Good morning.
The Committee on Education
and Child Development will come now come to order today.
There is a subject matter hearing regarding the CPS budget
with CCEO, Pedro Martinez.
We will begin with roll call to establish quo
Vice Woman Clay Alderman
Yancy Alderman Hall,
alderman Bill Alderman Chico.
Alderwoman Lee Alderman Quinn.
Here, Alderwoman Gutierrez.
Alderwoman Coleman Alderman osha.
Here, Alder person for Es
Alderman Tyler Farro.
Alderwoman Roanna Rodriguez, alderman Gardner.
Over
Present via Zoom.
There are 10 members present pursuant to Rule 59. Nine.
Nine members, Gil Viegas, um,
has requested virtual, so has
Alderwoman Silverstein and Alderman Hopkins.
Can I get a motion to allow
Alderman Gardner, chairman And Alderman Gardner?
All those, those in favor? Opposed?
We have non-members present.
Alder Manhattan, Alderwoman Dow, alderman Ccho Lopez,
alderman Lasa, alderman Cardona,
Alderwoman Hopping Worth.
Alderman Rodriguez.
Alderman Martin Alderwoman Nugent.
Did I miss anybody
at this time?
And Alderman Riley At this time,
we will begin the public comment period.
The period is limited to 30 minutes outta
respect for everybody's time.
Each speaker is limited to three minutes.
Ann Chang.
I didn't expect to be called, um,
this morning, so I was was gonna set.
I should have set, um, closer,
but I just wanna make a general observation.
Um, there have been a lot of arguments
and discourse on this topic
and there should still continue to have more conversations.
It is so unfortunate that the messenger in this case, Mr.
Pedro Martinez and his crew carries the brunt
of the bad news.
I would encourage all of us to refocus the energy,
to allow the leadership of CPS to continue
to do do the hard work.
I have worked in large organizations
and when organizations lose their leadership,
it takes a step back
and step instead instead of a step forward.
So I encourage all of us today
to provide our harshest criticism to CPS so
that they can take those criticisms
and do the work that they need to do.
So thank you.
Thank you for your comments. Caroline Rufer.
Hi, uh, my name is Caroline Rutherford.
Um, I am an art teacher at as Marquez.
Um, and as many of you may know, as announced last Wednesday
that they're closing seven of our schools, This will impact
over 2000 students,
over 500 special education students,
and over a thousand multilanguage learners.
Um, this is devastating to the Sero community.
And so we are here today to talk to you about that.
Um, CEO Martinez, you are responsible
for the schools in Chicago and the students in Chicago.
These students included.
I wanna thank, um, Byron Ccha Lopez, Julia Ramirez,
and Halo Gutierrez for joining students, members, parents
and elected officials outside of Cisneros this morning.
To demand that ES does not close our schools,
this is the largest school closure
to affect the Latina communities in history.
And we have to take responsibility for these students.
These are your students too.
You declared multiple times
that there would be no school closings on your watch.
We expect you to live up to that now in this moment
and prevent ERO from a closing.
Seven schools prevent them from the disrupting the lives
of 2000 students and families.
CPS gave as aero their charter when they made this
and with the commitment to these families.
And we demand that you hold as a o accountable to
that commitment as C must keep these schools open.
And if they refuse, then it's your
responsibility to keep them open.
Your silence is deafening in this moment.
We sent you a letter. You have not responded.
Er students are Chicago students
and you must live up to your promise
to stop school closings.
If you do not stop these schools from closing.
How can we trust you that you won't stop CPS schools from
closing the lives of 2000 parents are in your hands.
Parents, students, and staff at ERO await your response
and your plan of action.
You must, must do something.
Please do not leave us without any place to go.
No education. These are Chicago students. Thank you
Mr. Blackmore.
The Miseducation of the Black Men College G Woods
says black people are being miseducated.
And also we must be proactive, not reactive.
Several years ago, they closed, uh, 50 black schools
and opened up 25 Hispanic schools.
So now you, you begin to understand, Stan, the dog
that barked at you, uh, uh, uh, bit me.
So we are connected. You see, this has been a cesspool.
This Chicago board of education been in
cesspool, but I'm not going to.
Usually I beat up on the alman, I beat up on them
and called the Blackman Sambo angel ma beat up on,
on the whites, calling hunker Hispanic was in all kind.
But no, now I'm beating up on you, the citizen.
You allow whatever is going on with this saga,
it stopped with you.
So what are you going to do?
You knew that this man
came from Chicago Board of Education.
You know all about his background, but you were silent
because you are the problem.
This democratic machine, here is the problem.
No check and balance. Corrupt fraud and abuse.
A one body system. It's worth him.
Communist China of of offense, Germany or,
or communist Russia.
Because are you the people?
You are the problem, not the mayor,
not the teacher's union.
But you are the problem because you are south
and you are corrupt and you are bad people.
So bad people have bad government.
So that's why Mr. Bmore is talking in this mic.
I was outraged.
You know, they had black superintendents,
they would steal all the money.
The Hispanic, all of 'em are bad.
Don't say all the, the government officials are bad.
Say the people. You, you and you.
Not them, not them, but you.
Because of you, this city is going down, but
because of me, I'm advocating it to go red.
Go red. Change this system.
Now we know Trump is not perfect, we know that.
But, uh, change must come
and you must be a part of the solution
and not a part of the problem.
So no more beating up on the alt alters and the mirror.
Look in the mirror citizens, you are weak,
you are low life to
Thank you Mr. Blakemore
Taiwan Sims.
But I'm like y'all, I'm like every parent in this room
that has an issue with the abuse of authority.
I'm like every Chicagoan in this room
that's suffering under the weight of mismanagement,
ineptness and bias.
That's what I am. I'm a father that was removed from his son
by a meg,
a narcissistic superintendent in Evanston, Marcus Campbell,
and I suppose a, I don't know, a power hungry
sports management coach over there.
But today is not that day to talk about.
Today is day to talk about those schools.
What charter schools? 70 of 'em.
They're gonna close or no, seven of 'em gonna close.
That's a headline.
Not only let this wrestle between Pedro Martinez
and Brandon Johnson,
but Brandon Johnson not in this room right now,
but he should be in this room even though
it's a here regarding you.
Y'all got us in this, this grab, this efficient way
that y'all steal, this way that y'all disregard
and y'all do it right in the open.
Come in, well dressed, well spoken.
Y'all stand in front of the media
and y'all represent us into a hole.
Y'all disregard the future of our children forfeited.
That's what y'all have done.
Y'all forfeited the chi the future of our children.
Three years ago we had a, there was a argument between
the CTU or C for money.
And our children, we,
what they have to do, they have to suffer it.
So they have to, it was a strike.
They came to an amend, paid.
But now that's oftentimes a conversation
because all we have to do is muscle them.
All we have to do is put the parents under constraint.
They gotta go to school, right? Y'all want 'em to learn.
They gotta have a positive. But that's not what we get.
That's not the representative representation we get.
Y'all stay steadfast. We have, we do our due diligence.
We come, we wake our children up, we go out,
we get the school supplies.
We, some of us, when we have the time,
because we are under constraint, remember, we work all day.
So that's why y'all wanna hold this meeting at 9:00 AM
because a lot of us at work, you disrespectful.
No good piddly people. Representation.
Oh, Ms. Taylor, you didn't, you ain't wanna speak up.
You ain't wanna say, Hey, well the parents,
they might not be able to make it.
And this is about them and their children. Nope.
Didn't, because it's a, it is a plan. Mr.
Marty, you don't think this is a civilly wrong?
This just not wrong for the parents to not be in the crowd.
Just a couple of us on sprinkles so that we might go
and go home and talk about it.
Well, we seen the newscast. We seen Jeanette Taylor.
We seen Pedro, but to no end. What about our children?
When this is over with, what will be the resolve
today when this is over with
Nora Flanagan?
Good morning. I started teaching in the Chicago public
schools in 1998.
Uh, I'm also a parent of two CPS students.
One alum Mather high school class of 2024
and one current freshman.
Uh, so I'm looking at this from a lot of angles.
I'm currently a researcher
and organizer at the Chicago Teachers Union.
I've seen a lot in 27 years.
A lot of CEOs, uh,
and we are just starting to claw our way back from decades
of austerity budgets, financial mismanagement,
corporate reforms
that decimated our schools and communities.
We saw what we can, we started to see what we might achieve.
When we got those extra esser funds, we started to
increase our staffing to what it may be almost should be.
We increased student activity, availability.
My own children had so much great support
and so many options.
My older son was able to explore culinary
through an afterschool program.
He just texted me from his first midterms at one
of the best culinary schools in the country.
He's doing great. He never would've found that without
what was available to us through the Esser funds.
My younger son joined Lego Robotics at Rogers Elementary.
He's now in the pre-engineering program at Mather High
School, exploring, uh, the trades and mechanics.
And, uh, being an electrician, it's been so exciting to see
what is possible, not just for my own children,
but for students all over the city.
And we hear this a lot lately. It's worth saying again.
We can't go back.
We cannot go back to austerity, to cuts, closures,
consolidations, uh, decimating budgets,
decimating communities.
We've already heard it today
that over 2000 students will be displaced, hundreds
of staff potentially by closing the Sero schools.
Um, we can't go back to CPS constantly fighting
with teachers and parents.
When teachers and parents know what our schools
and communities need, the constant fighting serves no one.
So members of City Council
and those positioned to make decisions about our schools,
what do you have in mind besides the same harmful policies
and practices of the past?
Can we count on you to innovate and advocate
and secure the funding that we need?
And if so, tell us how you're going to do that.
Because we need this settled. We need this out in the open.
We need this sorted out now for our students,
for our families, for our neighborhoods, and for our city.
Because the future of our schools is the future of our city.
Thank you.
Lauren Bianchi. I'm not sure if I'm saying that right.
Hi, good morning. Uh, my name is
Lauren Bianchi.
I'm a CPS high school teacher,
currently on leave from the district
and the Green Schools organizer at
the Chicago Teachers Union.
Today I wanna highlight that CPS can utilize tens
of millions of dollars in federal funding
through the Inflation Reduction Act to improve
and decarbonize our school buildings.
CPS has a once in a generation opportunity
to fund solar energy
and green retrofits through the federal direct pay program.
School districts in Wisconsin
and Colorado have already begun to take advantage
of these tax credits to fund solar
and clean energy pro projects
and see savings in their budgets
nearby Oak Park River Forest schools will use $7.5 million
in IRA funding for electrification.
And they expect to see $6 million in savings.
Our school communities are an urgent need
of facilities improvements
and we need to ensure that there is an equitable plan
that prioritize schools in our black
and brown environmental justice communities.
The average age of our buildings is over 80 years.
Many of our schools contain toxic lead, asbestos
and mold that put the health
and safety of our students and staff.
At Risk Justice Month, teachers
and parents at Dulles Elementary had to push
for mold remediation in a pre-K classroom.
The climate crisis is already here
and our school buildings are not prepared
for more extreme weather days.
There was a he a heat advisory during the first days
of school this year, and our students cannot learn in hot,
poorly ventilated and uncomfortable classrooms.
So I asked CEO Martinez and the officers
and decision makers here today, what is your plan to ensure
that all CPS school buildings are healthy, safe, and green?
And how will you take advantage
of federal funding opportunities?
Thank you.
Our next speaker is Plin.
Good morning Chairwoman Taylor and City council members.
My name is Pavlin Janko With the Chicago Teachers Union.
Chicago Public Schools faces a pivotal moment.
We either continue investments building on the baseline
education that we have all fought
to achieve across our schools,
or we return to cuts and closures.
We're glad that it appears this last week.
CEO Martinez has finally seen the light After considering
consolidations closures, balancing budgets with vacancies,
we haven't seen the emphasis detail and advocacy
before about TIF surplus in the public bargaining.
And glad to see it now
because we know there are those
who would have our schools return to cuts.
Remember, rent 10, privatization achievement
and race-based segregation, school closings
and turnarounds, setting the seeds
for the enrollment decline in the decade since
CEO Arne Duncan with budget director
and then Chief Financial Officer Pedro Martinez
implemented these policies.
Instead of finding new progressive revenue sources,
the district skipped pension payments sign off on a billion
dollars worth of toxic interest rates swaps, reckless loans
that saddled our district with hundreds of millions
of dollars in costs,
wiped out our reserves in our fiscal crisis leading
to even more fiscal crisis debt.
These are the budget deals of CEO Martinez
that define our era of cuts.
To reject that era wholly requires
investment and new revenue.
The state does have a responsibility to put us on a path
to fully funded schools like Massachusetts, like Minnesota,
both made their task code even more progressive
to support education and public services.
So we hope you'll join us in that fight.
And in this moment, the city must step up
to ensure there are no cuts.
Sweeping all unobligated TIFF fund balances,
putting a pause on new deals with developers
downtown corporate real estate firms could generate
$1 billion in surplus just from our downtown
and downtown adjacent tiffs.
Our school should not have to bear the burden in a city
that is the fourth wealthiest in the country.
In corporations and hotels report record profits
and downtown tiffs continue their meteor,
meteoric rise in revenue.
Other cities have taken on wealthy
institutions to raise revenue.
Look at Atlanta and Oakland,
San Francisco all have passed taxes on banks
and big time landlords
for holding properties vacant and blighted.
New Haven, Boston, Providence,
all have made their elite private universities holding
billions in endowments, pay more
to fund schools and social services.
Chairwoman Taylor, you are a champion for a payment in lieu
of taxes ordinance in 2019.
So we hope you can help us in that fight.
Again, cities are raising taxes on massive energy sucking
data centers instead of subsidies.
Pay attention to their impact on communities
and climate goals nationwide.
So Chicago has the resources to do better
and we expect to have all your support to raise revenue.
Thank you
Zoe Lee.
Good morning. Um,
it just gotta be for the kids.
And I think that's the problem.
We are forgetting the children.
Like how there's so many, you know, CTU has did a lot
of walk-ins and standouts
and whatever they're called, they, they should be here.
These like, every seat should be filled with these kids.
And that's the problem. It's a power trip. It's a ego thing.
And no one's not listening to the children.
Like you make entirely too much money.
Pedro Martinez for this to even be like this.
And that's real. You know?
And you know, the older people, y'all only could do so much.
Governor Prier needs to be involved in this.
Like these are our future, our children
and they're not even going to school.
You know, all of these, um, schools that are open
with only some have 55 kids, like that's, these are high.
That's a high school. You know, my graduating class
was over 200
and I come from a small town in Albany, New York, like,
and IEPs are important.
People don't talk about IEPs like mental health
services are important.
Like our kids are going through the most, like
America is not America.
Single parenting is not single parenting anymore.
I come from a single parent.
My mother was an entrepreneur
and still made sure that my grades were well I,
that she still was able to do.
Go to peach parent teacher conferences.
Kids, parents cannot focus on their children and work.
I remember one of the last meetings
that you had Alderman Taylor about childcare.
Like, people are out here,
can't afford childcare like this makes no sense.
And there's so much money out here. So where is it at?
Like audit is a serious situation.
Like I say it all the time
and I think people think I'm playing,
but that's where it starts.
And it has to start in each department.
Like, because where is this money at?
Why isn't the focus on our children?
Where are the resources?
Yes, everybody wanna talk about black and brown.
Cool, let's do black and brown.
But, but black need just as much as brown.
And my thing is, and it can happen, it can happen.
It's an equal opportunity. But right now it's egos.
This is ego, ego, ego.
This is a egotistical world
and we do not care about our children.
And that is the problem.
C-T-U-C-P-S,
y'all gotta get along 'cause it's about these kids.
And that's just real talk, it's common sense.
And that's compassion and that's public service. Peace.
Sylvia Piman.
Good morning. My name is VE Pittman
and I thank you for the opportunity to be able
to speak before you today.
I'm a member of Nash Elementary Find
and performing art school,
which is located on the west side.
We are the only performing
and fine arts elementary school on the west side.
I'm also a grandmother of two children
that attend the school.
We are in a crisis that should not be occurring according to
what CEO Pedro Martinez has been publicizing
and stating about schools having been fully
staffed for this school year.
Well I would like to know if this is true,
where's our restorative justice coordinator?
Because the assistant principal is now handling discipline
and any other staff member who isn't classified
as a classroom teacher, where's our full-time?
ELPT person seeing
that we had 71 English ish learners last year
and now we have 80 whose families say they're not
going anywhere because they love where they are.
But a 0.5 ELPT position isn't fair to our students,
teachers, their peers or parents
because they're not receiving the
services that they should be.
We just opened a library, a beautiful library,
but students aren't able to utilize it
because we have no librarian.
We are the only elementary school on the west side
that have fine and performing arts, but we only have art
and mu I mean art
and drama, no funding for a music or dance teacher.
And you know, our students would really thrive
and benefit from these types of of programs.
Seeing that CEO Mar Pedro Martinez, you're here today.
I would like to ask you on behalf of my school, all
of my colleagues and all the schools of Chicago,
the following questions
and the members of the city educational committee,
feel free to ask as well.
The mayor shared with you his vision for the education,
for educating the students
of Chicago when he was elected to office.
And you stated you agreed with his vision.
So why didn't you and your team
start planning strategically on how
to find additional funding to meet the needs
of our schools knowing that Esser funds were going
to run out September 30th of this year.
Why haven't you and other district CEOs gathered together
to meet with Governor Pritzker
and other state legislators to allocate
for additional funding?
And number three, why haven't you been a real partner
with the CTU to collaborate and discuss what should have
and can happen for
our jarvais?
Clay? Clay
Jva. I'm sorry.
Good morning. My name is JVA Clay
and for the past 27 years I've been
of service to all students.
I've taught 22 years in the classroom
as a special ed teacher and a professional school counselor.
I've also, for the last five years, worked in the,
worked at the Chicago Teachers Union as a field rep.
And when I sat and listened to Lauren, my co, not Lauren,
but Laura
and Lauren, my colleagues talk about
what the schools look like.
I serviced over 52 schools
and got firsthand opportunity
to see exactly what they look like.
And they are horrible.
I worked primarily on the west
and the south side, horrible looking schools.
So I stand
before you as the liaison to say
to you this, that I've seen reconstitution,
I've seen turnaround been a part of Renaissance 10 20 10
school closings, layoffs, furloughs consolidations
and hunger strikes.
See, I've seen it all.
And what I'm saying to you is that when we see
that thing we say right now, we can't afford to go back.
Not that we ain't going back, we cannot afford to go back.
And so I want to talk to you about the role
of a school counselor, a professional school counselor,
and our social workers.
It was my daughter's professional school counselor in high
school, Deborah Dean at Phillips Academy, who saw her
nurtured her and sent her to two of the finest schools
that I probably wasn't even thinking about
at that particular time.
That would be a Spelman graduate with a dual degree
from Georgia Tech.
So you don't get to be that if you're too busy servicing
students like, um, testing coordinators
or you're doing substitute teachers.
See, your counselor can't send you to those schools or,
or nurture you if you're doing that.
So I say to you this, and I'm gonna skip through all of that
'cause I see my clock is running out,
but I wanna say this, what does it come?
What when it comes to looking for revenue CPS constantly,
I'm hearing this leaves money on the table.
Medicaid is one example of that that's left on the table.
Why is CPS not taking full advantage of the expansion
of Medicaid services that can be billed
to reimburse school districts?
That revenue could be used to hire more clinical staff so
that more students could receive the mental health services
that they need at their schools.
I wanna say thank you for your time and as I stand here
and see and look at your face, it reminds me
of the school closings.
Thank you for your comments.
This concludes the public speaking period.
Thank you all for, to our speakers today,
our first order of business.
The public comment is only 30 minutes.
You, we did what up to 30 minutes? The 30 minutes is up.
And so there are plenty of people who I didn't call
our first order of business.
Can I have a motion to approve the rule 45?
Can I,
can I get a motion to approve the Rule 45 report?
So moved by Alderman, uh, Tyler Farro.
All those in favor signify by aye, the Nays And none.
Madam Chair, please add me
to the attendance roll call or
Alderman Hopkins. So for
I want to acknowledge, uh, vice, vice Chairwoman Clay
for quorum Alderman bill for quorum Non-member
Alderwoman Cruz and non-member.
I said your name Cardona already. Okay.
Julio, what's your last name? Ramirez.
Julio Ramirez. Non-member Andre Vazquez. Non-member.
Alderman Moore. Non-member. Did I forget anybody?
Oh, and Alderman Lawson.
I think we're good. I
don't think you should plug that back in.
Oh, I'm not. I'm just gonna be cold.
Thank you.
We're calling the meeting back to order.
Can you gentlemen have a seat so we can start.
Today's education meeting was called
because a couple of my coworkers wanted
to get some clarity around the budget.
This meeting is not about Pedro Martinez.
I wanna make that very clear.
'cause at the end of the day, we've been doing the same crap
for over 50 years.
They started closing schools in my community in 1995.
And so I am not new to this mess
of CPS and CTUs way
of not being able to negotiate with each other.
And at the end of the day, who suffers are young people?
I don't know about y'all, but I'm not ready
to see teachers go on strike.
So young people are out on the street.
We got enough blood on our hands. This is not okay.
It is not. Let's not.
And let me say this, with all due respect to Pedro
Martinez, CEO it's, it's good to see you here today,
but we asked you for this in the last administration.
And so this ain't about you today.
And I I want to make that very clear.
And this is no disrespect to you,
but this would've been nice four years ago.
And so the thought that we are doing this now,
and this goes for all city entities.
That's the park district, that's the library,
that's CTA, that's all of them.
You all expect us to get it together
and bring y'all outta trouble.
But y'all never wanna sit and talk amongst us.
And so we got a real problem here.
It is sad. It is really sad
that we cannot work with each other.
And it is about egos. I ain't got one.
'cause at the end of the day, my baby 20,
I got an autistic 20-year-old that I'm trying to figure out
so I don't have to deal with Chicago public schools
for the first time in a very long time.
And so for, for me, this ain't personal.
This is about us taking care of the business.
And so when I'm going to turn it over to all the woman Lee,
but I wanna make something very clear.
I want us to talk about solutions 'cause I ain't heard none.
I hear everything else. But
how we gonna get this budget together?
And that's, let's not act like this is all on Pedro.
It was Barbara Bur Bennett. It is been everybody.
It was Paul Valles.
Let's not act like CP S'S budget deficit. It is new.
It's not, it's been going on for over 30 years that I know
of, that I've been a part of.
And I tell y'all all the time how disappointed I am
that grown people who are paid, we're paid
to represent young people and families
and we cannot get it together.
That's on us. And
so while we at the parade while we hanging out,
we should have been talking about how we gonna go
to Springfield and rally the governor
to get more funding for our schools.
That's what we should have been doing.
And for some of us, we were there. Was you there? Alder?
Was you there? Alder woman hadn't, was you there?
Alderman Hall, was you there? Alderman, Dan Yancy.
We were all there to advocate
for more funding for our schools.
I ain't surprised that there was a list
out of school closings.
That's nothing new. What I'm surprised is
in the time where we supposed to be transparent
that we're not talking to each other.
We don't have to scope close schools.
We have thousands of young people who are outta school.
5,000 since 2015 that I know of.
And that's on us. And so today
after all the women Lee speaks, we'll allow Pedro
to show his PowerPoint.
But what I expect is for us to ask the questions
that we've been thriving to ask, not just these last year,
but for the last four years.
'cause there has to be some accountability
to not just the public, but to us.
There is plenty more that I could say
that there is plenty more I could say.
But I could say, 'cause I've been there.
See some of y'all just showed up.
I'm the same person that went on a hunger strike for 30 days
to save a night behind high school,
which I shouldn't have been doing in 2015.
In 2013, I marched from the low end of Chicago downtown
to make sure we weren't closing schools.
And so what was all some of this energy then?
It's easy to point the finger
unless you point them at yourself.
I point those fingers at me as well.
But y'all gotta point them finger at y'all.
'cause what did you do? I spent 23 years
on a local school council.
Not at one school, not at two schools, but at three schools.
So I put in my time
and I'm still continue to do it,
which is why I agree to have this meeting today.
Because part of the problem is we not talking to each other
and we won't have the conversations.
I hope those days are over. I hope we have common sense.
I hope we get it together.
'cause our young people are watching.
They are watching and they expect us to pull it together.
And so I hope today's questioning is around
that ain't no personal attacks.
We not doing that here today.
And if you came for a personal attacks, dadda go.
'cause we not doing that. That's how we got here.
'cause we keep going at each other.
I want, um, Mr. Mr.
Taiwan, if you are disruptive, you gonna be you.
I'm gonna ask them to escort you out.
No, I'm gonna ask them to escort you out.
You gotta be here to listen. Sergeant in arms.
See we not doing this today. I listen to you every week.
I allow you to speak. No, I I allow you to speak now.
You don't remove him, please. I'm not doing it.
I'm I'm removing you. I'm removing you. Sergeant in arms.
All the woman Lee.
I'm confused how he still his sergeant in arms.
Could y'all move remove Mr. Taiwan. I let you speak.
I called your name. I have a good day. Have a great day.
Have a good day. We not. We not.
Yes I do. You are interrupting the meeting, which is
how we can't have a conversation.
I ain't never seen you before. You knew. Here come on.
No we not. Recessing. Can you all remove him?
All the woman leave.
Mr. Alvin. Mr. Alvin,
we going to recess for two minutes.
So before I turn it over to Alder
and Lee, I do wanna say that CPS board members,
um, past and present were invited.
They declined to come to the meeting.
Um, some in fear of being able to continue
to do the work that they do
and their different perspectives.
The new board said to me that they just weren't prepared.
They hadn't even got their fingerprints
and they weren't interested.
And I understand that
'cause this is not an easy role for any of us to be in.
And that's just where they are.
And so I do want to address that, that they were invited.
All the woman Lee,
Thank you Chair.
Um, and, and thank you to my colleagues that are here.
Members of the committee, non-members, um, members
of the Chicago board, um, not excuse me,
Chicago Public Schools as well as members of the public.
Um, on October 5th, I joined 40
of my fellow city council members to call for stability
and transparency with respect to Chicago Public Schools
and the Chicago Board of Education.
Upon learning the news about the mass resignation
of all seven board members and the announcement
of six new replacement members that the mayor intends
to appoint, we also heard much about that.
Much about the high interest payday loan of $300 million
that CPS and the board had been pressured to take
and also then refused CEO Martinez.
And the board members who have announced their resignations
understood the reality of the situation.
And there's extreme cause for concern now
that these voices have been diminished.
In light of this hearing, um, I'm sorry.
In light of the new appointments, we called
for a hearing in advance of their, their installation
to the Board of Education where they will have the great
responsibility and power to make decisions
that will have long-term implications for the district
and more importantly, our children.
And by extension, our city.
Our intent in this hearing was
to hear from the outgoing members about their reasons
for resigning and from the incoming members about their
vision for the future of CPS, um,
and what they will be tasked with Chicagoans.
And we as a council must demand transparency.
We're disappointed that the members of the board, outgoing
and incoming are not participating in the hearing today.
And I hope that's not
because they were instructed not to
attend by the administration.
'cause that would be gravely unfortunate, not transparent
and counter to the Democratic
principles that we hold so dear.
We are grateful that CEO Martinez
and his team have agreed to join us.
Uh, and I'll echo Chair Taylor's sentiments
that this has been long overdue
and I hope that this opens a new chapter for all
of us in working together, because
that is the only way that we're gonna get through this.
They've agreed to be here to join us
and to help provide some answers
to the many questions that we have.
We don't have the authority, uh,
we don't have authority over the CPS budget.
We do, however, have an interest in
and control over how much funding will be made available
through the surplus of t at the city.
We also have the duty to ensure that the needs
of CPS in the midst of the ongoing contract talks
with CTU are funded without sacrificing the fiscal health
of our city as we face a looming budget gap.
And above all, all, excuse me.
Above all, we have a responsibility to our students,
our communities, and to our constituent families
and taxpayers to stand up for what's right.
Thank you. Thank you all the woman Lee.
Thank you Chairwoman Taylor
and members of the city council for inviting me here today.
I want to thank my team members for joining me here,
our Chief Education Officer McDonald Kuumba,
our Chief budget Officer, Mike Sikowski
and our Chief financial Officer sva, me, uh, Mejia.
K uh, Kru. I'm grateful for the opportunity to talk about
how we can continue to build on our gains while ensuring the
long-term fiscal health of the district.
Because it can't be one or the other. It has to be both.
Everybody. There's a lot of great work happening at CPS
that sometimes gets lost in the noise.
Our district graduation rate has doubled since 2001.
And just everybody, I'm a former CPS student
graduate from bonito Juarez in 1987.
That was the year that the Secretary
of Education declared our District of Chicago,
the worst district in the country.
And every, every time I think about that, I just,
I just think about all of the teachers
who were working in under-resourced classrooms
and how I stand on their shoulders.
But today, our graduates are not only graduating at record
levels, there are any more scholarships and more college
and career and career credentials than ever before.
Our students and our students are national leaders in the
the academic recovery since the COVID-19 pandemic, uh,
since the, since the pandemic, we are number one in reading
and number three in reading
and math combined among large urban districts based on
research from Harvard and Stanford.
And we will be reporting even more record results tomorrow.
We need to keep this progress going.
As you are aware, as you're aware, CPS faces sign, uh,
significant obligations in the coming months.
The city's request for additional, uh,
MBA MB ME A BF payment
and the cost for the new labor agreements with CTU and CPA.
And in the long term, we need to protect the staffing gains
that we have made in the last several years.
We have grown and we're growing in enrollment,
ladies and gentlemen.
For decades, our our enrollment was declining.
For the last two years, we not only stabilized,
but we're seeing growing enrollment.
We announced today, we're now at
325,000 children and growing.
But we, but our student needs are also growing as well.
And increases from the state have not kept pace.
We have more students than never
with disabilities with IEPs.
We have more English learners than ever before,
and we have more students living in temporary living
situations at the same time.
CPS is severely limited in our ability to raise funds.
Federal Pandemic aid will no longer be
available after this year.
And we are uniquely disadvantaged
among school districts when it comes to state funding.
That is why I'm so excited to be here at the city council
to discuss our collective responsibility
and opportunity to give our students the best possible
education and to ensure the fiscal health in the,
of the city and the district going forward.
I wanna say one more thing before we,
before we begin our formal presentation at the city level,
my team and I have been lobbying with the mayor's office
for additional TIFF surplus revenue.
And I'm bringing that as for you, uh, for you today.
