation of tensions in Martinez’s ongoing legal battle since his firing in December.

Steve Mandell, CTU’s lawyer in the case, said the complaint “is an attempt to silence the sort of political speech that takes place in every labor negotiation.”

“If these sorts of statements were actionable, the courts would be flooded with never-ending defamation claims surrounding every negotiation,” Mandell said in a statement.

In a brief interview, Harden also denied making any defamatory comments.

The board’s law firm, Cozen O’Connor, did not respond to a request for comment. The board voted 12-7 Wednesday to increase its maximum allowed payments to Cozen O’Connor from $75,000 to $135,000.

The new defamation claims come a week before Martinez’s last day on June 18 and as he prepares to start a new job as Massachusetts’ state education commissioner on July 1.

Cook County Judge Joel Chupack will consider whether to allow the complaint to be amended next week, according to a court order issued Thursday. Bill Quinlan, Martinez’s lawyer, said he expects the judge to approve the change.

Asked why Martinez was adding defamation claims, Quinlan said Martinez “isn’t going to put up with bullies” or comply with ”the request to get him to agree to a contract that he didn’t think was fair.”

Martinez previously sued a school board in Nevada after being fired. He received a $500,000 settlement from the Washoe County School District, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The defamation claims in the latest lawsuit address several social media posts and statements from both Davis Gates and the union, including comments about Martinez’s past work as the district’s chief financial officer, his current competency as CEO, his understanding of contract negotiations, and whether he was pushing to close up to 100 schools. Separately, the suit claims Harden made false statements about Martinez during an event last month with the city’s principals union.

Martinez originally filed the lawsuit in December to attempt to stop the board from interfering in contract negotiations with the CTU. He won a temporary restraining order against board members to bar them from involvement in negotiations or directing his team.

The complaint refutes statements from Davis Gates and the union that claimed Martinez is “incompetent and unqualified.” The lawsuit said Martinez “has and had every ‘qualification’ to perform every aspect of his job as CEO.”

The lawsuit also highlights social media posts last September from both Davis Gates and the union that claimed Martinez was seeking to close 100 schools. At the time, Martinez and the Board of Education denied that it planned to close schools. State law prohibited school closures in Chicago up until mid-January. Amid the controversy, Martinez proposed and the board passed a resolution to say it wouldn’t seek closures until January 2027.

Martinez claims in his lawsuit that those posts were knowingly false.

“Davis Gates and the CTU knew the schools study had been performed at the directive of the Former Board, that the ensuing list was the result of the Former Board’s own initiative, and that [Martinez] had no plan to undertake school closures on that or any other basis,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit also notes a May 14 Facebook post from CTU’s page that says Martinez could have “recovered millions in charter loan debt” and “billed Medicaid” to avoid budget challenges. Martinez’s complaint argues both claims are false.

On Medicaid, Martinez’s lawsuit argues that “the highest recoupment of Medicaid” for CPS happened under Martinez. On charters, the complaint says the district can only function based on the contracts it sets with charter school operators.

The defamation allegations also cite a post Davis Gates made on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, arguing the district’s current financial difficulties “can be traced back to Martinez’s time as the district’s chief financial officer between 2003 and 2009,” citing risky loans he “blessed and structured.” Martinez’s lawyers say those allegations are all false and none of his actions as CFO more than a decade ago caused today’s financial challenges.

Separately, the lawsuit claims that board President Harden made false statements last month about Martinez’s work, including that he has been more focused on “his professional future and not on the long-term stability and success of our school district” and that his actions “have undermined our board’s ability to make the best decisions on behalf of CPS students.”

Martinez’s team claims Harden’s comments are false and are an attempt to establish legal “cause” for letting Martinez go sooner than his planned departure. Martinez was fired without cause in December and, per his contract, was allowed to stay in his role through June 19.

In a brief interview Thursday, Harden said he wasn’t aware of the defamation claims and did not say anything defamatory. He said his statements on the budget cited in the lawsuit were “100% factual.” CPS has floated a possible budget plan that assumes it will receive an additional $300 million from either the city or state, which has not yet materialized.

The budget is “incomplete and unsatisfactory, so I stand by those comments,” Harden said. “We were and we still are looking at what was put out — a $229 million budget scenario with suggestions of $300 million coming from unsubstantiated sources, so the board is not in a position to make sound decisions … That is still the case today.”

Last week, the union threatened to sue the district over a potential proposal to delay some of the union’s contract agreements next year. (The district told WBEZ that it “may need to review all additional expenditures under various labor agreements and vendor contracts to ensure long-term sustainability” and would work with unions as necessary.)

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

Appointed Chicago school board member Frank Niles Thomas steps down

2025-06-11T23:42:02+00:00

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Frank Niles Thomas, an appointed member of the Chicago Board of Education, is stepping down, board President Sean Harden announced Wednesday.

In remarks to the public, Thomas did not disclose a reason for leaving.

“Sometimes we’ve agreed, sometimes we’ve disagreed, but many times we spent more time working on those things that we agree on, and it has really been a pleasure,” Thomas said. “I wish you much success in the future, and I wish the citizens of Chicago and the children of Chicago Public Schools the best school system that they could possibly have.”

Harden announced Thomas’ departure immediately after the board voted to appoint Macquline King, a City Hall advisor and former principal, as the district’s interim CEO; Thomas voted to appoint King.

Chicago Board of Education member Frank Niles Thomas.

Mayor Brandon Johnson first appointed Thomas to the Board of Education last fall after the mayor’s first appointed board resigned en masse. Thomas was reappointed to the board after it became a 21-member, hybrid, elected-appointed body. He represents District 9 and lives in subdistrict 9a, which covers the communities of Auburn Gresham, Englewood, West Englewood, and Canaryville.

Thomas is a CPS graduate and U.S. Air Force veteran who for a decade served as the 21st Ward superintendent of the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation, according to his biography on the district’s website. He also served on the Local School Council at Dunne Elementary School, where he founded a leadership skills program for students. Thomas has four children who graduated from CPS.

Harden said he tried to persuade Thomas not to leave.

“It’s an incredible loss to the district, to the board,” Harden said. “Your levelheadedness has been very commendable.”

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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

Chicago Board of Education chooses City Hall advisor and former principal as interim CEO

2025-06-11T23:11:24+00:00

The Chicago Board of Education picked City Hall advisor and former principal Macquline King Wednesday as the interim CEO of Chicago Public Schools.

King’s record at CPS came under scrutiny last week after the Chicago Tribune revealed she’d been investigated multiple times as a principal and was found to have failed to implement certain district protocols around student safety. King did not face formal discipline.

The vote was close: Eleven board members — one elected and 10 appointed — voted for King, while eight voted no. Elected board member Ebony DeBerry abstained. Asked why she abstained, she said she did not feel her constituents would support her voting for King, and that a “no” vote wouldn’t have changed the outcome.

The board also disagreed over discussing the vote in public. Elected board member Jennifer Custer called for a public discussion, but that motion failed with 12 no votes.

Board members have been split for weeks on who should lead the district as the board searches for a permanent CEO. At one point, the mayor’s chief of staff Cristina Pacione-Zayas was floated as a possibility but was not officially considered after board members said they wanted to stick to their commitment to hiring someone with a superintendent’s license.

Outgoing CPS CEO Pedro Martinez’s last day is June 18 and he will begin a new job July 1 as Massachusetts’ new education commissioner. The previous Board of Education fired Martinez in December without cause following high tensions, largely rooted in budget decisions, between CPS and the mayor’s office, as well as the Chicago Teachers Union.

The interim will serve until the board hires a permanent CEO. The board’s search for a new permanent leader, being led by Alma Advisory Group, is underway. The board’s goal is to hire someone by the end of September, according to appointed board member Anusha Thotakura.

The board appeared to whittle its choices down from five people three weeks ago to King, who has been an education policy advisor for City Hall since 2022, starting under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot; Carmona, the district’s current chief portfolio officer; and Nicole Milberg, the district’s current chief of teaching and learning. All three have superintendent’s licenses.

Thotakura said she didn’t feel King’s personnel record was disqualifying because she was never formally disciplined. She said she liked that King had relationships both in and outside of the district.

“We right now need a leader that can get us through the next few months, through passing a balanced budget and through a strong and successful opening of the next school year,” Thotakura said. “We are looking forward to Dr. King’s leadership, her experience in and outside of CPS, to provide the district with the stability and the continuity that we need to get us through the next few months.”

According to a press release from the Board of Education, King has “spearheaded interagency collaboration to facilitate migrant student enrollment and expand early childhood access. She has fostered strong relationships with labor partners and monitored legislative bills impacting public education.”

King will be immediately tasked with resolving the district’s $529 million budget deficit. Asked how she’s considering closing that deficit, King told Chalkbeat she first needs to understand the details, consider various ideas around the budget, and work with board members and senior CPS leadership to find a solution.

King said applying for interim CEO was solely her decision, not the mayor’s, but she’s not interested in the permanent job at this time. In 2020, she applied for the permanent CEO role that Martinez eventually got, she said.

“I always chose to lead in schools that were challenging, and right now the district is in a very challenging position, so I don’t shy away from challenges,” King said. “It’s been a theme of my career.”

After a brief job at a private school, King became a CPS teacher in 1994 at Robert Nathaniel Dett Elementary School, according to employee records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. In 2007, King became principal at Alexandre Dumas School. Six years later, in 2013, King became principal at Courtenay Language Arts Center in Uptown.

During her tenure at Courtenay, King was highlighted for her participation in a leadership program for new school leaders. Her first year as principal at Courtenay was when the school merged with former Stockton Elementary. Following the merger, some teachers and parents described part of the school as a “war zone” that was marred with student fights, and they accused school leaders, including King, of not doing enough to quell the fights or log incidents, according to a DNAinfo story at the time. A parent leader, however, said King had a “daunting task” in overseeing the thorny school merger that CPS was advised to hold off on but approved anyway, the news report said.

Chalkbeat filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all personnel records for each finalist.

While King’s personnel records did not show any formal discipline, the district did on two occasions write memos about how she should improve.

In April 2015, King failed to immediately report allegations of two school staffers injuring a student to the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services or in CPS’s internal reporting systems, as required, according to an investigation conducted later that summer. CPS later gave King two “directives for improvement,” including reminders that allegations of abuse must be reported immediately to DCFS and CPS.

About six months later, two students participating in Courtenay’s after-school program were found in a bathroom with their pants pulled down and looking at each other’s “private parts and butt,” according to an investigative memo about the incident. The after-school provider — Youth Guidance — changed its protocols to require staff to accompany children when they went to the bathroom. But the investigation, which centered on King and several other school staffers, found that staff “did not do anything” to ensure that Youth Guidance was following its new protocols “or that the involved students were being kept separate from each other.”

In December 2015, a child fell and injured their arm at the school, but neither the school nurse nor King notified the student’s emergency contacts, and other staffers failed to ensure the student received timely medical care, according to that investigation.

In August 2019, CPS discovered that a person who had started volunteering at Courtenay the year before King became principal did not have a background check. CPS discovered the issue after that volunteer applied to be a security officer at Courtenay and a required background check found they had a criminal background, which wasn’t further detailed in the records obtained by Chalkbeat. In a formal nondisciplinary memo, the district informed King that she must always ensure employees have background checks.

King told Chalkbeat that it was “fair” for board members and the public to be concerned about the investigations without more context. She said she worked at “challenging” schools, and some of the investigations demonstrated a need for more staffing so that she and her team were equipped to follow all district procedures.

“I feel like the incidents that were reported in the news are incidents that demonstrate the need for support for principals and not punishment,” she said. “So each of the incidents that are noted, there [is] no documentation of support for schools.”

King said a lack of support for principals is why principals unionized and are currently bargaining with the district over their first contract. King has been vocal about the principals union and a desire for more support for school leaders.

Several board members have said King’s personnel history was concerning.

“There are parents on the board who have kids who go to their schools, and I am baffled that they’re willing to allow a leader with that kind of record to sit there and make some of these decisions when they have a true stake in the game,” said Custer, who supported Carmona. “I don’t know how they’re excusing it away.”

Neither Carmona’s nor Milberg’s personnel records included disciplinary or investigative memos.

Carmona has worked for the district since 2001. He was initially a bilingual teacher and eventually became a principal at Robert Healy School in 2010. In 2016, Carmona left to take a job as superintendent of a private, nondenominational Christian school in Milwaukee, according to his employee records and LinkedIn profile. He came back to CPS in 2019 to lead Network 10 schools on the Southwest Side before becoming the district’s chief portfolio officer, a role that oversees the district’s charter, options, and contract schools.

Under Carmona’s leadership, the district has recommended shorter renewal lengths for charter schools than past administrations. He also advised the board as it took the unprecedented, high-profile move this year to save five of seven Acero charter schools that Acero had planned to close.

Milberg taught in Newark, N.J. and Washington, D.C. before coming to Chicago Public Schools in 2009. She became assistant principal of Ellen Mitchell School in 2010 and eventually became the principal in 2012. In 2018, she was tapped to become chief of schools for Network 6 schools on the city’s west and southwest sides. She became CPS’s chief of teaching and learning in 2023.

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.

For sale: 20 old Chicago school properties

2025-05-12T10:00:00+00:00

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The buildings have sat empty for 12 years.

Several are architecturally significant with striking details and character taking up multiple city blocks. But many are in rough shape, with copper stripped from the pipes, broken windows, and graffiti covering walls. One had to be torn down after an extra-alarm fire last year.

Now, Chicago Public Schools aims to sell the former schools, putting 20 properties out to bid once again, with the hopes of seeing them repurposed and the possibility of bringing in around $8.2 million and avoiding spending more on future upkeep.

“Our goal is not to sell them for the highest dollar amount, really. It’s to find the most responsible, compatible use,” said Stephen Stults, director of real estate for CPS. “What we get paid, of course, helps with our budget challenges. But they’ve been sitting there long enough, and we need to do everything we can to try to get them repurposed.”

The solicitation for bids, which are due May 30, includes mostly school buildings closed in 2013. Each property includes a minimum bid and all properties have schools on them with the exception of one on the Near West Side.

That property, the site of the old Dett Elementary, has a minimum bid of $1.3 million and sits about five blocks from the United Center in an area poised for a $7 billion development plan, called the 1901 Project, a nod to the sports stadium’s address.

The city demolished the school building last fall after a fire broke out in late May. Prior to the fire, CPS put the building on the market and received just one bid for $1, which was “below what the district was willing to accept.” Demolition cost the district $1.25 million.

The former Dett Elementary building, 2306 W. Maypole Ave., sits vacant on Chicago’s West Side. Dett’s building closed and the school relocated to Herbert Elementary, 2131 W Monroe St., in 2013 when the Chicago Board of Education shuttered 50 schools.

The old Dett Elementary School being demolished at 2306 W. Maypole Ave. in Chicago.

All of the properties have deed restrictions that do not allow them to be used as a K-12 charter or school or for the sale of liquor or tobacco products.

Stults said CPS spends between $100,000 and $150,000 to maintain and secure each vacant school per year. That’s at least $2 million annually for the past 12 years — or $24 million. The ongoing expense comes as CPS is currently considering hundreds of layoffs in order to close a $529 million deficit for the coming school year.

Even though many vacant schools are not in great condition, Stults said the “bones of the buildings” are good. Demolition may be expensive, but so is rebuilding a core structure. After the deadline, he said the district will consider all bids and select the two “highest and most responsible” to present to the school board, as required by state law. Stults anticipates bringing some building sales to the board before the end of the calendar year.

If there is no demand for certain vacant schools, he added, the district plans to reach out to sister agencies, such as the Chicago Park District, to see if they’re interested in the properties.

Vacant schools are a visible reminder of the 2013 closures, which disproportionally impacted Black children from low-income families and led to further population loss. Many community groups and neighbors near these properties have called for reinvestment in these public assets for many years.

