Sign up for Chalkbeat Chicago’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the latest education news.
Chicago Public Schools notified 162 central and citywide employees Friday that they will be laid off, the district confirmed Monday.
Half of the employees work for central office departments that focus on districtwide policies and operations. The other half, known as “citywide” employees, help support individual schools.
The layoffs will save the district $18 million, CPS spokesperson Mary Fergus said in a statement.
The layoffs are part of the district’s attempt to close a more than $730 million deficit. Last June, while facing a similar deficit, the district laid off 161 employees who are staffed centrally, in addition to a slew of other cuts.
CPS is expected to publicly reveal a roughly $10 billion proposed budget later this week, which should provide a clearer picture of any additional cuts. Schools, which received their budgets in May, have also been grappling with budget-tightening decisions.
CPS did not specify the specific positions of the people losing their jobs. Many different offices were affected, including Career and College Success, Talent, Department of Principal Quality, Information and Technology Services, Students with Disabilities, Student Health and Wellness, Transportation, Facilities, and Safety and Security, School Counseling, Procurement, Real Estate, and the Office of Sports Administration, according to Fergus and a memo that chief talent officer Ben Felton sent Friday to school board members and district leaders.
Of the 162 people laid off, 38 people are represented by SEIU Local 73, the union that represents support staffers at CPS, such as custodians, and 25 were represented by the Chicago Teachers Union. The unions did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In deciding what positions to cut, the district’s top leaders were “directed to prioritize maintaining critical functions that directly serve students, and protect school-based staffing to the greatest extent possible,” the memo said.
The district tried cutting other expenses first, such as renegotiating vendor contracts and reducing some unspecified central “non-essential” office services. Neither CPS nor the memo said how much money these measures saved.
“These actions reduced a substantial portion of the deficit,” Fergus said in her statement to Chalkbeat. “Even after these measures, targeted central office and citywide staffing reductions remained necessary to protect resources for students and schools.”
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