Tiff was designed as a tool
to invest in underserved communities.
I may be biased, but I think investing in our students is a
powerful economic development strategy.
Businesses require more than just tax
breaks and development incentives.
They require a well-educated, homegrown workforce
that gives 'em the confidence
that can find long-term sustainable success in our city.
Our CPS graduates are incr, are,
are increasingly leaving when not just a high school
diploma, but more than half with early college credentials
that will support the success in college and careers.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have more students
that never graduate with associate degrees
as they're finishing high school.
By the way, all grown by our neighbors high schools
investing in education also release the burden our
hardworking families
and students, which help most of the local eco economy.
Expanding pre-K to every neighborhood in Chicago,
which is a first not only gives our students a great head
start in life, but it enables parents to return
to the workforce earlier,
investing in out-of-school time programs
and summer programs that only benefit students,
but give parents the ability to earn more,
to provide for their families.
Providing ways where students earn college credit while in
high school, helps 'em save money on tuition,
which means they have more money to spend the local economy.
And also ladies and gentlemen, it builds up their confidence
because as a first generation student myself in college,
it was a completely different world
for me when I was attending college.
In short, a high quality educational system is an essential
part of any successful economic ecosystem
in the 21st century.
So yes, I agree
that TIFF is an important economic development tool.
Part of our development strategy should be investing in our
students and families.
Thank you madam Chairwoman for having us today.
And now I would like to turn it over
to our chief education officer, Bogdon Kuumba.
Thank you. CEO Martinez. Good morning everyone.
I am well aware that this meeting today is about finance
and budgeting, but I'm an educator.
And before the discussion starts focusing on finances,
I want to reshare with everyone
what is really the primary mission
and focus of Chicago Public Schools.
And this is really improving the daily learning
experience of our students.
Making sure that our students every day in every classroom
experience rigorous academic program that prepares them
with the competencies
and the skills that they need so they can be successful
after graduating from our school system.
And what success looks like
should be actually putting every student in a post-secondary
pathway towards upward economic mobility.
Well paying family sustaining jobs, whether
or not this is through a college education
or career technical programming,
the student experience in our schools also
needs to be joyful.
Making sure that our students are pursuing their passions
and individual interests, that they feel
that their identities are formed, they're able to build
positive relationships with their peers
and the adults around them.
But above all, today I wanna highlight
that this experience needs to be equitable.
Because one of the major challenges that we have been facing
as a system for decades, as you know,
chairwoman alluded early on, is
that this experiences are not felt the same across schools,
across communities, and across classrooms.
So equitable experience is for us to ensure
that every child experience the rigor
of the academic programming
and every child experiences the joy.
So this type of a vision around what our students need
to experience in our system is actually the anchor
of our newly released five-year strategic plan as a whole.
The plan sets bold goals that are set to advance
and accelerate proven practices
that were highlighted early on,
that we are seeing some really good outcomes and results
and progress in the last couple of years.
But also the plan is set to address long-lasting inequities
through five very specific targeted strategies.
I will name them very quickly so we can move on
to the financial presentation.
Number one, black student success plan, making sure
that we are meeting the needs
and supporting our black students in our black communities,
supporting the experience of our students
with disabilities in a new and transformative way.
Pathways to multilingualism the bold vision
that every student in CPS graduates proficient
in more than one language.
The next one is strengthening the early learning
opportunities for our students in preschool to second grade.
And the last one, significantly expanding post-secondary
pathways to get our students on success in careers
and college and beyond.
So thank you for giving me an opportunity to reor, uh,
the conversation in what really matters for our students.
And I'll turn it over to our budget director, Mike Zukowski.
Thank you Bana. Good morning everyone.
Uh, we wanna start by talking briefly about the progress
we've made in investing in our schools.
What we've been able to do here is do in part
to the availability of esser funding,
but also our strategy of aggressively adding resources
to where they're most needed.
The growth we're about to discuss has focused on equity
driven research based strategies aligned
with our instructional vision.
And we've already begun
to see some exciting results of this work.
Going back to 2019, CPS has increased direct school funding
by over $1 billion, a 30% increase over
where we were at that time.
And this is to meet the ne growing needs
of the students that we served.
As a point of context, the $1 billion increase is de despite
an increase of just $250 million in state funding.
What we've seen as a result
of these investments is really dramatic growth in our
key areas of staff.
We've added over 2000 teacher
position from assistants.
So since 2019, we've added over 2000 teachers,
over 3,400 special education classroom assistance,
162 counselors, 218 social workers,
316 nurses, 131 restorative justice coordinators,
47 centrally funded athletic directors,
337 dedicated case managers
and 62 coordinators
for our students in temporary living situations, this is
what we're working to protect.
Moving on to some examples of
what this looks like for a school.
We'll start with a small high need school.
This is an elementary school in West Pullman
with an enrollment of 236 students.
They have an higher than average percentage of students
with IEPs or special education students
and a higher than average percentage
of economically disadvantaged students.
So this is a small high need school.
Our new funding model implemented this year
provides a foundational staff
that these schools have not had in the past.
That includes not only a principal,
but an assistant principal for every school, a school clerk
and a counselor, and a foundation of teachers,
including 10 core classroom
teachers for our smallest schools.
Three holistic
or specialist teachers to ensure that every school can offer
physical education, arts, or music.
And then another offering of the school's choice
and then an interventionist for the students
that are falling behind to help them catch up.
As part of our foundation,
we also have our special education positions,
including special education teachers.
The school has seven, the school has 20 special education
classroom assistants and a part-time case manager.
Also early childhood positions, um,
other supports including nursing
and social work, funding for professional development and
before and after school funding.
And then operational positions including security lunchroom,
um, and other operational staff.
In addition to our foundation for our smaller schools, um,
this school has chosen with their discretionary funding
to purchase a school counseling office assistant,
a technology coordinator, um,
allocate nearly $80,000 towards non-personnel expenses
and 10,000 for extended day and part-time supports.
And we're projecting an average class size
of 21 students per classroom across this school.
So this is intended to highlight
how we're resourcing our smallest
one classroom per grade schools.
As we look at some of our larger schools,
these resources scale up in proportion to the students
that we're serving at these schools.
Um, here we have highlighted an elementary school Engage
Park, um, with 887 students, um,
and higher than average percentages of English learners
and economically disadvantaged students.
And what we see on this slide is that the resources
provided to our smaller school scale up
to meet the needs of our larger schools.
Um, this school not only has a principal
and assistant principal and a clerk,
but two school counselors
and a restorative justice coordinator as part
of their foundational resourcing.
Again, this is, this is brand new for this year.
This school has 38 core classroom teachers, 18
of which are bilingual teachers, eight holistic
or specialist teachers, and two interventionists.
In addition, this school has this similar resources in the
other categories around special education, early childhood,
the other supports that we discussed
before in our operational positions.
This school also had expanded discretionary funding
to make purchases outside of their foundational allocation
to meet the needs of their school.
And here we're projecting an average class size
of 22 students per classroom.
I wanna highlight before we move on that we,
this builds on a lot of the work
that we've done in recent years, investing in our schools.
And we recently, we, this morning we released a dashboard
that shows the growth in staffing across all
of our schools from 2019 to today.
So we can compare the number of staff
that's in our buildings then to where they are now.
We are excited to talk about the results
that we've seen from these investments.
Um, first coming back from the pandemic
of the 40 large urban districts from the
Council of Great City Schools.
We were number one in reading growth from 22 to 23
and number one in reading gains from 2019 to 2023
of the same large 40 large urban districts.
We were number three in combined reading
and math growth from 22 to 23.
And we're excited to see this continue.
And we are, um,
we've seen us surpassing pre pandemic levels
for students performing in the two
lowest performance levels.
Um, and, and students performing in the two lowest
performance levels decreasing
by four percentage points from 23 to 24.
So what we're highlighting here is that the investments
that we've made in our schools are driving results
and we are seeing them in our student achievement.
Moving on to an overview of our budget,
and we wanna provide context around our overall budget,
including where our resources come from
and more importantly, the constraints
that we face in our ability to grow our resources
to meet our growing student needs.
This chart shows, um, the sources
of CPSs operating revenues.
We have an $8.4 billion operating budget, 59%
of which is funded by local resources paid
by Chicago taxpayers.
Um, this includes our largest funding source
of property taxes, but also our per personal property
replacement tax and tip surplus, just 25%
or $2.1 billion
of our operating funding comes from the state.
Our, our largest source here is the state's
allocation of evidence-based funding.
This also includes our teacher pension.
Normal costs, which is the state is funded now since 2018.
And categorical grants 16% of our budget
or $1.3 billion comes from federal sources.
And this year it includes both recurring sources, um,
from title funding and lunchroom funding
that primarily supports low income students.
And it also includes the remaining esser funding
or our covid relief funding, um,
that expired on September 30th of this year.
I mentioned before the constraints that we face
and how we are resourced
and we want to highlight the constraints in each
of these different categories.
First around local local funding.
Our local funding is limited under state law.
We, as the board of education have a property tax levy.
Um, but that's capped under the state's property tax
extension limitation law.
So we can only increase that so much each year.
Um, often not enough to keep up with our growing needs.
Other sources, including TIF surplus,
are dependent on funding decisions by the city
and related agencies.
Moving on to our state funding, which makes up 25%
of our operating budget, um, our state funding fails
to be both adequate
and equitable based on the state's own assessment.
We are 1 billion over $1 billion short of what they say
that our students need.
With CPS receiving only 79% of our needed resources,
unlike every other district in the state,
our pensions are not fully funded by the state.
And this results in CPS having to pay $662 million
of teacher pension costs, um, that are funded by CPS
and Chicago taxpayers.
We also lack the ability of other districts
to raise dedicated revenues for capital investments
and thus, we have to divert $540 million in funding away
from classrooms to make the payments on debt issued
for capital purposes.
We're also underfunded
and other key areas including pre-K, special education
and reimbursements for our students with IEPs.
Lastly, our federal funding, which makes up 16%
of our total operating budget.
This is declining drastically due to the expiration
of our covid relief funding as a point of context.
And FY 24, our budget included $670 million
in federal relief funding.
This year's budget includes only $233 million.
And in FY 26,
we will no longer have any federal relief funding
any increases to these sources, including our title funds
and lunchroom funding are dependent on congressional action.
So to recap, um, our FY 2025 budget coming into this year,
we were faced with a significant initial budget deficit
of over $500 million that required difficult decisions
to avoid cuts to school funding
to protect funding going to our schools.
We did make significant reductions in spending across
central budgets to balance the budget while continuing
to ve invest in our schools.
And as is usual practice, we expect
to amend the budget this year
to reflect the collective bargaining agreements, um,
pending collective bargaining agreements
with our Chicago Teachers Union partners
and our Chicago principals
and administrators associate association partners.
Once these agreements are final looking forward,
the FY 25 budget still relies on significant one-time
Federal relief funding that will not be available next year.
And due to this expiration of funding plus cost pressures
and labor healthcare pensions
and other areas, our projected budget deficit
for next year will be over $500 million.
Before accounting for additional important investments
in our pending collective bargaining agreements, we need
to make sure that we can continue to build on the progress
that we've made to meet the needs of our students.
And so we will continue with our partners to advocate
for local, state, local, state
and federal funding to help balance future budgets.
Again, we wanna highlight the cause
of our structural deficit
and the reason that we do face these funding issues.
And while we have seen improvements in state funding over
the last few years, the lack of state adequate
and equitable state funding does drive our
structural budget issues.
Again, over $1 billion in additional funding would be
available if the state fully funded the evidence-based
funding formula CPS pays $662 million
of teacher pension costs that are funded
by Chicago taxpayers.
So Chicago taxpayers are paying both
for our own teacher pensions
and teacher pensions for the rest of the state of Illinois.
And then $540 million in unrestricted state
and local funding must be diverted from classrooms
to pay debt service on our bonds as we lack the ability
of other districts to raise dedicated funds
for capital investments.
So as we begin to think about the path forward,
it's also important to think about other cost
pressures that we may face.
This chart shows the current proposal from our Chicago's
teachers, teacher union partners,
and the impact that it would have on our current deficit.
When we look at the chart here, the blue bars
represent our current projected deficit.
While the purple bars represent
what our deficit would look like, if we agree
to the current contract proposals from CTU, I wanna note
that by 2029, this would drive us to a deficit
of nearly $4 billion, which is almost half
of our total operating budget.
And as a point of context, um,
the previous collective bargaining agreement that we agreed
to, um, totaled $1.6 billion in new
investments over five years.
Um, this current proposal totals
$10 billion over four years.
So as we think about the sustainability of the district,
we know it's important to invest in our educators
and make sure they are fairly compensated.
Um, but we are also facing some structural headwinds in
terms of our available resources.
With that, I'm gonna turn it over
to our chief financial officer, Miroslava Mejia.
Krug.
Thank you Mike. Uh, good morning all.
Uh, so the Municipal Employee Employees Benefits Fund was
established in 1921 to provide retirement benefits.
Illinois law oblig obligates the city not CPS
to cover M-E-A-V-F funding obligations.
Historically, Illinois statute require the city
to contribute amounts that were, uh,
substantially less than the actuarially determined amounts
that would have kept the fund ratio from declining.
For nearly a hundred years,
the city did not request funding from CPS,
and CPS did not pay the city for their obligation.
However, beginning in 2020,
the city requested the CPA reimburse the city for a portion
of their costs with the commitment
of additional TIF surplus funding to help cover the costs.
The first payment CPS made to the city was in fiscal year,
was in the city fiscal year 2020 for 60 million, followed
by a hundred million for 2021
and 175 million for each 2022 and 2023.
And it was primary funding with T funds.
Uh, so this charge showed that over 60%
of M-E-A-M-E embers are current or former CPS employees.
Uh, however, about 75%, 74%
of the 60% are inactive
member in this chart.
Then you can see that only 34%
of the pension LA liability is attributed to the CPS.
And this is because a large number
of employees leave the plan and are not taking benefits, um,
and not taking benefits
and not staying in the plans until retirement.
So this next charge shows, um, the, the,
the fact that the city have, um, levies.
There is levies that are being used to pay for the,
for the different pension funds.
However, M-E-A-V-F have stayed steady over the last, uh,
three years, and some of the other levies
for the other funds has been increased.
Um, so this slide talks about a little bit about
the T'S history.
So, CPS received 52%
of funding when TIF surpluses are declared by the city.
Since 2019, CPS had relied upon on a commitment
of 97 million in surplus funding as part of its base,
uh, baseline revenue.
So you look at the little chart at the bottom of the screen
shown in the table, the c the second column, the CPS share
of TIF surpluses,
and the next column, the amount available above, above,
above the base of 97.
To support M-E-A-B-A in 2021, started
with a commitment from the city to help cover the cost
through additional t surpluses.
After that, the T surplus level did not always cover the
agree upon payment amount.
As you can see in with the red numbers in this year,
CPS relied on the budgetary flexibility that
that was made possible by esser funding
to cover this expense.
So some of the challenges of borrowing to cover pension and,
and labor costs.
So passing an unbalanced budget with borrowing
or deficit financing to cover pension
and labor costs presents challenges
that will jeopardize the district financial health,
including ending fiscal year with a deficit
of over 300 million
that fully depletes the district cash reserve
triggering downgrade to the district credit rating.
That will make it more costly
and more difficult to borrow for regular capital
and cash flow needs, putting at risk the district ability
to make payroll and pay vendors on a, in a timely manner
and obligating future revenues to repay loans taken
to cover current costs cost.
So in the next slide, um, this is a chart
to represent our crisis debt.
During the years 2026 to 20 20 18,
CPS took out emergency loans
to manage the district financial crisis.
This actions tra primarily
to mitigate short term budgetary pressures.
Ab saddle CPS with significant long term
and generated 34 downgrades from the rating agency.
The 2020, the 2025 budget includes 195 million
of cost associated with this debt.
And CPLs will incur costs until the last
of these bonds will mature.
I'll turn it over to you.
So, you know, everyone, just the analogy that I'll use
with this again, to start in 2016,
imagine if you have a house
and it's your, you know, your only real asset,
and you, you run into finance an emergency
need for cash, right?
Healthcare costs, you know,
things are coming at you, you don't have any money.
You go and you refinance your house.
Now your house right now is at a really low interest rate.
You only have so many years left.
So you refinance, of course, rates are higher now.
So you re you know, you have to, you have to get a, a,
a loan at a higher rate.
You extend your mortgage, but you get cash out.
CPS did this for, for three years in a row.
And that, that has now led us to having 2 billion,
2.1 billion with a B.
And in the current budget, $194 million
of interest only payments.
So I wanna be, I wanna emphasize that interest only payments
that are part of our structural deficit,
and this, everybody came from deficit spending.
That started in the 2016 era.
So the reason that, uh, we started advocating by the way,
we started advocating with the, uh, previous administration.
When Mayor Johnson came in, uh, brand new as a mayor,
we started having these conversations with him
because we, he inherited, he inherited all this, frankly.
And so we were having conversations with the, with the,
with the current board and also the former board about even
last year, how to make that pension payment.
And I'm just so grateful to him, to his leadership that
and your leadership that gave us the largest TIF surplus
ever that we had seen.
But even with that, you can see on the previous table
that it was not enough to cover the full payment.
Luckily, we have flexibility of esser that is gone. Now.
This is just some, the most recent data that we have.
Uh, we know right now
that over $19 billion in property right now is, is in tiffs
that we, that the tax bodies do not have access to.
They produce 1.2 billion
with a b in revenue every single year,
conservatively at least 50 cents
of every dollar TIFF didn't exist would be going
to CPS at $600 million annually.
In addition, with the last publicly available data, uh,
we know that TIFF balances were about $3 billion with a b
by the way, we went, even went back more, almost a decade
to look at TIFF balances.
Uh, back in 2013,
TIFF balances were well over a billion dollars with of B.
So there's always been large
balances at the end of every year.
Our inability to access these TIF dollars, uh,
has created these challenges that we have with our deficit
as, as we try to find a sustainable solution for, uh,
being partners, frankly, in, in,
in supporting the pen, the pension payment.
So this was the request, and,
and everybody, you know, we always do this in a very
professional, respectful way.
Again, conversations going on for months.
Um, the last, uh, we had a very formal meeting in April 30
with the mayor's team, and it was the mayor's team.
It was my team. And at that time, uh, we had made a request,
uh, in total, actually, it was about $460 million.
We made that request, 160 million of that.
It was for, to cover our base funding,
which we received every single year.
As well as we were in the process
of finalizing our negotiations with SEIU, uh, 73.
And in fact, our board made, made sure
that we had a commitment
before we approved that contract, uh, be, you know, to,
to make sure that we had,
we were gonna have the TIFF funding.
By the way, I'm very proud of that contract.
4% raises for all of our staff, minimum salaries of $40,000
for every SEAU member.
I don't think you can live in Chicago.
And frankly, you know, I, I think it's, so, it was something
that, it was an, a social injustice issue for me.
Um, and so we also requested at that time was $300 million
specifically to cover the pension payment, as well as, at
that time, 125 for projected, uh, raises for CTU and CPA.
We've, now, now that we've been in negotiations,
that amount has now went up to one 50.
So, again, without additional funding, uh, we made it clear
to the mayor and his team that we would not be able to,
to cover these items.
And, and that, again, you know, when we got,
when we were asked about borrowing, we just said, you know,
based on what we're seeing right now,
and the fact that I'm paying $194 million in interest only
payments, it would put the district in such financial
distress that actually would put even
more pressure on the city.
And frankly, and I'll say this, in my opinion,
give an excuse to the state to continue
to not fulfill the responsibility.
So really for us, what we're asking
for City council members is, is for you to continue
to support us, because let's call it like it is,
public education in, in, in Illinois is funded
by local taxpayers.
Even in today's budget, without tiffs,
our budget is almost 60% Local taxpayers,
our local taxpayers continue to subsidize the state
as we we shared earlier with pension payments.
Um, and so we know that long term, um,
that's not sustainable, that's not
sustainable for our taxpayers.
We need to work in a long term solution.
And I always say this, our state officials leaderships
today, they didn't create this problem.
They inherited it. I think it,
I think it's a great opportunity for us to work together.
Uh, and really, and, and what I've shared with, and,
and some of you have been part of these conversations,
elders, you know, what we're doing over the next few months
is inviting our local state officials.
Our elders are in schools all the time.
You know exactly what's happening in our schools.
And I'm really grateful for that.
But also inviting our local, uh, uh, our state officials
to come in and actually see firsthand
these resources in action.
Uh, we're also the analysis that you're seeing for every,
for schools, we're preparing that for every single school.
So we'll have that for you, uh, later,
later, later this fall.
Um, and, and really, again, to really have conversations
with our school leaders, with our teachers about, again,
what do we wanna protect?
But also what are areas that we still need to invest in?
Because I'll end with this.
There is no school in Chicago that is fully funded.
There is just no school in Chicago
that is fully funded without having access to tiffs with,
with the inequities we have with the state.
There is no, there's no feasible way to do that
unless we deplete certain schools over and,
and really choose winners and losers and everybody.
We, we cannot be doing that.
We cannot go back to those days.
This is about really investing in our schools.
I'll end with this. You know, I am so proud.
Yesterday we announced, we have been working on it
for two years, our team with the North Lawndale community
to invest, really invest in creating steam academies at
Chalmers, at Johnson, and at Collins High School,
which I just love that site.
It's a beautiful site right there with the park district.
And frankly, we're already seeing in at Collins, one
of our most under-enrolled high schools.
This year alone, they have over 90 freshmen
and mix up almost half of their entire high school.
And so imagine for four years in a row what that's gonna do.
And it was because of these investments
that we've been making or we started making at Collins.
And we're just starting that. Thank you.
Thank you. CEO Martinez.
Um, can you tell us what, how much
of the funding actually comes from the state?
What is that percentage?
Yes, ma'am. So, so, you know, roughly less than 25%
of our funding comes from the state.
And I'll just give you another stat.
Our evidence-based formula goes up by the statewide,
for statewide, uh, by $350 million.
We have been advocating with our union partners
with other districts.
We're part of luda, the large urban district
council in Illinois.
We've been partnering with the state superintendent
who I have, have a strong relationship with about increasing
that amount, uh, in many organizations.
By the way, increasing that to 550 million
because at three 50,
we barely receive less than $25 million
from that funding source.
And that is the largest funding source from the
state in terms of growth.
And so, you know, as you can imagine, our needs, especially
with I, when I have more students with needs,
it's just so inadequate.
Um, and so again, that's a current, you know,
that we're con currently advocating for that.
Before I go to questions I want to recognize, um,
alderman Irving, alderman Spto, and Alderman Wack.
Um, and Alderman Gardner is here in person, uh, alderman.
Bill.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Good morning, Mike. Hey, let's dig right in.
Um, Mike, thank you.
First, what is your total, again, your total deficit?
Um, currently?
So to be, uh, to be clear, Allman, so we,
we balance the budget based on the budget we passed in July.
What it didn't include was the pension payment.
And again, at that time, our projected raises
for C-T-O-C-P-A, which was about 300 million for next year,
our projected deficit is $500 million.
And that is with the elimination of, we will not,
not having any federal funds left.
Okay. So going forward, um, with that 300 million
and the 500, uh, is that 500 part
of this midyear budget?
Um, amendment you're gonna have to do?
Uh, it is, it is not alderman.
So really the amendments we would do for this year,
'cause we wanna be good partners.
We would be, uh, our, our support for the pension payment
as well as right now what we,
we proposed in our current proposals, we've responded
to all 700 initial proposals from the Child teachers union.
And so together, that's another one 50, so a total of 3 25.
And that's really what we're asking from the city council
to, you know, to increase our, the TIF surpluses
to be released for us to cover that 3 25.
Okay. Um, so even if we did a TIF surplus to cover
that 3 75, uh, are you committing to reimbursing the 1 75,
uh, towards that pension payment?
Absolutely. Derman again, we've been doing
this now since 2020.
Uh, we think it's, first of all, again, we recognize
that even though many of our employees don't invest,
we still have a large percentage of our, uh,
a large percentage of the employees are in the fund
are actually CPS employees.
Okay. So at
what point do you anticipate if you don't get additional
funds, that you'll have to have cuts and layoffs?
So of course we wanna avoid that at all costs.
Uh, both the mayor and I share the same vision
that we don't want,
we don't wanna go back to be cutting schools.
I mean, we are seeing the momentum and,
and elders, we will be announcing results for last year,
um, next, you know, tomorrow.
And we're seeing just strong momentum, by the way, led
by our black students, second by our Latino students.
And we're seeing it at scale.
And so, you know,
we wanna resist any reductions at the schools.
In fact, and I agree with our union colleagues,
we need to invest more.
We still have, we don't have any school that's fully funded.
So all that to say, we're gonna do the best we can
to avoid cuts as much as possible.
Again, this is why we're here in front of you.
Okay. But again, answer my question.
At what point do you anticipate if funding is not increased,
that you would look at layoffs and cuts?
So we would not be doing cuts during this school year.
We would just have a higher risk
of more cuts next school year.
Okay. Alright.
Um, how many schools do you have right now
with less than 200 students?
Yeah, we can get that to you, alderman.
I I mean, we do have a, a, you know, a fast growing number
of schools that, especially up to the last three years,
were declining in enrollment.
Like I said, we finally have stabilized that,
but we can get you that updated number.
But we know we have at least a hundred schools
between high schools and elementary schools
that are probably at least, you know, at least a hundred
that are under 200 students in enrollment.
So you're, right now you're saying you have roughly a
hundred schools that potentially have
less than 200 students?
Yes, sir. Okay. All right.
And so with the new formula
that you all implemented this year, why would you see fit
to fund Douglas with only 39 students?
It's a great question, and I,
and I'll, I'll answer it with what we're doing at Collins.
Um, I'm a believer that when we invest in these schools, we,
so, first of all, let me give you a little context about
the Austin community.
Mm-Hmm. So the Austin community, first of all,
is the second largest neighborhood or community in Chicago.
Second only to Lakeview only 13%
of students, high school students that live in Austin.
Only 13% go to schools in Austin.
If every student in Austin went
to a school in their neighborhood, we would be overcrowded.
All that to say, alderman, that I would rather with,
I'd rather take the path we're doing with Collins,
make a significant investment in both Austin High School,
Douglas, Michelle Clark, you know, I mean principal,
the principal's doing an amazing job there.
Build up those schools
because these children are traveling so far
to leave their neighborhood.
And again, of course I'm simplifying it
because as you know, it's much more complicated than that.
There's a lot of other concerns that are non-educational.
But that would be where I would partner with you
and the mayor to really, really double down,
because there is no reason why children should have
to leave their neighborhood specifically in Austin to go,
you know, to not, and not attend one a high school there.
Mm-Hmm. But again, we have to provide quality
and we have to make the investments.
Okay. So, so you are saying that you're justifying
a school with 39 students,
and I think 49 administrators.
That's okay.
So there, there's not 49 administrators.
What we have there all is making sure
that our students have all the teachers they need to ensure
that they get four years of English.
That they have the, the requirements of math
and science, yes.
Class size are very small.
But again, for me, I would, I would ask,
let's change the conversation of
what could be possible at Douglas High School
to really attract children to go there or at Austin Height.
Okay. So do you agree that, you know, CPS is basically,
uh, a business, you're running a, a, a business.
I, I, and again, I, you know, my background was business
and, you know, coming, you know, coming in, I, I, I switched
to education at the end of, uh, oh eight mm-Hmm.
I will say this, we are primarily an
educational institution.
Okay? We have to be financially responsible
because we have to be accountable to our taxpayers.
We have to be accountable to our parents. I get that.
But, but primarily we are financial.
We are an academic institution that has to ensure
that our children have social and economic mobility.
Okay. No, I mean, you hit it right on the head.
Um, do you know why Walgreens is closing 1200 stores?
They just have made an announcement.
Walgreens is closing 1200 stores,
because those, those stores are either underperforming.
And so they had to make a business decision
that if they're going to stay afloat, that they have
to restructure.
And that's what they're doing. So they are closing stores.
Now, I disagree with how schools were closed.
Okay? But when you have 39 students in a school,
we're doing those kids a disservice
by keeping them in a school hoping that we turn it around.
Okay? And so, I fundamentally disagree that, you know,
unless you're gonna restructure that school
and do something drastic to draw kids in,
but this year it's not making good sense to me.
When you have a budget deficit
and you're spending millions of dollars on a school
with 39 kids, that's wrong.
Okay. Now let's get into
how do we increase the budget?
A billion dollars since 2019,
and we've lost a hundred thousand students in the system.
So, uh, back in 2019, our enrollment was close
to about 350,000 mm-Hmm.
Uh, like I said, we were, we were, when I came
and to CPS, I'm just, I'm just starting my fourth year, uh,
we were losing students at a record level, uh, mainly
'cause of the pandemic and other challenges at that time.
By the end of my, my first year,
we started seeing stabilization, uh, with our schools.
By the second year, we were not only stabilizing,
we actually, we had seen full stabilization,
and then we started seeing growth,
and now we've seen growth again
as we go into this school year.
So, yes, we have less children.
You're absolutely right about that. Alderman.
I would also tell you that we also have more needs than ever
more children with IEPs.
More children with that are, uh, coming in as English
as a second language, more children that are homeless.
And so the needs have grown exponentially, which for me,
tells me that we need to continue
to invest even more in our schools.
And you're right, there's some structural
issues that we need to discuss.
Uh, again, I don't think it's acceptable that we,
that we have such under-enrolled schools,
and we just let them stay that way.
I agree with you on that point.
All I offer is that let's try a strategy of investment,
especially when you have a neighborhood
where the children actually are there, they're living there,
and they should be able to walk to their schools.
Just like I was able to do that at Benito Horace.
Okay. You, you didn't, you didn't hone in on my question.
I mean, you, you mentioned the, the, the bigger need,
but a billion dollars bigger need a billion dollars.
And I would argue we need 2 billion, sir,
with all due respect, we need $2 billion
because with so many of our children living in poverty
with so many of our children that have more needs than ever,
it is, it is outta respect for our teachers
and our school-based staff that we need
to give them a fighting chance.
And we're seeing the results.
We're seeing the, we're seeing gains at scale.
We're seeing, ladies
and gentlemen, we're seeing gains
that we had not seen before.
Okay. And we're seeing more of our students graduating
with a real shot to really have economic mobility.
Okay. But again, Pedro, we're
Still early. Lemme just real
quick,
because I'm, you know, I, I get that, okay, I get the need.