Efforts to sell and repurpose old CPS schools a mixed bag

Following the mass school closings in 2013, then-mayor Rahm Emanuel and CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennet appointed a committee to develop guidelines for school repurposing and community development. Their early 2014 report laid out potential uses for each vacant school and recommended a process for repurposing.

CPS put 47 buildings up for sale and sold two dozen properties in subsequent years for a collective $38 million. Some have been redeveloped into luxury housing or private schools. One was torn down to make way for 30 new single-family homes and another was rehabbed into a union hall.

More recently, the former Emmet Elementary in Austin opened as a gleaming workforce training facility after a more than $40 million renovation supported by city, state, and philanthropic money. The former Overton Elementary in Grand Boulevard on the south side slowly transformed into a community hub with weekend market events and a community garden.

Ghian Foreman, a managing partner with the Washington Park Development Group, which has owned the building since 2015, said they will begin renovations to convert the building into offices later this year as soon as the city grants the permits.

“It’s harder than you think it is,” Foreman said. “This has been a really long process of learning. You have to really be committed, and you have to ensure that you have the resources to see it all the way through.”

Many vacant schools shuttered a decade ago have garnered interest from buyers and community proposals. But actual redevelopment has stalled for myriad reasons.

Some schools up for sale now had buyers previously, but the sales never went through. For example, the school board approved a bid for the old Henson Elementary in 2018, but the local aldermen at the time held it in a City Council committee. The building remains vacant. The school board in 2018 approved a bid for the old Morgan Elementary in Chatham from the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 241. But the project never came to fruition.

Some schools have been sold and are off the district’s books, but remain vacant and undeveloped.

One notable example is the old Von Humboldt school, which still sits vacant after being sold by the school board in 2015 for $3.1 million to the nonprofit IFF. The group planned to convert the old school in gentrifying Humboldt Park to a mixed-use building with affordable apartments and market-rate townhomes built on part of the parking lot. But IFF eventually sold the property to Newark, New Jersey-based RBH Group, which promised to convert it to a “Teachers Village” with subsidized housing for teachers, similar to projects it’s done in Atlanta, Newark, New Jersey, and Hartford, Connecticut.

Von Humboldt Elementary was one of 50 Chicago Public Schools closed in 2013. It still sits vacant, but there's plan to convert the school into housing for teachers.

Ald. Daniel La Spata, 1st Ward, put brakes on the project in 2019, but it eventually got approval from the City Council in 2020. The city approved $18 million in tax-exempt bonds in 2022 and last fall, the Chicago Housing Authority committed 61 vouchers worth $20 million over 20 years. Today, the historic school built in 1884 sits waiting for activity.

Local elected officials influence vacant school sales

What to do with school real estate is another area of governmental entanglement between the city and the Chicago Board of Education.

By state law, the City of Chicago or the Public Building Commission hold the title “in trust for the use of schools.” The sale of old schools must be approved by the City Council in order for the deed to be transferred to a new owner. It also must be approved by two-thirds of the Chicago Board of Education, which now means 14 members must vote yes.

In the bid materials, interested buyers are encouraged to contact the local aldermen and local school board representatives for the properties they’re interested in purchasing.

Ald. Jeanette Taylor, who represents the 20th Ward on the south side, plans to hold meetings later this month to get feedback on repurposing the schools in her ward. Taylor is the City Council’s chair of the Committee on Education and Child Development and also participated in a hunger strike to keep Dyett High School open roughly a decade ago.

Parkman Elementary in the Fuller Park neighborhood is vacant and boarded up. It is one of multiple old schools in the 20th Ward. Ald. Jeanette Taylor will hold community meetings later this month to discuss repurposing the public assets.

School board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith, who was elected to represent District 10 on the south side, said he hasn’t heard from any prospective buyers yet. He doesn’t want to prescribe any uses for the vacant buildings in his district but just hopes that investors would tune in to what communities in these neighborhoods want and need. He also thinks any money the district makes from the sales should be poured into schools in those neighborhoods.

“I would like to see any revenue benefit local schools rather than disappearing into the district bureaucracy,” he said.

When asked if she’d been contacted by anybody hoping to buy vacant schools, Therese Boyle, the elected school board representative for District 9 on the south side, said: “Not a soul.”

But she said what to do with these vacant properties is a critically important question for communities, especially given the district’s looming deficit.

“We need every penny for the operation of the schools that are open,” Boyle said.

Boyle, a retired school psychologist, worked inside the old Wentworth school building now up for sale when it was closed in 2013. She remembered how difficult it was for students and staff to move to a new building and said it’s awful to have an old school sitting empty in a neighborhood.

Michilla Blaise, who was appointed to the school board by Mayor Brandon Johnson to represent District 5 on the west side, said she’s been talking with district, city, and county officials about what to do with the old vacant schools. She said it’s important to do something because right now, they’re just reminders of neighborhood disinvestment for the people who live around them.

Foreman, the community developer that owns the old Overton school, echoed that sentiment. For the 10 years he’s owned the old school, he’s allowed the community to use the gym to play basketball and workout. He had to stop that in the past year to prepare for construction and said there have been break-ins recently, but not from people looking to steal things.

“They were young people who wanted to come and play in the gym,” he said.

Even though financing Overton’s redevelopment has been a big challenge, Foreman questioned the argument often made by city officials that it’s too costly to repurpose these properties or make them available to the community while trying to sell them or even demolish them for use as a park.

“What’s more expensive?” he asked. “What we pay the police in overtime or opening up a gym for the kids to play basketball?”

Mila Koumpilova contributed reporting.

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

Chicago school board members raise concerns about Illinois labeling schools

2025-05-07T20:33:11+00:00

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Chicago school board members learned how the Illinois State Board of Education measures and supports schools — with some questioning whether the state’s designation labels impact school reputations.

“You want to make sure your child is in the best hands and if a school is labeled on probation or anything less than great, you don’t want to leave your kid there,” said Michilla Blaise, who was appointed to the school board by Mayor Brandon Johnson to represent District 5.

“I understand that those labels come sometimes with additional assistance and additional resources, but we’ve got to figure out how to do that without signaling to the community that this is a place where your kids aren’t going to get everything that they need,” Blaise said during a special meeting of the Chicago school board Wednesday.

Illinois is poised to change how it measures student and school performance — including changing the scores needed to be deemed proficient on math and reading tests.

In Illinois, schools are given one of five designations based on a variety of data about how well their students do on math and reading tests and how often students miss school. How many students graduate and how many freshmen are passing their classes are factors for high schools. “Exemplary” schools are the top 10% of all schools statewide and “intensive support” schools are those in the bottom 5%.

According to ISBE data, 26 Chicago Public Schools are considered “exemplary” and 39 are designated as needing “intensive support.”

Most CPS schools – 409 of more than 600 schools — are deemed “commendable,” the second-highest category given to roughly 70% schools statewide. CPS has 110 schools in the “targeted support” category, meaning they need to improve on certain metrics, and 36 in the “comprehensive support” category, which means it needs overall improvement.

CPS used to have its own rating system that labeled schools one of five levels: Level 1+, Level 1, Level 2+, Level 2, and Level 3. But the district paused it in 2020 during the COVID pandemic and the labels never returned.

This January, the district rolled out new school dashboards with no levels and no mention of ISBE’s designations.

“The terminology that the state uses is only available on the state report card,” noted Carlos Rivas, the elected school board member for District 3. “It’s not something that we use to advertise our schools.”

Debby Pope, a retired teacher appointed to the school board by Johnson, said no matter what labels are used, “people know what they mean.” She took issue with how much standardized tests still influence how schools are measured and said they are biased.

“I just think that an evaluation system is one thing, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to the kind of school improvement that you and all of us want to see,” Pope said.

The state-mandated training on school improvement for board members primarily focused on how the state supports school improvement efforts for schools in all levels.

Nick Heckel, ISBE supervisor for school district improvement, said his team works with CPS schools on “intensive support” to find ways to improve and address root causes of low performance.

He gave an example of a school dealing with high absenteeism that identified families who were afraid it was unsafe to let their kids walk to school. The principal hired three paraprofessionals to serve as a “walking bus” every day, picking up students at home and walking them to school.

School ratings have changed over time

How to measure student achievement and school performance has changed significantly over the past several decades. In the years after the state gave Chicago’s mayor control over the schools in 1995, more than 100 schools were placed on “academic probation.”

The labeling of low-performing schools became required across the nation after the 2002 reauthorization of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act known as No Child Left Behind. That law also required public schools to test students in reading and math in grades 3-8 and once in high school. This continued after the 2015 reauthorization known as the Every Student Succeeds Act, but gave states more flexibility to develop their own accountability systems.

In Chicago, school performance ratings have shaped high-stakes decisions, including closing the lowest-performing campuses and firing all the staff in an effort to reboot.

But in recent years, the state imposed a moratorium on school closures in Chicago, which ended in January. Johnson, a former teacher and union organizer, is against school closures and has criticized high-stakes school accountability policies.

ISBE could soon follow Chicago in changing elements of the state’s school accountability system. Officials are working with more than 100 educators to review state standards and benchmarks and have been on a listening tour to gather feedback on potential changes.

In the wake of the pandemic, several states have lowered testing standards, generating mixed reactions. Some say the adjustments better illustrate improvement and progress, while others fear it could mean students and schools that are struggling could go unnoticed.

The National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal test that’s given every two years to a sample of students, showed most cohorts of students in 2022 were performing at levels lower than their pre-pandemic peers. The 2024 cohorts were performing more closely to their pre-pandemic counterparts. Illinois state standardized test scores last year showed a stronger rebound in reading, but SAT scores continued to fall.

Data on school performance shapes how families make decisions about where to send their children to school, said Sandra Kwasa, director of training development with the Illinois Association of School Boards. Kwasa, who also gave a presentation to Chicago school board members Wednesday, urged them to get familiar with the state’s report card data for CPS.

“That is what your community sees. That’s what realtors are looking at to sell your community,” Kwasa said. “You really, really want to go look at that and get a good understanding of what that is and what’s missing because it doesn’t tell the whole story, but it tells a part of the story.”

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

Chicago Public Schools floats hundreds of layoffs as one option to close $529 million budget gap

2025-04-25T22:19:36+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools is considering laying off hundreds of school-based staffers next school year — one of multiple scenarios being considered to close a $529 million budget gap, Chalkbeat has learned.

Between 1,600 and 1,700 positions based inside schools could be cut, according to a presentation used to brief board members obtained by Chalkbeat. However, it’s not clear if the number represents a net reduction in the overall number of CPS employees. The district currently employs more than 41,000 people.

While some of the belt-tightening could include cutting vacant positions, it would “overwhelmingly” involve layoffs, according to a CPS source who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the press.

The potential cuts are not yet final. The presentation suggests there are ways to lessen the blow, specifically by getting more state funding or more city money than it is already expecting from special taxing districts meant to spur development, known as TIFs. Mayor Brandon Johnson has the power to declare a surplus of those funds, and CPS is assuming it will again receive roughly $300 million in those funds next year, according to the presentation.

The CPS budget for next school year, which would begin July 1, must still go through a public hearing process and be formally adopted by the board. School budgets are typically shared with principals and Local School Councils in the spring. By state law, the district’s budget must be balanced.

The challenge ahead marks the first time in recent years that CPS has had to consider deep school-based cuts. That’s largely because the district benefitted from a windfall of nearly $3 billion in federal COVID relief money over the past four school years, which supported 7% of school budgets, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.

In a statement, CPS spokesperson Mary Ann Fergus said the district is considering multiple scenarios, including what happens if state or local revenue doesn’t change. The different scenarios don’t “necessarily reflect the district’s recommendation.” She added that CPS leaders, students, parents, and advocates will travel to Springfield next week to push for more state funding.

“CPS will continue to seek every opportunity to boost revenue and minimize cuts, particularly those that could disrupt the learning experience or impact our dedicated staff,” she said. “Our primary focus will remain on safeguarding the quality of education for our students and minimizing any disruptions to their daily learning.”

The school board’s office did not return a request for comment. Service Employees International Union local that covers school support staff also did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis Gates said the potential cuts are “evidence of a fired CEO’s failure to lead.”

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez was fired without cause in December and will leave in June. He will likely take a job as the new education commissioner of Massachusetts.

“It’s time for this board to define for Chicagoans how it will lead and show there’s no place for going backwards on the district’s commitment to quality public education,” Davis Gates said.

Closing budget gap could mean at least $200M cuts to schools

The expected $529 million gap between revenues and expenses is calculated after accounting for several new expenses, including the new teachers contract, potential raises for principals as part of their union’s negotiations, and increased costs related to SEIU and other unions, according to the internal presentation. CPS is also expecting increases in charter school funding and teacher pensions, to comply with state laws. The projection does not, however, include a much-debated pension reimbursement to the city of Chicago, which the district declined to pay this year. That suggests the district will, for now, refuse to reimburse the city for the pension payment next school year.

The projected budget gap does not include new risks to federal funding under President Donald Trump, such as Title I, which provides additional funds to about 400 Chicago schools with high shares of students from low-income families.

If the board chooses to balance the budget through this plan, it would reduce the deficit by a total $200 million to $260 million, about 6% to 7% of the $3.5 billion in funding that goes directly to schools, according to the presentation. The district also floated cutting central office expenses by $20 million to $40 million — 7% to 13% — and trimming another nearly 20%, or between $250 million and $280 million, from centralized support services and staff that work more directly with schools.

The plan could mean cuts to discretionary funding for high-needs schools, staff that provide additional support to struggling students, such as tutors, and social-emotional support, according to the presentation. However, it also said those potential cuts would keep class sizes at contractual limits in the new Chicago Teachers Union contract.

The contract lowers kindergarten class sizes to 25 students and adds a teaching assistant for any class with more than 23 students, the union previously told Chalkbeat. In first through third grade, class sizes would be 28, and in fourth through eighth grade, the cap is 30 students.

Cuts could also impact support staff, such as custodians, security guards, building engineers, lunchroom staff, and crossing guards paid for under the Safe Passage program. The internal presentation also mentioned trimming transportation costs that are not legally mandated. That could impact recent increased efforts to restore transportation to general education students who largely attend magnet or selective enrollment schools.

However, in its presentation, the district foreshadowed that there could be cuts even if new revenue comes through. For example, if the district received $300 million in additional funding through either state or city funding, it could mean a $70 million to $110 million cut to direct school funding.

Despite the potential cuts, the presentation said CPS is “committed” to maintaining teaching staff that prioritizes “reasonable class sizes” and “differentiated support for high-needs schools,” as well as support for kids with greater needs, such as students with disabilities and English learners.

According to the CPS source, the district does not prefer instituting a hiring freeze to address cuts because high-needs schools are typically where vacant positions exist. That means a hiring freeze would impose greater burdens on the schools that likely need the most staffing. Cuts would more likely impact larger schools.

School board members look to city, state for help

School board member Jitu Brown said while the presentation was “thorough,” it wasn’t a surprise. District officials have publicly shared for months that CPS expected at least a half-billion-dollar deficit.

He argued that there hasn’t been a solid legislative strategy from CPS to convince state lawmakers to send funding help. He also thinks CPS’s resistance to taking out a loan in order to reimburse the city for some pension costs was a misstep.

District officials worried that taking out such a loan would result in high-interest rates that would become difficult to pay back down the road.

While CPS is not legally required to pay the city back for those pension costs, it had done so under Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Brown worried that by not paying the city back, City Council has lost interest in sending more TIF surplus to the schools. Aldermen and city officials warned the school board in March that they could hold back on funding help for CPS if the district did not reimburse the city for the pension payment.

Brown said he and other board members plan to press state lawmakers for more funding and more relief on certain costs, such as teacher pensions that other districts don’t pay. Those are issues that district staffers have also previously highlighted.

“To me this whole piece has been due to a lack of leadership,” Brown said. “I’m not in favor of any budget cuts.”

