Data analysis by Sophie Hayssen
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Alex Dakessian, the assistant principal at McCutcheon Elementary on Chicago’s North Side, had a hectic year.
She scheduled classes, helped evaluate 78 teachers and support staff, oversaw the school’s five specialized classrooms for students with significant disabilities, and translated for some of its more than 130 English learners. With two campuses several blocks apart, she sometimes became a “track star running between buildings” when emergencies arose.
But with McCutcheon’s kindergarten through eighth grade enrollment a few students shy of 250, Dakessian’s position landed on the chopping block this spring when the district cut school budgets.
More than 130 small schools were poised to lose funding for their assistant principals next school year. Most, including McCutcheon, used discretionary dollars to keep them or convinced CPS to make an exception, leaving about 40 campuses without that position, Chalkbeat has learned. The move comes as district officials are trying to close a $732.5 million deficit to balance a more than $10 billion budget.
In 2024, Chicago Public Schools vowed to staff an assistant principal on each of its campuses — no matter how small — as part of a new budget formula meant to steer more resources to high-needs schools, many hit hard by enrollment losses. But this spring, the district announced it would cut funding for assistant principals, or APs for short, in schools with fewer than 250 students, among other educator and support staff positions.
The move incensed leaders at the Chicago Principals & Administrators Association, which is bargaining with the district to finalize the first fully fleshed-out contract for school leaders. The union has argued that regardless of school size, APs such as Dakessian ensure campuses run smoothly and serve as sanity-saving partners and confidants for principals.
According to numbers provided by school board members, 72 of 138 campuses chose to use discretionary dollars to keep those positions. In the cases of another 23 schools, the district made an exception and funded an AP position, for example because of an upcoming program change.
Nelson Gerew of the Chicago Public Education notes the nonprofit has been a major proponent for staffing an assistant principal in each school. They help ease the intense pressure and loneliness of the principal role and represent a crucial school leader pipeline, with about a third eventually taking over the top job at their CPS school.
But this spring, Gerew says, school budget cuts were inevitable to balance the district’s budget. Because CPS guarantees a minimum level of staffing under its 2024 formula, many small schools were protected from other cuts the district made, Gerew notes. Cutting their APs meant they would share in the budget pain with larger schools, he said. There, principals have occasionally noted that both some schools serving hundreds of students and campuses serving fewer than 100 receive funding for one assistant principal.
“It’s encouraging that the vast majority of principals were able to keep their APs,” Gerew said.
As of its most recent staffing data at the end of June, CPS had a total of 644 assistant principal positions, up from about 600 before the 2023 budget formula changes and from a recent low of 540 in 2017, during another tough budget stretch. In 2026, APs made an average salary of $135,650, based on a Chalkbeat analysis of public CPS staffing data.
In a statement, CPS, which lost 45,000 students since the start of the pandemic, pointed to the intense fiscal pressures it faces. It said school budgets — including the number of eliminated assistant principal positions — remain preliminary until the school board approves an overall district budget this summer. But it said most appeals for additional staffing from schools were approved, and the district would make an effort to reassign employees whose positions were cut.
An ‘arbitrary’ enrollment cutoff with a catch
The principals union has pointed to Dakessian’s case to argue that the district’s 250-student cutoff is arbitrary and to contest a decision not to include pre-K enrollment.
Last year’s official enrollment at McCutcheon was 246 students. But that number does not include about 70 preschool students, who are part of a separate funding stream, but still demand the time and attention of school leaders.
School leaders and their advocates say assistant principals tend to have full plates, pitching in with a wide range of duties, from handing school discipline to communicating with families to filling in when other staff is absent or positions go vacant.
At last month’s school board meeting, Cy Hendrickson, the vice president of the principals union and an assistant principal at Hernández Middle School, said because they work throughout the summer, many assistant principals make less per hour than they would if they had continued teaching. Many regularly work on their own time on evenings and weekends, from completing teaching evaluations to answering parent emails, he said.
“The responsibility of leading and loving a CPS school is too immense and too profound for any one person to bear alone,” Hendrickson said.
The standoff over the AP cuts has cast a shadow over ongoing contract talks between the district and Chicago Principals & Administrators Association, which formally unionized school leaders for the first time after state lawmakers allowed it in 2023. Last fall, the two sides reached a preliminary agreement that included more protections against harassment and more due process rights for principals facing discipline, as well as 4% cost of living increases for 2025-26. But the union and district have been bargaining over a more fully fleshed-out contract.
Kia Banks, the union’s president, said it was “blindsided” by the district’s assistant principal decision — and has continued to push for a way to preserve these positions at the bargaining table. She said at the more than 40 schools losing their APs — campuses serving predominantly high-needs, Black and Latino students — only two principals told the union they feel they can make do without a second-in-command next year.
School board members express concern about AP cuts
Some school board members have voiced concern about the assistant principal cuts, even as they say they understand the district was forced to make difficult decisions to balance its budget.
Board member Karen Zaccor, a former CPS educator, said three schools in her North Side district lost their AP funding, including McCutcheon and Uplift High School, which has bucked district trends by growing its enrollment in recent years. All three chose to keep those positions with discretionary dollars. But she said she worries about what programs and other budget items might not be funded as a result.
“You can’t say, ‘We solved the problem. All of these schools are getting their APs back,’” Zaccor said. “We don’t know what else might be going away.”
School board member Jessica Biggs, a former CPS principal, said she felt the district had made the right call when it committed to staff an assistant principal in each school. She had spent most of her first year as a principal without a second-in-command, at Burke Elementary, which served fewer than 250 students at the time. She struggled.
In her second year, she hired assistant principal Tenesha Hatter, whom Biggs credits with the school’s enrollment and academic growth. Hatter led the school’s efforts to improve its climate and culture and fostered relationships with students to improve attendance, allowing Biggs to focus on boosting academics. Hatter went on to become a CPS principal herself.
“I don’t know if I would have stayed in the role if it wasn’t for her,” Biggs said. At the same time, she added, “There is nothing that’s good to cut right now.”
One small school principal, who spoke with Chalkbeat anonymously to discuss the issue without district authorization, recalls finding out the campus would lose its assistant principal funding this spring.
“I remember putting my head in my hands and just sitting there thinking, ‘Oh my god,’” that principal said. “It was devastating.”
The school got just enough discretionary dollars to keep the assistant principal. But it eliminated a teaching position to free up more discretionary dollars it still needs for learning materials, supplies, and more. For the first time, it will start charging student fees, and will lean on parent leaders to do “a hella lot of fundraising,” the principal said.
Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.