But you're saying right now
that there's a $300 million something shortfall,
but that's all for teachers.
Ain't none of that for students.
So help me understand how we're going
to build the need if we're giving 300 more million
to teachers and not the students.
So we still ain't accomplishing our goal.
So, so, you know, so, so let me clarify this. Okay.
Please, by the way, I, I appreciate all the questions.
I really do. These are questions
that we need to be able to answer.
Mm-Hmm. Um,
and so first of all, 1 75
to 300 million is really us being good partners to really,
you know, to help participate.
And again, to it's part of the, uh, this,
the disentanglement of the district and the city, right?
And so, so again, we've always been in full agreement
that we need to be participating in covering, uh,
you know, part of this pension payment.
So that's 1 75 mm-Hmm.
The other 1 25, which is now one 50 ladies
and gentlemen, is about reasonable raises similar to
what we did with SEIU
for our teachers and our school leaders.
And the reason I am very, very, um, committed to that
is that I am very proud,
and I unapologetically say this, we have one
of the highest starting teacher salaries in the country.
We have one of the highest average
teacher salaries in the country.
And because of that, we're seeing the
lowest vacancy rate we've ever seen.
The work is harder today that it's ever been
because the needs are so great for our children.
And so, I just outta respect for our, for our teachers,
our school-based personnel, I just think it's important
that we treat them as professionals.
The 1 25, sir, one 50 now is reasonable raises, uh,
that we're providing, okay.
That we're offering. So
You mentioned the entanglement,
and I know we're gonna be working to
untangle the entanglement once we do that.
You all get a lot of tiff money for buildings and roofs
and tuck pointing and furnaces
and all that, uh, for, you know, turf fields and all that.
Once the entanglement takes place,
that spigot is gonna be cut off.
So your deficit's going to get even bigger
because now you won't be getting the tip money from the city
because you guys are gonna be your own entity.
So what's the projection to bridge that gap?
Because right now, you know, I don't know exactly
how much we give in TIFF to CPS, but it's substantial.
Yes, sir. So we, you know, in the best years,
we've received about a hundred million dollars in Tiffs,
and we're very, very, uh, grateful for that.
It really is. I mean, like I said, 10 million
of the 40 million we're making at, at, uh, Collins Johnson
and Chalmers is coming from Tiffs.
Mm-Hmm. And again, very grateful to that, uh, to, you know,
chairman, uh, Irving Scott, uh, chairman Irving,
as well as other woman, Scott.
I mean, you know, they, they were huge proponents for that.
The challenge, I would ha I would say elders is that, look,
I'm a Chicago kid, remember
what downtown looked like in the seventies and eighties.
I remember what my, my neighbor, my neighbor
to Pilsen looked like in the seventies and eighties.
The tiff have grown so much by the way,
they've done their job, right.
That was the goal is to grow our tax base.
But meanwhile, the state's not keeping up with, with really,
with the needs that we have in the district.
And again, they didn't create it, they inherited it.
We have to have a longer term plan and,
and a meaningful conversation about what is,
what is the way we disentangle, including tips that go back
to the taxing bodies, because it's not
just, it's not just CPS.
We, of course, get affected the most episodes
of the park, so does the city.
And so I'm looking forward to that alders.
And again, this has been my goal
and really in these conversations I've had with the mayor
and his team for, like I said, more than a year. Okay.
Alright. Let's, um, let's hone in on how many teachers
or administrators do you have on your books?
That's on leave right now?
We can, we can get you that alderman. We can now
Remember. Is there a ballpark?
I don't have a ballpark, but remember this year
where the first district in the country
that passed a 12 week parental leave for all staff.
And so that has increased the
numbers, but we can get you that number.
Okay. But you, I mean,
but there's a certain amount of people that are on leave now
that currently, um, are employed by, uh, CTU. Correct?
That's right, Sir. Do you have that number,
Ben? Do you, do you, you have
a sense of that?
Uh, Ben is our Chief of Talents. Mm-Hmm.
Hello? Uh, State your name for
The record. Sorry. Ben
Felton, chief Talent Officer with CPS.
Um, I don't have that number off the top of my head.
I, in the ballpark of 20 or so would be my, my guess,
20 or so. Yeah.
Okay.
Um, is, um, is the mayor on that list?
So, um, what you're asking me as part
of a personnel record, mm-Hmm.
Um, off the top of my head, I'm not sure
what Illinois law says about, you know,
releasing personnel records,
especially in such a public forum.
So I'd want to talk to our staff attorneys
before answering that question.
Okay. Do we have some attorneys here from CPS
that can answer that question?
No, no, sir. But again, what,
any answers we can get you today, we'll get 'em to you.
Okay. Reason I ask that question is
because, um, if a person is on leave, um,
they're still technically on the books, uh, on as far
as CPS is concerned.
And I just think it is a conflict of interest
to have somebody still on the books.
And let me just back up.
Even though you are on leave,
you still accumulate pension time and things like that?
Correct. Okay. So your pension is still growing.
You still get all the benefits of a person
that's on, that's on leave.
Okay. So if the mayor's on that list, I think
that's a conflict of interest
because you're negotiating a contract on
a pension that you're gonna be part of,
that you are a part of.
And so when you have that, I think
that person should recuse themselves
because that's a total conflict of interest, in my opinion.
Has the law department issued a statement
or has anybody issued an opinion on if
that is a conflict of interest?
Not that I know of, sir. But again, we'll get you any,
anything we can't answer today, we'll get you those answers.
Okay. All right. Gotcha.
I I, I think it's really important that you get that answer
to us immediately, um,
because you're basically negotiating for yourself.
And that shouldn't that, that should not be.
Um, and so there should be some recusal
and there should be some separation, uh, especially
that if you're still on leave, uh, from that entity
and still collecting
or escalating your pension in that same process.
So I think that's a huge problem that needs
to be addressed as soon as possible.
So that's all I have for round one.
Madam Chairman, thank you so much.
And I support you a hundred percent.
And I, you know, I know these some tough questions,
but, uh, I appreciate you
and your team for being here today.
Thank you.
Alderman O'Shea. Thank you, chairman.
Good morning. Good.
I, um,
I can't begin to,
to frame my frustration that
there are no members of the Board of Education here.
None of the outgoing members, none
of the incoming members, they were all invited.
They have a responsibility, a responsibility to look out
for the 325,000 students
across the Chicago Public School system.
I do, however, want to talk a little bit about work
that you've done, sir, in your administration.
I can start just what I've seen in my own community,
significant investment as we try to bridge that gap
that we saw from the pandemic,
particularly in early childhood,
and our most vulnerable, vulnerable population,
our students with disabilities.
Now, in my community, a community
that is more than 60% white, more than 60%
of my students at my 12 Chicago public schools are black.
Many of those students come from neighborhoods
nowhere near my neighborhood.
But they come there because luckily, they have good schools
led by strong principals and dedicated teachers.
Those schools include Morgan Park, Chicago, ag Vic, Barnard,
Cassel, ksal, Mond, Keller, Kellogg,
Mount Greenwood, and Vanderpool.
I have some of the largest cluster programs
for students with disabilities.
You'll see I've also had
the pleasure of working with you, sir, along
with Special Children's Charities, an organization
that has been doing work here in our city, city
for more than 50 years, funding, funding
programs to benefit our students with disabilities.
I'm talking about art, music, therapy.
I'm talking about sensory rooms.
And those schools that we're investing in,
they're in neighborhoods on the south and west sides.
I'm talking about Burnside and Christopher De Priest
and Dore, Harvard, Hancock, Mahalia Jackson, Minnie Manso,
Nash Neal, south Shore, south Side, occupational,
Alcott, Walsh, and Whistler.
Those schools that saw significant
significant losses from the pandemic.
You sir, you sir,
and your team picked those schools that we invest in.
I am so frustrated that for the last several months,
leaders in this city, many in this room,
Have been a part of so much divisiveness
with the total destabilization
of the Chicago public schools,
we've seen an increase in population.
We've seen these first few weeks, much better
statistics of our children going to school now,
now is not the time
for more drama, Mr. Martinez.
And, and, and I wanna make this clear to everybody,
the pronunciation is bna mva,
Josh Long Jadine Chow, Jamel Chambers, thank you
for your hard work in making up the
differences that we've seen.
I dunno what's gonna happen,
sir, but thank you.
Through all the nonsense we've had to put up with
that you've had to put up with,
that you have remained focused
and committed to looking out
for those 325,000 students across our neighborhoods.
Keep doing what you're doing.
Thank you, alderman. All the person for one test.
Thank you, chairwoman.
Uh, and thank you Pedro and team for, for being here.
This is gonna be a long committee. It's gonna be difficult.
So I appreciate your patience and willing to hold sight
and answer some difficult questions, I think,
and we choose to be leaders.
We choose to answer difficult questions.
Uh, CEO, can you tell me
what your position currently is on the school closures
that Aceto just recently announced?
And out of curiosity,
aren't those school closures a violation of the resolution
that the board passed last year?
Yeah, so Alman Fuentes, so first of all,
of course, it's very concerning.
Uh, I'm always very concerned of any, any school, whatever,
whatever the school model is when they close their doors,
because it creates a lot of disruption for our families.
Uh, we found out, uh, about just hours
or really almost a day before everybody else found out.
And so we we're still working with the organization.
I, I still wanna understand what is happening there.
Um, so, you know, we're, we're gonna,
we're having right now conversations with them,
and I'm glad I'm, I'm very happy
to report later in the later about
what those conversations are.
But again, know that, uh,
we just recently found out like everybody else, and,
and it is very concerning to me.
So it is something that I, that we are, you know,
we're talking to them now.
I mean, it's, it's seven out of their 15 schools, several
of them residing in neighborhoods that I represent, uh,
families that have trusted this institution
to educate their children,
and overnight they're choosing
to close more than 50% of their schools.
I mean, it's, it's just extremely concerning.
Have you or the district released any statements
around the school closure announcement?
I'm sorry, say that again. Other woman?
Have you released any sort
Of, we, we have not because, um, you know, again,
we wanna talk to the organization.
Uh, you know, the, the only silver linings that we,
at least we received the information early enough
that we can actually have conversations
and see what, how we can help.
Um, so again, you know, I'm happy to report later, you know,
what those, you know, what the
outcome of those conversations are.
All the women,
Uh, not long ago, there was a list
of about a hundred schools that was leaked, um,
somewhere in, in your office of possible closures.
There were statements made
that those particular schools weren't really, um, up
for consideration, but the list itself was drafted.
Most of those schools, uh, overwhelming majority
of those schools on the list were in predominantly black
neighborhoods where we had already seen school closures.
Uh, can you talk about why that list was produced,
and if it wasn't truly up for consideration,
why the list of a hundred schools?
Yeah. So as we were developing our needs based budget,
as we were developing our new five year strategic plan, one
of the things that we knew and our board knew,
and we needed to answer some tough questions.
And I mean, that's why I really appreciated
the early questions I had.
We, we got about, you know,
why are we making these investments in a school like Douglas
that has less than 50 children?
Why are we making investments in some
of our smallest under-enrolled elementary and high schools?
And so this was something that, uh, we,
we were asked to do this analysis.
Uh, we, we didn't release it in any kind of wide way
because it was, it was an internal, you know,
closed session analysis that was provided at the end.
The, the, we, both, all of us came to the same conclusion.
The financial savings just were not sufficient enough that
for us to break the trust with community, for us
to create the instability
and disruption, it just was not worth it for us.
Uh, we needed to answer that for ourselves
because we knew with our needs-based budget,
we would get those questions.
Um, and those are, frankly, again, we have
to be accountable not only to our
parents, but to our taxpayers.
And so that was the reason, uh,
the information was never meant to be released in any way.
Uh, it got, it got released, uh, by our teachers union.
And as I, and, and as immediately when it came out,
I immediately was very clear, um, that this was, uh,
this was, again, misinformation.
Uh, and that, and that's why our board and
and I passed the resolution to, to make it clear
for the record that under my leadership,
there will be no proposals for closures of schools
For the a hundred schools.
What, what is the plan for investment?
So, again, I'll refer back to what we announced yesterday,
you know, and now again, it's not easy.
Um, you know, we, we were, you know, that organization, the,
you know, our, our Community Action council in North
Lawndale had been really in for years requesting this.
And I actually, you know, had a lot of empathy
for them when I first met them,
because I came in when, you know,
they were already giving up.
And, and also, uh,
and also as part of our strategic plan, we made it clear
that our path was gonna be
to invest in neighborhood schools.
I am a neighborhood school kid.
My, I'm a parent of two neighborhood school children.
I just, and by the way, this is nothing against charters,
nothing against Mag selective enrollment.
I mean, Whitney Young was an option when I was,
uh, a CPS kid.
And so nothing wrong with that,
but I just really believe that we have
to have more quality options for our children.
And in my 20 years of doing this work, including, you know,
being a superintendent to other districts,
I've actually went and stopped closures.
I've actually went and invested in schools
that we were being asked to close, uh,
because I really believe
that if you make the right investments,
children will go to those schools.
But it has to be high quality, it has to be comprehensive.
And, and so again,
yesterday when we announced these investments in North
Lawndale, we're already seeing evidence at Collins High
School with their freshman class or what could be possible.
Uh, and so, and again, we're just starting this,
I really believe that is the path to go.
Uh, and I really believe that we have to unite together
to leverage every funding source, whether it's city, state,
federal, philanthropic, it takes everything,
but I think we owe it to these neighborhoods.
North Lawndale for me, by the way, was I am a Pilsen kid.
And to this day, when I drive up Roosevelt or Taylor,
and I go from west, from east to western, to west
to Western, I do not understand why the
poverty is so explicit.
And it's been explicit since I was a kid.
And here I am now, 55 years old.
And so this was personal for me.
And then I studied Austin,
which I never knew about the Austin community.
And when I saw what I saw,
and this was, by the way, when I first started in my first
year, this is, so all that to say elder women,
this is personal for me.
It's about investing in our neighborhoods.
I just believe that, that, you know, if we do that well,
I do believe that our children can have high quality
neighborhood schools, as well as other choices,
because again, our, our magnets
and charters offer some great options as well.
Uh, there are several schools in my ward that have, uh,
many, uh, staff shortfalls.
Uh, we have elementary schools that have more than six
to seven vacancies in one institution.
Uh, while Reto Clemente Community Academy is not in my ward,
it's in Daniels, uh, 90% of the students
that attend Clemente Live in my ward
and Block Club documented
what we most popular see students teaching themselves
in chemistry, having to go to school every day
and roll out a curriculum for themselves.
How is, what's your plan to sort of address
the personnel shortfalls we are seeing in our schools,
particularly, uh, in special ed
and social workers for minutes for students
and, uh, in language, uh, services? Yeah,
No, thank you for that question.
Um, so first, uh, again, we are always,
always working to fill our vacancy.
So I wanna make that clear for the record.
And we have more teachers in our classrooms
today than ever before.
Uh, with, by the way, uh, you know, a smaller enrollment.
So our teacher student ratio has never been lower today, uh,
although woman, this is for all the elders we released on a
website and we did a media release,
and it's in your packet that now you can see every single
school in the city of Chicago.
And you can see the amount, not of positions,
but of people that have been, that from compared to 2019
to 2020 to the most current year people, 85%
of our schools have more people today,
more staff than ever before.
The 15% that that went down was
because significant enrollment declines
or significant program changes, even in those schools,
they have the lowest teacher
to student ratio that they've ever had.
So again, it goes back to your questions.
Again, I have to answer it on both sides, right?
How do I defend that from an efficiency perspective?
But the facts are, those are the facts.
Now, with that, there's always gonna be
where we have over 600 schools, we have over, you know,
almost 22,000 teachers.
There's always gonna be a small percent of vacancies.
And to your point, older woman, we're always,
always very concerned when I see it,
especially in the high schools,
especially in critical classes.
What we are doing now also is not only, you know,
finding teachers that either, either can be what we call,
uh, cadres, which are, teachers don't wanna work full-time,
but there's, they still have the certification.
So we're more successful today than ever with that.
In addition, we have our virtual school, especially
for advanced programming.
So for those schools who need an AP teacher,
advanced placement teacher, or algebra in eighth grade,
our virtual school is becoming a great option.
So with that, all women, I'm not gonna make excuses.
We should never stop working hard to, until we have all
of our teacher positions filled.
It does help me though that
because of our compensation, we have one
of the lowest vacancy rates in the country.
Do you know how many of your teachers are set
to retire in the next five years?
If you gimme a minute, I can pull it for you.
I'm sorry, say that again. If you gimme a
minute, I can pull that for you.
I mean, you know, there's a, there's a fairly,
there's a fairly, you know, normally distributed curve,
you know, so, so a good chunk.
But we've, the incoming cohorts of teachers have been,
have been pretty robust.
Um, and we've been pleased about that.
Okay. I'll ask my next question.
If you can work on pulling up the metrics of
how many teachers we anticipate will retire.
Uh, Pedro, you have, you have said it here, and you,
and you've said it in other, uh,
instances in which you talk about the budget.
You talk about balancing the budget.
Can you just walk us through your decision
to say it's balanced when, uh, you did an account
for the pension payment that's required?
No, absolutely. So, um, so this, uh,
the way we balance this budget,
all women is no different than we've done in the past.
Uh, so in other words, you know, in, uh, in budgets
where we've had, you know, you know,
current contract negotiations,
we've always said we will make an amendment in the,
in the contract or in the budget.
And, you know, once we have those contracts signed,
the pension payment, uh, I shared with you the history
in almost a hundred years of the pension in existence,
we were not asked to ever fund into the pension.
It started in 2020. Those dollars were never in the budget.
They were always based on TIF funding
that always got approved after our budget got done.
So I don't wanna get to technical.
Our budget gets approved June 30th.
The city budget's approved at the end of the calendar year.
So your decisions happen around October, early November.
So because of that, we always, you know, we,
we've always understood that, you know, we have to wait,
you know, on that decision.
So, so our budget is again, currently,
but you know, it, it is balanced.
Uh, but these practices, you know, again, historical.
Now with that, I think we have
to have a better, a better approach.
You know, I, I think as we think about the future,
because again, the district is gonna become independent.
Uh, we need to talk about these disentanglement, we need
to talk about, you know, the size of, um, of these tiffs of
how large they are,
because now they're having a very significant impact on the
district, as well as, again, our long-term strategy about
how do we continue to advocate, you know, for the right,
the rightful, you know, amount of resources from the state.
Uh, bill and I don't agree a lot, but I, I agree.
And that we have to sort of understand what is the plan,
not only for the disentanglement of the relationship
between CPS and the city in terms of funding,
but also the reliance on tiff.
And as we're seeing Tiffs sort of get ready
to sunset across the city.
Um, and what is the sort of financial, uh, juncture
that you will find yourselves in to sort
of supplement that gap?
Um, and what is the plan, not just
for the physical buildings itself, which we often see
Tiff sort of maintain, uh,
but for students across the district?
Yeah. So older women, I'll just point out one other,
you know, um, we, we, we listed it,
but I want to just call it out.
We are the only district in the state of Illinois that, uh,
so for example, Naperville is about to do, you know,
referendums for 400 million in capital.
By the way, they're a fraction of our size in terms
of enrollment, number of schools.
They can do that. I'm not saying it's easy.
You have to make your case to taxpayers.
I did it in San Antonio, I did it in Nevada. It's not easy.
But we don't even have that ability.
I have this terrible choice to make every single year
where I gotta take operating dollars,
dollars from the classrooms, dollars that fund teachers,
that fund counselors.
I have to put 'em aside, go to the market
and borrow by the way, I borrow at the highest rates
because it's not a dedicated funding source.
And then that money is then used
for capital in the buildings.
It is a terrible choice.
I always say this, there is no neighborhood in Chicago
that owns high quality buildings.
You know, we have, we have aging buildings
across the entire city.
And so this is, this is just a, you know, again,
and we've been doing it for decades.
And so I will just say this for a future conversation.
This needs to change. This needs to change.
And I get, and what again, you know, I,
I see the value of tips.
They're now producing $1.2 billion with a B.
There's $3 billion in the bank. They're so large.
They're having a detrimental effect on our schools.
And I'm always grateful for every dollar
that this council provides to our schools,
because, again, you get it.
You're in our schools all the time. You see it.
And so, again, and I am committed to working with you to,
again, to ensuring that we get our fair,
fair funding from the state.
May I also thank you. This is my last question, chairwoman
for round one, uh, Pedro, how,
how many times have you been to Springfield?
So, so the question is getting at in terms of advocacy.
Um, so yes, I did it.
You know, I actually went, you know, to Springfield
with our teachers union, with, with, um, other,
other organizations in Springfield.
Really, my role has always been working behind the scenes
with our legislators, with, I have a full-time staff
that is there every single day.
I've always shared that I'm more than
happy to go more often.
Uh, really, we've always taken the lead older women from the
city and from the city's IGA team.
And I always shared with them, look, I'll go there 10 times.
If you want me to go, I'll go there a hundred times.
Whatever it takes this year.
One of the things that, you know, we had a great,
I had a great conversation with the mayor about being really
coordinated this year
because what we know about Springfield,
the priorities have to be the priorities.
And so if it's not clear, uh, we're just,
they're just gonna use it as an excuse not to fund us.
Have you articulated your priorities
to legislators in Springfield?
And if so, who are you? Yes, most frequent in communication
With, yes. In, in
fact, elder woman.
We, even last session, we worked extensively, I mean, weeks
and weeks with the city,
with city staff on a legislative agenda that I'm very proud
that our board, you know, really stood behind
and we really pushed it hard in Springfield.
But again, unfortunately, other narratives came into play,
and, and we got what we got in our funding,
which was not sufficient.
Is there a strategy for veto session?
So, uh, you know, there's always,
we're always advocating a course.
Uh, but, but the strategy that I shared with you earlier,
Al Woman, is that I really, what I really have found,
especially with, since we made
so many changes in our budget,
and now I can show, you know,
like the analysis you saw earlier, I can show
how this budget's playing out in schools.
I want our legislators, you know,
so we're preparing these summaries for every single school,
and I want our state reps to actually come
and visit the schools because unlike yourselves
who are in schools all the time, they are not.
And one of the questions I wanna be able to answer
for them is, you know,
what are the resources being used today?
And as we ask for more, how will those resources be used?
And for me, the best way, instead
of showing them in a spreadsheet, is to actually bring 'em
to a school and say, here's what we wanna protect
and here's what we want to build on.
But is there a plan for Vito session?
So, as always, like I said,
although we work, we have a full-time, legislative staff
and lobbyists, and so we're gonna continue to ask
for more funding, whether it's veto session
and the continued and as well as the new session.
Thank you, Pedro. Thank you Wo.
Lauren,
Can you hear me? Uh,
yes. So we know that you, Lauren, Lauren Hernandez,
state legislative Affairs liaison for CPS.
So we have the dates for veto session.
Unfortunately, given how Springfield works,
we probably won't know what's moving until the days
before veto, but we will be present.
Um, we're in works scheduling certain meetings
that we wanna have to make sure that we walk into veto,
making clear once again, what our priorities are as, um,
they continue on from
what we've said early on in this session.
Alderman Hall,
Thank you so much. Uh,
Madam Chair.
I wanted to go back earlier to Alderman Bill.
He mentioned this, and I can,
didn't quite get the, uh, clarity.
Um, you mentioned that there will be cuts
if we cannot figure out how to, you know, fund this gap.
Could you explain in details what exactly the cuts
that will happen with personnel?
And, uh, I know you mentioned that for this school year,
there'll be no school closures
and that nothing would happen this school year,
but all of the effects would take place next year.
So could you explain in detail, who's gonna get cut,
where it's gonna get cut
and are school closures then on the books for 20, 25, 26?
So, um, our resolution is very clear, uh, alderman, and,
and, and again, this was by our, our board unanimously.
And I said it very publicly under my leadership,
you're not gonna see me proposing any school closures.
I just don't, I don't see, I don't see it's worth, it's,
it's not worth the, the, the,
the trust we lose with community.
And I really do believe it, really,
in investing in our schools.
Um, I can't tell you what cuts would happen next year.
'cause frankly, we're gonna do everything in
our power to avoid 'em.
All we have done since I've been a leader here
for the last three years is we've grown our budgets in our
schools, by the way, at the risk of being criticized,
because some of our schools are so under-enrolled.
But I just really believe philosophically
that is the right thing to do.
So we, our budget process alderman will start in
the, in the spring.
And so at that time, we were always very transparent about
what our shortfalls are.
We're always, you know, looking at
how do we protect our schools
as much we can, as much as we can.
The challenge is that the numbers get so big
that it's very difficult for us.
And so I can't give you any specifics,
but I can tell you that as always, we'll always make sure
that we prioritize our schools.
Like I said, the numbers just get so big.
And, and I'm not gonna give up until I really make,
I wanna make, I mean, I've
said this to our elected officials.
I will make my, I will, let me make the case.
Let me bring, you've been to our schools.
Come, come and visit our schools.
Let me make the case to you.
Let me show you evidence with student achievement.
Let me show you how our students are, are,
are feeling better and more confident today.
Let me show you how we're giving
our teachers a fighting chance.
And these are teachers, again, that from the seventies
and eighties, they never had a fighting
chance when I was a student.
And so this is very personal for me to make sure
that we really respect our educators
because the work, the work has never been harder.
So, gotcha. So we don't know
who will lose their jobs if we don't get the funding.
So you spoke about, uh, schools not being fully funded.
Uh, could you explain, and I, I wanna share my story,
but could you first answer this, what are the effects
of non fully funded schools in black neighborhoods?
So here's what we know. Alders in all of our data,
our lowest achievement, our low, the, the highest percent
of students not being at grade level
is in our black community.
We know that very close to that,
and with a lot of overlaps is also
our students with disabilities.
I mean, it's just, it's, it's not even,
I can't even defend the numbers,
even though we've seen gains,
I still can't defend where we're at.
Um, and then right with that is our English learners.
Imagine all the overlap of everything.
Poverty, students that are homeless, students that are in,
you know, families in two bedroom apartments, you know,
living six families at a time.
And so not fully funding our schools, which
what we're doing is we are not giving
our teachers a fighting chance.
Because what I always say to our teachers,
they're the most powerful beings in our society.
They saw something in me that I could not see.
I lived in poverty, and I know that that's
what they're doing for our students every single day.
And the work is incredibly hard for those
who are former educators here in the room.
The work is, is incredibly hard
and it's harder today than ever before.
And so, not funding, fully funding our school, sir, is
that we are not giving them that chance
to really support our children.
And I'll tell you, I see nothing but potential.
I wish, uh, you know, I wish you could have been
with me at Collins yesterday, meet those ninth, 10th,
and 11th and 12th graders.
They just see, they see ahead of them the potential
because they see the investments, investments we're making,
and you could see it in their eyes.
And so that for me is, is, is something that we as a,
as collectively, we can never give up on,
because we know the talent's here in Chicago.
There's examples in this room there.
The talent is here, but we have to invest in it.
And look, I get it. It's complicated. It's complicated.
I've always said this, the issues
that we have are about resources.
That's the enemy is, is,
is not having sufficient resources knowing
that our children need those investments.
I wasn't, I wasn't with you at
Collins, but I was with you at Leonard.
And when we walked through the,
through the school in the hallways, um,
40-year-old lockers without working principal said that,
I mean, when we walked in the gym, that had no scoreboard,
no space for kids to even have home games.
And then we went outside
and she essentially was begging for something for the kids
to play on because there was nothing there.
When we look at campuses that still have yet to have
lockers, working gyms for kids to have home games
outside space for kids to learn
and to have adequate, uh, gym
and other activities, my question is, what is the strategy
to fully fund campuses so
that kids can actually have good learning environments?
So I think first of all, Derman, we have to make sure
that everybody understands the problem.
So for the first time,
we have now put out in a public way an analysis
that shows the needs of every single school, by the way,
not just the emergency needs.
We've always done that, right?
Who needs a roof, whose heating system is already out,
you know, is in its final life.
We now have put the whole amount, it's $14 billion worth
of b for every single building.
By the way, when I was in Texas, you know, uh, one
of my peer districts, Dallas passed referendums of 5 billion
with a b, they're, they're less than half our size,
about 150,000 children.
So you could do the math. And so the reality is we need
to have this conversation about what the needs are.
We need to have a different source,
a dedicated funding source specifically for capital.
And then I'm more than happy to partner with community about
how do we prioritize those investments.
Because I believe,
and that's why I was so, it was so important for me
to highlight yesterday the investments we're making at
Johnson Chalmers and Collins, that that is the way to go.
Gotcha. Okay. Um,
essentially, let me ask you this.
When we talk about number one, schools that are dilapidated,
um, we went again in our campus visit,
they didn't have the music teacher.
They were saying something about exchanging some type
of barter system for a music teacher.
Um, in my ward in particular, we don't have in 16
of the schools any librarians or libraries.
How then do we say that we are achieving
and we are succeeding when we don't have the basics
for kids to get educated?
Where we getting the data from?
If kids don't have libraries, lockers don't work gyms
for kids not to play in.
Where are we getting this data
that's saying we are actually helping kids?
So, so again, let's,
let's let's hold these realities together.
Our schools have been under resourced for decades.
This is not brand new.
Again, I'm a CPS kid from the seventies and eighties,
and the schools were even more under resourced
during my time than they are today.
With that, we are also making more investments to than ever
because this pandemic gave us the taste
for funding that we had never seen before.
We have never seen that before.
And so it gave us the taste to say, okay,
what if we add more teachers?
What if we actually invest
in our students with disabilities?
What if we actually invest in our students
that our English learners are homeless?
Does it solve everything? No.
Like I said, there is no school in CPS that is fully funded.
And for the first time, our schools have the ability
to have art and music teachers.
They have the ability if they choose to have a librarian
that never existed.
And so I am with you and I share your frustration.
This system should have been funded,
fully funded 10, 20 years ago.
So I think now we are here again,
and the mayor and I have talked about this.
We didn't create this. We've inherited,
but we gotta do something about it. So
I I wanna circle back to what you just said.
You just said that for the first time, we have the taste of
what funding will feel like with Covid money.
And yet, and still, we still don't have lockers working.
We still don't have librarians.
We still don't have the basic necessities
for kids to educate.
So who's making the choice to not invest with this money
that we've gotten that you said is record money?
Why aren't we seeing that trickle
down in black neighborhoods?