Board member Carlos Rivas said he supports pushing the city for more TIF surplus funding to help make an “absolutely terrible” cut “much more manageable.” He placed more blame on city officials for not developing a strong state advocacy campaign and doesn’t believe the state is going to bail out CPS. But he believes there’s political will on the City Council to support the public school system, despite the tension around the pension payment.

“I believe we all want great schools so I don’t believe the City Council will hold that against us,” Rivas said.

Financial issues can be tied to the end of the COVID relief money

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, CPS spent nearly $3 billion in federal COVID relief funding on many school-based investments, primarily staff, including a cadre of new academic interventionists. The district touts those investments as helping students perform better than some of their peers nationwidef after the pandemic.

However, those were not one-time costs, and the money dried up last year. The district had to close a roughly half-billion-dollar deficit this year, too, as it tried to hold on to many of those new investments.

The district’s internal presentation outlined possible cuts that include many of those post-COVID investments: cuts to professional development, after-school programming, curriculum support, and academic interventionists — a position that has already been pared down since last school year.

Martinez appears to be leaning toward pushing for more TIF funding. At Thursday’s Board of Education meeting, he said after conversations with state legislators, he isn’t confident more state funding is in the cards. Illinois is working to close a $3.2 billion deficit for the coming fiscal year.

The internal presentation also outlined scenarios where the CPS deficit could grow — and require even deeper cuts. For example, the pension reimbursement would increase the district’s projected deficit, as would about $30 million in costs to begin the planning and transitioning of five Acero charter schools into district-run schools by the fall of 2026. Those are separate from the costs related to eventually taking over the schools.

The board voted in February to take over the five Acero campuses previously slated for closure. Asked why the Acero transition costs weren’t included in the district’s deficit projection, a CPS source said “doing that would require significant cuts” and district staff wanted to ensure the board knows “what the consequences are.”

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 school board again delays vote on future of 21 charter schools

2025-04-25T01:02:21+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education again delayed voting on renewing contracts with 21 charter schools, leaving families and staff with more uncertainty just months before the end of the school year.

The board voted 15-5, with no discussion, to remove the charter renewals from its Thursday agenda. All ten of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointees, plus elected members Therese Boyle, Che ‘Rhymefest’ Smith, Yesenia Lopez, Jitu Brown, and Ebony DeBerry, voted to do so.

Since February, the board has pushed back the vote on most charter renewals by removing the agenda item before the meetings took place.

It’s not clear yet if the charter school renewals, which historically have happened in January, will move to next month’s meeting in late May. The district has so far not recommended closures for any of the schools up for renewal this year.

Neither the school board office nor board president Sean Harden, who moved to delay the vote, responded to a request for comment. According to two school board members, the renewals were pulled because the board is still discussing the proposed renewal lengths. One of those board members said several board members want changes to what the district has already proposed — which include renewal lengths that range between two and four years.

Several charter students and educators spoke during public comment to persuade the board to give them the maximum renewal term of 10 years.

The board also decided to pull a resolution that would have imposed stricter rules for charter schools, though a vote was not needed for that.

The proposed resolution would mark a shift in how this board may want to govern charter schools, which over the past two decades have grown and are now seeing enrollment declines and financial issues. It is already being opposed by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, which lobbies for charters, while earning some praise — and a push for stronger language — from Chicago Teachers Union leaders.

Two months ago, the board voted to save five of seven Acero charter schools that were slated to close and commit to flipping them into district-run schools.

The resolution that was pulled said charter operators would need to provide the board with an 18-month notice before closing a school, and the operator would be financially responsible for costs associated with any closings. Charter operators would also have to spend most of their “publicly-funded revenues” on services for students, the resolution said.

The resolution had also called for operators to stay neutral in the event their schools move to unionize. Currently, the Chicago Teachers Union represents teachers at schools run by 10 operators.

Jennifer Conant, the Chicago Teachers Union charter division chair, expressed support for the sort of ideas included in the resolution. She said the district should use shorter terms to hold charters accountable when they’re not meeting standards, but that it should also be checking in more frequently on charters so that they have the help they may need to stay open.

She noted that ASPIRA-Haugan received a seven-year renewal in 2018, the longest contract length the school board has awarded. Enrollment dropped “precipitously,” she said, and the network announced in January it would close the middle school.

“The renewal process should be about accountability and support,” Conant said.

Charter operators and staff have pushed for their schools to receive longer renewals. Under Mayors Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson, the district has more frequently renewed schools for two or three years.

Charter operators and staff have argued that longer renewals mean more stability for families and staff. The district, however, says a shorter renewal incentivizes charter operators to improve on student academic performance or other areas highlighted by CPS.

This year, the district recommended two-year renewals for about half of the 21 schools. Before the items were removed from the agenda, four schools were to get three-year renewals, and a four-year extension would have been afforded to six schools — four run by the operator Perspectives.

The district outlined several concerns with each of the schools up for renewals and outlined for more those recommended for two-year renewals. Those concerns included academic performance, how the school serves students with disabilities, and even accurate teacher licensure information. It asked those schools to address those concerns during their renewal terms.

In one notable case, the district recommended a two-year renewal for two Urban Prep campuses located on the South Side. In the fall of 2022, the board moved to close both schools amid allegations of financial mismanagement, failure to properly serve students with disabilities and sexual misconduct allegations against the school’s founder, Tim King. King has denied those allegations.

Urban Prep appealed its closure to the state, which sided with CPS. Urban Prep filed a lawsuit, but an appeals court ultimately decided that CPS had the right to close Urban Prep’s campuses, which were on track to close last June and become district-run. The district extended their contracts for one more year to provide stability for students and staff — and this year is moving to extend the contracts through 2027.

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

Chicago school board launches a Black Student Achievement Committee

2025-04-25T00:51:20+00:00

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The Chicago school board voted unanimously to form a new district committee tasked with improving the experience and academic outcomes of Black students.

The committee was a requirement of a bill Illinois lawmakers passed in 2024 that set the stage for Chicago’s transition from a mayorally-appointed school board to an elected one. But the Black Student Achievement Committee’s launch comes amid unprecedented scrutiny of race-based initiatives by the Trump administration, which has threatened to withhold funding from school districts and states over efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

In recent months, a growing chorus of Chicago community leaders and advocates questioned why CPS had not yet launched the committee — and called on the partially-elected board to do so immediately. These calls intensified as CPS in February unveiled its long anticipated Black Student Success Plan, which includes pledges to hire more Black teachers and markedly reduce suspensions for Black students, among other steps.

The plan drew an instant challenge. A Virginia-based advocacy group that has scrutinized the teaching of race and gender in public schools across the country submitted a complaint against CPS’ plan with the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights the day after its release. That office had cautioned school district and university leaders against pursuing DEI initiatives days before the plan’s unveiling, suggesting it might be a sympathetic audience to the complaint from the nonprofit Parents Defending Education.

Under the state law, the new committee would focus on closing disparities for Black students and improving their experience on CPS campuses. These students make up roughly a third of the district’s student body.

The district, along with the state of Illinois and a suburban district, is also facing a Title IX investigation into policies around supporting transgender and nonbinary students. Mayor Brandon Johnson has said his administration would sue the feds if they started to withhold federal education funding over DEI. It’s unclear if the new committee might draw fresh federal scrutiny.

In a statement, Valerie Leonard, a North Lawndale community leader and advocate who worked on the district’s Black Student Success Plan, lobbied the state to create the committee and welcomed the it’s launch Thursday. She said she was nominated to serve on the committee by board member Jitu Brown, who will chair the new group.

Leonard argued that the board should embrace a community proposal for tracking progress from the committee’s work to “enhance accountability and clearly communicate strategies, metrics, and progress.”

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

Chicago’s partially-elected school board plans changes to charter school oversight

2025-04-23T19:35:41+00:00

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Micha Thurston, a teacher at Octavio Paz Elementary School, was recently collecting funds for field trips and other activities when a student asked her what the money was for. Thurston explained it was part of a school fundraiser. The student gasped.

“So we can stay open?” the student asked.

Paz, an Acero charter school on the Southwest Side, is slated to close by the end of the school year.

“And I said, ‘No, so we can give you the best school year we can give you,’” Thurston said. “She just looked so confused.”

Paz is one of two Acero schools closing by the end of this year. Another charter middle school — ASPIRA-Haugan — will also shut its doors for good. These three closures come after nearly a dozen charter campuses in Chicago ended operations over the past five years, with at least half of those tied to financial problems and enrollment declines. And, in a first, Chicago Public Schools plans to convert five Acero campuses into district-run elementary schools by fall 2026.

These closures and conversions of charter schools in Chicago mark a shift in the district’s approach to governing these privately-run, publicly-funded schools, which have existed since 1997. Though charters grew rapidly over the past 20 years, operators are facing declining enrollment, tighter budgets, and a 21-member, partially-elected school board with few charter allies.

Now, the relatively new school board is proposing changes to how it handles charter oversight. A resolution on Thursday’s meeting agenda would impose new requirements on operators and is already being opposed by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, a special interest group that lobbies on behalf of charter schools.

The proposed resolution would, among other new stipulations, require operators to give the district 18 months notice of closing a school and assume financial responsibility related to the closure. It also calls on the district to lobby state lawmakers to change state law to stop charters from closing during their renewal term.

It comes as 21 charter schools — and the thousands of students they serve — have been in limbo this year as the school board delayed its vote on their renewals. While that has historically happened in January, the board pushed back its decision to this month.

As the district stares down a growing deficit, several questions about charter schools lie ahead for the board: Should the district absorb charter schools that networks decide to close — or should it allow the campuses to phase out? Should it work harder to enroll kids from closing charters at district-run schools that have long suffered from declining enrollment — or would that infringe upon family choice?

Elizabeth Todd-Breland, who was vice president of the Chicago Board of Education under Mayors Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson and was more critical of charters than her predecessors, said deciding a path forward for how the district manages charter schools directly impacts students, their families, and educators.

She noted that charters grew rapidly under Renaissance 2010, an initiative under then-Mayor Richard M. Daley that led to the opening of 100 new schools, many of which were charters. By the time most of those schools opened, CPS’s enrollment growth had slowed and would ultimately start dropping.

Board members “also have to grapple with the realities of past and ongoing policies that have set up a school system that doesn’t work for everyone,” said Todd-Breland, an associate professor of history at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “How to find our way out of that as a city … is just really difficult.”

CPS spokesperson Quan Vu said in a statement the board’s decision to absorb the Acero campuses “to minimize disruption for affected students and families” shouldn’t be seen “as setting a precedent for how the district will handle future charter school closures.”

Could more charters become district-run schools?

Given the current mayor’s own critical views on charters in the past, many expected the first board appointed under Johnson to take a harder look at the charter sector.

The new board is made up of 11 of his appointees, plus four other allies. In November, during the first historic school board election, four people backed by the Illinois Charter Schools Network won.

But in an unexpected twist, after the Acero charter network decided to close half of its campuses, the Board of Education voted in February to save five of the seven Acero schools slated for closure and committed to financially support the schools through next school year, while also committing to turn them into district-run schools. That vote came after months of protests from families and the Chicago Teachers Union, which represents staff at Acero.

The vote raised a key question: Will other charter operators who are in trouble expect the cash-strapped district to provide a financial lifeline?

Elected school board member Yesenia Lopez, whose district includes some of the Acero schools, voted to save the five campuses by converting them to district-run schools. She said it was the right way to settle a deeply complicated problem. In an op-ed published Wednesday in the Chicago Sun-Times, Lopez wrote that the Acero situation caused “stress, heartache and uncertainty” for families and that charters should be required to notify the public at least a year in advance of closing a school.

“If a charter wasn’t up front about the financial situation or whatever the cause might be and they’re considering closure of schools, at least for myself, the families are the ones left hanging and scrambling,” Lopez told Chalkbeat.

Lopez said she feels that some charter networks fail to have meaningful engagement with families. With Acero, Lopez said she heard from multiple parents who felt confused about what comes next and that the network was uninterested in their feedback.

Acero has previously said it made one-on-one informational sessions available to families to explain their options moving forward.

But another elected school board member, Jennifer Custer, voted no. She supported saving the schools but worried about language that committed the district to absorbing the five elementary campuses after next school year. She supported a version of the resolution that would have allowed the district to consider whether it was viable to take over the campuses, rather than commit to that.

“We have to understand that this is a vote between making a financially responsible decision that doesn’t have greater effects across the district and saves some of these schools, or keeping these schools open at the cost of teacher and staff jobs in millions of dollars across the entire district,” Custer said before casting her vote.

CPS came close to taking over two charter high schools a little over a year ago. The school board voted to revoke the charter agreement with the once-nationally-lauded Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men after financial mismanagement, problems with serving students with disabilities, and allegations of misconduct against the organization’s former leader Tim King, which he has denied.

The plan was for CPS to turn the high schools into district schools.

But Urban Prep launched a legal battle that involved the state and the courts. Ultimately, an appeals court ruled that CPS had the right to close the school, which was set to happen by the end of this school year.

However, the district is recommending a two-year renewal for Urban Prep with several conditions, providing those families certainty for at least the next two years just months before the expected closure, according to the agenda for Thursday’s meeting.

For Thurston at Octavio Paz, amid the uncertainty of the past several months, students she works with have asked frequently about the school’s closure, she said. She said she can see the detrimental impact of Paz’s closure already, with some kids wondering why they’re bothering to come to school at all. And she’s unsure about her future, too.

The impact of closures on kids and families is why board member Jitu Brown, who voted to save the Acero schools and turn them into district campuses, said he doesn’t believe in closing charters even though he’s critical of the charter sector.

“That might mean absorbing them when they close, or it can mean them getting their act together, but what we have to have is accountability to the public,” Brown said. “You can’t just have the Wild Wild West in regards to schools operating in our community and being able to pick and choose their children, or not serve particular populations, or just shut down when it becomes less profitable.”

Timeline for charter renewals a moving target this year

In Illinois, charter schools must be run by nonprofits and operate in accordance with an agreement approved by a local school board. Only if a local board denies a charter applicant, can the operator appeal to the state for authorization.

Most of the state’s charters are in Chicago and are overseen by Chicago Public Schools. The school board decides whether contracts should be renewed and under what conditions.

At one time, that process in CPS would happen around November and December, according to Andrew Broy, president of the Illinois Network of Charter Schools. It shifted to late January during the last two school years before this year’s delay.

When it comes to financial oversight, the district doesn’t get audits from one school year until the following fall, said Hal Woods, the former head of the CPS’s office that oversees charter schools and current chief of policy at Kids First Chicago, an education advocacy organization.

“A school could be deep in financial trouble before CPS has the full picture,” Woods said. “Even when a school is placed on financial remediation, it has up to two years to course correct before CPS could step in to close it — if they act at all.”

The result, often, can be an abrupt decision from charter operators or the district to close campuses in a matter of months. Broy, however, argued that if charters had a better relationship with district leaders, then they could work together to figure out a solution for financial or enrollment issues.

The board’s proposed resolution on Thursday’s agenda would require the district office in charge of charter oversight to conduct annual site visits and provide school board members with copies of the rubrics used to evaluate charter school performance.

Another issue is the length of renewals, Broy said. His organization lobbied the state legislature to allow charters to be renewed for up to 10 years from their local school boards. That’s never happened in Chicago. But a handful of operators did get seven-year renewals prior to 2019. For the past several years, the school board has not renewed networks for more than five years and has done more one- or two-year renewals.

Broy is advocating for at least minimum three-year renewals this year. The district is recommending between two- and four-year renewals this year for 21 schools. About half are slated to receive two-year extensions, according to Thursday’s agenda.

“They look at charter schools and say, ‘How do we hold them accountable?’ They look at district schools [and say], ‘How do we support them?’” Broy said. That’s a sign the board “is not oriented towards helping charter schools prosper, helping the students in them grow. It’s oriented towards holding schools accountable, which is really a thinly veiled critique of the model itself.”

