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Learning about the Chicago Board of Education just got a lot cooler — and easier — for CPS teens.
Students will be the most directly impacted by the results of the November school board elections. They also tend to be left out of the conversation, and Chalkbeat Chicago is trying to fix that.
Our goal is to inform students and inspire action — and we’ve done that by creating a zine made for the city’s teens. We need your help in spreading the word.
Created with local artist Kelly Wang, this zine teaches CPS students about what the school board does and how kids can advocate for the issues they care about in their schools. The zine is geared toward middle school- and high school-age students, but we always welcome younger students to learn, too!
The best part? Anyone can get a physical copy if they have access to a printer — whether that’s at home, at school, or at your local library. If you’re a CPS teacher, this could be a great class activity to get students civically engaged.
Below are PDFs of our zine, available in either English or Spanish.
To assemble your zine, the artist themself, Kelly Wang, has some tips!
Instructions:
Note: This zine is laid out to be printed on 8.5″ x 11″ sheets of paper, can be printed in grayscale or color. It’s meant to be folded hamburger-style (horizontally) and stapled!
Each printer is different, but if you have the option to do double-sided printing, make sure to check “flip on short edge.” If you have to manually flip the paper, make sure to flip the paper on the short edge so it’s correct! The first print page with pg. 8 and pg. 1 should be paired on the back with pg. 2 on the left and pg. 7 on the right. Definitely print one copy first to make sure the orientation is right!
If your printer has a collate option, it could be helpful and reduce the time spent to assemble the zines, but that could be a fun activity for students.
Make sure the scale is at 100% or actual size!
There is no need to trim the zine, but the original size is 5″ x 7″. If you would like to trim it, you can cut it down 0.5″ on each side.
Share your thoughts on the school board election
One of the most important parts of this zine is the student callout on the back. We want to hear from CPS students about an issue they want to see the new school board prioritize. No issue is too big or small. Just scan the QR code (or click this link) and send us your thoughts! We plan to compile student responses to publish when the new school board members are inaugurated.
Chalkbeat Chicago, in partnership with other local outlets, is also working to distribute physical copies at CPS high schools. We also are reaching out to local organizations that work with youth to print out copies and share them. If you know of a high school, local nonprofit, or small business that would be interested in distributing zines, reach out to Makiya Seminera at mseminera@chalkbeat.org.