It, it actually is more than ever.
It, it is more than ever where our investments in our,
in our schools that predominantly serve black student
children has been hired.
This is the highest it's ever been.
So, and this is why I wanna protect it in Alderman before,
and the investments are based on research based practices
that are showing evidence that children are learning.
Again, are we fully there? Absolutely not.
And so I am with you. Let's conti let's not stop
until those lockers are fixed.
Let's not stop until we make sure
every school is fully resourced.
The journey is starting right now.
So we was just in there a month ago
and a month later we still ain't got the lockers.
But nevertheless, let's talk about
the children that are homeless. There's
Still $14 billion in need
that that has not stopped derman.
I understand, but you was just there a month ago
and a month later prior to you being there,
And there's still $14 billion in need.
I understand. But we still don't got lockers
and we still don't got a librarian.
We still don't got a gym. And
as the principal alluded to, the door was broken.
She's scared that someone's gonna break in, none
of which has been addressed a month later.
But nevertheless, how many students do we have currently
that don't have a permanent address?
Do we know?
We, we'll have to get that for you.
Okay. So, so let's paint this picture.
Record number, amount of money available.
We don't know how many kids are homeless.
The campuses, well, they'll get it to us later. Fair.
The campuses that we visited were barely above average.
Let me ask you this. You, when asked about the state agenda,
you keep saying the same thing.
We need more. We need more. We need more.
Are you aware in in slide number 19, you said
that we are billion dollars short.
If we actually did evidence-based funding
correctly, we'll be all right.
Are you familiar
or is your downstate team familiar with the fact
that the state is getting ready
to invest a billion dollars in prisons?
I'm asking you.
No, I'm, I'm waiting for
you to finish your question. That's
The question. Are you aware of
the fact that the state, we
Are, we are aware that education needs to be prioritized,
sir, we are aware of that.
So the question was, are you aware
that in this upcoming budget,
a billion dollars is gonna be spent on two new prisons?
You yes or no? Are you aware of that?
I am aware that many investments
are happy at the state, sir.
And, and I, I said, and I'm also aware that education needs
to be a higher priority.
So, so as I conclude,
you clearly didn't answer yay or nay if you knew.
So the state is getting ready
to spend a billion for new prisons.
We are a billion short. Let me ask you this.
What's the correlation between test scores
and prison population?
Public school test scores?
We, we know that children not being able,
the research is very clear.
Children not being, not being able
to read in elementary school is a very strong
correlation to what could happen.
What grade? By third grade.
So, okay. So if by third grade, if a kid cannot read,
they start building the prisons and preparing the beds.
Correct. The state is getting ready
to spend a billion in new prisons.
You have not fought one time to divert the billion
for the prisons, for the schools.
And my question to you is, how are you okay
with a brand new prison being built
and not that billion diverted to the gap
that we need to fund schools?
I haven't heard you fight for it prior to this moment.
We have been fighting all along alderman.
And in fact, what what I'm asking is this cannot, this has
to be the priority for, for everyone.
So in concluding campuses are still underfunded.
School campuses don't have the basic equipment.
A billion dollar prison's about to be built.
And we are doing nothing. Thank you, madam Chair.
Al the woman, Lee. Thank you madam chair.
Um, did you all have a response to the,
the alderman's question about the number of unhoused?
I, as a CPS parent, I fill out a,
I fill out a survey every year, so that asks whether
or not I'm housed or unhoused.
So, so Alderman Lee, we do, we do have that number.
So it's not that we don't know.
Again, I just don't want
to give you an incorrect number today. That's right. I just
Wanted you to be able to answer the question because that
That wasn't Yes, ma'am.
And not only that, we provide additional resource
to those schools for the first time,
even providing coordinators that work with those families
to make sure they get not only ac their academic
needs, but other needs as well.
Thank you. Um, ooh, I have a whole list of questions,
but I'm, I'm gonna, I wanna, I wanna just kind of pick up on
where my colleague just left off.
Um, the, this idea that, um,
somehow there's not enough, um,
fighting happening, um, for schools.
I have two of the oldest school buildings in my ward, um,
ward School and Merck Sheridan, um,
are the two oldest facilities.
Um, we know that there is great need for capital investment.
Um, you said earlier that you'd love to, to get 2 billion.
I don't know that I agree with you on, on, on everything.
Um, but I'm here for the conversation
and I want this to be productive.
Um, I, I want there to be, uh, you know, we're,
we're gonna call balls and strikes here.
Um, you know, I, I know that we have new, um,
opportunity index funding, uh, that,
that funded the schools this year.
And, you know, some schools made up better than others
in terms of year over year.
Uh, my schools were kind of a mixed bag.
We've talked about that, you know, with the emphasis on, uh,
black and brown communities, the, the, the number
of students that are, you know, below the poverty line.
Uh, I'm the first Asian
majority ward in the city of Chicago.
That formula didn't quite work out for, um,
a a couple of my schools.
And that, you know, we're, we're working with that.
I'm not, I'm not arguing whether
or not, um, that's right or wrong.
We also have zero high schools in the work, which
of course we've talked about as well.
Um, I think the fight for school funding is one that has
to be done by all of us.
Um, I, I don't know.
I I haven't talked to anybody about, you know, um,
funding for prisons.
That's really not in the scope of what my work is here.
Is it related? Does it have a connection to it?
And that funds at the state level are being spent in one way
and not in others.
I know being a member of the city council, that all
of those things are not fungible in the same way.
So I just wanna put that on the record.
Um, you've got many of us here that are willing
to go stand arm in arm with you to lobby for this,
but as I understand it,
this is not just a question about equitable
funding for the city of Chicago.
If the state's going to address this, this needs
to be addressed across the board.
So first question for you, uh,
and for your team is what does, uh,
what does school funding look like across the, the state?
Um, how does Chicago compare
to the other municipalities in terms of, um,
how much funding is being distributed
to other school districts? Yeah.
And our budget officer will let, will, you know,
we'll repeat some of the things we had on our slide,
although women, but, uh, you know, again, just
to reemphasize, our top priority
for my team myself is always advocating
for more funding for CPS.
That has never stopped. Um,
the state's budget is over a hundred
billion dollars with a B.
And so, again, but it, it, you know,
there's many voices advocating for resources, right?
In healthcare and education.
And what I know f about Illinois is
that if we're not all aligned
and we're not all advocating with that priority, it it,
it gives them an excuse to really continue to underfund us.
Um, and by the way, they are trying to fund us,
but it's the, the whole is getting bigger for them.
And that's why you're seeing such a large portion
of education being funded by local taxpayers. But Mike,
Yeah, I'll highlight as well
what I mentioned earlier in that, say
Who you are, Mike, for the record. Yeah.
Mike Sikowski, chief Budget Officer for CPS.
Um, again, based on the state's own assessment,
we are $1.2 billion short of what they say we need
to adequately fund our schools.
On top of that, we're diverting over $500 million
of state funding to pay off our debt
for our capital investments that we've made in the past.
So that comes on top of the $1.2 billion.
In addition, we have the pension challenge
where we're paying over $660 million that could
otherwise be used to cover other needs
to fund our teacher pensions, which the state covers
for every other district.
So we're facing those inequities.
Um, what we've seen based on the state's initial
legislation, when they passed funding reform in 2017,
they anticipated reaching 90% by 2027 90% funding
for every district throughout the state.
Now we see that based on the rate at which our costs have
grown and our needs have grown, that window is,
is much further out than 2027.
And as a point of, um, important point
that CEO mentioned earlier, of the $350 million
of new funding that went into the funding formula this year,
CPS received 25 million of that.
So less than 10%.
So at the rate that we're going right now,
those increases in funding aren't even keeping up
with our increases in cost. So
Less than 10% of the, of the 350 million, um,
in increased funding, what percentage
of the statewide school districts, how big is c uh, is? CPS
We're about 20% of the enrollment,
but we're more than 30% of the, of the need
because our poverty rates are higher.
Are, you know, students, percentage of student
with disabilities, uh, English learners is higher.
Got it. Okay.
Um, let's go, let's, let's talk about covid relief
and, and school funding.
Um, there, there was, in slide five, uh,
it was stated since 2019,
CPS has increased direct school funding by 30%,
adding over a billion dollars, uh,
to meet the growing needs despite ha having just an increase
of $250 million in state funding.
Um, was that other seven 50
strictly from covid relief funds? Esser funds,
Yes, ma'am. Uh,
and again, this,
and we smooth that funding over the last three years
to really try to put that funding at scale.
Um, so knowing that the funds were time limited, like how,
how did you close the gap and like,
what was the, what was the plan all the time?
Because all, obviously you knew these funds were gonna be
going, um, what were the, what were the plans
and the contingencies you had, um, for that,
especially knowing that there were two to three significant,
um, labor contracts that would have
to be negotiated in that same timeframe? Yeah,
Alman. So first of all,
you know, one of the things we,
we were getting a lot of pressure.
I mean, I wanna take you back three years ago, right?
We're at the peak of, of Covid.
Uh, children are barely coming back to school.
Our proficiency rates are completely down
consistent with the rest of the country.
By the way, this wasn't a Chicago issue.
And I saw our, our staff drowning,
they just needed more help.
And so I was getting a lot of pressure to spend all
of the Covid funds at once.
We just didn't feel that was a responsible way to do it.
So we smoothed it out over, over the last three years.
And really the plan has always been
let's show people what's possible
when you have smaller class sizes,
when you prioritize children in poverty.
And to your point, it's not perfect, right?
We still have to go, this is new for us.
And so we're still learning, uh, there are a lot
of complexities with English learners.
For example, you know, one of your schools has a high, uh,
English learner population, you know, Asian community.
And so how do we really make sure
that we really are meeting those needs?
And the plan was always to smooth that out
and to really work really collectively with you,
with the mayor's office about advocating with, with frankly,
the, the state, uh,
and really making sure that we are the priority.
It just hasn't been the priority.
And I, I I'll say this, this is not a reflection of anybody.
This has been true for the last three
years that I've been here.
It has not, CPS funding has not been the priority.
And so for me, you know,
our priority has always been let's make sure we can show
our taxpayers, our parents what is possible
with these resources to make that case
and understand the complexity of the disentanglement
that's gonna happen with the city.
And so, and so, I, I guess I, I wanna make sure that we,
we've always embraced that complexity, knowing
that there's no one solution.
One of the questions that I got quite a bit,
and the reason we went to student-based budgeting is our
legislators would tell me, I can't tell Pedro like,
where this money's gonna go, and I just don't have
the confidence in trust.
So we decided to leave student-based budgeting
because I couldn't defend
or explain why this school got this kind
of funding versus another school, except for what I could,
you know, insinuate based on, based on enrollment.
Now what you saw earlier with those examples, we can show
how these resources are being used.
We can show you the growth of that school.
We can show you the challenges we have or,
or frankly, how successful they're in staffing.
And so the plan has always been for this year, let's make
that case both to you
and to our elected, to our state officials.
You're in schools all the time.
We need to bring them into schools.
Thank you. Um, looking at the
previous CBA, uh, for the Chicago Teachers Union,
and that cost, you said, I think it was in one
of your slides, 1.6, uh, billion over five years,
and that the current proposal would cost 10 billion,
over $10 billion for the next, uh, over four years.
Does that 10 billion assume, um, everything
that was asked for, or is that okay?
So if that assumes everything that the, that they're asking
for, we know that that's not gonna be the case, right?
You're not gonna, there's, there's not a way possible.
So realistically, with what you're asking for in this,
in this, uh, budget cycle, um,
you're estimating about 150 million.
Yes, ma'am. So that includes, uh, cost of living increases
that we propose already, which is four
to 5% based on inflation, 4% for this year, four
to five in the outer years.
In addition, uh, more funding with athletics.
What we wanna do also is, is start codifying some
of the investments we have today.
Uh, and so those, but we've responded now
to all 700 initial proposals.
Like the, the areas that we have the biggest challenge
with is significant additional staffing that's being asked
of us and significantly higher compensation
and benefit increases than we are, than we're proposing.
So one 50 estimate, right?
Your best guess today, given
where negotiations currently are.
Um, and then we haven't really talked about the
principles contract as well.
Is that built into that one
50? That, that's including the
one 50,
Ma'am. Okay. So
in theory, one 50 over the course
of the next four years, um, gets us to 600 million.
So it's one 50 for year one,
and then add another one add,
add another one 50 each year for each of the,
I know I look Asian, I'm not good at the math,
so you guys have to explain to me how that works.
Um, but no, I, so some amount less than than the 10 billion.
Right? And I, and I understand the, the reason for the,
the graphic the way it was, um, you know,
I wanna deal in the realities of where we are today.
Um, and, and really what it's going to take to get us to
where you would like,
and I think we would all like to see education funded,
but we have very limited resources at the end of the day.
Um, um,
so additional Costs Inc, uh, included in the CTU
contract proposal is gonna drive the deficit
of nearly $4 billion, um, by fiscal year 2029.
What's the, what's the long term plan to fund these deficits
beyond this fiscal year?
So, here's what we know already, alders is
we've been raising taxes to the cap
every single year, right?
So that has not been,
I think there was in the last 20 years,
maybe there was one year that I think I, that,
and I think I was in CPS at the time that we didn't do that.
Um, so the good news is,
and going back to frankly, the, the work
that TIPS have done, our tax base is higher than ever.
I think there's dangers there
because our taxpayers are pretty tired
and their taxes are pretty high.
But I think we have a sustainable revenue source
through our property taxes that will continue.
In addition, uh, we're gonna continue
to advocate for state funding.
We know that if, for example,
if the evidence-based formula goes to five 50,
we would get closer to 20% of the funding.
Uh, so, so it's just part of the complexity of that formula.
So that's, that's an area that
we've always been advocating with.
Other groups, other districts, other organizations.
Advance Illinois, for example, is one of them.
In addition to that, um, I really believe that by,
by the success we're seeing led by the gains we're seeing
with our black children second with our Latina children,
that we have a real strong case to really make, uh,
with the state about further investment.
Because we can show them
what those resources are gonna be used for.
We can show them how we wanna protect.
You also have an amazing opportunity as elders with the tips
that have grown so much to help us smooth that path out.
I think we have to continue to talk about it.
I think, I don't, you know, right now you have an initial
request to get us through the short term.
I think this conversation has to continue as well.
And by the way, um, the Secretary
of Education has been very public, very supportive
of the way we've used our federal dollars.
And so of course, you know, he would like to do more.
He's just limited because he needs Congress approval.
Um, Truman,
I know we don't have anybody here from like
DPD or the budget office.
i'd, I'd like to make a request for the chair, um, for, uh,
the current TIF Sur pluses, um, that are unencumbered
or unallocated.
'cause I think, again, dealing in reality,
I know you saw 3 billion sitting there,
but we have no idea what's behind that.
And there are, uh, many things that we're legally contracted
to, uh, to pay for already.
Um, and for the record, I, I'm, I'm not opposed
to looking at, at the tips,
because I think I, I think we have
to take a long hard look at, at how TIFF are used
and, you know, and we're, we've talked about expanding, um,
a current tiff now that would,
that would take $39 million a year away from CPS if it's,
if, if it's, uh, approved the way it's proposed.
Um, so I think we have to continue to look at how, you know,
we're, we're squeezing one balloon to,
to tip the scales in another direction.
The, the money's all gotta come from someplace.
So if we can get that through the chair.
Um, because my other question is, you know,
we can't put all, all of our eggs in one basket,
and I don't, not suggesting that you're doing that,
but I think, you know, more broadly, um, what I mean, have,
have you broached the conversation
yet about getting the authority to be able to levy attacks?
We have, we've had a lot of conversations with, with, um,
the mayor's office, because it is a personal, it is, um,
you know, you're talking about a property tax.
Um, and so I, I wanna do that in, in conjunction
with the mayor's office and with you,
because it's the same tax base, right?
Whether you tax it or we tax it, it's the same base.
And I wanna be, I wanna, frankly,
I wanna be held accountable
how we're gonna use these resources.
Um, the the needs are very legitimate.
Everybody there is, there is just significant
needs across our buildings.
Um, so I wanna do that together with you,
because I don't believe we should even be granted more
revenue in terms of, you know, for buildings,
unless we can show you what our plan is.
And we had, and the first step was, you know, starting
with a master facilities plan, showing you the need.
Mm-Hmm. And then I think we have to answer the question,
what does a multi-year plan look like if we have
a dedicated revenue source?
I did that in San Antonio where I passed 2 billion
of referendums with a B, my colleagues did it.
And like I said, in Dallas with 5 billion with a B.
So again, I'm committed to that all one.
But again, I think it's a, it's a, it's a conversation
that we just need to have. Yeah.
One other question, uh, Madam Chair, um, for
through the chair for DPD is how much TIF funding's been,
um, spent on capital expenditures
for CPS in the last five years?
For the last five. Last five years, thank you.
Um, I'll take a second round.
I don't wanna hog up all the time, but I will come back.
Yeah, thank you. If
I could just add, oh, sure. Um, back
to all the women Fuentes question about the, um,
number of students without permanent residences.
We have just over 15,000 today
of students in temporary living situations.
Vice chair Colay. I miss, my mic is on. Okay.
There we go. Thank you so much, Madam Chair.
Thank you so much CPS for being here.
I know that, uh, we are all in this room together to try
to figure out a solution.
So appreciate you for taking these questions.
Um, one of the questions that I wanted to ask,
because you talked about fully funded schools earlier,
Pedro, and I know
that fully funded looks different in every community, um,
fully funded for Walter Payton could look totally different
for South Shore, right?
So when you say fully funded, can you just give us a breadth
of what you are, meaning, what that means for a school
to be fully funded?
Yeah. So, uh, one
of the things I can tell you older women there is, um,
as far as I can tell, there is no disagreement from many
of our union colleagues, um,
even from City Hall about protecting what we have today.
The fact that we have 2000 more teachers,
we have thousands more paraprofessionals,
we now have enough nurses and counselors
and social workers that they actually,
the numbers are higher than the total number of schools.
We've never had that before.
With that, as we're doing this work, we can see clearly,
uh, the growing needs.
And so, for example, when we have schools
that have a growing number of students with IEPs,
that significantly increases staffing, by the way,
that also increases the need for therapists, for nurses.
And that, that just continues when we see the growing number
of students coming in with English as a second language
and neighbors that we've never had had bilingual programs.
We have to, you know, continue to invest in those areas.
At the same time, at the high school level,
whether it's South Shore, whether it's Walter Payton,
we should never be having conversations about children not
having access to college credits, not having access,
whether it's ap, which is Walter Payton,
or by the way, getting an associate's degree at Corless High
School, you know, getting
associate's degree at Julian High School.
Um, you know, having these things together is the way, is,
is what I see as an, is almost an equalizer,
because at the end, what I want is our children to have,
you know, to have that social economic mobility.
So for me, fully funding is that
when you get into the details, um, again,
we have enough resources right now at the school,
at our smallest schools for the first time,
where they can have music or art, or both.
They can, they can decide to have a librarian.
Sometimes where we have differences, um, older women is
I really believe in
empowering school leaders and their teams.
It's just a philosophy of mine.
Not everybody always agrees with that.
Um, but I, uh, I really believe
that the local school council, the school leaders,
the teachers, and that the paraprofessionals,
they see the need.
And I want to give them as much flexibility
to address those needs.
I love, you know,
I always love having these questions with our schoolers.
When I say you have an intervention teacher,
which are the children that you're choosing to have with
that intervention teacher versus the children
that are in an afterschool program, you know,
versus the children that have tutors,
but giving them the, that possibility,
all the women, that's what we want to do.
And always through an equity lens.
Um, look what I love to add thousands of staff
to all schools, maybe.
Um, I actually would prefer that we take those resources
and double down on the schools of need, like the Collins,
like the Austins, like the Douglass,
because I want to show the community
what is possible when you invest in those schools.
For sure. And I think, uh, to your point, I was looking
for a number.
I think the, the substance is there, right?
Principals, assistant principals, social workers,
librarians, those are all substantive,
uh, positions that we need.
I guess I was looking for more of just like a,
a number. So, so
The, so the best evidence I have
for you older woman is the state by its own formula.
They, they spent a lot of years working on this
evidence-based formula that's based on need.
It's not perfect, okay?
They are saying that Chicago alone is shorted
by about $1 billion.
That's just that alone.
That's not, that's not addressing the pension issue.
'cause our Chicago taxpayers pay for
that pension in addition to, uh, that's not addressing,
you know, TIFF because we're the only city,
I think in Illinois that has tiff.
I could be wrong on that. So it's complex,
but we know just, just from the evidence-based formula
alone, that's a billion dollars.
The only thing I caution you is
that doesn't include students with disabilities, not fully.
So we have some other unfunded mandates that are growing.
So all that to say is the advocacy doesn't stop,
but that first billion would be a good start. Got
You.
Um, question that I would want through the chair is
I see that we have an increase in staffing,
and I think that that's important
obviously for any good school.
I would love to see the demographics of the staffing, black,
Latino, Asian women, men.
Um, I think that that plays an important part in this
conversation because obviously
as we are talking about potential cuts
or what that could look like, we also have to look at who
that would be impacting.
Yeah, I, hi Ben Felton, chief Talent Officer.
I can speak a little bit about that.
Um, al thank you for the question.
So, you know, the research is clear that, uh, children
of color, um,
benefit profoundly from having a representative teaching
force and, and all children benefit from having a,
a demographically representative teaching force.
So one of the top priorities of our, uh, strategy
to staff schools more, uh, robustly
and more equitably has been
to diversify our incoming teaching force.
So in 2017, when we started our Teach Chicago initiative,
um, we, uh, we had about 33%
of our new teachers were black or Latino.
This past year, we, we had, we have,
we started the school year with 49%
of our new teachers were black or Latino,
and we achieved those gains in some important ways.
Um, one being a real investment in our teacher residency
program, um, where we are investing in teacher's assistance,
special education, classroom assistants, uh,
other CPS staffers to become teachers of record,
because we know that those folks are
disproportionately people of color.
Um, and they also are appealing
to us in several reasons, for several reasons.
One, because, you know, they have deep connections
to our schools and our communities.
They know what it's like to teach on the south side
or to work on the south side or the west side.
Um, and then also, uh, you know, a huge percentage
of those people are, um, are CPS graduates or CPS parents.
We're also recruiting our own high school seniors into,
into both two year and four year teacher preparation
programs to become the next generation of CPS teachers.
We also are really aggressive in the way that we recruit,
uh, through an early offer program.
If we find an exceptional black math teacher in December,
and we don't know where our math jobs are yet, you know, we,
we offer them a job now
and we say, stick with us until the summer
and we're gonna work to find you a job.
So all of that, you know,
our strategies have gone from being a passive consumer
of the talent that local universities were giving us
to really, uh, shaping the, the question of who gets
to be a CPS teacher.
So it's, it's not only the increases, uh, it's also
in staffing, it's also in increases in,
in our highest needs subject areas,
and then also that representation.
So we're really excited about
the progress we've made on that front.
Thank you for the question. Yeah,
I would still wanna get those specific demographics,
but I think that the investment again, um, is needed.
I also know that even with these investments, we still have,
um, schools in black communities
where the entire education force does not look like them.
Right. Which is a huge inequity.
Um, I had the privilege of working with a group
of young people when I was in high school called Voices
of Youth in Chicago education, shout out to voice.
And what we learned from three years of researching
schools all across the country is
that young people learn better
when they have teachers that look like them.
They are able to retain the information.
They are also able to learn differently.
Everybody's learning style is different, right?
Um, but when you are able to have a teacher
that actually understands the needs
of a student on a deeper level, it plays an entire,
an entire different role in the trajectory of
that student success.
My next question, um, is more about tiffs
because I know that we've gotten off of the subject of loan
and gone to tiffs.
I would like to know what has been the surplus amount
for CPS over the last five years?
So we, we have it in a, in a table.
Um, although woman, it's, um, lemme tell you,
it is in slide 26.
Slide 26, 26. So we have
you, you, there, you have the history there.
So again, under the current mayor, we, we received the,
and under the city council,
we received the largest TIF surplus this last year.
And we're very grateful for that.
Um, and so, and it's been rising every year.
The challenge is that this, this next year, we won't have,
this year we we're out of federal funds.
Uh, we've used up everything.
And so it wasn't still sufficient
to cover the phased in payment for the pension payment,
but we had the flexibility of aser.
We no longer have that.
And so that's the reason why, you know,
I made a formal request to the mayor,
and I'm making a formal request to the city council
With plus play this hypothetical game.
Say you got TIFF surplus for this year.
What does next year and beyond look like?
Because I feel like this is where we are right now,
is are we just gonna always look every year
for the T TIF surplus to be the plug?
So, um, it's a great question
because I, I think this is the bigger question
of this entanglement one, I, I just have
to first applaud the city council, our mayor and others
before that tiffs have really been successful.
I mean, I really wanna call that out.
I mean, the fact that they've grown so much,
they're producing so much revenue.
Um, I think, I don't think anybody realize
how this, what this could become.
So I see it as an opportunity. I don't see it as a problem.
I also know that, uh, you know, under the current mayor,
he has, his team has graciously said they're gonna be
letting more and more tips expire.
And so we'll be able to count on that in a gradual way.
So I believe there's a,
there's an opportunity for a long-term plan.
At the same time, I will ask for your help.
The mayor's help and the mayor's team's help to continue
to advocate with the state.
We'll continue to advocate also with the federal government.
I, again, more than happy to, to make my case, you know,
my teachers told me, you show your work, I will show my work
and I will show you where we're seeing evidence of growth,
but also where we still have significant needs.
And so that really is what I want to do. Older woman,
Last hypothetical scenario, you get tiff surplus,
the state gives us the bare minimum, but not enough.
So we're still looking at a deficit.
Is there still the potential to take out extra funding,
such as a loan or other streams of funding?
So I think first off,
what I would do older women is look at
what other areas we can be more efficient in.
And so that's, we did that this year,
and we'll continue to do that.
That would be my first go to.
Um, again, I will, I, I think,
I think if I could do it over again,
I think these would be conversations that I would have
with you, the city council, with the mayor together,
and let's really understand all the risks and challenges,
because I really believe this, I believe the city council,
this mayor really do love.
We really love our district,
and you care about our district.
And so, um, I wanna make sure that you're aware
of all the risks, all the concerns,
and then let's make that decision
collectively together with our board.
Um, because it's much bigger than any one of us.
It's, it's about the institution
and making sure that when we look back at this time,
we can all look back and say,
we did the best we could for our, for our children.
Um, last question,
and I think Alder Woman Lee, um, at, asked this question,
but I wanna make sure that we're just getting
the full breadth of the conversation.
When you all received the federal funding that
everybody needed to survive during the pandemic,
what were the conversations knowing that this is a temporary
bandaid that we will have to rip off
and pour alcohol on at some point to, to, to cure?
What were your thoughts around the long-term effects?
Because yes, staffing is needed. Yes.
Infrastructure is needed. Yes.
All of the things that you invested in were absolutely
needed knowing that they weren't tied to a definite
revenue source.
So I, I think first, um, for me, it started
with number one, you know, we partner with the Secretary
of Education because, you know,
he's been very public about this was the right use
of resources, uh,
because I've gotten some criticism
of why did you use one time money for staffing?
Uh, and that was, you know, that was a decision that we,
we didn't make just, you know, in, in any,
without any real thought.
We also said, okay, what does our evidence show?
We're significantly underfunded by the state.
What does our evidence show? Tiffs are growing?
And, and again, and we have both, you know, a new mayor,
a city council that get it.
Like you get it. Like I, you know, like you understand, uh,
you see the needs of our schools.
And so, um, so I, I decided, you know, we needed to,
to really make these kind of bold decisions
and really invest in our schools.
And for me, more importantly, that we needed
to give our teachers a fighting chance.
Uh, I, I think it's, it's, I think it's missed so much
how hard our staff work.
And look, we're not where we wanna be,
but the momentum we're making is,
is I can show you the evidence.
I'll show you tomorrow, you know,
with the most recent evidence.
And so, I'm sorry to repeat myself, all the women,
but again, let me show my work.
Let me, let me make the case to you, to our, I'm not,
you know, our kids.
One thing I tell you about our children,
and I saw that at Collins, they just want a fighting chance.
They're not looking for a handout, right?
All the women's got, they're not looking for a handout.
They're like, they're telling us their
aspirations and their dreams.
And I tell you, and I just, you know, I, that's what our,
that's what our children want.
Yeah. No, and I,
I think you have everybody on this council
who understand the need
and a wants of students in public education.
Um, I just know that sometimes
hard decisions have to be made.
And having a temporary source of funding
that we know is not gonna be long term,
and here for us to continue to elevate our school system
around, um, it's something that I just wanted
to have more context around,
because we all knew that this day was coming.
And so we're getting here to this day,
and we're still sitting here with unanswered questions
around what's the plan going forward?
With all due respect, although the plan has been very
consistent, we're asking for, you know,
a a partner continued partnership on how we are using tips.
Again, if these tips didn't exist,
1.2 billion would be going
to the taxing bodies at like 600 million a year,
we'll be going to CPS alone.
We wouldn't even be having this conversation about a future
deficit, 3 billion in the bank as of 23.
If tips didn't exist, more than half of
that would be in the bank account to CPS.
I wouldn't have to borrow for 70% of my payrolls every year.
And so, and,
and, you know, that's, I mean, I,
I'm just being very truthful while still
not letting the state off the hook. Yep.
Is there any, uh, uh, plan forward to hire social workers?
Our schools are in need of over 2000 social workers,
you all, um,
and it is a need that a lot of folks are really asking
for in 2024 and beyond.
I am very proud of the women that we have,
the highest number of social workers we've ever had.
We have now more social workers than we have schools.
That wasn't a thing, you know, back in 2019.
Um, to your point, the needs are still growing.
And so we're gonna continue to hire
because we're seeing more and more needs,
whether it's our students with IEPs
or students that are homeless.
Thank you so much, chair.
I want to acknowledge Alderwoman Scott
and Alderwoman Mitts, who is joining us online.
Alderman Quinn.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Um,
I wanted to, um, echo what Alderman O'Shea said earlier.
I, I too am frustrated
that the board members didn't show up today.
Um, it's incredibly frustrating when you're asking for money
and you don't show up to take questions.
Um, uh, that said, um, CEO Martinez, uh, um,
my principles support you.
Um, and that means a lot to me.
Um, and so I, I thought I'd put that on the record.