Still, Todd-Breland said, the renewal process is “often the only point of real accountability” for charters because they operate independently and don’t have other check-in structures that district schools do, such as network offices.

Vu, the CPS spokesperson, said the district uses shorter renewal terms “to promote accountability” and encourage operators to improve outcomes at their schools.

“These shorter terms allow for quicker adjustments in strategy, while ensuring operators remain responsive to the needs of students and communities,” Vu wrote in a statement.

Charters serve more than 50,000 students, but enrollment is dropping

Over Lori Cannella’s two decades at ASPIRA-Haugan Middle School, the health care worker-turned-teacher has seen the enrollment drop from about 500 students to about 80 this year.

The enrollment drop — in part due to new CPS middle school grades nearby and fewer families having kids — led to financial constraints and cuts in music and computer classes, Cannella said.

Then, just before winter break, the network’s leadership sat Haugan’s staff down and told them the school will close at the end of this school year.

The ASPIRA board voted in January to close the Haugan campus because of enrollment declines and financial issues.

ASPIRA board members did not return a request for comment.

Just as enrollment has dipped in district schools, the same has happened at charters, though at a lesser rate.

Charter enrollment in Chicago began falling after the 2015-16 school year, later than the district’s student count began to shrink, according to enrollment data provided by CPS. Since then, charters have seen a 14% drop in students and district schools saw a 17% dip.

The reasons for decreasing enrollment vary, including falling birth rates and dropping city population.

The district changed its budget formula to help protect against these enrollment shifts: Now, instead of basing funding on the number of kids in a building and increasing those funds based on need, the district guarantees certain staff positions to all schools, plus some discretionary funding. Schools with more pressing needs are allocated more positions.

But charters are still largely funded based on the number of students they’ve enrolled. State law requires the district to fund charter schools proportionally to per pupil funding at district-run schools. But generally, fewer kids at charters will mean less funding.

Board of Education member Brown believes more funding could help relieve the district of the thorny questions they face. He said he and other board members are advocating with the state to provide more funding to CPS and relieve it of costs that other districts don’t cover, such as teacher pensions.

But with fewer students overall, the district and its charter schools will continue to grapple with the challenges associated with operating schools with low enrollment.

Back at ASPIRA-Haugan, Cannella said she doesn’t see any hope the closure decision will be reversed. She now worries about how her sixth and seventh grade students will adjust to new teachers and classmates during the already challenging middle school years.

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

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez picked to lead Massachusetts schools

2025-04-22T19:34:42+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez is one step closer to becoming the top education official in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted during a public meeting on Tuesday to recommend Martinez to be the next commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Nine of 11 members of the Massachusetts board voted for Martinez. The other two abstained. Both said earlier in the meeting that they supported candidate Lily Laux, the former deputy commissioner of school programs at the Texas Education Agency.

The board will now send its recommendation to the Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler, who must give final approval and is also currently serving as the department’s interim commissioner. However, Tutwiler, who also sits on the board, said he supports Martinez and voted yes for him.

Martinez, who was fired from CPS without cause in December, was one of three finalists for the Massachusetts job and one of 42 people who had applied. If he takes the job, he will be responsible for overseeing and providing state support for Massachusetts’ roughly 400 school districts. He would also become the first Latino to have the job, according to a press release from Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

“This is someone who has had progressive experience in increasingly larger and more complex organizations with significantly increased, let’s say, political situations that they have to balance,” said Matt Hills, the board’s vice chair, during the meeting. “But at the end of the day, this is someone who has been able to lead large organizations to get pretty significantly positive results in key education priorities that we have.”

Several board members said they were impressed by Martinez’s leadership experience — with some generally noting controversy he’s faced — as well as his interest in students from low-income households and those learning English as a new language. Another noted she was impressed that he was able to raise teacher salaries in Chicago, which most recently came after a tense, yearlong bargaining process with the Chicago Teachers Union.

Martinez’s firing was fueled in part by a tense disagreement with Mayor Brandon Johnson over how to pay for labor contracts and a pension contribution.

Board member Martin West said he was concerned about Martinez’s lack of state experience relative to Laux, but he found through Martinez’s interview that district leadership is “in some ways more similar to the state role in terms of the levers available for driving change.”

Board member Ericka Fisher said she felt Martinez was the sort of candidate who “can stay standing and continue fighting the good fight” in the face of the education climate both in Massachusetts and under the Trump administration.

The board’s decision comes after it interviewed Martinez and two other finalists at an hourslong public meeting last week. Martinez attended that meeting in person and spoke about a variety of topics, including serving English learners, students with disabilities and efforts to expose students to early college programs.

In a statement, Martinez said he is “honored” to be selected for the job and that Chicago and CPS will “always hold a special place in my heart.”

“I am committed to finishing the school year strong here and will leave CPS in mid-June with a deep sense of pride and optimism for its future, knowing the district is in strong hands and moving in the right direction,” Martinez said.

Once the education secretary finalizes the board’s recommendation, Martinez plans to accept the job after negotiating terms of his contract, according to a source close to the CEO.

The Massachusetts board chair previously said she hoped to have a commissioner in place by July 1, according to Jackie Reis, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Per his CPS contract, a firing without cause allows Martinez to stay at the district through June.

Before CPS, Martinez was the superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District and held various education roles in Nevada.

This story has been updated with comment from CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

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’s school board is hiring a new leader. A superintendent’s license is now a job requirement.

2025-03-21T01:40:07+00:00

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The Chicago school board unanimously passed a resolution Thursday requiring the next leader of Chicago Public Schools hold a superintendent’s license.

CPS is one of relatively few large districts that have a CEO rather than a superintendent at the helm. The Illinois law that gave control of the city’s schools to the mayor in 1995 renamed the position and lifted the requirement that its leader hold a superintendent’s license as required of all other school districts in the state. The resolution says the board will push Illinois lawmakers to change state law.

Board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith introduced the resolution, arguing that the district needs someone with an education background and knowhow to lead it.

The district is gearing up to begin a national search for its next top leader after enlisting a Chicago-based search firm to run it earlier this month. The previous school board fired CEO Pedro Martinez without cause late last year amid a clash with the mayor’s office over how to handle the district’s rising financial pressures.

Under a clause in his contract, Martinez, who served as the superintendent in San Antonio before taking over CPS in 2021, will stay on until the end of June. Replacing him is a crucial job for the partly elected school board that took over in January.

“A superintendent will put schools first as we move forward,” Smith said. “That’s why this is so important.”

A superintendent generally has an advanced degree and a superintendent endorsement from a university, which requires additional training in education. The approved resolution says Chicago’s next leader “shall hold a valid Illinois Professional Educator License, with a Superintendent endorsement as issued by the Illinois State Board of Education or an equivalent credential from another state.”

Historically, under decades of mayoral control, Chicago’s mayors have appointed the district’s CEOs — often close allies with a financial or business background and little or no experience running a school district.

Smith’s resolution also applies to interim top leaders for CPS as well — an administrator the school board might have to appoint if it doesn’t find a permanent replacement for Martinez by his departure in June.

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

Consultant lays out limited funding options for Chicago’s school board ahead of consequential vote

2025-03-18T20:00:00+00:00

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A highly anticipated report from a consultant hired by the Chicago school board confirmed what its members already knew: There are no great options to secure more funding as the district tries to pay for a new teachers contract and weighs a pension reimbursement to the city.

The five-page memo from consulting firm Baker Tilly outlines three options: cuts, including staff furloughs, debt refinancing, and more city money from special taxing districts. All of these potential solutions have already been floated by either Chicago Public Schools or Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration.

Baker Tilly’s analysis also revealed another challenge facing CPS: The school district must find $200 million in savings before June 30, when the current fiscal year ends. That’s because the district is expecting less tax revenue and spent more than planned on special education, transportation, and its buildings, according to the memo.

It’s the latest twist in the task facing the Chicago Board of Education just three months after its members were sworn in. Addressing CPS’ immediate financial challenges will be one of the first significant decisions the 21-member board, which is half elected and half appointed, makes as it shifts away from mayoral control.

School Board President Sean Harden, who was appointed by the mayor, hired Baker Tilly in February for a cost not to exceed $35,000 as tensions grew about how to solve CPS’s ongoing financial troubles, which include paying the City of Chicago $175 million toward a pension fund that includes CPS staffers who aren’t teachers.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Harden said the district has been working for several months to close that $200 million gap. He said CPS is looking at options that don’t involve cutting staff or furlough days — the latter of which could have direct consequences for students who would miss out on learning and could violate state laws around the minimum number of school days each year.

CPS did not immediately return a request for comment.

“The reality is we have constraints in terms of what we can actually do and what will meet our timetable,” Harden said. “We just have to do the work; there is no shortcut to this.”

Harden said he’s been working “intimately” with district staffers, who have been combing through every option. The complex idea of restructuring or refinancing debt must also be done within the constraints of the law, Harden said.

The Baker Tilly report comes two days before the Chicago Board of Education is set to vote to add $139 million in city funds to its budget and commit that money toward paying pension obligations the city has been demanding before the city must close its books on March 30. The vote would also commit the new dollars to paying for new labor contracts with the unions representing teachers and principals.

But the new revenue will not cover the pension payment and the new labor contracts. Johnson told reporters Tuesday that the Board of Education “has options” that have ”not been articulated from” CPS CEO Pedro Martinez.

“We are working hand in glove with the Board of Education as they have to wean off the dependency of city government and prepare to be an independent body,” Johnson said. “This transition is going to take a lot of work, and we’re putting that work in.”

As a candidate and union organizer, Johnson opposed having CPS pick up a portion of the city’s payment to its municipal pension fund, which covers CPS staff who are not teachers. But as mayor, he has held firm that CPS cannot cut staff and must both reimburse the city $175 million for the pension payment and pay for new collective bargaining agreements with teachers and principals, which are still in negotiations. He reiterated that stance Tuesday.

However, Martinez has resisted the mayor’s demands for months, insisting the district does not have the money for both the pension reimbursement and added labor costs. That refusal has, in part, cost him his job.

The risks of cutting costs

The memo, authored by Baker Tilly principal Brock Bowsher, said cuts are a risky choice. Shaving the district’s budget now to meet the pension and contract obligations — such as by cutting staff or reducing vendors — “could be highly challenging, at best” because doing so could significantly impact students and school operations and could damage the board’s reputation. For example, CPS would have to institute 10 to 11 districtwide furlough days to cover the $175 million pension payment, Bowsher wrote, based on the firm’s conversations with the board.

He wrote that staff layoffs could also impact ongoing labor negotiations. Contract talks with the Chicago Teachers Union have reached their most tense point as the deal boils down to a handful of key issues, including preparation time for teachers.

In a letter to Martinez Monday night, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates pushed CPS to reach a tentative deal on a contract before the board’s Thursday meeting “instead of choosing a path to protracted confrontation.”

The union gave the school board its “last, best, and final offer” on March 4. The two sides continue to meet and say publicly that a deal is near. The union wants an agreement before the budget amendment is voted on Thursday. Historically, the school board waits until the contract is settled before doing a budget amendment.

CTU invited members to a webinar Wednesday night to discuss next steps. The union has been petitioning at schools in recent weeks and the next step would be a strike vote. Once a vote is taken, the union must give 10 days notice of its intent to strike. A strike would also have immediate consequences for students, staff, and families.

Refinancing is an option, but with unclear consequences

As City Hall recently suggested, Bowsher said another option in front of CPS is to refinance its debt, which would require “a more in-depth analysis” that is outside Baker Tilly’s scope.

The different types of borrowing all come with some uncertainties, such as the state of the financial market, interest rates, and if these options can come to fruition in time for this fiscal year, Bowsher wrote. It’s also unclear if CPS can legally use those options with its current financial situation.

“Bond issuances can generate immediate cash flow or savings; however, this may result in additional interest costs and also increased future debt service payments, and thus potential future budget shortfalls,” he wrote.

Justin Marlowe, a municipal finance expert at the University of Chicago, echoed the report’s words of caution: All of the debt refinancing options in the memo carry risk and possible higher interest costs for the district in the long-term, in return for what’s likely a modest amount of dollars freed up in the short term. That’s especially the case after the past few weeks of market volatility caused by uncertainty over the Trump administration’s tariff policy — and particularly for a junk borrower such as CPS.

“All of these options have been explored, and none of them are desirable,” Marlowe said. “I get that it’s a tradeoff they might have to make, but it’s very bad financial management, and it saddles taxpayers with higher long-term costs.”

Joe Ferguson, president of the nonpartisan watchdog The Civic Federation, said board members should vote only after they publicize any legal opinions from their attorneys about the options presented by the city, including borrowing and refinancing their debt.

New school board remains divided on solving money troubles

Elected school board member Che “Rhymefest” Smith, who represents south side neighborhoods along the lakefront, told Chalkbeat Tuesday that he hadn’t carefully reviewed the Baker Tilly memo yet, but the takeaway is clear: There are no good ways for CPS to secure additional dollars this spring.

“At the end of the day, we’ve got to stop wasting taxpayer money to get information that we already know,” he said.

He said the board should have instead listened to district officials and experts, such as those at the Civic Federation, when they cautioned against CPS taking on more debt. He says he remains unwilling to vote for an amendment that commits CPS to reimbursing the pension payment — “not if it puts our children and our schools and administrators at risk, and not if it means going deeper into debt.”

Board member Jennifer Custer, who represents the northwest pocket of the city, said the report outlined options that have already been shared with the board. Custer, who has expressed concerns about having to cover the pension obligation this year, said she will also vote no on the budget amendment as it’s written.

For Custer, the report confirmed that each option “would have future repercussions.”

“I just don’t think that’s the best practice for the district or any municipal body when thinking about how they want to manage their finances,” Custer said.

Asked if the district and the board can find solutions in time to potentially pay the pension payment and settle the union contract, board President Harden said he and staff are working “every day without any real pause.”

“We are aware of the board meeting being Thursday, so we’re working with those fixed times in mind,” Harden said. “But no one is panicking.”

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 City Council members pressure school board to pay up — or risk losing other financial support

2025-03-14T20:14:22+00:00

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Chicago aldermen and City Hall officials suggested the city could withhold other funding for Chicago Public Schools if the new school board doesn’t reimburse the city $175 million to cover a portion of a pension payment for some school staff.

Ald. Jason Ervin, who represents the West Side and is chair of the powerful committee on budget and government operations, said that while CPS has no legal obligation to reimburse the city, City Council also has no obligation to provide the school district with funding for school construction projects or waive water and sewer fees, as it currently does.

Those and other entanglements between the city government and the school system were laid out in a 2023 report required under the state legislation that paved the way for Chicago’s transition away from mayoral control to a fully elected school board in 2027.

The scene highlighted the complexity of the shift in governance, but also foreshadowed the political conflicts that could play out in the years to come.

“There’s an old African proverb that says: When the elephants fight, the ground gets trampled,” Ervin told school board members at the second of two public hearings Friday. “We share constituencies. If one loses at the expense of another, we’re both losers in that calculation.”

The city must close its books for 2024 by March 30 and officials have said they’ve already made a full payment to the municipal pension fund. If the Chicago Board of Education does not come through with a $175 million reimbursement, the city risks ending the year in the red. Facing that prospect, the city’s chief procurement officer has asked vendors who do business with the city for a 3% discount on services, WGN reported.

A letter urging the district to pay up was circulated by Ervin and Ald. Jeanette Taylor, chair of City Council’s committee on education and child development Thursday and had been signed by 28 aldermen as of Friday.

Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, an ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson, told school board members Friday that “every dollar spent on this pension payment is coming out of money for public safety, infrastructure, public health, and sanitation.”

Jill Jaworski, the city’s chief financial officer and a parent of a CPS high school student, said aldermen have asked her about canceling some or all of the roughly $319 million in city financing for ongoing school capital projects.

“They feel the commitment was made to make this payment, and if it is not made, they are concerned about why we continue to support CPS in the manner that we do,” Jaworski said.

Yesenia Lopez, one of the elected school board members, said it’s important for the school board to “continue those relationships and build trust” with the City Council as the two become separate government entities.

“What does this set precedent for moving forward? What in the future is the city going to be asking us to also help contribute to — the many items that the alderman stated that the city is already contributing to,” Lopez said.

City Hall suggests CPS refinance debt

The budget amendment that the new 21-member, partially-elected school board is scheduled to vote on next Thursday would add $139 million in unexpected revenue from the city in surplus dollars from special taxing districts. But it includes three possible ways to spend the new money: Reimburse the city, cover the costs of a new Chicago Teachers Union contract, or cover the potential costs of the principals’ first union contract. Both labor contracts are still being negotiated.

All of those expenditures would cost more than $139 million, but CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said cuts, furloughs, and layoffs are “off the table.”

The amendment requires a two-thirds vote to pass, meaning if seven school board members were to vote no, the amendment would fail.

As a potential solution to afford both a reimbursement to the city and looming labor costs, the Johnson administration has been pushing CPS to take out a short-term loan or refinance existing debt, which it floated earlier this week.

Jaworski laid out the refinancing option to school board members Friday, but acknowledged it would be “a bridge scenario.” She said her team’s analysis indicated a refinancing could free up about $250 million immediately, but cost the district about $50 million in interest down the road.

Elected board member Therese Boyle, who represents the far south side, raised concerns that state lawmakers would frown upon CPS doing any refinancing or borrowing. She noted that earlier this week state Rep. Curtis Tarver (D-Chicago) filed a bill to reinstate financial oversight of Chicago schools.

“We already have so much debt, and our debt payment every year is so much of our budget,” Boyle said. “What kind of a message does this send to the state? That bill that was filed last week saying they want to reinstate the School Finance Authority. Does it look like we can not handle our budget ourselves, and we’re just borrowing, borrowing?”

CPS’ Chief Financial Officer Miroslava Mejia Krug said the school district would need to wait and see what the market conditions are if it were to try refinancing.

As the nearly four-hour hearing wound to a close, appointed board member Michilla Blaise urged everyone to work together to find a solution.

“It’s way political, I guess, because of history, for lots of reasons, but I really do believe that … everybody here cares deeply about children and schools,” Blaise said. “I just want to say I’m really glad we’re having this conversation.”

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

Chicago’s fight over school staff pensions: 4 big things you need to know

2025-03-13T00:17:57+00:00

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Chicago’s new school board is considering an amendment to the school district’s $9.9 billion budget that aims to address a short-term budget quagmire.

The decision made by the 21-member, partially elected governing body could have long-term implications as Chicago Public Schools moves away from 30 years under mayoral control.

The budget amendment on the school board’s agenda for its March 20 meeting accepts an additional $139 million in unexpected revenue, but does not spell out what the board will spend the money on. It lays out three possibilities: paying the yet-to-be determined costs of a new contract with the Chicago Teachers Union, funding an inaugural collective bargaining agreement with the union representing principals, and giving the money to the city as a contribution to the retirement fund that supports non-teaching school staff.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration is pushing for the latter, which would continue a practice started under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot of having the Board of Education pitch in on these pensions. The city must balance its books by the end of this month, and Johnson’s allies on the board have expressed agreement with the mayor.

But Johnson continues to face resistance from CPS CEO Pedro Martinez and district leadership, who are staring down financial challenges of their own, including a deficit of at least $500 million dollars next school year. They and at least a few new school board members have argued it’s more prudent to put the money toward labor contract costs and funding classrooms today, not helping the city make a pension payment.

The issue has become so politically controversial that it contributed to the resignation of the previous Board of Education and the firing of Martinez, who will leave in June. Indeed, the fight over the municipal pension payment is the “single, largest and, in the moment, most critically important” financial entanglement between CPS and the city, says Joe Ferguson, president of the Civic Federation, an independent, non-partisan government research organization.

Ferguson said it’s “critically imperative” that the school board and City Hall get to work on a long-term solution before the school board becomes fully elected in 2027. A new state law addressing the issue might end the drama, but legislators haven’t taken it up so far.

Two-thirds of the school board — or 14 members — would need to vote yes to approve the budget amendment.

Here’s what to know about this disagreement and the options officials have.

What is the municipal pension payment?

The Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund, or MEABF, supports city workers, staff of the Chicago Housing Authority, and non-teaching staff at Chicago Public Schools when they retire.

More than half of the fund’s members are current or former CPS employees — a percentage that has grown over time. CPS budget officials have noted that while 60% of the pension fund’s beneficiaries are current or former CPS employees, they account for only about one-third of the fund’s liabilities.

Even so, under state law, the Chicago city government is solely responsible to make annual payments to the fund, not CPS.

This year, the city is legally on the hook to pay that municipal pension fund $955.7 million, according to budget city documents. That’s far more than the roughly $165 million annual payment it was making just a decade ago.

Like most pension funds in Illinois and Chicago, the municipal fund has massive unfunded liabilities. Put simply, for every dollar it owes to present and future retirees, only about 25 cents is available. To fix this, the city is now required to pay more every year so that there’s enough money to pay retirees in the future.

In 2015, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel introduced a record property tax increase that was approved by City Council to meet these growing pension obligations. The following year, the city imposed annual increases to a water-sewer tax that would be dedicated to the municipal retirement fund.

Facing a ballooning payment, Emanuel’s successor, Lori Lightfoot, implemented an intergovernmental agreement with her appointed school board in 2020 to have CPS reimburse the city for an increasing portion of the required annual payment given that school district employees make up more than half of the fund’s members. Since then, the Board of Education has made four pension payments; the most recent one in early 2024 was $175 million.

For the past year, the mayor’s office has pushed CPS to once again contribute $175 million toward the municipal pension payment — and the City Council passed a budget with that assumption.

But so far the school board has not budgeted that payment this year. Nor has it approved an intergovernmental agreement to do so.

What options does the City of Chicago have?

The city’s 2025 budget proposed by Johnson and approved by City Council in mid-December assumed CPS would, once again, kick in $175 million.

The $17.1 billion spending plan includes a $1.13 billion payment to the MEABF, more than the required amount of $955.7 million, which is calculated based on what’s needed to cover future benefits. That’s because it also includes a $168.7 million voluntary advance payment to the MEABF, which is roughly $6 million short of what the city wants from CPS.

These additional payments are similar to paying off additional principal on a mortgage. They also started under Lightfoot. However, they are not required by state law.

Senior mayoral aides said this week the advance payment is a priority for the city because it saves on long-term costs. They also said they don’t consider CPS’s $175 million contribution as going toward the advance payment.

But if CPS does not come through with the $175 million contribution, the city could drop the advance payment. That could be met with mixed reactions from credit rating agencies, said Justin Marlowe, director of the Center for Municipal Finance at the University of Chicago. Some agencies might downgrade the city, while others could be more sanguine about it.

They could also dip into reserves, which Ferguson noted would have negative consequences.

“The city’s in a position where it is adding to the storm cloud of another [credit] downgrade,” he said.

Not making the advance payment or dipping into reserves or any other changes to the city’s budget would require 26 City Council votes.

The mayor already had a difficult time getting his budget approved last fall. His administration’s initial proposal, which included a property tax hike, did not go over well with the City Council. A revised budget without that tax hike narrowly passed 27-23.

What options does CPS have?

It’s been clear since the CPS board approved a $9.9 billion budget passed last summer that the district would need to amend its spending plan once officials finished negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union and the district’s new principals union.

For months, the mayor’s office has suggested CPS take out a loan to cover new contract costs and still kick in a portion of the municipal pension payment. More recently, Johnson’s office has suggested the district could issue municipal bonds at relatively low interest rates.

But the district has asserted that it cannot legally borrow money and show those loan proceeds as revenue in order to balance its budget. If the district is pressed to pay for both increased labor contract costs and a contribution to the municipal pension fund, CPS leaders have said they may need to make mid-year cuts or resort to layoffs or furloughs.

Senior mayoral aides continue to argue against cuts that would impact classrooms.

In its initial budget, CPS expected to get $159 million in surplus tax revenue from special development districts. An additional surplus declared by the mayor adds $139 million more to that number. The latter is the source of the new revenue in the budget amendment the Board of Education will vote on later this month.

But the additional infusion of cash isn’t enough to cover all of the district’s looming expenses. Last fall, Martinez testified before the City Council the district would need $484 million from those taxing districts to make ends meet.

Martinez said last Thursday in an email to staff and families his team will recommend to the board to prioritize spending the additional $139 million on labor contracts only — not the municipal pension payment.

CPS has limited taxing authority. It can only raise property taxes annually up to a state-imposed cap, which is 5% or the consumer price index, whichever is less. It has done that every year in recent history.

The school district has a worse credit rating than the city although the city’s rating is not much better and was also recently downgraded. But Marlowe, the municipal finance expert, said at the end of the day, it’s all the same property tax base.

“It is probably more cost effective from a taxpayer perspective, for the city to play a larger role,” Marlowe said. But he added that its important for both CPS and City Hall to do their due diligence to determine the least costly option.

“They have to make those pension payments. That’s not negotiable. So somebody’s going to have to blink and decide that the money is going to flow from from one side to the other,” he said.

What’s a long-term solution for this pension issue?

The city and the Chicago Board of Education could split responsibility for funding the MEABF longer term via two options: a stronger intergovernmental agreement, or a change to state law.

The current dispute and the fact that there is no intergovernmental agreement this year shows the limits of the first option, said Ferguson.

“If it were legally enforceable, this already would have been resolved,” Ferguson said.

Signing a new intergovernmental agreement every year is also subject to politics. Chicago will have school board elections every two years and mayoral elections take place every four.

“There’s going to be this kind of ad hoc, piecemeal thing, I think, until there is a true philosophical reckoning with: What is the relationship between the city and CPS going to be financially in a new world with a very different kind of CPS board?” Marlowe said.

A change to the state’s pension code is “the cleanest, most permanent, most enforceable” option, Ferguson said.

But that idea has its own political baggage. Illinois lawmakers have historically been reluctant to help Chicago with its pensions or financial challenges. They are also focused on revising changes made to the pension code a decade ago.

“I don’t think that there’s much appetite in Springfield for the state to play referee,” Marlowe said.

Senior mayoral aides said they are having multiple conversations in Springfield about CPS finances, but declined to speak specifically about changes to the pension obligations.

A CPS spokesperson said they are not aware of any proposed legislation to change who is responsible for the municipal pension fund. District officials said if lawmakers were to shift any responsibility to the school district, they would need to consider how to fund these payments.

This story was been updated to include additional comments from a municipal finance expert.

Reema Amin contributed.

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

Chicago school board approves nearly $4 million in legal settlements

2025-03-03T18:25:11+00:00

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This story has been updated with a statement from Chicago Public Schools.

The Chicago Board of Education approved nearly $4 million in legal settlements Thursday, including a $2.7 million payment to the family of a boy who was beaten by an adult in the bathroom of a West Side elementary school in 2018.

A federal jury ordered the school board last September to pay $750,000 to Asia Gaines, the mother of the victim. In addition to the court settlement, $2 million will go to cover Gaines’ attorneys fees, a Chicago Public Schools spokesperson said. The agenda item approving the settlement said the district’s legal team reached an agreement to accept the court’s settlement recommendation and resolve Gaines’ “anticipated petition to recover her attorneys’ fees and costs.”

“Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is committed to providing all students with safe and supportive learning environments, and it takes all allegations of employee misconduct seriously. CPS investigates and addresses all complaints in accordance with District policies and procedures to foster safe and secure learning environments in all schools,” the CPS spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “CPS believes that students who are harmed as a result of a legally acknowledged failure on the part of the District should be provided with compensation that is both fair and reasonable.”

The lawsuit — filed in federal court in 2019 — details how the boy’s teacher at Tilton Elementary allowed her adult friend to beat Gaines’ son in a school bathroom before class. The boy, identified in documents as J.C., was 9 years old and in fourth grade at the time.

According to the CPS spokesperson, the teacher, Kristen Haynes, was “immediately removed from her position” at Tilton after the district became aware of the incident. She is currently suspended without pay, pending a ruling from an Illinois State Board of Education hearing, the spokesperson said.

According to court records, Haynes was well-known at Tilton for being a disciplinarian and kept two leather belts in her classroom closet with which she would threaten students. Students knew the belts by the names “Mr. Brown” and “Mr. Black,” according to testimony at trial.

The school board also approved an $800,000 settlement for a Jane Doe in a sexual assault case filed in 2023. That case involved two students, but one was an adult and one was a minor. The victim, a minor, was allegedly assaulted on school property in an unlocked room with a broken alarm at South Shore International College Prep that students used for sex and recreational drug use, according to a copy of the complaint.

In addition to these two large settlements, the school board on Thursday also approved two more settlements worth around $200,000 and 42 others under $100,000.

Correction 3/3/2025: A previous version of this story misidentified the Jane Doe case as another one involving sexual abuse at a different high school a decade ago. That case is not yet settled.

Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@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 out of Clark County superintendent search

2025-02-19T17:54:00+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez is out of the running to become the next superintendent of Clark County Public Schools in Nevada.

Martinez was one of six candidates to make the shortlist, but the Clark County Board of School Trustees voted Tuesday night to advance only four to the next round of interviews scheduled for next week. That school board is hoping to hire a new superintendent in March.

Chicago’s appointed 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 over his ouster.

The new 21-member partially-elected school board will be in charge of appointing a new CPS CEO — after 30 years of the mayor doing so. Although Chicago is shifting away from mayoral control, Johnson could hold significant sway over who the school board selects to lead the nation’s fourth largest school district. He recently made his 11th appointment to the 21-member board and is aligned ideologically with at least three elected members.

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

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson makes final appointment to 21-member partially-elected school board

2025-02-18T21:36:58+00:00

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Cydney Wallace, a Black Jewish activist and mother of four, is Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s final pick to sit on the city’s new 21-member Board of Education.

Her appointment comes two months after Mayor Brandon Johnson named his other appointees, which was required to happen by Dec. 16 under state law. The mayor’s office said the delay was because school board positions “are unpaid and often thankless jobs.”

According to a press release from the mayor’s office, Wallace currently works for the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County and is a Chicago Public Schools parent. She is also the vice president of the board of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs.

Wallace lives in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood on the 8b side of District 8, according to Chicago Board of Elections records. She will represent schools and communities in the Chinatown, Bridgeport, Back of the Yards, and Gage Park neighborhoods. Angel Gutierrez is the elected representative for District 8 and lives in Garfield Ridge on the 8a side. In 2026, both seats will be up for election.

In 2022, Wallace filed to run for Chicago’s Police District Council, but did not have enough valid signatures to get on the ballot in the 2023 municipal elections.

Wallace will be sworn in at the school board’s next meeting scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 27. She will join the 20 members who were sworn in Wednesday, Jan. 15. The partially-elected, partly-appointed group will serve for the next two years. All 21 seats will be up for election Nov. 3, 2026 and a fully-elected board will be sworn in Jan. 15, 2027.

Chicago held its first school board elections on Nov. 5, 2024, electing 10 people to serve their communities alongside 11 mayoral appointees. The moment begins a historic shift in governance as 30 years of mayoral control in Chicago comes to a close.

Mayor Johnson, a CPS parent, former teacher, and union organizer, will still maintain significant influence over the public school system through his 11 appointees and at least three other elected members who were supported and endorsed by his allies at the Chicago Teachers Union.

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

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.

Spending during Chicago’s first school board campaign season exceeded $13 million

2025-01-27T13:00:00+00:00

Data analysis by Thomas Wilburn

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The Chicago Teachers Union was the biggest spender in Chicago’s first school board elections, which pitted the union against pro-school choice groups as both angled for influence on a new, partly-elected board.