Um, you, you've, you've talked a lot about schools
that are under-enrolled.
I have the other side of the equation,
and we've talked a lot about going to Springfield,
and we have $13 million of state money
for Hubbard High School today.
You walk the halls of Hubbard, you, you know,
the demographics of Hubbard,
what is gonna happen with Hubbard?
It's just not fair that we can't get anything going there.
We've put all the nucleus together. Ms.
Alt Murano has done fantastic work,
but having 1800 kids in a school
that could hold 1100, it's not fair.
Yeah. So, so I'm, I'm, I'm really grateful, Allman,
for you bringing up these questions
because it's the complexity of the district.
By the way, Harvard is an amazing high school.
The results are just amazing.
This is why children want to go there, right?
And while, by the way, we're investing in schools
that are nearby, you know,
we're investing more engaged in engaged high
school in Richards High School.
So again, it's not about, not Rich,
I'm sorry, but g High School.
And so, you know, for us, as part of this capital plan,
we actually did put funding
to analyze overcrowding in our schools as well as buildings
that we know weren't, weren't built to last this long.
Uh, and, and I have an example of that at,
at an elementary school in Southeast Chicago.
So that funding is in the capital plan to at least do
that analysis and do that work.
Um, as you know, you know, we are always proponents
of leveraging every funding source, TIFF,
our funding source in the state,
because frankly, that's how we can make things work.
So just know we're, we're committed to working with you,
whether it's at Hubbard, um, you know, uh,
I don't know if Kennedy's also in your region.
Kennedy is overcrowded as well.
So we have several high schools
that are on the other spectrum, and frankly,
'cause they're, they're just doing so well and,
and so we wanna make sure we continue
to look at those high schools
because they are significantly overcrowded.
And I've been to Hubbard multiple times.
Correct? And, and I thank you for that.
But Hubbard shouldn't be penalized
because they have their act
together, and it feels like that.
And, and there's, there's conversations
around closed enrollment and, and those sorts of things.
And, and that's got people on on high alert.
Um, so we, we've talked a lot about going to Springfield.
There's $13 million there sitting for Hubbard.
Earmarked for Hubbard,
and we're just gonna let it sit there.
Should we reallocate it?
No, alderman. So, I mean, again, we're committed
to securing those funds.
So just know that, um, again, I think, uh,
yeah, I mean, I'll just leave it at that all.
So, so know that we're not, we're, we're committed to it.
I, I wanna look at our system collectively,
and that includes our overcrowded,
overcrowded schools as well.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you
All. The woman Coleman.
Thank you Madam Chairwoman.
Uh, I too, you know, a lot of us are disappointed
that the board members both passed
and potentially present are not here
because my, you know,
my number one concern is the black student agenda,
uh, their experience.
And I would've liked to have heard, what have they learned,
uh, on the studies that have been taking, what, over a year
that chairman woman Taylor
and I attended, we kicked it off in Inglewood.
I like to know the status of that report,
how the board can support or will support.
But I wanna hear specifically from you, have you,
or is there a plan to quantify
what black students has actually shared with CPS
about their experience, what they're going through,
and what does that look like for the board,
Uh, Of education?
So the short answer is absolutely yes.
And really what I'm looking forward to now,
that strategic plan has been, you know, unanimously approved
by the board, is to really kick off that work.
Uh, I think I, I went to multiple engagement sessions,
and as you said, I mean, we, we,
there was just valuable insight that we gained.
Um, I don't know, McDonna if you wanna share anymore,
but the black Student Success plan.
But this is an area that's very,
that we have a passion for all the women
And have, have you quantified what students have stated?
You know, the conditions of my schools is this,
or I need teachers,
or we need additional support
for extracurricular activities.
What does that look like? How much,
and how does that affect the budget and the ask? Yeah,
Yeah. What, what I will
share is that, um, this plan,
the detailed Black Student success plan is
still in development.
So it was reflected in the strategic plan broadly as one
of the targeted strategies for the district.
But there will be more, um, you know, detailed information
and summary of the engagement sessions of the feedback
and the details about the implementation
of all the strategies that were recommended
through the engagement sessions.
So we'll share more, um, I will make sure that at the next,
you know, board meeting at the end of the month,
there is a full update on the status
of the Black student success plan.
Okay. I will definitely be present for
that, that board meeting.
And I like to see that quantified.
I know how many millions of dollars would it take based on
what black students have shared for this?
It seemed like soon to be 12 months.
I know it's been at least 12 months
since the engagement has began.
But I like to know November,
December, yes. They started
December around November
or December started last
Year. Okay. Just about
12 months.
But how much, what does
that investment look like from the black students
that are part of CPS?
And then, um, older woman, vice chair, clay, she,
she hit on it how students have a better experience
with people that look like them.
I like to know what is our, um, our recruiting looking like,
or is there any recruiting for HBCUs?
You know, CPS students, CPS teachers are some
of the most well paid in the nation.
How are we getting black teachers,
specifically black men in the classrooms?
You wanna take that?
Yep. Um, we are in HBCUs, we've done, we're doing tours,
I'm sorry, Ben Felton, chief Talent Officer.
Um, so our team is in HBCUs, um, across,
across the south, across, you know, in, in dc.
And so we are visiting those campuses,
deepening relationships with the deans,
with others in those communities.
Um, so we're in HBCUs,
but, you know, I often say to my staff, like,
shame on us if we can't also invest in the black people
in Chicago too.
So we are, you know, we are hard, hard,
hard recruiting the HBCUs,
but we are also recruiting our own paraprofessionals,
our own teacher's assistants,
our own special education classroom assistants, um,
our own students to become the next
generation of CPS teachers.
The other thing that we're doing is we're working
with all the local universities and there,
and there are, you know,
sadly there are institutions in the city
where the teaching programs, especially at Chicago State
and others have gotten considerably smaller over the years.
We're working hard in partnership with those,
with those colleges to try to direct more of our students
to go into those teacher prep programs.
Um, and then so they can graduate with an early offer,
an early commitment from us.
Um, we're also thinking about, you know, we, we've,
we've raised philanthropic support
to support black teacher candidates, um, with, you know,
scholarships and, uh, emergency funds.
'cause we know, you know, in some cases the difference
between a car breaking down
or not is getting the class and nod, right?
So I mean, we're, we're trying to think of all sorts
of innovative ways to increase the number of black, uh,
candidates in our pipeline who ultimately become teachers.
So yes, it's a both end. Yes.
In HBCUs and yes, in in Chicago too.
Well, may I recommend the young man that's sitting next
to you is a product of A-H-B-C-U, as well as CPS
and that we tap into, just look at your staff,
look at your team, and ask them for their feedback on how
to recruit more black people.
Uh, especially, uh, CEO Pedro, I've shared with you
with the missing SROs missing in our schools.
I know for a fact
and network 11, we had officers that looked like students
that were able to come in
and mediate a lot of the tension
that could have possibly spilled out into the streets
that would have, you know, been equivalent to shootings
that the, the presence
of the black men is missing in our schools.
And it takes black men to be examples
for young black men in our schools.
So I wanna reiterate the missing presence
of African American men and how we can be intentional.
Very intentional. We've lost three black principals
in the last year at some key schools like Dunbar Limb,
bloom, can't think the other one right now.
Hyde Park. I want to make sure that black men are at this,
at the helm of this conversation.
Thank you. Thank you Madam Chairwoman.
We're gonna go to non committee members,
uh, alderman Vasquez.
Thank you. Madam Chair. Can you hold,
hold the woman Gutierrez.
I'm sorry.
Thank you. I think, um, CEO Martinez,
you've mentioned about why it's not a good idea asking
for loans, but can you specifically walk us through
what would, um, taking that 300, uh, million
loan would be a bad idea for our schools in our city?
Yeah, so older women, and,
and I don't wanna get too technical.
Uh, so first of all, we're not allowed by state law
to use tax exempt financing for operations.
Uh, what I shared with you,
what happened in the 16, 17, 18 era was literally us,
with my, my metaphor, right, of refinancing our house.
So we were taking existing debt refinancing at higher rates,
extending the debt.
We've done that. We can't do that anymore.
We would, we could go after taxable debt,
but the rates are much, much higher.
And my fear there is
because we're such a credit risk right now,
we're the largest, we have some
of the lowest credit ratings of any district in the country.
And so you're, you know, it's like when you take,
when you have a low, low credit, imagine the kind
of credit card you get, right?
The kind of interest rate you get.
So you have that issue in addition to that.
So really what what would happen is we would have
to have a deficit this school year.
And as our CFO said earlier,
it would drain any cash I have left.
I'm already borrowing for 70% of my payrolls, everybody.
And so that would have
to be resolved immediately this following school year.
Uh, 'cause we wouldn't, you know, we would,
we would preserve what we have the right now,
the school year, but the risk
would just be that much higher.
And so my fear is that the destabilization of our schools,
uh, and, and again, that bill would come very due
because that borrowing is based on tax anticip, you know,
taxes that are being anticipated.
They're called tax anticipation notes.
We finally got that interest expense down from
50 million to 10 million.
It was 50 million when I started.
And I have, there's, I get nothing for that interest, right?
I mean, that's teachers, that's counselors,
social workers that I can't hire.
And so we'd go, we'd go back to that.
But more importantly, those, it has to be paid immediately
as soon as we get the next year's collections.
And so then, I mean, I, I,
I can't even imagine the
financial distress that we would be under.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Altman. Vazquez.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I, I will echo the comments
of my colleagues related to, um, the invitation
to the board members both past and present to be here.
Um, I think it's, uh, one to acknowledge the credit to
what the prior board had gotten accomplished,
but I think it's challenging for folks in the public
who are watching this to feel that the board's gonna show up
for them if they can't show up for this.
Um, so I think it's clear that
although you're a CEO, this is an in is not an institution
that is run like a corporation
because it's not about making profit
when we think about this, right?
Um, I think the investment being made do have a return on
investment that I think people may not fully recognize.
I mean, we are, we talk about our kids and our education,
but it's also like increasing the tax base,
as you mentioned, increasing the population, knowing
that the schools in these neighborhoods are getting better.
Um, it is also a public safety investment when we think
about the kids growing up in neighborhoods
where there aren't opportunities, where there isn't
that kind of ecosystem around them.
These are the folks that then grow up
and then end up joining other communities
that are not the best when it comes to,
to criminal activity to be more specific.
So, um, I think we all recognize
the investment necessary here.
Um, I I, as we were learning about all the different
updates, I think the thing that for me, um, where,
where my opposition to
what was moving forward is crystal clear is about the
$300 million loans.
I think when we look at our system and,
and the city has our own history,
where you've already driven up the debt to what it can be
to then take out a loan and pay off a debt,
doesn't do much except increase
the amount of debt over time.
So, as we talk about investing in kids,
what we're doing is saddling those kids
with payments in the future, right?
A as it continues to grow these deficits,
they're the ones that we're gonna have to pay as well.
So it, it, I I got a couple questions related to that.
How did the, the $300 million loan proposal first come up?
So, um, so Alderman, so again, we,
and I, I really have always treasured the
relationship I was building with the mayor.
So we, we were, we were having these,
these conversations now for several months.
Um, we got to April 30th
because our budget needed to, you know,
we were getting close to finalizing our budget.
Um, at that time, you know, we had a,
a full meeting with his team.
Uh, my team, our board of chair was there
and there at that, at that convers at that meeting,
you know, the conversation was, well,
Springfield hasn't finished yet, right?
The session doesn't end until the end of May.
Let's really see what's, what's gonna happen in Springfield.
Um, I had shared already with the mayor that, you know,
I had went down to Springfield
and I got a lot of resistance,
mainly from the governor's office.
And so he understood that
and he said, look, let's figure out how to do this,
you know, even in a more coordinated way next year.
But we waited. And so we got the results from Springfield.
It wasn't anything that we weren't expecting.
We didn't get more funding than we already thought we were
gonna get at that time.
Uh, we, we were asked, open up your books, right?
Let's, let's really see,
because again, we already, we already had a plan
to cut costs in central office.
And so we showed that
and we partnered with the mayor state, multiple meetings
by the way, weeks and weeks at a time.
We extended our budget period. We didn't approve it in June.
We approved it in July. And by the way, for me, it was,
again, this is all in partnership and collaboration.
I didn't take it any other way.
Um, I really believe that we should be accountable,
whether it's to the mayor's office, whether it's
to our, our taxpayers.
I just really, and our parents. And so we did that.
I was really expecting that, you know,
we've done our due diligence, we've shown you everything.
Um, you know, please support us on additional TIF funding.
'cause the, the request was always very clear.
Um, we presented a request at that time
for $460 million of TIF funding.
That was to cover our base funding, SEIU
and 300 million at that time for the pension, as well as,
uh, anticipated, you know,
raises we were gonna provide. Yeah, I,
I, I, I appreciate, 'cause I
know we saw some in the presentation.
I just, if we can get to the answer of how it first came up.
'cause I've got more questions as
Well. Yeah, yeah. So, so
Alderman, so, so really, instead
of us getting a support for tiff, we got asked to borrow.
And, and so then we, we then shared, you know,
and I shared that, you know,
our board would wouldn't support that
because we knew the risks.
And then of course, we, we even put the risks on, on paper
because we just thought, and so, so
that's what, and that's where we're at today. All
Right. So for clarity,
you didn't propose it as part of an agenda.
You were asked to do it. Okay.
Um, I, I, I've got, uh, questions related to your tenure
as CFO, uh, I think it was 2003, 2008, um,
because we understand that the concerns with borrowing,
so can you speak to some of the history of borrowing during
that time and those decisions that you,
you were making in that position?
Sure, sure. So, to be clear, for the record,
I was the budget director from 2004 to about 2006.
And then I was the CFO from that period to 2008.
And then in oh nine, I went to the academic side.
Uh, during that time, alderman,
we had the highest bond ratings ever.
Uh, you can go to our website and actually look back.
We go back to 2010, which was two years after I left.
And it was the highest bond ratings we ever had.
We also had the highest cash reserves we ever had.
We weren't borrowing for, for payroll.
Any debt that we took out, it was for capital.
Uh, the needs were great, unfortunately.
I mean, you can imagine the, the amount
of deferred maintenance that we had.
So we were doing a borrowing for capital.
Uh, any, uh, in terms of the debt instruments, uh, I was,
that just wasn't my expertise.
Uh, fortunately we had somebody that was part of, uh,
Arnie's or CEO's Duncan's team.
That was a more, that's his background.
Uh, what I made sure though, as CFO is
that we always had the financial reserves to plan
for worst case scenarios.
And so those reserves always did exist.
How, how, how do you feel about
that plan looking at it now?
You know, I mean, again, hindsight is 2020.
Uh, I'm proud of the fact that we,
we had the cash reserves to handle it.
Uh, just to, for, again, for the record,
the issues the CPS got into
as we got into 16, 17, 18 was not related to any of that.
It was because the district got into a deficit, spending
lost all its credit ratings
and then was refinancing its debt.
Had nothing to do with any decision that I made during my,
my, my tenure as CFO budget director. So
I, I guess my question related to that, where I'm,
I'm a little concerned is,
and I do understand even when the city does have got a
concern, so if there's capital needs,
even when you're borrowing, you still gotta figure out
how you're paying that bill back.
And so when all of us here as members
of city council are literally going into our t to fund some
of the capital needs that the schools have, why was
that not a conversation then as to rather than borrow going
to the tiffs to cover some of that capital? I,
I believe at that time, uh, alderman, the tiffs weren't
as large as they are now.
I think we were still getting TIFF funding, but
because if you remember that time, uh,
we were overcrowded in many neighborhoods.
So we had to build a lot of new schools.
And then, if you remember, we also
had federal funding at that time.
We had, um, uh, the, the modern Chicago,
I, I apologize if I don't have the right term, but,
but we had, we actually had federal grants even at
that time, and state capital grants.
So we had multiple layers of capital funding
that we were able to le lever, uh, and, and or use.
And because of that, you know, I think during that period,
we probably built the most new schools
that we've ever seen. Sure.
Okay. Uh, so I think, one, I appreciate that,
I think it really focuses in on the state responsibility
that I think we all agree
and need to partner on, um, as we're looking
to like more tiff sunsets, right?
We all voted on a bond plan to do some
of the development across our wards.
So those tiff are gonna sunset.
How does that ultimately play out as
to the funding you would get?
And I think it's something we need to take into account
as col as council,
when we're talking about diff tiff expansions,
tiff extensions and those concerns.
Like how does that play out?
Yeah, so Alderman, you know, we're, we're
of course supporters of Tiff expirations.
And so as those tiffs expire, they go back
to the taxing bodies.
And I was very heartened by the fact that the mayor
and his team shared with it with us that
that was the vision and plan.
And so, again, you know, as always said earlier,
I've always felt that whether the city council, the mayor,
the mayor's team, I mean, we're all,
we're all on the same side here,
that this is the right approach
as we understand the complexities of disentanglement. Sure.
But there's no necessarily, there's not necessarily a
commitment more than verbal, like legislatively.
The reason why I say that is we have our own bills to pay.
So if all that goes back to corporate fund, it's not, not
guaranteed that it goes back to CPS in any certain share.
So when you, so alderman, when when Tiff expire, um,
they go back to the taxing bodies
and we're the biggest beneficiary.
We, we, you know, the city gets 25 cents, more or less.
We get about 50 cents.
Okay. And, and the thing that I appreciate one
of our colleagues brought up was at the state level,
really talking about the board of education, CPS, being able
to raise it, cap on what it can tax.
Um, I do understand your position as you kind
of talked about the property taxes,
but let's all be real as we talk about Disentanglement.
And you've got a board that's gonna be its own elected body.
It makes perfect sense for them to be the ones having a vote
to figure out the increase on taxes.
'cause then ultimately they can be held
accountable by those who vote for them.
Yeah. I, I won't, I won't hide this alderman.
I mean, once the district becomes an independent,
fully elected school board,
I think they should have the ability to do referendums.
And, and again, I'm not saying they're easy to get.
I've had to get 'em in my other districts that I've ran.
But then again, you gotta make your,
you gotta make your case like Naperville is doing
today to their taxpayers.
And the taxpayers either say yay or nay. Yeah.
And, and, and, and it should agreed.
That's not just to leave them stranded out there.
I think we all have a vested interest in making sure they
have the ability to do so.
And so, um, I think that's, that's fair.
Um, I, so
my next question is about efficiencies, right?
I think there's a reality, you guys were looking at some
of your paperwork to see what projections could look like.
Did you all look as far as, um, uh,
efficiencies in the central office, right?
Like, like those of us here,
when everyone else is looking at cuts, just start
with yourself to kind of make that case.
Do you, how did you do that? Or did you do that?
Is there documentation to support it? Yeah,
So absolutely Alderman.
So we were very transparent in our budget that we passed
that the cuts were all at the central office.
Um, and so we, we, we cut over $200 million.
Uh, now some of that was also support for schools,
because the challenge we have in central office,
and this is what I shared with, you know,
when we started having more detailed
conversation, we opened up our books.
Um, everything that's left is either critical functions
that, you know, it's payroll, it's managing our systems
that create other problems for us.
And one of the things that I was worried about is that
what our district has done is historically is
outsource too many things.
Uh, one of the things that I shared with the, with the,
you know, when I first started CPS, is
that I was disappointed
and shocked how many things we outsource
that are core critical functions
that other districts just would never outsource.
Um, it's, it's part of your capacity.
You need to build that over time.
And so, you know, one of the things that I didn't want
to get back is that we cut everything in central office,
but we still need that service.
And then you outsource it again.
So we were trying to achieve that balance.
But, you know, our, our cuts are well
documented in our budget book.
We're more than happy to share more details.
But that's what we, we focused on.
And unfortunately, I mean, I will tell you my staff in
central office are working harder than ever.
And I'm just trying to keep 'em, uh, because,
but it, it was all in protect to protect the schools.
Yeah, if you could share that to the chair, I think,
you know, we ourselves and see bureaucracy sometime where,
where you just gotta look like technology, for example,
when it comes to city, our city government is so behind,
we need to invest to kind of tighten things up.
So that would be helpful. Um,
I think I got two more questions.
Uh, one related to, you mentioned like state peers
and like joint stakeholder tables.
Um, how are those conversations going?
Because as we're hearing, you know, one from the,
from the teachers union here about the state's involvement
and, and making sure the funding's increased.
Clearly there's a shared interest in like Southern Illinois
and other municipalities who are experiencing the same kind
of pain to see like what that organizing looks like.
Yeah. So, so that's really important, alderman.
Thank you for that question. So, uh,
I'm the first CEOI think in at least the last three
or four that actually joined the, the, the association
for the state, um,
to partner really on this issue of funding.
Because one of the things that
as we were reading the tea leaves,
we were hearing very clearly that
because of shifts of population, frankly from Chicago
to the suburbs, I would've never thought
that we have more Latinos now in the
suburbs than we do in the city of Chicago.
I just never thought that would even be possible.
We actually have less representation at the state level.
And so any case we have to make,
and this is something that, you know, and the mayor
and the mayor's been very supportive of this, we have
to make it statewide for education.
It can't be, if we just go in with CPS, um,
we're not gonna get the support that we need with that.
I'm, I'm about truth telling.
Let's make sure people know that our, our,
our taxpayers in Chicago subsidize both the state pension
and our own teachers Chicago pension.
Uh, let's make sure that people understand
that we don't have the ability to do referendum.
So all of the capital money's coming
from my operating budget.
Let's make sure that people understand, you know,
all these different issues while still having an
advocacy for the entire state.
Thank you. Uh, one I appreciate, uh, chairwoman
how you started out off the whole meeting, right?
That I think it's easy for us to viscerally kind of flare up
and try to point fingers at each other,
but if we don't figure our own stuff out together,
none of this gets resolved.
And so I think as we talk about what we all understand
as a shared interest at the state level,
really us being able to huddle
to get those priorities make sense.
Um, I think there's a number of us, uh, as far
as council members that need to go to Springfield
that haven't so much respect
to Black Caucus for going down there last time.
Um, we need to have those conversations
because if the priorities are mixed,
if somebody's talking about a Bear stadium
where we're trying to figure out how to get money,
we have problems when we go to the governor
who can quickly say, Hey,
you guys need to get your stuff together.
Us we can't do anything. Um, I think lastly, I appreciate
that we've had this meeting, um,
and looking at similar agencies like CTA, we had a situation
where the president wasn't coming at
all to speak to this stuff.
And so, uh, in order for us to get that accomplished, we had
to pass legislation to require quarterly
hearings to be able to get that done.
We currently have, uh, an ordinance in this committee
to require quarterly hearings of CPS
and are looking at maybe to include board members as well,
because we were invited to go to the Board of Education
to go ask questions when we can only provide public comment,
which isn't a fair dialogue.
So if something like that were to move forward,
would you commit to be here on a quarterly basis to be able
to answer questions so we don't have
to find out about this during the news?
Yes, absolutely. Alder.
Because really, you know, I, one of the things
that I can tell you is that our district
by itself cannot do it.
Uh, we are seen as, you know, really a, a collaborator
with the city and with and with really with you.
And when we go by ourselves to Springfield,
we'll never be effective if it's not seen as a coalition.
It's just a reality. And I know this from my early days in
CPS, that has always been true.
And so that, and even I worry that even
with an independent school board, it's gonna take time
for Springfield to give the district the respect.
Yep. And so we have to work together
because we have a vested interest
in the district being respected.
Yeah. We've seen that with our public Safety
Accountability board here, where even though they're duly
elected, they don't really get that level
of weight, uh, that they should get.
Um, so I, I, one, I appreciate that commitment.
Um, I think in hearing all of this,
I appreciate kind of the, the detail.
'cause I don't see any villains or superheroes out here.
I see a bunch of humans who are making mistakes sometimes
and trying to figure out to solve them.
And so for me, the accountability
and regular reporting out,
I think benefits all of us and the public.
So thank you so much for being here.
Uh, wish the board members could show up in future
meetings as we have them.
And thank you chair for the patience and the power
and the strength in that role
to hold down the for during this.
So thank you very much.
Alderman Ccho Lopez, followed by Alderman Moore.
Thank you, um, Madam Chair.
And um, I'm actually glad that we have
a chair on the education committee that has fought
for a school as a hunger striker to save a school.
And I am glad that we have now the ability
to ask directly to the CEO.
So I very pertinent questions.
As we have seen the actual fiscal irresponsibility
of closing 50 schools in the poorest areas of the city
of Chicago, that was irresponsible.
And I wish that at the time I saw the level of theatrics
that I've seen in this council.
I just recently had the opportunity to talk to some
of the youth victims of such atrocity.
And he shared with me at 24 years old what at a time
he's seen some of his former classmates gone down just
because they live in the wrong side of town.
So when we talk about the theatrics here, there are some
of us that actually have thought to make sure
that schools don't shut down
and the kids actually have an opportunity
after one came to the United States at 17 years old.
So Mr. Martinez, I do understand the immigrant story.
I did not even have my family with me when I came.
So we talk about the disinvestment in our communities,
then you have the explanation of the poverty
that we continue to see today.
That leads me to my first question.
'cause we do stood up with our black
neighbors at a Smith Elementary when there was an attempt
to shut down that school that served predominantly black
residents, bla Holmes, Barbara, Jean Wright.
And I'm glad to see some of my neighbors standing with us.
Now that Aceto talk about fiscally responsibility
is shutting down seven schools.
I am surprised to hear there has been little conversation
about the shutdown of seven schools in the southwest side.
And I will add that's eight schools.
Mr. Martinez, if we add potentially the shutdown
of Elma Thomas, a quality
childcare center that you to yourself when you first started
as CEO and praise them for being a model for the city.
So my first question goes in line
with the plans of leaving 2000 children.
We talk about 2000 children
that are potentially gonna be left without a school.
And I, I see my colleague Quinn just walked out.
I wish he's here to listen
'cause he represents some of those schools as well.
But those are 2000 kids that are gonna leave
that would be left potentially without a school
because of the fiscal irresponsibility of those
who actually were signing payday bonds.
As Mr. Hel My question, what is the plan
for those 2000 kids?
I mean, I hear some people talk about divisiveness.
I talk about accountability.
I did not come here to make friends.
I came here to make sure that CPS actually works
for every single child.
So my first question is, what is the plan
and what have been the conversations with parents,
educators, and people in those schools?
I just yesterday had a meeting
with parents in the tour schools that are sharing
that in my neighborhood ar CAAs and pass.
And there has not been any conversations about
what could potentially happen or where are they going to go.
In fact, these concerns also, OMA Thomas talk about tiffs,
you know, very well, Cooper Elementary with maybe one
of the co-location plans are,
'cause yesterday was consolidation at a US colocation.
But the language may change. The actions are the same.
Cooper Elementary does not even have a playground.
How we going to have kindergarten kids or play
or pre-K going to school without playground
when we have a quality public, uh, public childcare
that was praised by you?
So my question is, what is the plan for those 2000 kids?
Number one And number two is,
what are we thinking about shutting down?
What are the best childcare centers
that we have on the Southwest side?
While we have funding to fund
three more sites on the north side, we have received,
we have received a lot of the new neighbors
that in other communities are being treated as subhuman.
Where is the investment for our schools
when we are receiving cuts, closures, less social workers,
non librarians in some of the schools?
My question to you, sir, you have said that you are a leader
for the Latino community.
Look at what is happening in our community.
And I stand in solidarity with the black community
because have been victims as well of school closures.
This is the time to stand up together for quality education.
So my my question to you, sir, as I did in the Board
of education, what is the plan for those 2000 kids
and what is the plan for the childcare center?
I am not going to allow b to have kids without childcare
or parents without childcare
or worse, not even with a playground to play on.
So, so alderman, so we're, you know, I we're still working
with aro, so I, so we'll have more details.
I, I commit to all of you. We'll provide more details.
It is very disconcerting to me.
We found out, like I said, about hours
or within a day of when everybody else found out.
Unfortunately by law charters are independent institutions.
I don't have any authority over them with that, uh,
we will come up with a plan.
And so you have my commitment on that.
Uh, but it just happened recently.
So I wanna make sure that plan is thoughtful.
And again, that I, we actually talked to the organization.
My team is actually talking to the organization.
We wanna understand what the issues are.
Mr. Martinez, again, I do think it's important that we go
beyond the talk and we go to the actions.
'cause the fact of the matter is that there are 2000 kids
with parents that are stressed with kids at the same,
the same consideration that any other kid,
no matter where's the zip code.
And I tell you that I see,
and my colleague Alderman Hall mentioned this
about the advocacy.
So, but let's talk about revenue. 'cause we, again,
as a Latino CEOI think that'd be problematic
that we see the largest school closures in our community,
almost in the CPS history.
That's unacceptable.
But I tell you that in terms of funding,
and I hope my colleague here, Alder McQueen is here
because he should listen to this.
'cause I see a lot of the elected officials going
and advocating for more police stations, federal government,
even getting involved for more police stations.
I tell you that would be more effective than that is
to actually advocate for schools, for schools
that prevent more people
and young people being now subject to all sorts of issues.
So in terms of the advocacy at the federal level, I hear
that there's, you know, and you known
for the last three years that this money was gonna run,
be run will be running out.
We know that the state is again, has a billion dollars
for my colleagues said for more prisons.
But it doesn't seem to have the same advocacy
when it comes to schools.
My question is on, on your slide 31,
there was also talk about a coalition of advocates
and educators who is in those coalitions.
Because clearly the advocacy is working very well
for more police stations
and not so well for schools
that we actually desperately need.
So what is the strategy?
What are those coalitions being built so
that we can effectively lobby the
state and the federal government?
Yeah, and we definitely not alder.
Thank you for that question. And we definitely
for all the elders, we will give you, you know,
a more comprehensive detailed plan on this.
But really we have been partnering with many organizations,
like I said, including other districts
across, across the state.
And what we have heard consistently though is that we need
to have alignment across all levels across the city.
Whether it's our union partners, whether it's, you know,
our board, our district as well
as the mayor and the mayor's office.
Uh, we've been following, again,
always taking the lead of the mayor's office.
I am looking forward to really, you know,
and I've talked to the mayor privately about this really
having a strong coalition this year.
We have multiple partners that I'm happy
to provide you those for all of you.
Those details. Again, the missing element that I heard loud
and clear, besides the misalignment,
'cause I heard that loud and clear,
was our elected officials saying, look, I need to be able
to prove to everybody that the money we're providing you
money we want to give you is gonna be
used in the best way possible.