Overall, between candidates’ own war chests and money spent separately by political action groups and super PACs, more than $13 million flowed in the run-up to the historic November elections, a Chalkbeat analysis of campaign disclosures from late March to the end of December filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections found.

Brisk spending has become a hallmark of school board races in large urban districts. The Chicago total — which includes spending by both candidates and interest groups — outpaced spending in districts such as Denver and Detroit. In Los Angeles, however, nearly $15 million was spent on its school board races in 2020. Teachers unions have often faced off against pro-charter and school choice groups, but — unlike in Chicago — unions have usually spent less than those groups.

“This is not a typical school board election in any way, shape, or form,” said Jonathan Collins, assistant professor of political science and education at Teachers College at Columbia University. “It’s an entirely new system at a critical moment when education is arguably more politicized than we’ve ever seen.”

Last fall, Chicago residents elected 10 board members, including one who ran unopposed; they were sworn in alongside 11 mayoral appointees on Jan. 15. In 2026, all 21 seats on the board will be up for grabs at the ballot box.

Candidates raised more than $5.6 million between March 26, when they could first begin gathering signatures to get on the ballot, and Dec. 31, 2024. They reported $3.3 million in expenditures during the same period.

In addition to candidates’ direct spending, the union’s two political action committees spent $4.3 million — including a $1.5 million spending spree the week of the election — during that same time period. In some cases that spending could have also given a boost to other candidates in other races, but most went to nine candidates in contested school board races, three of whom won seats on the board.

Two pro-school choice super PACs — those for the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and Urban Center — jointly spent roughly $3.5 million during the same period. These groups also backed three candidates who prevailed at the polls.

In some cases, Illinois Board of Elections disclosures can include errors or duplicate spending reports by candidate campaigns and political action committees spending on their behalf. The latter groups also do not always list specific candidates when they report expenditures. State law requires campaign finance disclosures be filed every quarter. The latest ones, which covered the final quarter of 2024, were due Jan. 15.

Chalkbeat’s analysis of financial disclosures comes after a historic and hotly contested election season that saw the union and charter camps trading sharp words ahead of election day. Each accused the other of aiming to buy board seats: The CTU slammed the charter group for leaning on large checks from deep-pocketed donors, including from out-of-state billionaires such as Netflix CEO, Democratic mega donor, and charter supporter Reed Hastings. The charter group said it wanted to push back at a time when it said city leaders are hostile to charter, selective enrollment, and magnet schools. Some candidates also called out the CTU for sending voters direct mail portraying candidates — including active longtime Democrats — as puppets of now President Donald Trump.

The CTU declined to answer specific questions related to its campaign finance reports. But in a statement, the union said the expense was necessary to advocate for high-quality neighborhood schools and ensure “public school champions were the biggest bloc of candidates Chicagoans chose to represent them.”

“We fought hard to create the elected school board and shouldn’t have had to fight so hard or spend so much to counter the influence of out-of-state billionaires and forces of privatization,” the statement said.

The Illinois Network of Charter Schools spent about $2.3 million in the election’s nine contested races, backing candidates in some and opposing CTU-endorsed candidates in others. Andrew Broy, the network’s executive director, said the expense was worth it.

“Somebody had to be a counterweight to the million-plus dollars the CTU was going to spend to promote their agenda,” he said.

Chicago voters also elected three candidates who benefited from neither CTU or pro-school choice spending. Two of these candidates, Jessica Biggs and Therese Boyle, had some of the smallest war chests and spent the least per vote they earned, suggesting there are clear limitations to how much money can buy in the city’s fledgling school board elections.

Bruce Leon, an independent candidate in District 2 on the North Side who loaned himself $620,000 of his own money, had the largest war chest of any school board candidate. He finished second to CTU-backed Ebony DeBerry.

Despite the wave of spending, the teachers union and others who supported an elected school board have called for additional campaign spending limits specifically for Chicago school board elections.

Currently, candidates running for office in Illinois are bound by limits on how much they can raise, such as $6,900 from an individual contributor and $13,700 from a corporation or a labor union. But super PACs are not subject to those limits. And as spending to back or oppose any one candidate exceeds $100,000, the campaign contribution caps for all candidates in that district are lifted. In most Chicago school board districts, spending by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and Urban Center lifted those caps by early October.

Collins, at Columbia University, said there’s only so much the city and state could do, given the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision cementing the ability of super PACs to spend with few restrictions, as long as they don’t coordinate directly with candidates’ campaigns.

Collins, who has followed school board campaign spending in recent years, says that roughly $1 million per seat has been typical in large urban district board elections. And the spending standoff between teachers union and charter advocates has also become a fixture of such races across the country, from Providence, Rhode Island, to San Francisco.

“In large urban districts in blue states especially, those have been the two prize fighters in the ring,” Collins said.

It’s unusual, however, to see a teachers union, which usually leans more on its ability to put boots on the ground for door-knocking and phone-banking, outspend pro-school choice groups so handily, he said. Those groups have had a clear financial edge in other cities.

According to Board of Elections disclosures, the union’s political committee spent more than $500,000 on field work between March 26 and Dec. 31.

According to Chalkbeat’s analysis, candidates and political groups in Chicago spent a combined $3.8 million on direct mail to voters, almost $1.2 million on digital ads, and nearly $500,000 on text messaging, among other expenditures.

Urban Center Action — the pro-school choice PAC run by former UNO charter network head Juan Rangel and affiliated with Paul Vallas, the former Chicago Public Schools CEO who lost the 2023 Chicago mayoral race to Johnson — spent about $1.1 million, mainly on field work.

Broy, of the charter network, said the CTU holds a “structural advantage” in being able to draw on dues from its almost 30,000 members, forcing advocacy groups like his to rely on large checks from a relatively small number of individuals to compete. Broy also questioned the CTU practice of underwriting smaller political groups that used funding from the union to support CTU-endorsed candidates — a practice that, had the spending caps remained in place, could help circumvent them.

But Matt Dietrich, a spokesman for the state Board of Elections, said his agency has received no formal complaints about spending in the school board races. The board sent a letter to CTU leadership in the fall asking why the union has two separate political action committees — a potential campaign rules violation.

Dietrich said it is possible that one PAC is affiliated with the union and another with its foundation. The board has not received a response from the union.

Asked about the final price tag of the election, Dietrich said, “No amount would surprise me given how quickly the spending limits came off, and the big players who got involved.”

Broy said the network is already recruiting candidates and fundraising for the 2026 school board race.

“I think there’ll be a lot of interest in that election,” he said.

Between his appointees and CTU-backed elected candidates, Johnson appears poised to hold continued influence over the board’s decisions in the next two years. But Collins, the Teachers College expert, said the intense spending clash in last year’s board races raises the possibility of a divided, gridlocked board in the district’s not-too-distant future.

“Will they be able to agree on tough budget decisions that will keep the district afloat?” Collins said.

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

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

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson talks class size, contract talks, school board appointments

2025-01-08T18:01:49+00:00

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Mayor Brandon Johnson defended his decision to stay on “union leave” from Chicago Public Schools in an interview with Chalkbeat Tuesday.

The mayor taught middle school in CPS before going on leave in 2011 to become an organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union. He launched a political career when he was elected as a county commissioner in 2018 and went on to win the competitive race for mayor in 2023.

Chicago’s mayor still maintains significant power over the city’s public schools even as the city transitions away from 30 years of mayoral control. Johnson appointed school board members during his first year in office and recently replaced that group after all of them resigned amid tensions between the mayor and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. He selected new appointees and will maintain control over 11 appointments on the new 21-member, partially elected school board.

Staying on union leave allows him to accrue seniority and ensures his job protection, should he decide to return to the classroom. But Johnson denied his employment status is a conflict of interest, because he’s not currently earning a CPS paycheck.

Chalkbeat sat down with Johnson in his office on the fifth floor of City Hall for a brief interview Tuesday to discuss that and other topics like class size, migrant students, and Martinez. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

The school board is going to be sworn in on Jan. 15. You announced 10 of 11 appointments in late December, but have you selected somebody to serve in that 11th seat?

I’m incredibly excited and thrilled and humbled to be the first mayor in the history of Chicago to not only commit to elected representative school board, but see that come to fruition. In my time as an organizer and as a teacher and as a parent, the public education system in the city of Chicago ran by previous administrations have just been abysmal as it relates to showing up for working people. So I am, again, humbled by the opportunity, and we will have a fully appointed and represented board that reflects the values of the people of Chicago.

But you haven’t picked the person to serve in District 8?

We will.

What have you told the school board appointees that you’ve selected so far that you want them to prioritize?

I want them to prioritize what the people of Chicago want. As the first mayor in the history of Chicago to believe in public education so much that I send my children to the public schools in Chicago, I know exactly what parents want. I’m one of them. Smaller class size is something that parents want. And I know that experience too as a public school teacher, by the way, the only mayor in the history of Chicago to actually have taught in our public schools.

I want them to fight hard to ensure that we have libraries and librarians in our schools, social workers and counselors. I told them that we have to fight hard for resources and funding to have psychiatrists and psychologists in our schools, to have a well-rounded, rich curriculum that includes after-school activities, right? The bell rings, learning shouldn’t stop, right?

I told them that we also have to ensure that we are fully funding special education, that we are fully funding our bilingual education. There are parents who do transport their kids from one neighborhood to the other, because their neighborhood does not have all the resources that those families deserve and need. We have to have reliable transportation within our public schools to ensure that families can have reliable access to those resources.

Leading the way in this moment requires us to show up for working people, whether you live on the north side or the southeast side or anywhere else in between that we can be proud of our public school system that prioritizes families.

Class sizes are one of the sticking points in the contract negotiations. As I understand it, there’s disagreement about the caps in the middle grades. You were a middle school teacher.

You know how I feel about this then!

What do you think is an appropriate class size in the middle grades?

In some of the top school districts in the state of Illinois you have some classes that are anywhere from 17 to 22 children. Look, the middle school age is a very critical moment in our child’s children’s development. The middle school age is a transformational and transition time for young people.

As a former middle school teacher, the social and emotional development of a child is critical at that moment, particularly, as we see rises of behavioral and mental health challenges. This is why I fought, and will continue to fight hard for appropriate class sizes, because we want to ensure that children can balance equations as well as draw conclusions, but they should also feel safe and secure in their overall development.

On the campaign trail, you said “who better to deliver bad news to a friend than a friend?” Is there an example you could give of a time you’ve had to deliver bad news in the contract talks right now?

I don’t think there’s any debate that our schools are not fully funded. I wish we had the evidence-based funding model that the state of Illinois has calculated, that $1.1 billion were available to us today. You know, it’s unfortunate that that doesn’t exist.

But that’s not just confined to my friends. That’s the state of Illinois. There’s $3.6 billion that the state of Illinois, just based upon this funding formula, should be appropriated for school districts.

We have this strong triangulation — probably for the first time in the history of Chicago or, I don’t know, for the first time that I’ve ever experienced — with the Board of Education, the mayor’s office, and workers all aligned around the vision for our public schools and that that is progress in and of itself.

Your appointed school board, as one of its last acts, voted to end the contract with CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. You didn’t mention him just now as you were talking about alignment. Who would you like to see lead the school district?

I’ll be perfectly frank with you. I’ve spent most of my time thinking about the 325,000 families that want transformational leadership. They want and elected a mayor who’s a parent and has been a former teacher, and that’s what my focus has been on. This is not about some individual, because there’s not one single individual that can transform our public schools.

The Board of Education will get an opportunity as they have made a decision to go into a different direction, and when that time comes, I’m confident that the interests of the people of Chicago will be front and center as we think about this one position.

But keep in mind, we have 30,000 workers in our Chicago public schools. That’s where my heart is — 30,000 workers who show up every single day fighting for resources to ensure that their students have everything that they deserve and need. It’s the 325,000 children who rely upon our public schools. That’s where our focus should be. That’s certainly where mine is.

Can I ask why you didn’t replace the CPS CEO right after taking office?

Look again, this is not about just one individual. What were we focused on in May 2023? We were focused on [parental] leave. We got it done. We were focused on the evidence-based funding formula to ensure that we are funding our schools based upon needs.

We were focused on our bilingual education. The governor of Texas used human beings to attack us, right? It’s a very nasty way to govern. There are 20,000 more students in our public schools who were bussed from Central or South America. And so that’s what my focus has been on.

It’s not on one individual, right? Because if it was one individual, perhaps, we could find a prototype and plant that person down, and they can overcome systemic racism that has existed in our public schools for decades.

This was not about one individual. This is about the hundreds of thousands of families that are looking to me to fight and advocate on their behalf.

You mentioned the influx of new migrant students. Chalkbeat and Block Club Chicago have reported on the lack of support and staffing for bilingual education in some schools. Do you think the district’s done enough?

No, it hasn’t. This is what I’m saying. We have to have more resources for special education. We know that Chicago Public Schools, historically, has not lived up to the promise and expectation of parents, like when I was in the classroom.

We have not properly supported special education, bilingual education, particularly with this influx. That’s why it requires bold leadership in this moment, and that’s what I’m calling for. This is why I believe that some people are having a tough time with my leadership, because I have been very bold and outspoken about investments, not austerity, not privatization, not cuts, consolidations, closures, all of that crap that destroyed public education in this city,

A story published earlier this week in the Chicago Tribune looked at the wave of expiring special taxing districts, known as TIFs. There is a projected increase of tax revenue that would go to sister agencies, including the Chicago Public Schools. What would you like to see the district do with that additional revenue?

That’s always been my goal — to ensure that the tax dollars that were designed to support these sister agencies, that those dollars actually show up for the people of Chicago.

As far as what we need to see, we need better staffing. We do. We need more staffing. We saw this during the pandemic. One of the reasons why our schools were able to recover, you know, the way they did, is because we actually had paraprofessionals to help support these educators. But we also need to make sure that we have libraries and librarians, social workers and counselors. We don’t talk enough about the number of psychiatrists and psychologists that we need in our schools.

Do you understand how difficult it is when you’re living and trying to survive in a city where disinvestment has been the prevailing form of governance? Kids show up [to schools] who are hungry or unhoused, right? We need to see more support for our unhoused students in the city of Chicago, 20,000 children are underhoused in the city. And so as we ensure that there are more dollars available for these sister agencies, we have to respond to what families want.

We need to make sure that we’re providing support services for special ed, bilingual education, and transportation. We need better staff and stronger staffing in our schools to support these efforts, but we also have to support the entire community so that families are fully supported in a way that gives them the ability to experience the wholeness and the purpose of what public education was designed to do.

Would you ever like to go back to teaching in a classroom in Chicago Public Schools?

I really enjoy being mayor of the city of Chicago. I will say teaching middle school is still the best job that I’ve ever had. I did teach a year of high school, but I really enjoyed teaching seventh and eighth grade.

I haven’t really thought about what happens two terms from now or three terms from now. But I will say this, as mayor of the city of Chicago, I’m committed to making sure that you know the people who do teach, the people who are in our schools, that they know that they have an advocate on the fifth floor, and to ensure that our public schools and our public teachers are fully supported.

You are still on leave from CPS.

That is correct.

A number of people have said that is a conflict of interest.

Right, because at first, folks were saying that it was a conflict because I was on leave from the CTU. When they realized that wasn’t right, then they found another reason to figure out there’s a conflict of interest.

Do you believe that’s a conflict of interest? Have you considered resigning that position, given that you are now no longer on “union leave” because you no longer work for the union?

Let me just say this, there isn’t one. There’s no economic benefit for me as a CPS employee on leave as mayor of the city of Chicago. We have firefighters who are on leave [in] 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.

It’s not like there’s this classroom just waiting for me that once I’m done as mayor of the city of Chicago, I can just roll back in and start teaching the five causes of the American Revolution. Can I just say this respectfully? I just find it to be quite fascinating that somehow, as a parent, as a public school teacher, that somehow that will be in conflict with me as mayor of the city of Chicago advocating on behalf of the people of Chicago.

I wanted to give you a chance to respond. It’s brought up in Pedro Martinez’s lawsuit against the school board and people are pointing to it as ethically problematic.

Let me just say this, right, there have been board members who have been a part of banks and corporations that benefited from CPS contracts. Board members who were on boards of private charter schools that benefited their friends economically. And what has that done for the people of Chicago?

Now you have a parent, you have a public school teacher, that is advocating on behalf of the public that somehow that’s some sort of conflict. You know what? That’s a conflict to the interest of corporations who want to run our school districts to the ground. And guess what? They’ve done it. But now, with bold progressive leadership, we are rising out of the ashes of those who saw public education as a way to line their pockets, and now we actually have someone who believes in the public good.

Jen Johnson is no longer deputy mayor of education. Have you looked into filling that role?

That’s a very good question. Thank you for that. And let me just say Jen Johnson is a remarkable human being, just a classy human being that has served in this city as a social studies teacher, just like myself. Just a brilliant mind.

We’re going to go through a robust interviewing process to find the right person who understands my vision, the vision that I was elected on to ensure that every single school in the city of Chicago is fully funded and supported. That process continues to unfold. We’ll let you know once we make an announcement.

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

The Chicago schools CEO got a pink slip for Christmas. He went to court. What happens now?

2025-01-03T18:49:20+00:00

The days before winter break provided no vacation from the conflict and drama engulfing Chicago Public Schools.

On the Friday before Christmas, the Chicago Board of Education voted to fire CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. But Martinez will stay on the job he’s held since 2021 until at least June. Martinez has taken the school board to court to try to reverse his firing. In addition, a judge granted a temporary restraining order on Christmas Eve that preserves Martinez’s powers as CEO — for now.

The strife between the school board, Martinez, and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s administration has riveted the city. It’s also generated major uncertainty right before another big — albeit long foreseen — shift for CPS: A new 21-person school board will take over in less than two weeks.

On top of all that, the district and the Chicago Teachers Union are engaged in high-stakes, increasingly fraught negotiations over a new CTU contract.

So where are things headed for CPS? Here’s what to watch for in the coming weeks.

Martinez continues as CPS CEO amid legal battle

Before the school board even notified Martinez of his firing, he sued the board and filed for a temporary restraining order in an effort to preserve his powers as CEO. In response, Cook County Circuit Court Judge Joel Chupack ruled the school board cannot interfere with Martinez’s role as CEO. That means school board members cannot attend negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union without his permission, which some did shortly after they fired Martinez.

The next court date for Martinez’s lawsuit and the temporary restraining order is Jan. 9 at the Daley Center. The court has not issued a ruling on other allegations that Martinez’s team has made in their lawsuit, including that the board allegedly did not receive proper training before moving to fire Martinez. According to CPS, board members are supposed to be trained on a slew of topics, such as ethics, the district’s budget, education theory, governance, and staff firings that require a board vote.

Regardless of how long he has left as CEO, Martinez will be in charge as the district navigates some of its most pressing challenges since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. These include balancing its budget and settling new labor contracts with both the Chicago Teachers Union and the principals union.

New Chicago school board starts governing

Chicago’s new school board will be sworn in on Jan. 15. Ten of them were elected and the rest were appointed by the mayor. It will be the first school board in Chicago’s history with elected members, although Johnson must still appoint a final board member.

As with Martinez, this board will immediately have to tackle big issues like voting on labor contracts and figuring out how to pay for them as a projected $500 million deficit looms. The board will also inherit a new five-year strategic plan, which calls for more children to attend public schools within their neighborhoods.

The new school board is also scheduled for district-led training the week of Jan. 6. A previously scheduled week of training sessions in December for the new board got cancelled. By law, all school board members in Illinois must complete training requirements related to their duties.

CTU contract approval awaits new school board

The bad blood between City Hall and Chicago Public Schools leadership stems in part from souring contract negotiations between Chicago Public Schools and the teachers union, which is a close ally of the mayor’s.

The union and the district are still far apart on some key issues, including additional prep time for elementary school teachers. Even though the school board has told Martinez that he’s fired, he is still in charge of negotiations on the district’s side until June.

The new school board will likely also have to approve the new contract. Some of its members are aligned with the union and Johnson. Others aren’t. While the board could approve a new deal with CTU through a simple majority vote, a new contract will almost certainly also require CPS to amend its budget — and the latter would require approval from two-thirds of the school board, according to state law.

Budget amendments also require a minimum 15-day period of notice to the public before the board can vote.

That timeline makes it likely that the city’s new 21-person board will be the final entity to sign off on a new contract. During previous contract negotiations, the board has signed a deal and amended its budget to pay for the contract on the same day. If a deal is struck in the coming days, it’s possible the new board members could approve it at their first meeting on January 30.

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

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.

Days after Martinez is fired, Chicago Board of Education members attend CTU contract negotiations

2024-12-23T22:34:18+00:00

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Three days after voting to fire the school district CEO, Chicago Board of Education members took the extraordinary step Monday of attending contract negotiations between the district and the Chicago Teachers Union.

The lawyer for Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez responded with a letter demanding board members cease and desist from attending negotiations, describing it as “unlawful interference” with Martinez’s authority.

The back-and-forth shows how the vote to oust Martinez has taken the power struggle over the nation’s fourth largest school district into a new, more public phase.

It also could signal that Mayor Brandon Johnson and his handpicked school board feel a sense of urgency — and perhaps see an opportunity — to get a deal done.

The union previously called for an agreement by Christmas. Negotiations started eight months ago and have become increasingly tense.

Board members Olga Bautista and Frank Thomas attended negotiations in the morning, and board President Sean Harden attended in the afternoon, according to Chicago Public Schools spokesperson Mary Ann Fergus.

Harden told Chalkbeat that the board members attended on their own, without the direction of the mayor, to “observe and be part of the support” for CPS.

“I, along with the other board members, thought it was incredibly important for our team to feel supported,” he said, adding they wanted to “make sure the talks continue.”

The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment, and CPS did not share Martinez’s thoughts on board members attending. But according to two sources who have spoken with the CEO, Martinez was “surprised” to hear board members planned to attend negotiations.

Typically, contract negotiations are left to bargaining teams from the district administration and union.

CTU vice president Jackson Potter wrote on social media that it was the first time board members have attended negotiations since 2012 bargaining was winding down, when then-Board President David Vitale attended. Potter wrote that members attended to help “both sides land an agreement.”

The 2012 contract negotiations led to a strike that attracted national attention. A former board member who served with Vitale described the context on condition of anonymity because he did not receive required approval from his employer to speak to the media. He said Vitale joined negotiations during “a very tense moment” because he was directed to do so by then-mayor Rahm Emanuel and then-CPS CEO Jean Claude Brizard. Before that, neither he nor his co-members were involved in negotiations, the former board member said.

“What is the function of a board? It is generally to conduct oversight and accountability and governance of management,” he said. “Board is not management.”

A board member sat in on negotiations on at least one other instance, also during labor strife. Board member Miguel Del Valle attended ahead of the union’s 2019 strike.

Martinez — who was not present at negotiations on Friday — continues to oversee the district because his contract stipulates that he is to stay on for six months if he is fired without cause, which is the route board members took. The resolution on Martinez’s firing states the board wants to modify his powers but does not specify how. Martinez said after Friday’s vote that he didn’t know what the board had in mind, but he urged reporters to “get to know” his attorney.

Martinez has clashed with Johnson, a former CTU organizer and continued close ally, over how to pay for the union’s contract demands and $175 million in pension obligations that the city wants to shift to CPS. He has resisted the mayor’s suggestion for CPS to take out a short-term loan to pay for labor contracts and pension obligations. Amid that tension, the former Board of Education — mostly appointed by Johnson — resigned en masse in October.

Negotiations have become increasingly tense since Johnson asked Martinez to resign in the fall. The union’s initial 700-plus proposal package has been pared down in recent weeks in an effort to close a deal. Current demands include a 6% raise in the first year of the contract, hiring additional staff over the life of the contract, and more teacher prep time in elementary schools — an issue the city’s principals union has taken issue with.

The union believes its demands would add critical support to schools and beef up protections for LGBTQ and immigrant students after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

CPS has not outlined how it will pay for the contract in the next fiscal year. District leaders have raised concerns about the potential cost, pointing to a projected $500 million deficit next year before the cost of labor negotiations.

Johnson won’t have sole control over who serves on the board for very much longer. Ten members elected by voters in November will take their seats Jan. 15, joining 11 Johnson appointees. Johnson has picked 10 people for the board so far. The board will be fully elected in 2027, when Johnson is up for reelection.

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

Chicago school board fires CEO Pedro Martinez

2024-12-21T05:00:16+00:00

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Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s hand-picked school board voted Friday to fire Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, taking a step their predecessors had resisted and capping a months-long campaign by the mayor and teachers union to oust the schools chief.

The board voted unanimously to fire Martinez without cause, which under the terms of his contract means he will stay on the job for six more months — through the end of the current school year — and then receive severance pay of about $130,000.

“It’s not right,” an angry and emotional Martinez told reporters after the vote.

“Obviously I’m disappointed by the board’s decision tonight,” he said, adding that he would ensure a smooth transition for the next CEO. “Leading the system that shaped me has been an opportunity of a lifetime.”

The firing was a dramatic culmination to months of turmoil that pitted the mayor and the teachers union — a close ally that catapulted him into office — against Martinez. The unprecedented development comes weeks before Chicago’s new, 21-person hybrid school board with appointed and elected members begins work. It also comes as the district enters a decisive phase in its high-stakes negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union over a new contract.

Martinez made a last-minute legal bid Friday to save his job before the vote. His attorneys filed motions seeking to block his potential firing, alleging board members were appointed “to do the bidding” of a mayor and teachers union that have “scapegoated” Martinez.

According to a source close to the CEO, Martinez earlier turned down a settlement offer of more than $500,000 to depart, which would have amounted to salary and benefits owed to him for the remainder of his contract.

Days after Martinez is fired, Chicago Board of Education members attend CTU contract negotiations

CTU issued a statement after the vote saying Martinez was stalling by not agreeing to a new union contract that “guarantees every CPS student a quality school day, protects recent academic gains, and provides classrooms with the resources our students and families deserve.”

“We look forward to the road ahead for CPS, and we urge the board and the mayor to step into the leadership gap that the CEO has created and choose a future candidate who understands the assignment,” the statement read.

Ahead of the vote, incoming elected school board members, education organizations, and former CPS CEOs Arne Duncan and Janice Jackson issued statements in support of letting the new board decide Martinez’s fate. That list grew Friday to include U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia and Yesenia Lopez, an incoming elected school board member who was endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union — which cast a vote of no-confidence in Martinez in the fall.

At the meeting, a group of principals expressed support for Martinez and raised concerns about CTU proposals that they feel will take away instructional time from children. The principals union has expressed similar concerns over the past several weeks. Meanwhile, Jackson Potter, vice president of the CTU, said the union has made more progress in negotiations this week and wants a swift deal.

More than a dozen elected officials also spoke — both in support of and against Martinez.

Tara Stamps, a Cook County commissioner, former teacher, and CTU staffer, blamed Martinez for schools on her home turf of the West Side that still have “chronic underfunding” and “crumbling infrastructure.”

“Pedro Martinez’s leadership have left these schools in a drought and our teachers and our students are paying the price for that,” Stamps said.

Others called for the board to wait. Jennifer Custer, an incoming elected school board member who was backed by the CTU, asked the board to hold off on a decision. She also criticized the union’s contract proposal.

“Are you going to condemn the first elected board to serve in a capacity where our sole job for the next two years is not to address student outcomes and making CPS a better place, but to figure out how to steady the ship in the wake of the chaos that is created by the decision to fire a CEO mid year and inevitably agree to a contract that we can’t afford, and while the district suffers financially already?” Custer said.

After the public comment period, the board met in closed session. After 90 minutes, members emerged and voted Martinez out without comment. The board then left without taking any questions from reporters.

Tensions stem from district’s money woes

The conflict between Martinez and the mayor’s office reflects a fundamental rift over how the district should navigate a time when federal COVID relief dollars are running out and major deficits loom.

The union and Johnson have argued that the district should add more staff, reduce class size, and agree to a litany of other proposals. The mayor’s team suggested over the summer that CPS take a high-interest loan to cover the new costs — and then redouble its push to line up new revenue from the state or other sources. The Martinez administration countered that any prospects for new funding are uncertain, and the district should avoid adding to its significant debt burden.

The previous appointed board — under pressure to oust the CEO and take on the loan — resigned en masse in October. While that board had some concerns with Martinez, it wasn’t prepared to fire him, sources previously told Chalkbeat.

Johnson appointed seven new members in October. He announced Monday four of them would continue to serve, while three will step down because they are not eligible based on where they live. The mayor announced six other appointments to the new board and has yet to name one more.

More recently, the fate of schools in one of the city’s largest charter networks has proven divisive.

The board and the mayor’s office criticized Martinez for not acting aggressively enough to find alternatives to planned school closings at Acero charter school network. On Friday, the Board of Education approved a resolution to cover Acero’s budget deficit to keep all seven schools open next school year. The board also directed CPS leadership to create a plan to transition five of the campuses into CPS schools for the 2026-27 school year.

Martinez oversaw pandemic rebound, new strategic plan

Martinez was hired in 2021 by Johnson’s predecessor, Mayor Lori Lightfoot. He arrived at a turbulent time – as school buildings reopened for full-time in-person instruction after being shuttered during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak – and began the work of addressing the pandemic’s academic and social-emotional damage.

By some accounts, Martinez’s tenure has brought a measure of stability after COVID’s massive disruption. His administration has touted data showing the district’s students have recovered in reading faster than most other districts across the country.

During his roughly three years at the helm, Martinez presided over a significant expansion of the district’s workforce, using federal pandemic relief dollars to bring on thousands of new teachers and support staff.

He also oversaw the adoption of a controversial plan to ban campus police and an overhaul of the district’s approach to budgeting this spring that de-emphasized student enrollment; instead, the district now provides base staffing positions to all schools and factors in a school’s level of student needs in budgeting for additional positions and support.

Martinez was also at the helm when thousands of migrant children from Central and South American countries enrolled in the district’s schools, leading to challenges to deliver greater bilingual services for students at many schools, particularly those in low-income, Black communities.

On the day the previous school board passed a new five-year strategic plan — which focuses on Johnson’s priority of boosting resources for neighborhood schools — the mayor asked Martinez to resign.

When Lightfoot appointed Martinez, a Chicago native and former CPS chief financial officer, he was the superintendent of the San Antonio Independent School District. Johnson chose to keep Martinez in the role after defeating Lightfoot in the 2023 mayoral election — which teachers union president Stacy Davis Gates said at the start of this school year she requested of the mayor. The union said at the time that the CEO appeared to be ushering in a new era of more collaboration and better rapport between the CTU and district officials.

But things changed this summer amid contract negotiations over an extensive, costly slate of CTU proposals. Martinez, along with the Johnson-appointed school board, balked at taking on the short-term, high-interest loan. Johnson had urged the district to take out the loan to pay for the contract’s costs and cover a $175 million payment to a city pension fund that covers non-teaching staff.

The CTU had lambasted Lightfoot for passing that pension cost on to the school district and argued the city should continue to cover it as it had in the past. The Johnson administration has in part blamed the city’s budget woes on that pension payment. On Monday, the Chicago City Council narrowly passed Johnson’s $17.1 billion budget plan after a bruising two month budget process during which even his progressive allies criticized his leadership.

Martinez said in September that Johnson asked him to resign and he refused, citing a need for stability in a district roiled by frequent leadership turnover in recent years.