And that's why elders, I want, I want invite, you know this
'cause you're in our schools all the time.
But I wanna invite them to come and visit our schools.
I want to be able to show them, just like you saw those two
examples of schools of how resources are being used.
So again, I will through the chair,
maybe you like more specifics about what are the,
those organizations, what is that coalition?
What is that strategy? 'cause I am not, I'm not following
for the talk in the talk anymore.
'cause we need to walk the walk.
And I hope that we walk it together here in this council
because schools are not factories.
Lemme tell you that the schools are the safe havens
that our children need so they can
develop the full potential.
I would like at some point talk with the state about,
you know, changing the language
and having superintendents, not CEOs
that treat our schools us some kind of business
that is failing the most vulnerable.
So my last question,
and again, I I would like to point out, you know,
an an editorial that I shared
before, it was published with my colleagues about
how we got to this mess.
And this mess has been created by the bankers
who did these toxic swaps, these outrageous toxic swaps
that are we paying for.
And this is not a start in 2016,
but also Paul Val is also responsible for this.
They payday bonds.
Mr Hel another payday bond fellow.
And it gives me concern that I see the same individuals not
putting their hands and they elected school board.
So my question is, in terms of the pension holidays,
so do you believe effectively borrowing from or teachers
and staff is, is really a problem?
I mean, I've seen the, the police just got a 20% increase.
I didn't see any level of scrutiny here.
Now our teachers are asking for a 4%
just to keep up with inflation.
My com My question, my question is, what is the commitment
to black and brown teachers?
In 2000, we had 41% of our teachers were black.
Today that number is below 20%.
If we talk about Latino teachers,
they're probably similar numbers.
Reality is that we have families,
older woman Coleman said they need mentors.
They many people from our communities to be there for them.
What is the commitment that we have for these teachers
that are actually from our communities
that wanna give back to their communities?
Uh, thank you for the question again, alderman, uh,
very proud, like I said, of
what we're seeing right now is we see more than 50%
of our teachers now teachers of color.
What even makes me more proud is when I see, you know,
we teach Chicago tomorrow more
of our high school students wanting to be teachers.
Uh, we've doubled our residency pool,
which is our teaching assistants, our paraprofessionals
that live in the community.
They actually live in the community
that are committed to these schools already.
And we're helping them go and
back, get back their education.
By the way, a lot of them I think are probably CPS alumni.
So it's almost for me, a social justice issue.
We're helping them go and get their teaching certifications,
by the way, in bilingual, in bilingual education, in working
with students with disabilities.
And so for me, I'm very proud of that work.
We've doubled it under my tenure.
Our chief of talent is very committed to this.
Um, again, with that more work to do, you know, we're not
where we wanna be, but, but we're doing it, sir.
But do you agree with me that going from a 45% number
of black teachers in the district in 2002,
less than 20% today is a problem?
I I don't have the numbers, sir, but I will say this.
I think we need to have a commitment
to make sure our teachers have that our,
our students are reflected in our staff.
So let's talk about commitments
for sustainable community schools in our word.
And again, I think that's what a challenge some
of my colleagues that for their tips are good,
but tips for people for building housing to building, uh,
infrastructure for schools apparently bad.
Now, I remember some
of my colleagues in 2019 talk about tiffs.
Two developers took $2.3 billion in TIFs for housing
that they're not even built to this day in our community,
as you know, we receive many of the new neighbors.
We have 14,000 Mexican residents that were displaced
because of the high cost of living.
We have a decrease on enrollment of over 40% today.
I would like to challenge you on this issue with tips
because our community has been discussing the quality
of life plan that requires to build more housing.
And I help you with the numbers.
24,000 CPS children are unhoused today.
You can maybe gimme the exact number they need.
Housing or communities like just here.
Just here's some people praising
that we have high enrollment.
Think here's the new release.
So these kids need advocacy.
I think the governor is stone deaf when he's thinking
that he's gonna build more prisons.
Well, we have kids that need more advocacy.
Where's the federal government?
I have three congressmen that are advocating
for more police stations.
Where's the advocacy for schools?
So I would like to question, what is the strategy
to get state and federal?
I heard yesterday in editorial I read it about bills
that you have put in there, but they have failed.
We need effective leadership that is talking about tiffs.
We supported mayor declared the highest tiff
surplus in the history.
I don't think that we have an issue with that.
I do think that we have an issue
with coordinating on the short-term
and the long-term strategy.
We are not going to keep paying with property taxes.
We're not, we have other states like Massachusetts
and other states that have done millionaire surcharges so
that we can actually have the funds for schools.
The one on the ballot, I would like to hear with you,
the advocacy with us.
Let's, November 13th I think is the first time
that we can go to Springfield.
I'm signing on because I don't see the action.
I'm signing on to go with you to a Springfield
to tell the governor that 3% property tax relief, the win
that that 3% surcharge
or high earners making more than $1 million will alleviate
property taxes in our working class families
and will bring $4.5 billion that we need.
A a third of that will be for the schools.
These austerity measures, these payday long
narratives are nothing but a distraction
because there's solutions in front of us.
And I would like to ask you, sir, work with us to make sure
that those solutions are there.
I am challenging because last time that we talked,
I told you if there are school closings in our community,
I will ask for your resignation.
You have promised that publicly and I will call you to it.
And that's not what I'm hearing in the media right now.
And count on our partnership to advocate Sir
Alderman Moore, followed by Alderman LaSpada.
Thank you chairman for, um, hosting this, um, meeting.
Uh, first of all, um, I know this is not a budget hearing,
but we don't all the time get in front of you all
and I just really want to thank, um, JD Chow
and Jamil Chambers for being so accessible, uh,
when my schools or myself need them.
I cannot say enough, uh, about those two, um,
when I need stuff done, uh, for my community.
And I wanna, um, say thank you to them,
but also thank you, uh, to you for, um, giving them
that ability not only to advocate for us,
but you responding as well.
Um, when we need those things that we need, um,
for our schools, especially sometimes from an infrastructure
um, standpoint.
Um, let me start by saying, um,
because we hear people talk here about
the 50 school closures.
I know before I was alderman I was on that front line.
Um, and unfortunately some people
who even sit in this chamber
who could have held up the budget
to stop those 50 schools from closing, that did not happen.
Um, and, and I, and I still think that helped kill us
and put us where we are.
Um, today I also advocated for an elected school board,
but I, I fought and, and, and I had some pushback
because I didn't advocate for a 21 member board.
I think it was. And I don't think it was right then.
I don't think it's gonna be right in the future.
I think it's gonna be chaotic.
And my greatest fear is not, whether it's charter
or CTU raise enough money is whether dark money
from the conservative end can out raise everybody
and begin to control our school board.
That is my, um, biggest fear.
And so, um, I always, um, advocated for a hybrid board, um,
with uh, potentially seven members.
Um, I always believed
that the mayor should always get at least two people
because no matter what happens, the mayor of whatever city,
if it's independent or not, is gonna get
blamed for the schools.
But I also saw that we also had people who really cared
that ran for their LSC positions
that have been doing the work for years.
And I felt that we could have gotten, um,
elected members from out
of those already elected school board members of people
who care, not who, people who are politicking.
And then we could have gotten one from CTU
and then one from the principals.
Now you got everybody at the table,
you got voices at the table instead.
We are here today, okay?
And we're gonna have to deal with this monster.
We're gonna have to deal with this, um, um, animal
that we have and try to help make it work, uh,
for the best of our ability.
So I just wanna let people know where I was at.
Um, I will say this, and I'm gonna get into the issue.
This issue,
I was disheartened when principals like the principal from
Dunbar and a principal from Limb Bloom, two black men
who were doing great work for black children, um,
were, um, let go.
Um, at some point
that's still is gonna have to be addressed.
Um, I, I don't think today is the day to do it,
but I want, I want i I want it to be known
that I am disheartened by that and,
and that should have never happened.
Um, always also know
that you don't throw the baby out with the bath water.
I am not perfect. Nobody here is perfect.
So I gotta look at the big picture.
And the big picture for me more than anything is stability.
First and foremost, I'm on my third mayor.
You know, there are other people saying,
David, get ready for your fourth.
I I really hope not.
I hope we can turn things around and move forward
because this city needs stability as well.
Um, and so with that said,
nothing is more important than having stability.
And and part of
that stability is the person at least
moving in the direction.
Again, you heard me say I didn't agree with you on those,
the principle issues,
but the other work I'm seeing you doing, again,
I can't throw the baby out with the bath water
'cause I'm angry about one thing.
I gotta look beyond David and think about the big picture
and think about our children first and foremost.
And so from that standpoint, I thinking with you,
moving in the direct right direction, you being transparent
with that information and sharing it and, and,
and sharing it in detail that it's not just BS that I could
go to and tell my students or I can go to
and talk to my teachers who I talk to and my principals
and if they're saying the same thing
and they're on the same page, which is not always the case.
Now I'm, is it all 100% of everybody?
No, but I look at the majority
and the majority is saying, no alderman,
we are moving in the direction, right Direction.
They said in private.
And some have said it, um, in, in public.
And so with that said, I I think it's important, um,
that we um, um, continue your tenure
and continue to work, um, that we're doing
things I'm about to say are not gonna be popular with a lot
of folks because when you got a young man who
from nursery school all the way up
to high school was been in public schools and, and,
and still live in these communities, I was
anti-charter schools not, um,
what we call selective enrollment schools like a Whitney
Young Lynn Bloom, they, they've been there,
others have been there.
Not alternative schools.
'cause I had friends whether at Robeson ion whatever school,
David, this is not for me, I'm about to drop out.
And they got saved by what we call alternative schools.
I think people put them under the charter network.
Now, I'm not sure and I'm hearing some of that,
but those schools, my sister
who probably would've not graduated
'cause she got pregnant at her early age,
if she didn't have an another school to go
to, we called them.
You know, I, I think I was politically incorrect last time,
but that's what we called it.
The pregnant girls school, whatever.
It was just really, that's what we called it.
And, and, but it was an,
I guess it was an alternative school,
but it got her to get her high school diploma.
So those things I needed.
But the charter schools not at all.
So you gotta look at what put us in these situations.
And I want somebody to correct me if I'm wrong
'cause I never wanna be spreading misinformation.
I recall when I was coming outta eighth grade
or maybe I was a sophomore, I can't remember.
All I know is this blue flannel shirt I had on,
uh, polyester shirt.
I mean, um, that the lottery
was getting started up.
And somebody, please correct me if I'm wrong and you,
and I want you to chime in based on your knowledge
that the lottery money was gonna be used for the schools
and that, and I don't know what the amount was back then,
but let's just have an example right now.
Say the gov, the state was putting in a hundred million
instead of them continuing on top of that a hundred million,
they used that lottery money to now
that your a hundred million when it was supposed to be a
not an either or, or a both.
And can you comment on that part?
Yeah. So Alderman, you're taking me way back now when I
was a CPS kid and was working for CPS and the,
and you are absolutely correct, the lottery was sold
as the answer to education at that time.
And instead the,
the money got commingled into the general fund.
So you, you appreciate this as city council.
And instead of making an additional funding,
it just became a replacement for the revenue source.
And we were shortchanged.
Okay? So I'm, I I wanted my, I want my colleagues
to listen here to why I'm bringing this up
because what got you there is what you have
to undo that's gonna get us out of this.
And therefore if there's not pressure on the state
collectively from this body, from our mayor, from
you CPS to do what was supposed to have happened,
then we're gonna continue to be fighting.
And, you know, dealing with, as I always give this example,
we got food on the floor,
but I'm scatter of mice bill scattered snakes,
Jeanette scattered roaches.
And she's saying, I we need roach spray.
He said, we need something to get rid of these snakes.
I'm saying we need something to get rid of these mice.
'cause that's what's bothering me when at the end
of the day, we gotta pick the damn food up off the floor.
And so we gotta go back to what got us here and that,
and that was one of those issues.
So until we do that, everything else is just fluff
talk and politics.
The other thing is charter.
Okay, I know where we are right now.
I know we're not doing expansion,
but once people talk about these other charter schools,
this charter school system just closed
or whatever, I knew this and there's gonna be more
because how much does the average exec, first of all,
does charter schools bring in revenue?
So it's um, it's a, it's a good, it's a,
it's a good question Al Alderman.
So what I can tell you is that our charter school enrollment
has been very stable over the years.
And one of the concerns that I have is that
whenever a charter school self closes,
we don't close 'em per se,
but they self close for whatever reason, more than 85%
of those children go either
to other charters or they leave our district.
And so it's just, I just wanna give you those facts.
I mean, but their enrollment has always been very stable.
Their, the size
of our charter enrollment would make it the second
largest district in the state of Illinois.
But my question is, do charter schools generate revenue?
No, not, not, not in the technical sense
because, you know, all of the revenue comes through CPS.
On a second note though, um, if none
of those children were in Chicago, it's very possible
that we would lose funding.
But it's like I said, it's, I'm, I'm simplifying it
because it's a little more complicated than that.
And so then I get to the point of then not the principles,
but whatever you call CEOs
or whatever of these charters, how much are,
what is their average salaries?
So we, we don't have those kind of, so one
of the challenges of state law alderman is
that I don't have any jurisdiction
over any of these organizations.
Once, once our board approves it,
they have their own organization,
their own budget, their own boards.
We do get audits every year.
Um, and I know they have to file if they're not assuming
that, well, most of them are nonprofits, not all.
They have to do nine 90.
So you can look that up, uh, in public records.
So I know there's some salaries around two 50.
There may even be some higher. Okay.
And so those are,
and I don't know, they're getting funding from us.
Correct. And so part of that funding for them
is going towards that two 50 times, whatever the thing is.
That's a problem. I know we are here,
but when we talk about the Renaissance 2010,
the same thing when I talk about the lottery.
We gotta go back to what hurt us.
And when we talk about crime
and everything else, when kids,
these kids are not going to school with each other.
They don't even know each other.
Meaning the parents don't need, there's a, there's a a,
there's a cycle here
and a pattern here that has led
to even crime in our communities.
And people don't realize that.
I know that because I live it
and I see it when the, when we walk to school together,
whether it was two, um, whether you was going to limb bloom,
whether you was gonna semio, you could have been going
to different schools, you got to know each other.
I'm going somewhere with this, um, chairman, you, we, we got
to go to school with each other.
When I wanted to go over play over Billy's house,
mama said, who is Billy's parents?
They didn't know each other. And so she, I had
to give her Billy's mom a phone number
before I could go over there and play.
That's what brought community together.
So I'm saying, and I I've said it in public
and I've said it in private and I said it again when I was
standing on the lines, charters destroyed our communities
and the mindset of they were better
than the traditional public schools, which they were not.
And thus, and when we lose that funding to
what we're talking about, where we get into the 39 kids in a
school now, until we undo
those two things, in my opinion, we're gonna continue
to have this problem.
Because having schools and,
and I agree with Alderman Bill having schools
with 39 people, and I understand what you're trying to do
and what you wanna do, but that may not be for 15
to 20 years from now.
But having, spending this type of money for 30,
I'm not afford school closures,
but 39 kids aren't for school safety.
And I don't think the kids are getting their best out
of them with just 39 kids in the school.
So first of all, we gotta clean up what was messed up.
We gotta challenge this governor
and that's everybody sticking together
and that's gonna take a, that's gonna take a lot.
And although it wasn't, he, it was there
before he was there, but he's there now.
He's there, he's there now.
And we have to challenge to say, Hey, we got it.
Because even within our zip code
6 0 6, 26, 0 6 21, 6 0 6 36 29, if you took
that lottery money alone in those zip codes, oh my gosh,
the revenue that we will have.
So this is real and these are the things
that people don't want to, to, to talk about.
And until we address that, uh, we are going to be, um,
we are gonna, there's gonna be a problem.
Now the, I think my last thing is on this TIFF thing,
but I think they gotta be done in order lottery
addressing charter and the tiff.
Yes. When you started a tiff, and I,
and I know here at Washington,
he was doing the right thing when he did this.
But we can't be having TIFF in areas
where the developer is gonna build anywhere.
'cause you got million dollar homes and you, and, and,
and our downtown is, I know we had a problem now
because of covid, but we gotta look at those tiff
where the money, where, where
the developer gonna come anyway.
Developers gonna come with
or without the TIFF dollars anyway.
But as long as that tiff there, they're gonna always feel
that they need that incentive.
And so those tiff areas, not all TIFs
because every community has not survived and,
and been turned around yet.
But we gotta look at those areas where
business is gonna come regardless of whether that TIF is,
um, there or not.
And closing those so
that CPS can get tho their dollars back.
We said when you started this thing, chairman, you said,
we need problem solvers.
Everybody know what the problem is?
I'm offering those three solutions
because we're gonna have to come together and,
and stop this political part
because our children are truly hurting from this.
And from the police standpoint, uh,
when we talk about advocating for another station,
if the kids can't get to school safely
or they end up dead, they don't even make it to school.
And that's why we're advocating
for another police station in the eighth district,
which is the largest district from I think approximately
35th street all the way to 95th from bail over to Harlem.
So it's not just about opening another police station,
it's about making sure that our kids
and our families are safe.
And so I laid out those three things.
You spoke about the lottery.
If, if you can speak about again, the charter piece of
what I said and um, what was the third one?
I I said the tiff part of those tiffs that are flourishing.
Yeah. So you know, alderman, um, you know, as you know,
there's a lot of opinions about our charter schools.
What I can just give you is our facts, which is
families are very loyal to our charter schools.
We've seen that, uh, even as our enrollment decline,
they've been very stable.
I do think they provide good options
as we improve our neighborhood schools.
Because I think what we have to own as a system is that
over time, instead of all the above we did, or,
and so we didn't invest enough in our neighborhood schools,
which is how we got to where we're at today.
Uh, it's gonna, I'm not naive
everybody, it's gonna take time.
But I am, I, I, you know, I really feel committed
to ensuring that we give these schools a fighting chance.
Um, and that way families can really decide then, you know,
hey, my family has always went to this charter school.
Hey, you know, there's a lot of pride in that.
But also what I don't want,
and this is what happens, what has happened historically,
children go, don't go to their neighborhood schools
because we didn't invest in them
because they didn't have the programming.
And I don't think that's right. And then meanwhile we have
other schools that are overcrowded because,
and we wind up almost penalizing them
because they're overcrowded, right?
And so, so I, I just believe, sir, that
that's just something we gotta just continue to, to unpack
Tiffs, I, as I said, elders with all humbleness.
Um, I, I just see an opportunity
for you to support us and help us.
And it's a way for us to help the city
as well and be good partners.
Because again, the money that we would get for the pension,
we'd give it right back to the city.
Because again, that's part of your deficit by state law.
I'm not saying it's right or wrong,
it's just, that's just a fact.
And so, and we know
that this entanglement is very complicated.
I mean, it's been since 1995.
Uh, and so, you know, it's not, it's gonna, it's, you know,
it's not, I really credit the mayor
and his team for really understanding
and you understanding the complexities
of this, this entanglement.
And so I'm committed to working with you.
Let's come up with some short term solutions.
You know, what our request is today
and then let's work on a longer term
Solution. And on this
lottery piece, uh, would you be willing to work
with the mayor and this council to ab um, um,
to advocate in Springfield, um, and,
and challenge the, um, challenge
or even work with whatever word you want to use the governor
to re-look at this lottery
Situation? Absolutely.
Absolutely. Alderman,
because again, we are very clear on our facts about
how we are treated in terms of state funding
and that advocacy continue has to be continued to,
you know, we're gonna continue that. So absolutely.
Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair.
Alderman's. Lata followed by Alderman Wapac.
Thank you ma, so much chair, CEO based off of the time,
and we need to be at one 30.
You'll forgive me for not saying how much respect I have
for the productive relationship we've had over the past five
years where we've had the chance
to have those conversations together.
Three quick questions.
Um, number one, it was talked about earlier how 350 million
in new funding went into the school's equitable funding
formula, the state's equitable funding formula,
but only 10% of that.
I think somebody said 25 million came to CPS
not only based off of our state share
of the state's enrollment, but also the equity
and the students that we support.
I cannot make sense of that number.
Can you help me make sense of that number? Yeah.
And so this is a, by the way, um,
we're not alone in this in terms of a continued cry.
That's just, it's not equitable for CPS.
The, the, the, the immediate answer for you, alderman, is
that because they only put 350 million in the pot,
if they increase that to five 50, we would get a more,
a more equitable share of that funding.
So the need is so great across the state.
And so we're basically competing for need.
I'm competing with Elgin,
who has even a higher in denser poverty rate than I do.
I'm competing with downstate Illinois,
and I have a lot of sympathy for them
because, you know, at least we have Chicago,
at least we have a better tax base.
And so the short of it is,
and this has been, you know, we've been
with Advance Illinois with multiple organizations, with,
with large districts across the entire state.
All of us advocating for five 50.
Our teach, our, uh, union partners the same thing.
And so the challenge has
been, you know, that they haven't done it.
Appreciate it. Uh, I'm gonna like go to a small question
for the third, but for the second, whether it's CPS,
whether it's CTA, we are in need
of large transformative revenue solutions for the city,
for state, for sister agencies.
I wanted to ask if there are specific
and actionable revenue solutions that CPS is fighting for
that we can fight for.
Like, one, one that I think about is
expanding our sales tax.
For example, two services, we'll be here
for the plan commission tomorrow.
If you're an architect, if you're a zoning attorney,
the sales tax applied to the services you sell is zero.
Services are now 66% of Illinois' economy,
and yet the sales tax applied to those services is zero.
Not saying it's has to be that, but are, are there specific
and actionable revenue sources
that you all would like to pursue?
Yeah, so Alderman, um, you know, it's interesting,
you know, Ralph, who's been around forever, you know,
I met him when I was, I was his intern
Yeah. When I was his CPS,
uh, you know, as a budget director.
He and I would have all these conversations.
The short answer is, as a district,
we're always gonna support anything that provides, frankly,
more sustainable funding sources, not only for the district.
I am very concerned,
and I say this sincerely as myself as a resident of Chicago,
um, the, the, the amount we're asking
for our Chicago taxpayers, I worry
that we are hitting a limit if we haven't already.
And so I really believe that, um, you know,
getting experts at the state level, like the Ralph Martis
of the world, I know we have experts in house in the city.
Uh, my team will be happy to, to also cooperate on that.
I do think we have to find the,
you know, the conversation about the lottery.
I think all these things have to be brought to the table
because we were there in Springfield,
and one of the things, alders
that we saw was they were struggling
to balance their budget last year.
And so we were there.
And that's why we, you know,
that was frankly the reason why
they said they couldn't give us more.
'cause they were trying to convince even their own
legislators to close tax loops and other things.
And so there's a le what I saw was more important than ever,
that we're aligned, that we're together, and that,
and I'm gonna be selfish.
The top priority has to be CPS.
I understand there's needs in the city. I get it.
I'm, I'm a city resident.
I love the city, but if it's not CPS, we're gonna get,
you know, we're not, we're gonna get shortchanged again.
Yeah, I, I get it, sir.
I mean, when we do, do not invest in our children,
in their educational states, the investments that we make
in their lives downstream are much more expensive.
So I appreciate that. I appreciate your
support for the anything.
Maybe it's something that we talk about outside of cameras,
but that anything needs to translate into concrete
some things so we can have that further conversation.
One last quick question related to the school budgets
that we saw come out this year.
I know we're in a tough space. I know that we moved to a new
funding formula,
and I, I heard Alderman Quinn speak on this somewhat.
It was hard to see a, a lot
of the schools in my ward saw strong budgets.
Some of the schools in my ward
who I would say are doing everything right,
were seeing increase in stable enrollment,
saw their budgets actually go down.
It was frustrating.
Not to say that schools have, have been historically
and currently disinvested,
do not get a stronger budget than they had seen before.
Do you not get the staff that they deserve?
But it would've been more positive
to at least see other schools held harmless to see their
existing 20, 23, 20 24 budgets be the floor.
Can you talk about why we saw the decisions that we did
and how we addressed that moving forward?
Yeah, so, so one of the things we, um,
and these were conversations we were having all along.
You know, again, even as I was asking these requests
around Tiff, we made a commitment erman
that we were gonna hold our schools flat.
In fact, myself, cita, we were having these conversations
that we, that we, that we make cuts at the
school level now, right?
Even as you think about pensions
and future raises for members.
And we just decided we just couldn't, I mean, I mean,
I'm just gonna be, you know, we just couldn't,
we were seeing, we were seeing too much momentum at the
school level with that.
Then we had a challenge of, we have these needy schools
that, by the way, you know,
have never had the electives that other schools had.
I mean, when I started here, almost, uh, you know,
three years ago or a little more, I was disappointed
and really saddened by the fact that hundreds
of our schools have never had access to arts education.
I've been in, I've been in, I've been the leader
of two other districts.
I've seen the value, whether it's San Antonio
or when I was in Nevada, when you invest in those programs
over decades, just
how the impact it has on our children and our success.
And so we started doing that as a first measure,
but even with that, it wasn't enough.
And so the examples we showed you, like in Pullman
and Engaged Park, are good examples of, you know, schools
that didn't have that have more today.
Again, I'm gonna alder point you
to our announcement we did today.
We have a website where you can go to any,
you can look at any school, and you can see the staffing
they had in 2019.
And that's staffing, not positions.
And what they have today, I, I will say, alderman, we,
some budgets got tightened, you know, um, and, and it wasn't
because they were doing anything wrong,
they just got tightened because we had
to reallocate resources.
Um, it wasn't something that I wanted to do,
but I felt like I at least needed to set a foundation.
So what I, the commitment that we make is
that this is a foundational level.
If we can solve some of these short term issues, our goal is
to protect it and build from it.
Um, and, and really we're very protective, you know,
in schools in your ward and others even
to make sure their programming was intact.
But I also want to call out,
their budgets got a lot tighter,
and I have principles that are doing more
fundraising today than they were before.
I hear it, sir. I feel like even if I can find
that a frustrating answer,
I find it's an honest answer as well.
Every school, regardless of whether it's in Westtown
or Logan Square, or Englewood
or North Lawndale, deserves to be excellent.
And I believe you believe that,
and your staff believes that.
And I know that we have a hard road ahead of us
to get there, but I know we're stronger if we walk
that road together than if we walk it apart.
So I, I look forward to going on that journey
with the re you and the rest of your team and the new board.
Thank you, sir. Thank you. Chair
Alderman wa back followed by Alderman Irvin.
Thank you, chairwoman. Um,
CEO, uh, Martinez.
I just want to thank you
and your staff for not only being here today
and, um, working through, uh, the questions today,
but also over the last several months.
Um, it, it has seemed from the outside,
like it's been an extremely hostile environment,
and, um, I can only imagine what it is on the inside.
So I want to, um, say, you know, just hang on
and work through this as long as you can and,
and make sure that, um, you know, you're doing
what you feel is best along with your staff for the students
and families of the city.
Um, you know, and we've heard a lot about, uh, tiffs today.
We've heard a lot about this borrowing issue, you know,
and I think sometimes tiffs are taken a little
bit, uh, differently.
You know, they're not, they're, they've been one-off, um,
in terms of the surplus since 2010.
Um, but as you know, we have to often split those dollars
between infrastructure, schools, parks, um,
the mayor's affordable housing program
that is gonna be a little hard to continue if, if, um,
all the TIFs are dissolved.
Um, but, you know, I wonder if, um,
there's a couple of things
that I was wondering if you could, uh, give us a little, uh,
clarity on, um, we've talked,
we've heard a lot about the toxic borrowing, um, the swaps.
We tried to change a lot of that over the years,
and I think you did a good job helping out on that.
Um, the, when I look at the amounts
that are added up from about 2010,
or maybe it's 2011 to 2019,
we were looking at $7.6 billion in borrowing,
um, high interest loans.
And when you look at that, what impact does, uh,
this additional payday loan being pushed
by the mayor's office have on that overall, um,
situation with CPS funding?
Yeah, and I, and I, and I would just add one thing.
It's our, it's actually our CFO, our current CFO,
who's the one who was the advisor on all of that borrowing
for a 10 year period.
Yeah, alderman, thank you for the question.
You know, my, my concern is when I learned myself
that 2 billion of that debt was these refinancings
that were done, we call 'em scoop
and toss, which it's a terrible, I mean, it's just,
all of it is bad.
Even more concerning that $194 million
of interest only payments are part of our deficit.
I just gotta tell you, as a former CPS kid,
as a current parent, it just, they just, it's very,
very, it's oppressing.
I'll just say that. Um,
I've always taken the na the attitude that, you know,
we're an educational institution.
We have to always make sure people know, um, and,
and we have to provide the facts and the information.
And so that's what we've been doing.
Alderman, uh, I understand the concern about, look,
we wanna be good partners
and help the city, especially in, in meeting,
I'll call it our obligation of this pension payment.
Um, it is our staff. There's never been an issue about that.
I just would been very concerned when we're already the
second largest junk, uh, issuer producer in the country.
That's only second, by the way, to Puerto Rico.
That's pretty bad. I, I have so many concerns about the,
the, the long, the long-term effects
that it'll have on our schools
and our children when I am more than happy
to be accountable about our investments.
Um, and I'm very concerned about it just
to stabilizing the district in a way that
I think could have such long-term effects
that we don't all fully appreciate.
Yeah. I, if I could too, um, ask you, when you look,
when your staff looks at these, do they look at the
overall ratings agencies as well and touch on that
Concern? Yeah, so I'll,
I'll ask Garcia Afo to comment on that, on,
on the risk that we would have on further
rate decreases. Uh,
Yeah. And if I, if I
could, before she starts, Fitch,
over a week ago, addressed this issue of the payday loan,
and then Moody's yesterday said that, um,
when you look at the whole picture here, the chaotic, uh,
mess that we're in, not by your creation,
but management changes alone don't represent a material
shift in credit quality.
But other factors may taking out a $300 million payday loan
that creates more in balance
between revenues and expenditures.
Um, one way contract negotiations, a no-show board
that we have here today, and a no-show from the other board.
Um, when you look at that altogether, it,
this is my opinion, a credit downgrade is pretty imminent,
but could you explain your position on that?
Uh, absolutely. So what, what You said it right?
Oh, I'm sorry. Uh, Miroslava Mejia k crook,
chief Financial Officer, um, absolutely
one of the reasons was CPS received 34
downgrades back in the period of crisis.
2015 to 2018 was one,
because CPS took debt.
Oh one, because CPS took debt.
But the real reason was because CPS went into deficits.