In recent weeks, the teachers union intensified its criticism of Martinez, even as his administration offered educators up to a 5% pay raise in the coming years and benefit increases at no cost to teachers, among other concessions. Union leaders have said Martinez is resisting union staffing, class size, and other proposals that would transform a district historically plagued by inequities in the student experiences among campuses and neighborhoods. They also claimed Martinez didn’t lobby for more state funding aggressively enough or make a plan for the expiration of federal COVID relief money.

Mila Koumpilova contributed.

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

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez takes legal action seeking to block potential firing

2024-12-20T21:04:59+00:00

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Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez launched a final-hour legal bid Friday to block his potential firing, alleging that board members about to consider his fate were appointed “to do the bidding” of a mayor and teachers union that have “scapegoated” Martinez.

Martinez’s attorneys made those claims in circuit court filings seeking a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction to halt his ouster.

The move came shortly before a specially called 5:45 p.m. board meeting in which members were scheduled to consider terminating Martinez. It was not immediately clear whether a judge would consider the motion and, if so, whether it would happen ahead of any potential vote.

Earlier Friday, Martinez’s legal team wrote a letter to the school board urging members to hold off on firing the CEO, who has clashed with the mayor and weathered months of speculation on his fate. Firing Martinez, the letter says, would not only breach his contract “but also the relevant Illinois law governing the Board’s actions.”

“Tonight’s purported vote is the culmination of a months-long campaign orchestrated by the Chicago Teachers Union (“CTU”) and its ally, Mayor Brandon Johnson, to improperly and unlawfully terminate Mr. Martinez based on wholly pretextual reasons,” wrote William Quinlan, Martinez’s lawyer, in the letter.

Neither the teachers union nor the mayor’s office immediately returned a request for comment.

The court filings allege that Johnson and the CTU are improperly seeking Martinez’s ouster because the CEO opposed the administration’s push, first reported by Chalkbeat, for the district to take out a short-term loan to pay for pension obligations and labor contracts, including that of CTU.

The legal filings connect efforts to fire Martinez with ongoing contract negotiations between CTU and the school district — suggesting a good outcome for the union is a motivating factor.

The attempt to fire Martinez, the filings argue, is also fueled by the looming arrival of new board members elected to join mayoral appointees on a hybrid board. The new arrivals are a mixed group, having run as CTU-backed, school choice-oriented, and independent candidates.

The board may fire Martinez with or without cause. Terminating his contract without cause would allow Martinez to stay for an additional six months and then pay him severance of about $130,000 - the equivalent of 20 weeks of his annual base pay of $340,000.

The court filings allege that the school board either intends to fire Martinez for cause based on “manufactured allegations,” or effectively fire him “by altering his job status or diminishing his responsibilities.”

Crain’s Chicago Business first reported that Johnson is considering a “co-CEO” option and has newly appointed board president Sean Harden in mind. Harden worked as deputy CEO of community affairs under former CEO Ron Huberman between 2009 and 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The letter from Martinez’s lawyer to the board said the school board sent Martinez his performance evaluation for the 2023-2024 school year on Monday. The evaluation, which Quinlan described as “less than a page,” gave Martinez an overall “needs improvement” rating.

That rating stated Martinez “made no efforts” to meet one-on-one with the new board members — who Johnson appointed in early October after the entire previous board resigned en masse — and that the district’s new five-year strategic plan “did not really come from [Mr. Martinez’s] office.”

“The various alleged deficiencies identified in the letter were meritless — Mr. Martinez did meet with almost all of the new Board members and his office did ‘really’ lead the creation of the Five Year Strategic Plan,” Quinlan, the lawyer, wrote.

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

Mayor Johnson announces 10 of 11 appointees for new Chicago Board of Education

2024-12-17T03:12:39+00:00

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Mayor Brandon Johnson picked 10 of 11 people Monday to round out the city’s new half-elected, half-appointed school board — including some who ran unsuccessfully in Chicago’s first school board elections this November.

The new board will be sworn in Jan. 15, 2025, and will include 10 people who won in November. State law required the mayor choose the other 11 people, including a board president, by Monday.

The shift to an elected school board in Chicago has been years in the making. The process set forth in state law is complicated. Though there were 10 school board races in November, each district was split into two subdistricts. State law limited who Johnson could pick — allowing him to only choose people who did not live in the same subdistrict as winners of the election.

Johnson announced the school board appointees late Monday, just hours before the deadline.

Sean Harden, a South Side native and former CPS employee, will serve as president of the Board of Education and represent the city at large.
Ed Bannon, who ran for alderman in 2023 and served on the Dever Elementary School Local School Council, will represent District 1a alongside Jennifer Custer in 1b.
Debby Pope, a current appointed school board member and former CTU employee and retired teacher who filed campaign finance paperwork and considered running for an elected school board seat, will represent District 2b alongside Ebony DeBerry in 2a.
Norma Rios-Sierra, an artist who also works as cultural events manager for nonprofit Palenque LSNA, will presumably represent District 3a alongside Carlos Rivas Jr. in 3b.
Karen Zaccor, a retired teacher and active CTU member who finished second in a six-way race in November’s election, will represent District 4a alongside the winning candidate Ellen Rosenfeld in 4b.
Michilla Blaise, a current school board member who withdrew as a candidate one month before Election Day, will represent District 5b alongside Jitu Brown in 5a.
Anusha Thotakura, a former teacher who also lost her bid in November, will represent District 6a alongside Jessica Biggs in 6b.
Emma Lozano, a Pilsen pastor and advocate for bilingual education and immigrant rights. It is not clear which district Lozano lives in, but it would presumably be either district 7b or 8b alongside either Yesenia Lopez in 7a or Angel Gutierrez in 8a.
Frank Niles Thomas, a current board member appointed last month, will represent District 9a alongside Therese Boyle in 9b.
Olga Bautista, a current board member appointed last month, will presumably represent District 10b alongside Che “Rhymefest” Smith in 10a.

It was not immediately clear why the mayor only announced 10 of 11 picks before the deadline. State law does not spell out any impacts for partially missing the deadline.

Johnson’s picks will make up a majority of the board, giving him significant influence over a governing body that for the past three decades was exclusively controlled by Chicago’s mayor.

The mayor’s appointees included most of the current board members as well as losing school board candidates who were endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, a close ally of the mayor’s.

Johnson’s office announced the names after the mayor struggled to negotiate a deal with aldermen on his second city budget. Late Monday, after multiple amendments and Johnson tossing out his proposed property tax increase entirely, the City Council approved a $17.1 billion city budget by a vote of 27 to 23.

After that budget vote, as he called for more state revenue, Johnson told reporters he was looking for school board members “who understand the urgency of this moment, people who know that they have to organize and work collectively to fight for progressive revenue in the state.”

“But really the big characteristic that I’m proud that people demonstrated was a real care for the families who do the work as well,” Johnson said, adding that he also searched for people who were not “dismissive” of teachers.

The mayor’s influence over the school board may extend beyond his own picks. Four of the election winners were backed by the union, which ideologically aligns with the mayor. That means 15 of the 21 members could often vote in alignment with his policy preferences, such as avoiding school closures and sending more money to neighborhood schools.

It also could mean the board could vote to borrow money in order to cover pension obligations and labor union costs, as Johnson pushed CPS to do in the spring and summer, helping to lead to the resignation of the entire previous board.

Before taking office, school board members are required to complete state-mandated training. Last week, newly elected board members were notified by the school district’s board office that training planned for this week would be postponed, per a request from the current board. Carlos Rivas, who was elected to represent District 3 on the West Side, said the Academy of Local Leadership at National Louis University, in light of the district’s cancellation, is now providing training this week. Rivas was part of an inaugural fellowship with ALL Chicago this spring.

“At the end of the day, what’s most important is that we are prepared to govern on day one,” Rivas said.

Rivas said the school district’s board office said they still plan to hold five days of sessions with new board members from Jan. 6-10.

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.

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 Mayor Brandon Johnson appoints a seventh school board member

2024-12-12T22:32:54+00:00

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Mayor Brandon Johnson picked a consulting firm executive and former Chicago Public Schools employee on Thursday to join the Board of Education.

Sean Harden will be the seventh board member and will fill a spot left vacant by Rev. Mitchell Johnson, who served as board president for a week before resigning amid social media posts criticized as antisemitic, misogynistic, and conspiracy-laden.

City officials did not immediately say whether Harden will serve as president of the board. But he might only be able to continue serving after a new partly elected board takes over in January if he is appointed to lead the board.

That’s because according to property records, Harden appears to own an apartment in the same part of the South Side’s school board District 6 as Jessica Biggs, who won the Nov. 5 election for District 6. Since the mayor’s appointees and elected members can’t live in the same subdistrict, Harden could only stay on as board president, since that appointee can live anywhere in Chicago.

Harden worked for the CPS from 2009 to 2011 as deputy CEO of community affairs under former CEO Ron Huberman, according to his profile on the social networking site LinkedIn. Before that, Harden worked for former Mayor Richard M. Daley from 2006 to 2008 as his executive assistant. The following year, he became deputy commissioner of human relations, a role in which he served until 2009, his LinkedIn page said.

Harden currently lists involvement with multiple consulting firms that focus on workforce development and real estate on his LinkedIn.

In a statement, Johnson called Harden “a proven leader with a bold vision for what education can achieve.”

“His deep ties to Chicago’s communities and his unwavering commitment to equity make him the ideal leader to shape a brighter future for our students,” the statement said.

At today’s official December school board meeting, Harden took the oath of office and made brief remarks.

“This is an incredible opportunity,” he said. “I’m looking forward to doing great things and moving the vision of the school board forward.”

Harden will be joining the board just weeks before the city’s first hybrid elected-appointed board takes office. That new board of 21 people will include 10 members elected for the first time on Nov. 5, and 11 others the mayor must appoint by Monday, including a board president who represents the city at large. City officials did not immediately say whether Harden will be one of the mayor’s 11 appointments.

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

‘Pretty impressive’: More than 50% of voters cast ballots in Chicago’s first school board election

2024-11-20T22:34:01+00:00

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More than half of Chicago’s registered voters cast ballots in the city’s first school board races during the Nov. 5 general election, bucking voter trends for school board elections across the country, according to final figures released Wednesday.

Out of a total 1,498,873 registered voters, 801,878 cast ballots for the city’s 10 school board districts, according to Max Bever, spokesperson for the Chicago Board of Elections. That means 53% of the city’s registered voters showed up and picked candidates for school board races. According to one estimate from the National School Boards Association, just 5-10% of registered voters vote in school board races.

In total, 68% of all Chicago registered voters showed up to the polls on Nov. 5.

Of all Chicagoans who voted on Nov. 5, 78% chose a candidate in the school board races.

Bever noted that some votes for write-in candidates in districts 5, 6, and 10 will be added to the final totals that the Board of Elections will vote to certify next week.

The city’s inaugural election ushered in 10 new board members who will be sworn in Jan. 15, 2025. Mayor Brandon Johnson will choose another 11, including a school board president, by Dec. 16 to create a 21-person board.

The school board races drew almost $7 million in campaign contributions, with at least $1.5 million from the Chicago Teachers Union and its allies, and almost double that from pro-school-choice PACs, according to a Chalkbeat analysis in late October.

Chicago’s school board election shared space with the presidential race, which is one significant reason turnout was relatively high, Bever said. Nearly all of the people who cast ballots for the school board also voted in the presidential race, which tends to attract more voters compared to midterms or other municipal elections. Additionally, the election was the first of its kind in Chicago, after a yearslong push from advocates, community organizers, and some elected officials.

Still, Bever noted the turnout for school board races is exceptional given that they were further down on the ballot, which also had races for dozens of Cook County judges and referendum questions.

A WBEZ analysis found that more Chicago voters cast ballots in one of the 10 school board races than in any one of most of the judicial seats, and more ballots were cast in more competitive races.

Bever said more people voted in the school board races this year than all voters who cast ballots in the November 2022 midterm elections, as well as the February 2023 municipal election.

“It signals that the vast majority of eligible Chicagoans were knowledgeable about the office and were fired up to cast their vote for the candidates,” Bever said.

Chicago’s voter turnout in the school board election appears to significantly buck trends in other cities. In Newark’s school board races this past spring, for example, less than 3% of registered voters cast ballots – though those were not during a presidential election.

It’s “well-established” that voter turnout in school board races is generally low, making Chicago’s turnout “pretty impressive,” said Jeffery Henig, professor emeritus of politics and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College, who has studied mayoral control of school boards.

“It was unquestionably a sign of greater interest due to its high profile and due to its being something new,” Henig said.

Henig said the 78% figure — the share of people who showed up to the polls and also decided to choose a candidate in the school board races — is just as impressive and is a better measure of turnout. That’s because many national factors unrelated to the school board races may explain why registered voters didn’t show up, such as a dissatisfaction for both major party presidential candidates, he said.

It’s reasonable to expect voter turnout to drop in the city’s next school board election in 2026, Henig said, when all 21 seats will be elected but won’t be part of a bigger national election. But, since there will be new races where there’s no incumbent, there might be “a little more energy and excitement,” he said.

“A falloff from 80% wouldn’t be alarming,” Henig said. “If it falls down to 20%, then I think what you say is, ‘This is back to normal.’”

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

In wake of Trump win, Chicago Board of Education moves to reaffirm protections for immigrants

2024-11-15T01:17:43+00:00

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The Chicago Board of Education passed a resolution Thursday reaffirming its commitment to protect students of various immigration statuses, gender identities, and sexual orientation following last week’s presidential election.

The resolution, approved unanimously by the school board during a special board meeting, acknowledged that the results of the election “may have caused fear, concern, confusion, sadness, anger, or anxiety in CPS staff, students, and their families.”

“We stand very steadfast to these principles and we will defend every student here,” said board member Olga Bautista. She added that it’s “unconscionable” to see anyone “emboldened” to call immigration officials on “our people at work or at schools.”

While on the campaign trail, President-elect Donald Trump has said that he wants to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. Many are students attending public schools around the country.

“It’s the body that has a duty today, an urgent one, to model what it looks like to be a beacon to the rest of the country,” said Jackson Potter, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, during the meeting.

The board’s resolution called for the district to provide training and support for students, their families, and staff on immigrants’ rights and resources in multiple languages on legal assistance, mental health care, and public safety. It said the district will advocate on the state and federal levels for programs that assist or protect people with varying immigration statuses, including the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which provides a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrant children. The board said it would oppose any legislation that creates “a Muslim registry system” or erodes civil rights.

The resolution also said the district “will not provide assistance to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the enforcement of federal civil immigration law” and that ICE will not be allowed to enter or interact with district facilities or staff unless it provides CPS with a criminal warrant.”

Chicago Public Schools is one of hundreds of school districts that have declared themselves sanctuaries or safe havens for immigrant students since Trump was elected the first time. But Chicago has been a sanctuary city since 1985, well before Trump even entered politics. Then-Mayor Harold Washington signed an executive order declaring protections for immigrants that became law in 2006.

Chicago appears to be one of the first large school districts to make a public display of resistance and support for students after the 2024 election.

The district passed a “welcoming district” resolution in December 2016, but first committed to the idea of sanctuary schools in 2019 as part of its contract agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union and affirmed its position in 2022. In 2017, Denver Public Schools took steps to reassure immigrant families their students would be protected. Philadelphia’s school board passed a sanctuary resolution in 2021. Newark Public Schools passed a similar resolution in 2017.

Since 2022, CPS has enrolled thousands of migrant students, many of whom are seeking asylum from political and economic upheaval in Central and South American countries.The district said its share of students learning English as a new language increased by more than 12% this school year — far more than any other student group.

This past spring, the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, urged states to require public schools to charge tuition to migrant children and children with undocumented parents, denying them a free public education.

Trump has expressed a willingness to target immigrant children and their families and target policies that would protect them.

Samantha Smylie contributed.

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