So that's what the rating agencies right now are all talking
and are all concerned.
It's not that the loan is going to set,
send CPS back into deficit,
and we only have about a hundred million
dollars on cash reserve.
So that means that, that the borrowing
and the deficit, it is going to pretty much wipe out the,
the reserve that we have.
So that is the concerns that they're looking,
that's the same concern that we are looking at, is
if we go into deficit borrowing, it is going
to send our budgets into deficit,
and that will trigger more downgrades.
So one of the things I'm not sure that you're familiar is,
um, we issue short term, um, um, uh,
borrowing because we only receive a property taxes
twi twice a year.
So we have to issue about 900 million a year to make sure
that we have money in the bank
to pay our payrolls on the biweekly basis.
So that's another of the concerns that we have,
is if we get downgraded, the cost of access capital get,
uh, more expensive.
But when we went in the crisis in
20 15, 16, 26, 15 18,
in those years, no bank wanted to lend money to CPS.
That was one of the mayor issues
that CCP has CPS have was access to the banks.
We have great relationship with different banks right now,
but that's a risk that we get into by going back
to the problems that we created back in 20, in those years,
is we need money to pay payroll
because we don't have enough cash reserve
to pay our own payroll.
So that's a very high risk for us.
If we cannot access banks, we cannot pay payroll.
Um, as, on a side note there, what is your reserve, uh,
supposed to be each year
or what do you, uh, what's, what's that number that the
So According CFOA would say is appropriate?
According to our board policy, we have to have 50%
of reserve in the bank.
It should be a little over a billion,
but we only have a hundred million of
that billion that we need in cash.
Yeah. One 10th of what you should have.
And when you take this payday loan, um, assuming
that the new board comes in, um, removes the superintendent
and says, you're gonna take this payday loan
to make it whole, um, what impact, what direct impact will
that have on CPS?
The immediate impact?
Uh, well, I think immediate impact will be,
potentially will be downgrade on our credit rate.
Okay. And that would come from all the rating agencies.
Thank you. Um, thank you for that answer.
Um, go ahead, man.
Point of clarification.
Um, you're supposed to have a billion dollars in reserve,
but you only have 100 million.
I thought I saw 300 million in the slide is 100 million. Our
Reserve is 100 million.
Our cash reserve is around a hundred
Million. Yeah. So older woman
doubt.
The 300 million has always been what we've been asked
to borrow and what we were requesting from tiff.
But the, in the bank itself,
in the bank, we have a hundred million dollars,
A hundred million, thank you For an eight,
$8 billion budget.
Um, so a couple of aldermen have already asked this, um,
and I think, you know, try in, in general, trying
to find other options here,
but are there any other unset options
that have been considered
to close your budget gap this year?
Um, I mean, are there other proposals that are either in
or outside the contract that have been, uh,
would have a significant impact, say, um,
shortening instruction time for students?
So, alderman, it's, it's a great question.
I mean, really, we're very protective
of what's happening in our schools
because, I mean, we just have went out of our way
to make these investments.
We we're always gonna look for efficiencies.
And so we have a hiring freeze right now.
Like I said, my staff are doing two
or three jobs, you know, we're, we're running risks
of not always being responsive to our schools.
So that is just something we're gonna continue to do
because we, again, our number one priority is the
investments we made in these schools,
because as you'll see, tomorrow,
we're showing evidence gains.
And I just believe
that the only way we're gonna be successful in securing
funding from the state
and also continuing the support we get from you, is
to show you that there is, that, that there's results.
Um, I just don't think anybody's gonna invest in us, um,
if we don't show that we're being
accountable and we show results.
And so, I, I, that's our commitment, uh, alderman,
I'm worried that if we go down the other way
of shortening our instruction, shortening, you know,
compromising our values around, you know,
our students getting the right access,
I think we're gonna go backwards.
And I, and I agree with others who said earlier,
I don't think, I don't want to go back.
I, I, again, Stephanies an eighties kid, A CPS, um, it was,
it was my teachers and,
and all the work they put into me
that has led me to be here.
Um, when, when I look at the transition report, you know,
from the administration, uh, goal number four
and goal number four, um, it was stated that
the 175 million that CPS pays
and pension should be given back to CPS.
Have you directly rectified this with the administration?
I know you kind of talked about it a bit there,
but, um, you know, when you look at that, does
that make you kind of question where we are in terms
of clarity on that position?
So, so you are correct that is part
of the Bayer's transitional report.
Uh, I will, I will say that, you know, I, I do have empathy
and understanding both with our mayor
and our city, that, again, it's part
of this bigger disentanglement.
And I want to make sure that we, you know,
that we CPS don't do anything that puts the district,
the city in a financial risk because we suffer as well.
And so, all that to say, alderman, I understand that.
I saw it. Um, really, our,
our approach has always been how do we help each other?
And, and I see Tiff as, as a path to do that.
Okay. Um,
and I, I think, uh, chairman, I just,
I'll ask just one more question
because I think a lot of 'em have been asked,
and maybe we won't get total clarification,
but I I really think it's for the school board members
who are ghosting us today.
Um, and who should be, uh, both the old ones
and the new ones should be sitting in front of us.
I think I agree with everybody on that.
Um, if we're gonna be asked to do all these things
as a city, everything from changing priorities on tiffs, um,
looking at, um, potential of shortening instruction time,
taking a payday loan, uh, asked
to do property tax hikes, then
that board better show up here,
and they better start showing up in public
and providing answers.
And we shouldn't have to ask,
unless they weren't told what to do when they were asked
to sit on this new board.
Um, you know, they, I think every one
of 'em has really gotta get educated on these issues.
Um, last question, superintendent.
The, um, you know, I, I don't know
how you find the balance in your job right now.
When, when you consider the impact of
the mayor's unchanged priority in Springfield,
where he goes down and ask the Chicago,
or ask the, uh, ask all of our legislators in Springfield
for money, for the Chicago Bears pushing them,
and maybe even the socks, you know,
when you look at it pushing for 2.4 billion for the bears
close to a billion for the SOC and,
and funding, um, ahead of our students, how do you,
how do you rectify that when you see that priority put ahead
of our students and our families in this city?
The only thing I'll say all, and again, I have,
I have full respect for our mayor,
I have full respect for the city council.
I think everybody has really tough jobs.
And, and as a Chicago kid, I'm always gonna, you know,
thank you for advocating for our city.
I will just tell you, and I know this from my early years
here in CPS, the only way we're gonna get more funding from
the state, for the district, we are seen
as an extension of the city.
With that has been true since 1995.
Um, and now with, you know, the, with the, frankly,
alignment in, in vision with our unions, with the mayor,
with the city council, um, you know, they're not gonna even,
you know, even listen to us
unless we're all aligned together.
And CPS is the top priority.
Uh, I just know that from my, from my previous experience,
and I can be there every single day.
I will, if that's what you want.
But again, I just know the same,
I'm gonna get the same response.
Where's everybody else at?
Where's everybody else at, in these priorities?
Because they get asked for a lot of things.
Well, uh, superintendent, thank you for, um, everything
that you've been doing.
I respect what position that you
and your staff are in right now, um, trying
to solve all these issues.
And I agree with you.
I think everybody needs to be on the same page,
whether you have kids in CPS or not.
It, it really behooves, um, everyone in the city
to have a strong CPS system that really builds on today
and on the future generations that, you know, will be, um,
coming out of CPS.
So, I, I appreciate everything that you've done.
I really appreciate you coming today at the request
of the chairwoman and, and other council members,
because it says a lot for you to show up, um,
and take all these questions for going on a few hours now.
So thank you very much. And chairwoman,
thank you very much for hosting the committee.
Thank you. Alderman Irving, followed
by Alderwoman Nugent.
Thank, thank you. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair.
Um, help
us, um, I know that, um,
we've had conversations in relation to, uh,
M-E-A-B-F and, and tiff and,
and what you've described as a shifting of
this obligation, uh, from the city over to, uh,
over to CPS, um, that, that started back in, um,
was it 2019 or so to, uh, to come today?
Uh, in the past, this was handled,
as you said, with a TIFF surplus,
uh, in the first year.
But in the subsequent years, the amount
of the surplus is not kept pace with the amount of the, um,
M-E-A-B-F payment requested, uh, to the city.
Um, in the past, uh,
you all have budgeted for this.
Uh, why, why didn't you budget for it this year?
Yeah, so, uh, it's a little complicated alderman,
but we, we, the the way we're handled is very similar
to what we've handled in the past.
In other words, there's always been a timing issue
between our budget and between the city's budget.
And the city has always made the final decision on tips.
And so we've always, uh, waited in terms of our payment
for MBAF and our agreement based on TIF surplus.
Uh, we were able to accommodate, uh, the previous years
because we had the flexibility of Esser funding.
Uh, but even as Mayor Johnson was coming in,
we had a huge dilemma last year because,
and it wasn't his fault, uh, he inherited, we were asked
to pay 175 million.
We didn't have a commitment, a tiff.
Um, and so even last year, it wasn't put a, uh,
you know, it wasn't put in the budget.
We were able to resolve it because we eventually, we got to,
and I'm very grateful to you and,
and the mayor for giving us the
highest tiff surplus we ever received.
Even with that, we still had a, you know, you know,
do do a lot of things to get it done.
And so, and even at that time, we said, look, we have
to be really thinking about this for the future
because, um, we're gonna be in the same place again,
and we are, here we are again.
Today
Is, um, annually counting on a tiff surplus
good budgetary policy.
I, I believe it is. And, and I'll,
and I'll again, I'll make my case again,
But what if, what if a surplus isn't declared?
So, and again, you know, alderman, first of all,
and I, I've always just been so grateful to your leadership
and the support of the city council,
because we know that in Chicago, it is always our taxpayers.
It is always the local leaders
that really prioritize the school district.
And so I want to start with that.
Um, there's never been more alignment with our mayor,
with our unions and the district about a common
vision about funding our schools.
I know not everybody agrees with us
as we think about charter
schools and under-enrolled schools.
I, that's okay. You know, again,
there's a lot of complexities here.
In the mayor's own transitional report,
it was very clear about what their, what that position was.
Um, as I look at how much tips have grown, 3 billion with a,
you know, with a b in the bank, uh, as
of 23, 1 0.2 billion being produced every single year.
Again, if those tips didn't exist, all those funds would be,
you know, with CPS, I know our union colleagues, uh,
would like all of them to expire immediately,
would like to all of them be released.
Um, I understand the complexity of that.
That's not possible, but I do think there's a middle ground.
But again, you didn't ask question. Um,
So the answer is yes.
I hold, I hold to the answer
that it is good budgetary policy.
It is responsible
because these are, these are dollars
that are being paid today by our local taxpayers,
and their intention is for them to go to the taxing bodies.
I, I would disagree that the intention is for them to go
to the taxing bodies.
I mean, if the TIF is operating
and doing as it should, in theory,
there would not be a, uh, surplus.
And so how do you utilize something that may not be,
and commit that on an annual basis as part of your,
your budgetary balancing process?
So, I mean, we haven't declared a tiff surplus to date,
and I don't believe the county
or anybody else has literally counted
the dollars potentially coming from a surplus into their
budgets as of right now.
But you all, as a practice,
as you're stating count something that may not occur
as a hard part of your budget.
So, so just, um, and again, you know,
I appreciate the question, alderman.
Um, so, you know, just again, just
for the technical reasons, our budget is balanced.
We don't have a legal requirement.
Your budget isn't balanced. You got
$175 million, uh, obligation.
That's, that's for your
employees that you have ant accounted for.
How do you, how do you consider that to be balanced?
You can let, if you can, let me finish, sir.
Um, our budget is technically balanced.
Um, we don't have an obligation by law
to make any contributions to the pension.
For a hundred years, we weren't making it. Um, the,
But then why didn't nobody say anything
about this before now?
No, you didn't cry when it,
when it came down four years ago,
but all of a sudden it's a problem
Now, a actually that's not true, sir.
We have been, uh, we've been advocating for this,
and it's always been with the mayor
and the mayor's office. Um,
So why isn't it with the mayor
and the mayor's office now, why, why is this,
why are we in the middle of this conversation then?
If it's always been between you and the mayor?
Why is it, why is it all of a sudden on channel seven?
Uh, it's a great question. I don't have an answer
for you except here we are now,
and I'm asking for your help.
What, what beginning?
I, I think, um, when, when you came to, when,
I think when you first came to the, to the, came back
to the district, I should say, um, there were, uh,
conversation and plans about, uh,
major capital investment major, uh, as you always say, uh,
a billion with a B, I'll never forget that.
Um, it was actually the talk
of the conversation when you left.
It was like, here's the B man, a billion with the B, uh,
but my, my question is like, what, what have we done to
materialize any of these, uh, larger investments?
You talk about Dallas, you talk about other places, uh,
that you've been, and we talk about, you know, the level
of investment needed, but like, what is, what have we done
to move the needle in that direction?
Yeah. So, so again, I want to thank you again, Allman,
for your leadership, because I am really hopeful
that the seeds we're planting with, um, with North Lawndale
are really start serving
as a blueprint for the rest of the city.
I, I am heartened by just the early things
that we're seeing at Collins High School.
Um, you know, wonderful things are
happening at Chalmers and Johnson.
I mean, this is a community that's one
of our poorest communities in the city.
And so I, you know, that's one piece that I want, I want,
I want us to, you know, you know,
let's use it as a blueprint.
I've always said, alderman, to your point, you know,
we should, you know, I want a similar blueprint
as we think about Austin, as we think about the Pullman
Roseland area, as we think about Southeast Chicago.
I can go on and on.
Um, I, I just know that it's gonna take us working together,
uh, and pulling all these different resources together.
I, well, I, I would, I would halfway agree with that.
But when I look at the, the list of schools that was up
for potential consolidation, every school in North Lawndale,
east Garfield, and West Garfield was on the list for, for
that type of a conversation.
I mean, we, we can't, you know, can't have it both ways,
whereby we wanna say we wanna make investments,
but at the same time, wanna look at either consolidations
or closes, both North Lawndale
and Garfield Park, east End, west Garfield Park took some
of the biggest hits in, uh, the closure plan,
uh, of years ago.
And, uh, I'm not going to, uh, as I did then, I'm not going
to, uh, stand for that even today.
Um, I, I think that we've gotta look at a new strategy.
I think we need to, uh, a know
and understand when you talk about 13%
of the kids in Austin going to schools in Austin, um,
that's something I think the district needs to be addressing
as to, uh, how we can get kids,
or potentially have the kids in Austin go
to school in Austin, because it's the kids in Austin
that seems to be feeding everybody else.
It's the kids in, in East Garfield
and West Garfield that seems to be feeding everybody else.
And, uh, we need some leadership from the central office
that will help keep kids
that are in those communities in their, uh,
in their specific, uh, local schools.
And I understand that part of the, part
of the challenges is on investment,
but also we have to look at some of the policies
that the district has as it relates to allowing, uh,
you know, young people to go.
I agree with, uh, my colleague Alderman Moore.
We've got 10 kids on the block
going to eight different schools.
It's hard to generate some sense of community around that.
And I, we need some clarity
and understanding about a plan from you as the CEO
that's gonna bring, uh, communities and schools
and having young people in their, in their communities
and seeing their community school as a viable option, uh,
for them and their parents.
Because when we have schools
and communities, parents working together, everybody,
these are, these are the things I want.
The same thing I see on the northwest side of the,
I wanna see that on the west side of Chicago
and some of my colleagues on the south and southeast side.
I want to see the same thing.
But we continue to go around in this circle,
but we're not seeing the results that are being promised,
uh, to our, to our communities
and to our, and to our young people.
So help us to understand about the level of in investment
that from you as you, when you came in
to say, Hey, we need the revenue.
We wanna raise the revenue. I have a plan for revenue,
but the revenue that we have now is pretty much flat from,
you know, pretty from when it, when we started.
So again, um, notice agreement, alderman about the,
the future, the vision for our neighborhood schools.
That's always been, that's always been at my heart.
We, to give context, you know,
three years ago when I came back to Chicago,
the district was in disarray.
We had to stabilize it.
We had an opportunity to really use, uh,
federal resources in a way
that really gave our teachers a fighting chance.
And we're doing that, and the results are showing with that.
You know, we started working
with the North Lawndale community
because they were, they were about to give up.
And, and you heard that
yesterday, that was very loud and clear.
And then it was my team that really kept that hope up.
So more with our new strategic plan, we put it, you know,
in paper we are fully committed
to investing in our neighborhoods,
but we do need help right now in the short term.
And we need to come up with a long-term plan.
In your, in your 2024, uh,
20 23, 24 budget, um, you, you guys made cuts at the,
at central office, uh, level.
And I, I think Alderman, uh,
hall a a asked this question a little bit.
I don't know if you got the, got the answer, uh, on this.
Uh, how do we manage this, uh, without additional revenue,
uh, either from the state or from us here?
And if, if you had the w uh,
how much do we need in order to make this happen?
So one of the things we know for sure, alderman, is just
to maintain what we have today,
which is all the 2000 plus additional teachers that we have,
the paraprofessionals, the increased need we have just
for our students with disabilities, English learners,
we know already, you know, for next year,
our projected deficit is, is, is half a billion dollars.
We know we, and we are committed to derman.
I want you to have said this to you,
but I want to put it on the record.
We're committed to being good partners as we disentangle
and contribute into the, into the municipal pension, um,
period, you know, in the sentence.
And so I see a path where, you know, again, with,
with the tips that have grown so much
for short term support, I, I,
the mayor's team has been very committed to working
with us on a longer term plan, especially as, as,
as tips expire at the same time, you know,
we wanna be even more aggressive, more unified on our,
on our work with, with the state.
Uh, secretary Cardona told me personally,
he is very supportive of the work we're doing.
He's very happy about the way we made our investments.
Um, he wants to do what he can to help again and all,
but again, he's subject to elections in Congress.
Well, I, I don't, I don't mean to, uh, sound the alarm or,
or put anybody on alert,
but the state's in worst fiscal conditioning we are.
Um, and, uh, quite frankly, I, I don't see
any additional relief, uh, coming from the state
of Illinois, um, as they deal with their, uh,
own budget challenges
and, um, in their, in their respective, uh,
things without some massive influx of increasing in revenue.
So barring some, uh, intervention from the state, um,
are you, are you asking the city of Chicago to
essentially grant you half a billion dollars
to balance your budget for this year and potentially next?
So to be very clear on the, on the ask,
and this started again with a request on April 30th, uh,
to release enough tips for 462 million today,
that number is closer to 484 million, I believe.
Um, that is what we're asking today that would allow us
to be good partners in, in making the payment
for the pension, which also helps the city's budget.
It would also cover the current proposals we have
with both our teachers union
and our, and our principals union.
And really what I am asking for, uh, alderman is time,
let's work together to be unified, uh,
around our request from the state at the end.
The state has, I understand
what you said earlier about the state,
but they have a hundred billion dollars budget with a B.
Um, we heard earlier about things that they're prioritizing
that are not education.
So I'm not ready to give up on that.
Um, but we do need that time to be able to do that so
that we're good partners to you and to the city,
and that we continue this fight.
So you're, you're asking, and I,
and I'm gonna be clear, you're asking for example,
um, communities in, in blighted scenarios
and blight, blighted conditions to bail out
CPS when it's our schools, our communities
that are on the chopping block and consolidations
and conversations to send money
to everywhere else in Chicago, with the exception
of the communities that are actually going
to make the contributions.
Why would I do that? Why would I take money from Eastern
West Garfield Park, from North Lawndale, from Austin
to send it to Sauganash Rogers Park all over the city
to bail out CPS?
Why would I, why would I do that?
What I am asking for, for the record elders, is
to protect the investments that have went
to our highest poverty schools, mainly schools on the south
and west side, to continue the success we're seeing being
led by our black students
to continue the seeds we're planting in North Lawndale, to
ensure that these dollars who have wonderfully have grown,
I mean, kudos to your leadership, the city,
these tips have grown out to such a large extent
where community members in my neighborhood,
where I grew up in Pilsen,
whose taxes have tripled quadrupled,
and they think those taxes are going
to the school district, and they are not.
Uh, what I'm asking is, please work with us, be the partners
that you have been with us.
This has always been with,
with the respectful, with humility.
Uh, we're asking for you to continue to support us so
that our children get what they deserve.
Oh, I I the record, I do.
We have never, never under my leadership, uh,
made any recommendations for closures
of schools and will not,
You all didn't do a consolidation exercise.
No, we did not, sir. And it just came
out of thin air. Uh,
No sir. So again,
you know my answer earlier. I'll repeat it.
Um, when our board took on, you know,
shifting this budget from a student-based
Budget, the board's fault, okay, all, nevermind
The need-based, but no, please let me finish.
So a needs raise budget as well as this bold strategic plan
that was going to be investing in neighborhood schools.
We needed to answer the questions.
And alderman, thank you for
that first set of round questions.
'cause this is exactly what we needed to answer, is
why are you investing in schools like Douglas,
like Collins High School, um, when we have other schools
that are much bigger, much fuller, and,
and, you know, why are you being inefficient?
Are you being responsible to taxpayers?
We needed to answer that question,
what we saw in the analysis.
A it doesn't solve the financial problems.
And two, the impact that it has on the communities,
the mistrust that it creates,
it just was not aligned with our values.
You didn't know that walking in the door,
Again, we had to answered the questions alderman.
And so now I can didn't
Know that walking in the, I can answer the questions.
Were you here the last time that we had,
we closed 50 schools.
That was national news.
I don't care where you were, you all did not know that.
Walking in the door, we had to answer the questions.
Closing schools in this, in this city is a huge issue.
Alderman, we had to answer the question.
You had to answer the question. You didn't know how, how,
how could you not know the answer?
Alderman, we had to answer the question
that it wasn't gonna solve all the
financial issues of the district.
Is is that, is that really what you want to tell us, sir?
That that, that you were clueless as to
that this was gonna create a level of distrust, a level
of disharmony,
and create more challenges in our
communities that it would solve.
Did, were you, did you miss what happened
in CPS when they closed 50 schools?
My answer is the same. We have to be accountable
to our taxpayers and to our parents,
and we needed to make sure that we could answer the question
so that I can confidently tell you it is the right thing
to invest in our high schools,
whether they're under-enrolled
or whether they're, they're at 4,600 kids like Lane Tech
At the expense of, of, of black communities,
at the expense of, of, of us having
to answer questions again about consolidations
and closures for answer that you knew the answer to.
And if you didn't, shame on you
if you didn't know the answer to that question about what
that potentially was gonna do to the communities
that had already been hurt and disenfranchised before.
Again, we used to look at population loss in, in,
in those communities that lost schools.
It's much higher than those that that did not.
And again, I I think it's, I just think that's just
so unfair to use our kids as Guinea pigs
or our communities as Guinea pigs, so
that you all can go back
and say, oh, we don't think that's gonna make sense.
Well, hell, you should have knew that from the jump.
Come on, man. Don't, don't do that to our kids.
Don't do that to my community. That's not fair.
So again, for the record, sir,
what's a shame is using information in the wrong way.
What's a shame is, is information coming out public
that should have never been public being used
to castigate the district.
When again, our board, our our staff,
what we care about is investing in our neighborhood schools
and we're showing it through our actions.
It's shown through our budget,
it's shown through our strategic plan. End of sentence.
I I would honestly say the same thing
because I, I've never heard such back
and forth between CPS in this building
then in this setup here.
And again, what's good for the goose is good for the gander.
And unfortunately, um, I don't know what what was designed
to be accomplished today, but it is what it is.
I do believe that, um, I I I hold it
that I, I'll let the chips fall where they may.
Thank you Madam Chair.
Wonderful clarification.
Alderman Ccho Lopez, first year seven.
Yeah, I think just, and I will have to,
I second Alderman Alderman Irving on this.
I think most of the things
that you have on slide 19 talk about state funding
as main structural issue.
Yet you are asking exactly what Alderman Irving is saying.
Community, Hey, public clarification is you asking us
to use $3.
You mentioned Pilsen, that's what I wanna point,
clarification or taxes.
You said double triple, yet we cannot access those funds.
We have schools without playgrounds.
And you know it yet, it's the first time
that I hear you talking about,
talking about this a holistic approach.
You are going to sacrifice people in the most vulnerable
communities by your request.
I want to double down on what Alderman Irving has said.
That is unconscionable.
You cannot come here, put all the burden on the city
because this is gonna hurt the most vulnerable kids.
That's why you asking. And I wanna just reemphasize
that you are asking us
and only us to come in without any other
structural solution that I can see.
Alderman Bill, Thank, thank you, Mr. Madam.
Chairman, just, um, point of clarification,
if you don't borrow money to close the $500 million gap
and the other, what is that dollar ask as far as Tiff?
Have you guys run that number?
So, so Alderman is, like I said,
our budget is balanced today.
No, I'm talking about going forward,
like going forward next year.
Yeah. So go, I mean, what, what is your tiff ask to,
if you had the perfect tiff ask Yes, what would
It be? So I, so
I think there's, there's two things
that I would need to ask first.
First of all, what is our plan for next year in terms of,
of the re the ask contribution
for the municipal pension payment from the district, right?
That, that will be part of your city budget next year.
Um, so that's one question, right?
So if the answer is zero, then, then I'm,
I don't need fundings from tips because it's zero, right?
So that's one. So again, the request as we disentangle
for the, for the con for CPS, for which
for a hundred years we weren't making any contributions,
and by state law we're not required to.
All we have ever said, and this is consistent
with the previous administration,
for every dollar you ask us to put in,
please provide us some TIFF surplus.
That's all we've ever asked.
That's been consistent for four years.
Nothing different, nothing, nothing new.
Um, and, and again, we want to just show for the record
that we have not received those fundings,
and that has been at the expense of our dollars
that could have been used for the classrooms, um,
going forward, again, I,
what I am asking is a short term solution
and then a longer term solution of what can we work on
for next year so that we're not at this again.
Uh, because I was hoping that we wouldn't be at this again
as we had the conversation, you know, last year.
And so I am confident as we think about our advocacy
with Springfield, we already have a strong tax base
that we know produces a certain amount
of revenues for next year.
I am confident that if we work together,
we can find that right balance.
I understand the importance
of tiffs and development in our city.
I am not asking that you expire everything at once
to zero out every, every TIF surplus.
Pedro, I'm trying to get to a number.
Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm trying to get to a number.
What is your short term ask
and what is your long term ask for us
for Tiff? Your tiff. Ask.
Yeah, so, so I'll To you,
your short term and your long term.
Yeah. So it's the short term. I have it today.
It's $484 million.
Okay. That's, that, that's the total, that's your portion?
Yes. That's the, is is that the total ask,
Total ask for CPS.
Okay. So that's your portion, quarter term the tip ask.
So that means you're asking, well, you, we would have to do,
what is that about seven, 800 million? Double
That Tip sweep.
Yes. It'd be double that.
That's what I wanted to get. So,
Okay. I'm good now,
sir. Thank, thank you, sir. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. It's, uh,
I believe it's 4 84, sir.
And that's actually in our deck 4 84
Gentleman over.
So essentially, I mean, let's, I mean, to go back to
alderman Bill's point, essentially you asking
for almost a billion dollar TIFF surplus
and going forward, we're going to need to come up
with another $500 million on an annual basis to start with.
So ultimately you, you're essentially a asking for
roughly just to be roughly going forward,
almost a billion dollar increase in property taxes
on Chicago taxpayers.
So for, so I, I don't have an answer
for the future years alderman,
because again, we haven't started, you
Got a $500 million deficit and nothing changes.
That deficit is only gonna grow.
I understand, I understand. You're,
you're telling me you're limited in revenue options.
You're not seeing a whole lot
of support from the state coming down
'cause they've got their own challenges.
So essentially you're asking us going to go for a basis
for a billion dollar property tax increase
to fund CPS. That's what you're asking us
For. Now, what
I am asking in the short term is $484 million
to be released to CPS
and my commitment to you to work with you to advocate
with the state as we look at longer term challenges.
And that by the way, that includes already work.
We're already working with, with, uh, members of, of,
of city Hall to, you know, responsibly look at tiffs,
including Tiff expirations.
And so again, that plan is still has to be developed.
You still need a billion dollars, right?
But we need it right now is $484 million.
It's okay if, if you say you need a
billion dollars, it's okay.
We're not going, we're not gonna shoot you today.
But, uh, if you need a billion dollars,
I mean, it, it is what it is.
I mean, let's be honest. Well, the need is, need
For the record Alder, man, we have a lot of needs,
but I, I also want to be a good partner with you.
I, I don't think it's fair that we just put all
of our problems back to the city.
I really think really our local taxpayer,
I do our local taxpayer, I said this earlier,
our local taxpayers already have such a
burden of funding education.
Again, we cannot leave the state off the hook.
I guess that's your answer to stick to it. All right,
Alderwoman Pro Temp Nugent, followed
by Alder chairwoman do, followed by Alderwoman Ramirez,
followed by Alderwoman Cruz
and ending with Alderwoman Rodriguez.
Great. Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair
and thank you CEO Martinez
and, uh, team Bog, Donna, uh, Laro, Jamal
and Julie, everybody that's been here.
I I really appreciate, um, the questions in the,
and the thoughtfulness and, and the candor today.
I am not surprised,
but I am very disappointed that both the outgoing
and incoming board has failed to show up today.
I apparently truancy is okay for them, but not for our kids.
Um, you know, I've heard some
of my colleagues bring up today whether
or not you're having the Springfield conversations
and I personally, excuse me, Mr.
Blakemore, um,
I personally have visited many schools with you.
Uh, I have done that with you, with my state senator
and my state representative.
And we've had talks with you.
You have come to me
and my colleague, um, in the state legislature to,
to talk about what this budget looks like and,
and what some of your, your asks will be.
So I, I think it's important that I at least bring that up.
It is. By no means am I hearing about any
of this for the first time today.
And, and you and your team have been very straightforward
with me, my team, um,
and my colleagues in the state legislature on that.
So I just, I thought that that was worth bringing up.
I'm, I'm, I'm trying to understand the dynamic
that we're in right now.
And before you came to Chicago, remind us
how many other school districts you worked with.
So I've been the superintendent in San Antonio,
superintendent in Northern Nevada.
And I was also the deputy superintendent in Clark County.
Okay. And in those three areas,
did you work with other boards and other either mayors
or city managers?
And kind of talk me through that a little bit.
Yeah, so every other district I've been at has been always
with elected school board members.
Um, okay. Uh, alderwoman and so,
but always put partnership with the,
the local mayors actually were very supportive of me
because they had an interest
and vested interest in our schools.
In fact, the city council provided us funding
and all the cities that I was in to the schools in addition
to the state and were always there to advocate
with us for state funding.
I also had a strong leadership with the governors as well
as the, the, uh, state superintendents.
So it was always in partnership and all.
Now in Texas, I didn't always agree with the politics,
the other non-educational politics,
but we found some common ground
and while I was there in both states,
we secured significant
increases in funding, especially in Texas.
Okay. So safe to say you worked with governors, mayors,
superintendents during ongoing budget negotiations
or contract and or contract negotiations in those roles?
Yes. And as well as negotiating
labor contracts in each of those cities.
Okay. Have you ever worked with a board
that resigned en mass?
Will you say it into the record?
No, of course. And again, remember,
these were all elected school board members,
but no, the answer is no.
Okay. Is the situation that we're dealing with in Chicago,
in your opinion, unprecedented?
It is. Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Madam Chair,
Chairwoman da.
Uh, thank you Madam Chair.
Uh, thank you, uh, superintendent, uh,
and to, uh, Jamele, Ivan Laurel.
I know Chuck's not around anymore,
and Felicia Sanders, all good members of your staff.
Um, this has been
some hearing and I appreciate you, uh,
being here to talk to us.
As my mother would say, this is a come to Jesus moment when,
uh, everybody has to figure out how
to work together to get out of the intensive care unit.
'cause we are in the intensive care unit on life support,
and we need to, uh, work together.
Um, wanna respond to a few things that I've heard to, uh,
my colleague Alderman Hall that talked about the lack of,
uh, capital improvements that's gonna happen
when you are in a community that has no tips.
I have worked with CPS
because most of my community has tips to
improve schools like Bel Phillips,
moison Beasley, I see you looking,
uh, chairman Jeanette.
They have a new roof and playground coming.
Um, uh,
and uh, that's
helps me, but that doesn't help areas that do not have tips.
So we have the same thing in economic development
and housing development.
And that's why the mayor took the
show leadership and went for a $1.25 billion bond
so that we could have equitable neighborhood development.
I think that same kind of thinking has to be done
with our school system, which means that we have
to come in alignment with lots of different people
on how we're gonna deal with tips.
You Know, we've swept tips over the last number
of years, and given all the money that we swept,
we probably could have redeveloped the south
and west sides by now.
So that's one thing.
I think the, uh, other thing is that, um,
where am my notes here?
So I'm thinking this through.
I think I understand your, your calling for short term,
what I would call a bridge grant to get us
through next year and to take care of our obligations,
and at the same time come have that come to Jesus meeting so
that we can figure out a long-term strategy.
So I feel that
and I support that versus a long-term,
uh, payday loan.
So I want to get that on the record.
And I do have some questions on, um,
you mentioned that, uh, you could do a non-taxable bond
or a taxable bond,
and you talked about the rates are much higher on
a taxable bond.
Can you give us a sense of what that interest rate might be
if we were to go in that direction?
Um, so, you know, do you know
that the taxable rates are you,
You gotta speak into The mic.
Uh, Miro, SVA crook.
Uh, so right now that, like if we have to do taxable rates,
probably the rate could be anywhere between five and 6%.
And, and all of this is based on the,
on the market conditions.
Um, it will be very hard for us to do tax exempt bonds for
like operating expenses.
So we'll have to go to other ways to try
to get money into our coffins.
And it had to be pretty much taxable bonds.
And, and so all of those bonds that are listed in your,
um, presentation were all for capital, uh, expenditures.
None of them were for operating costs.
Yes. Some of the majority of there went for operating.
So somewhere scoop and tos that, uh,
and TOS financing, that was to get relief out
of the budget for those years.
Other ones were for operating expenses,
but it was to reimburse CPS for expenses
that have already been paid related to the penalties,
the CPS, um, paid for the,
uh, for the swaps.
So we pay it and then we can recover those bags.
But the original bonds were for capital investment, right?
The the original bonds were for capital,
Not for operating, right? That's right. Okay.
Yeah. The, the way older women,
and you're very astute about this,
the only way you really bring money into the operations is
you're doing it through refinance savings, right?
The original bond has to be for capital, uh, by law.
But then, you know, because you can save money,
you can extend the debt, you can, you know,
even pay more interest in the short term,
but you can get money out
because you've already paid some
of the loan just like a mortgage. So
This would be the first one for, if you were to do it,
the first one for operating,
It would be, it would be replicating the, the,
it would be trying to replicate
that, which we don't think we can.
So what we, what we think would happen,
and again, we'd have to still consult with attorneys, is
that we would just go into a deficit, which means
that it would be coming from the tans, which is a true,
I mean, I hate using the word payday, but it really is
because, you know, our payday is property taxes.
We get twice a year. And so that would have
to be immediately paid.
And that's what, that's what concerns is
that immediately we could have a much larger deficit
that has to be resolved within the next school year.
All right. Um, you talked a lot about
the, the results that you're seeing, better results
that you're seeing in our, with our schools.
I'm wondering if you could elaborate a little bit more on
what those improvements that parents need
to know about in black communities.
And if you could give me a preview of what we could expect,
if we could sustain
and even up the funding that we have for CPS.
So what we're seeing elder women is for the first time,
um, since the new assessments were put in place back in
2016, we started outperforming the state for the first time,
uh, being led by our black students.
By the way, now, uh, I will say it's not, it's, it's,
I still, I don't defend how low they started with
because, you know, they start from a low base,
but we actually are seeing them outperform our other groups
of children for the first time.
We're seeing it at scale.
Uh, we're seeing it also with our early grades.
We have diagnostics that are, that we, not only that we use,
but also nationwide, they're used
and we're outperforming all the large cities.
Uh, and then this was verified in a sta in a study by,
uh, Stanford and Harvard.
The gains that we, that we're gonna report tomorrow
replicate those gains.
In addition at the high school level
for the first time since I I've ever seen this,
we are seeing, for example, no race gaps when it comes
to our students earning college credits up
to an associate's degree.
It's actually being led by our black students.
And there's no race gaps when
you look at their demographics.
It is why, because it is our neighborhood high schools.
It is Coreless. It is Julian.
Uh, we're seeing more career tech, uh, you know,
certifications from all of our schools.
It is Philips on that list.
Yes, ma'am. They're, I mean, I, I gotta just tell you, uh,
you better watch out for Philip.
'cause I don't, I think there's sort
of a little under the radar their enrollment is growing
and stabilizing, right?
The momentum they're building. Uh, just watch out.
Um, and I think my last question is
related to, uh, and you may not have the answer to this,
but I want to know, we had 50 million in
allocated at the state level for a high school.
What's the status of that, of those dollars
and, uh, location?
I mean, I know that there's work to be done,
but what's the stat status of the money?
So, older women, you know, this is a struggle.
We have, you know, we've had, for example,
a long-term commitment for CVS, uh, you know, for, you know,
with the state that they had approved years ago.
We have other, other appropriations.
I mean, this is important for our others to know.
So when you make an appropriation,
I don't think I've ever seen an instance
where you go back on that appropriation.
I mean, I, I, I haven't, I mean, I don't,
I don't monitor all your finances,
but I, I have not seen that at the state level.
They make appropriations specifically for capital,
and then they never pay them.
And so we have appropriations going back 10 years.
And so this has been something
that we've also been advocating to change the state law
that they, that shouldn't be allowed
because it, it sends a false message to our schools.
And, and so that's just something that, you know, you know,
like I said, I won't get into more detail.
Just curious, you have a dollar amount on what
that number might be.
We can bring it to you, but it's a big number through the
Chair. Yes,
we can bring it. Um,
I don't have any other questions.
I just want to say that I appreciate your stewardship at,
uh, CPS
and the visibility that I've seen, uh, at least in my ward.
Uh, uh,
and the, some of the positive changes I've seen in, in some
of my schools, there's still a lot of work to be done.
Um, and I think you acknowledge that.
But, um, I have seen some improvement,
and that's a good thing.
Thank you. Thank
You.
Oh, the woman Cruz. I mean, I'm sorry. Remember where is,
Um, good afternoon.
I'm, I know this is so late,
so I really appreciate you guys being here.
Um, you know, Pedro, we are gonna talk tomorrow
during a community meeting around Velma Thomas.
I do wanna just share for my ward the 12th ward,
I think the Southwest side region, the Latina community.
You know, this morning I'm at Sandra Cisneros.
It happens to be a building that I used to go to school in,
uh, when I was, where I was born and raised.
And then Velma Thomas, that's just in the next neighborhood.
And I know that you're not using the word closures,
but those can potentially be closures.
And then we're gonna see consolidations
with the other neighborhood schools
who are already struggling.
Um, and so these are already hard conversations to have,
and then more so when we're in such a big deficit.
But I really want you to know that.
But I'm very, very concerned, um, for what's
to come from my ward and the region at large.
My question is really around, um, Velma Thomas
and their experience leasing through the archdiocese.
I'm, I wanna know, first off,
how many other schools are being leased
through the archdiocese currently?
So I don't have that answer off the top
of my head, but we can get that for you.
Elder woman. Um, I, what I can tell you is that one
of the things that, um, you know, has been asked of us is
to look at those leases, uh,
because it is an extra expenditure for us,
especially if we have neighborhoods
where the enrollment's down.
Um, and then the biggest challenge,
and this is the challenge of Belmont
Thomas, it's not just the lease.
The lease actually is not, not significant in terms
of an annual cost.
What is significant is the
deferred maintenance on the building.
Unfortunately, the archdiocese doesn't have the funds
to maintain their buildings.
And so Belmont Thomas, for example, has over 14
to $16 million in deferred maintenance.
Yeah. And we've had a lot
of issues in that building for the staff.
Yeah. Yeah.
I just, I think we need to have a larger conversation on
leasing in places that are obviously not good neighbors
and partners with CPS and our families.
I think that's a big one.
But I, the issue right now with Velma Thomas,
it's not about the lease,
but the fact that they're wanting to sell, knowing
that there is a school there,
and not having a conversa an appropriate conversation about
how we can build capacity at that school for our families.
That is, I think, at the core, a big concern.
So I think it is important for us to know
how many other locations are leasing,
whether they're good partners,
and we have to develop a plan if it is the case that we need
to consolidate, move close, whatever the word is,
and that people know that there is a plan.
Because right now we're sitting with no plan.
Um, and it's an, it's a big concern.
And, you know, I, I guess I, I want to ask you, Pedro,
do you feel like Velma Thomas, is
that a school closure in your eyes?
So, so it's not all the women, so, and,
and this is, uh, you know, you know,
we're having these conversations, as you said, we've had it
with staff, now we're gonna have it with parents.
To be really clear of what Velma Thomas is, is, uh,
as you said, you know, with the lease ex the lease is
expiring, but we have the ability
to extend the lease another year.
We've already had the conversation with the archdiocese.
Okay. So you have asked Uhhuh,
And we have, and they said they would,
the challenge is the being, the buildings being sold
at any time that, that it's sold, they'll allow us
to finish that school year.
But it's, but that's the, the most they can do for
that, for whoever buys it.
And so what we're trying to avoid is an emergency move.
Uh, you know, for all of our schools,
if something happens in our buildings, we have a backup for
where the, where they can temporarily co-locate.
That's what we're trying to avoid.
The state law requires us that if we want
to do a co-location, um,
and co-location basically means
that they're sharing a campus, not necessarily a building,
but a campus on the campus is sharing that campus.
Um, that has to be done with public, uh,
with public input and public support.
So that's just the law. Got it.
So that's kind of getting kind of mixed into this,
but the real, what we're trying to avoid is the fact
that if it's sold tomorrow, we would have an emergency co,
uh, move if we had, if we can plan for it now, you know,
so let's say, you know, another school that,
another building that's near, near that same school,
because we also are looking at where the families live, um,
then we can do it thoughtfully.
And I've, we've already committed capital dollars
to make sure that it can be done well
with families and staff.
Um, that is nowhere near the amount that we would have to do
to purchase and, and fix up, uh,
Bel the Belmont Thomas facility.
Uh, but it would, it would be a better approach for us.
And so that's a, that's the, that's, it's a tough message,
but that's the, that's what I'm,
we wanna make sure we're conveying
to both staffing to families.
Great. And then another question regarding Velma Thomas.
You know, back in 2019,
they were promised a multimillion do
dollar renovation project.
And then that ended up following, following through
from 2019 to 2023, you know, there was buying,
renting, renovating of early childhood centers
and white affluent communities.
And so I'm wondering, you know,
what is your take about taking away from, you know,
certain areas and then, you know, building
so much more capacity in places that may have not needed it?
And I don't want it, you know, to be a challenge, you know,
for us to be fighting for these type of things.
But we're talking about Roscoe Village, Lincoln Park,
Beverly, Jefferson Park, and Edgebrook.
Yeah, so, so, no, it's a great question, Alder,
and I'd be happy to answer it.
Um, when I came in at the fall of 21,
there was already a plan that was approved
and frankly, a lot of commitment
to making sure we had an expansion
of early childhood in all 77 neighborhoods.
Um, it didn't, it wasn't tied to, um, anything else,
but we wanted to be universal.
Um, so all of the things you said were in that plan.
Uh, it was something that was already underway, by the way.
I'm not, I wasn't against it.
Uh, the challenge has been that in the community
where Belmont Thomas is at,
we've had under-enrolled schools for many years.
We, we just, that include preschool programs.
Um, and so the neighborhoods
where things got expanded were schools where they,
there wasn't neighborhood, uh, preschool programs.
And look, I am a huge, I have a huge heart for equity.
I also at the same time know we gotta
serve every child, right?
And so we can't commit
to Universal preschool if it's not in all 77 neighborhoods.
And so that is the reason why that happened.
Um, and of course, now, like I said,
we wanna be thoughtful about Belmont Towns
because I think it's a strong program.
What I don't want is for that program
to be at risk in some way of being eliminated.
Thank you. Um, and you know,
we will talk more obviously tomorrow
during the community meeting.
My second, um, area of questions is
around the Medicaid state plan and mental health services.
And just curious, um, you know, with CPS having the students
that are Medicaid eligible, what percentage are we,
you know, asking for or,
Yeah, so, so just know older woman.
Um, we got this question recently.
Uh, we are actually maximizing Medicaid at a level
that we've never had before, in fact, significant increases.
Um, our team can tell you the exact numbers,
but I can tell you right now, there is no truth that we are,
you know, purposely missing out on Medicaid
revenue. In fact, it's the opposite.
Yeah, I can speak to that. I highlight it'd great.
Mike Sikowski, chief Budget Officer.
Thank you for the question on Medicaid.
And there's been a little bit of
disinformation out there right now.
So as part of the state plan amendment to allow CPS
and other school districts to claim for services
that were previously not eligible, we were leading advocates
with the state to help them push for the amendments
to get passed and then get passed.
As a point of context, we,
this year's budget is a hundred million dollars
in Medicaid revenue in it.
As recently as six years ago, we were about $42 million.
So we're seeing the benefits of having this expansion.
This last year when we got the approved cost settlement from
the state, we got 27 million more dollars.
That was part of our overall budget balancing strategy.
That's gonna be structural going forward.
So the Medicaid story is one that's been one
of a big positive, one
of the big positives in the finance side for the district.
And we're continuing to make sure that students are enrolled
and that we're claiming for all
the services that we deliver.
But the narrative out there
that we're not claiming up the revenue is false.
And we see the growth in our numbers.
So are we at capacity right now?
Or we could ask for more dollars in the future.
So we're, we're continuing older
women to continue to do that.
So, so the, we have, you know, there's experts
that we're working with to make sure we're maximizing.
I think that's an ongoing, because it's so new, so I,
you know, so I don't think we're we're at our limit yet,
but I, but we are gonna try to maximize every dollar.
It is very intensive in terms of documentation.
Uh, so we're working through that,
but we're already seeing fruit to our labor.
Okay. Just curious because there's an increase in social
workers, as you guys have stated,
so wondering if those numbers are
increasing as well. So, and
We, we expect the Medicaid revenues to increase over time
because of the investments we've made in the services
we're providing the students.
So, got it.
Multi-step process, but we're definitely making progress.
Okay. And those are my set of questions.
Thank you so much. Wo Cruz.
Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you.
CEO, Pedro Martinez for being here and staff.
Um, I know there is a lot going on.
I think tensions are very high,
and I appreciate everyone saying
every one of you being here.
Um, I think this should have happened a little early on, um,
just because, you know, things got messy
and we wanna make sure that we are having these type
of communications early on,
and we're not reactive to, to a situation like this.
You have to, you know, we all understand that the ones
that are also scared.
So, you know, there's so many uncertainties,
is our taxpayers, they're the ones
who are concerned about everything they hear in the,
in the media when it comes to $300 million loan.
And signing into the letter, was that like,
what does this mean for, for them
as they have been reaching out
to my office asking more clarity.
What, what is really going on
and where are we heading as, as I, as a city?
Um, you know, the information you share
with us explains a lot about, you know, a lot
of things have been changing, graduation rates are up,
reading scores are up, those are great things.
So this is meaning that the investments have been happening,
are in the right direction,
but how do we keep those investments happening?
Um, and then those, uh, results happening.
But at the same time, how do we focus things, um, to be, uh,
responsibly, uh, when it comes to our funding, when it comes
to, to the loan?
And I want, before I ask my questions, I wanna ask things
for clarification.
So you said the, the budget is balance,
it's just a pension that it's needed.
And when you said like, okay,
once we receive the money, is it right?
You said, we'll give it back.
Yeah. So, you know, so by law we were required
to have a balanced budget, which is what we did similar
to a, you know, previous years we couldn't put in, you know,
we put in the tiff that we were, that was committed to us,
um, still waiting for more, right?
And that's been consistent with other years,
consistent with other years.
We don't know what the final, uh, you know,
labor agreements are gonna be.
So again, we always have to do a budget amendment for that.
And so, um, so that's how we, that's how we,
we we pass the budget.
But I make sure I'm answering
your question. Can you ask it again?
How about the pension? Yes.
When you say once we receive that money, yes. We'll give
It back. Yes, ma'am. So, so,
you know, again,
by law it's not an actual liability of the district.
It's a liability of the city.
And so when we get the funding, we then, uh, have an, uh,
an inter intergovernmental agreement in IGA
where we then go ahead
and really just return that money right back, uh, again,
with the understanding that it's, it's for the pension
that covers our employees.
But how, how are you gonna do
that if there is a need for funding?
Like, how are you going to,
where are you gonna find the money to give it back?
This is again, at the, uh, the request we're making today,
which is to have enough TIF surplus.
Uh, that's what goes into the request of $484 million,
which is about 3 25 above the one 60.
It was already committed.
And so, so for us, the 1 59 that was already committed.
So, so this is really, that's really why we're here,
because we've been working
with the mayor's office making this request,
and now we're here at city council.
This is decided by you and the mayor
and your city budget for next year.
The reality is not giving it back
because it's part of the TIF surplus,
they you're gonna receive this money for the pension.
What I mean by that al woman is that as part
of your budget, the city budget, you have to, you have to,
uh, budget for the, for all pensions
and, um, you know, including, including the portion
that covers my employees.
And so, and that's by state law.
I'm not saying it's right or wrong, it's by state law.
For a hundred years, we were never asked
to contribute into the fund.
So that started in 2020.
And so what we're all we've ever asked is from,
and this is going back to 2020, is
that we have some revenue source
'cause we have no other revenue source.
And, and the revenue source has been TIF surplus.
And so that allows us then to create that IGA,
we then provide you that money
that then also meets your budgetary needs as well.
Have you talked to the administration?
What, what is plan B?
So what about if, you know, we talked about TIF surpluses
and there's other departments, you know, that, um,
like the park district
and others that also need some of this funding, um, to,
to make repairs, whatever they need for, for their,
um, agencies.
Have we have you
and the administration talk about what is planned be,
what are, what would that look like?
I think one of some of my colleagues asked you that question
as well is like, what is next?
So have, do you have some different scenarios?
Like have you had conversations with them again?
What, what is, if this option doesn't work, that
$484 million in TIF is not an option, what would be the, um,
second option then?
So, you know, so the, so really from the beginning,
the conversations were also about let's continue.
Let's not let the state off the hook
because we've seen, we've shown you the,
the challenges we have with our state funding
and how we're treated differently.
So that was always the first option.
I wanna start with that. Uh,
and then with that then was, you know, really let's continue
to, 'cause we've, we've seen it historically more tip tif
surpluses have grown every year.
Um, and again, I'm very, we're very grateful to that.
And, and again, that funding has always been used, not,
and we haven't even received dollar
for dollar always being used to, to put right back into,
into funding this pension.
And so, so that was, that's always been the path, uh,
for years starting with the state.
And then this path, um, again, you know, the,
where we're at today is, you know,
there's not a other good options.
You know, there's borrowing
and then other worse options that, that, again, that
to this point we have not been comfortable with.
Okay. Um, so, uh, one more question.
When it comes to the teachers, um,
and you know, their, their request as, as unions, um,
every union, you know, does that we represent their, their,
um, members and make sure they advocate for what is needed.
Um, what have been some of those conversations?
Like I know they're asking for increase, which, you know,
every, I think everybody will ask for, for an increase.
I think it's something that happens everywhere.
You know, just talking to, um, teachers, you know,
this is not nothing new.
They, they buy a lot of things out of their pockets.
They do a lot of things for kids.
Um, how can we be supportive at, at a place
where I'm saying like, what is reasonable?
What are the things that we can still be supported to them
and give 'em what, you know,
some other things they're asking.
So what, and you, and you
and your staff, what would be something reasonable too when
we talk about percentage or increases for the teachers?
Yeah, and really, again, we've done this in action.
We've actually responded now to the 700 initial,
you know, proposals.
And what we, what we've really countered
with is reasonable raises, you know, 4% for year one, four
to five based on, based on inflation for years two to four.
We've also, you know, things, for example, you know, I am
so, so humble by the number of our teachers
that are going back to getting their bilingual
certifications or ESL certifications.
'cause we have more students than ever
that have English as a second language.
So we wanna fund that completely
because we were partially funding that.
But we wanna fund that completely.
Things like, for example, making sure
that the working conditions are improved for our staff.
Special ed teachers should not be doing
IEPs during their planning period.
You know, they need their planning periods.
They work very hard. So many of these things, other women,
we've given concrete proposals
where we have the biggest differences is thousands
and I mean thousands of additional staffing
that is being asked in addition to what we have today.
Um, and as well as much higher compensation increases than
what the end benefit increases.
And so again, you know, it's,
it's part of the process, right?
We have to go back and forth and,
and, um, you know, I've always said we're very committed
to giving reasonable raises to our teachers.
I am very proud of the fact that we have one
of the highest starting salaries
and average salaries in the country.
It's what's, it's, well,
it's allowing us to keep our teachers.
And I'm very proud of that.
And I don't wanna go back on that.
I, I appreciate the answer.
Just, I wanna make sure we keep on motivated as well.
I mean, I volunteer in a classroom at times
it can be overwhelming
and I just understand that
that's something they go through every day.
You, you mentioned something made me thought about, um,
the buses, um, for our diverse learners.
What is the situation with that?
Um, I know that at one point, at the beginning of a school,
Yeah, so, so the good news elders is
that we are transporting more children today than we have in
the last three years in terms of
our students with disabilities.
By the way, the needs have grown.
I mean, they've grown by 20, 30%.
So the challenge is,
and so now we started the school year
with a couple thousand students still needing to be routed.
We're now down closer to 600.
Um, and we're getting it down
to a reasonable time period that the parents are waiting.
So we're gonna continue to make success in that.
We are still hopeful that at some point,
maybe starting the second semester,
we can even start doing some pilot hubs for,
for magnet students, specifically magnet students
that live in high poverty areas.
And so that, that is still, uh, one of our goals.
But we wanna make sure we first address all the challenges
with our children with
disabilities, and we're getting very close.
Thank you. Um, I know a lot of questions have been asked,
so I, I'm not gonna repeat some of the questions I've asked,
but again, I do truly appreciate being here.
I know this is, um, you know, tough, you know,
tough situation.
But just you all being here, having taken time to answer all
of our questions, it's really important for us
as we wanna make sure
that we have all the information that we need.
You have a very responsive, you met with some
of my colleagues before as well to answer questions.
Um, great feedback was, um, shared back
to us, but thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair, Alderwoman mitts.
Thank you Madam Chairman. Um, and I hope you can hear me.
Yes, ma'am.
My first, ma'am, my first question would be,
and this is something I've been asking for a while now,
and you just mentioned English as a second language.
How is it happening our children in society today
to not to be able,
and speaking of blacks, to be taught Spanish
and making sure that's at a primary
age moving forward?
Can you answer that for me?
Because it's so uncompatible as they get older
to not to be able to speak Spanish is at a disadvantage
in job opportunities, uh, workforce.
How, how are we helping in that area?
Yeah, so older women,
you know, thank you for that question.
And, and you know, we, you know, you, you're so right.
Uh, as part of our strategic plan, our vision is
that our students are graduating
with being competent in a second language.
Uh, we think it's, it's like you said, it's the right thing
to do for their competitiveness.
We think it's the right thing to do in terms of, frankly,
I'm always frustrated that our country does
not value languages.
And so know that that is part of our strategic plan.
Uh, we are investing more in, uh, you know,
in our teachers today in terms of bilingual certifications.
Um, as well as, you know, we have a bold plan
to expand dual language programs across the city.
And that's in every part of the city.
Uh, alder women, because again,
it's not just our English learners.
Well, well, it's really important in my neighborhood,
given the fact that we have, uh, a lot of the immigrants
and we're not able to communicate
now they're in the schools, we are gonna use tax dollars
to continue to help them to understand English.
And what are we doing to help blacks to understand Spanish?
And that's my question.
And that still will be the question
that need to be addressed.
And it need to be addressed now, not, not,
not 10 more years later,
because they didn't just start coming here.
We are being put at a disadvantage.
And as Alderman Colvin mentioned earlier, that
blacks have been put on the back burner when it comes
to the education system in my community
at or high school, I have been requesting just
for something simple, is
to open the swimming pool up for the neighborhood.
I have been asking this for four years,
and I have yet to get an answer for why the park district
CPS can't open a pool, only
for the kids in the neighborhood.
In addition to we touring the gym, water leaking in,
in a, a area where we spending millions
of dollars on your vision, as you would say,
and a community that need those services
are being deprived of it.
And when you finish that one, I'll go to
Nash Elementary School where we've been asking,
we got two schools, KIPP
and Nash, small area, not enough parking
purchase, some land vacant over in the area
so the teachers can have a place to park
where they can feel safe.
Can't get it done. I don't know why it's taken that long.
I do applaud the mayor for schools
that are not in a tiff area
because I have, uh,
John Hay who've been asking for elevator.
They gotta carry equipment three floors up.
God bless his soul. Uh,
and we can't get it elevated in a, a school.
And then you, you mentioned Austin five times.
I know, uh, just during the meeting,
you keep mentioning Austin, what's the plan?
Because Austin have been there for the 24 years.
I've been in office since, uh, Michael Scott,
who were the CEO that working to help us.
And since then, nobody looked at how to, uh,
improve the education of getting students to come back
to Austin because it was a dumping ground by many years
of the children who were not graduating
and they would send 'em to Austin.
So having all kids there that
are underperforming have taken a toll on the school
and it has a negative image in the community.
And we have not yet to try to invest in like,
taking programs out, like manufacturing.
The kids enjoyed the manufacturing program.
We don't have, uh, trades
that the kids can learn in the neighborhood.
We are being deprived of education that we are constantly
spending tax dollars on.
Irving, Ottoman, Irving have mentioned it.
Uh, and errors that need the investment.
I don't know how you all look at schools,
but these children live matter.
Every one of 'em.
If I look at Austin today
and visit with the mayor,
the kids don't feel safe just to come to school.
But yet we, I don't know. I don't know what the answer.
So if you could just tell me
what are we doing about those issues?
'cause they're out in the opening.
So thank you for your questions all over me.
So first of all, we'll get you written responses about those
particular schools, whether it's the pool at
or we have, uh, you know, as part of our new capital plan,
we are part, we are trying to be more thoughtful,
especially about those types of issues.
So let me, our team can get back to you about, you know,
or Nash.
Uh, so, so let me let,
we'll get you an answer on those things.
Uh, the other thing I would say, older women is, you know,
that, um, you know, I I I more than wanna partner with you,
especially, we are starting
to make more investments like at Michelle Clark.
We're making more investments at Austin High School.
So I would love to just partner with you about what,
you know, as we're expanding career tech programs,
our partner with the community colleges, please count on us
as partners to really continue to invest in those schools.
I just see a lot of potential, especially with, again,
the large number of students that live in that area.
I'm glad you see those potentials, uh,
Pedro, because Douglas
and I keep hearing it, even though it borders my war.
My, there could be constituents of mine
or attending Douglas now, but it's
because of the lack of investments that has been
allocated 40 schools from
20 years back.
That's why they, where they are now.
It's not because these tax dollars
haven't been paying the price.
Our money's just going somewhere else.
And you wanna know when people move into the neighborhood,
the first thing they look for is a good school.
So we gotta be more intentional about the schools
that you think that are in an area, don't matter whether of
of the color, black, it don't matter, it do matter.
And everybody gotta focus on, it's not about a color,
it's about a human being
and them being able to give a opportunity
for a great education so they can succeed in life.
And, and if I would say CPSF failed in
that category, in this neighborhood,
and we have to do better.
Thank you all the women, you have our commitment.
Let's work to do better. Thank
You, Madam Chairman.
You're welcome. All Alder.
Well, I want, lemme lemme thank all of you for being here.
Uh, like my colleagues, I do have
to say I appreciate this opportunity.
'cause it's one that we usually don't get.
Um, usually, uh, we have city council, uh,
the board meeting is on the same day as city council.
Uh, that has been past history in the
way things have been conducted.
But if we be more transparent,
because we are using tax dollars no matter where we are at,
if you look at your tax bill, peoples are paying taxes
and then they can't have a quality education
for their children or their children feeling safe.
Even trying to get to school is we're not doing our job.
So thank you so much and I appreciate all of you
and everything that you've done.
Thank you, uh, chairman Taylor for holding the meeting.
Um, it's been productive
and it's been a great conversation here today by all this.
A lot of information
and everyone gave great points that need to be looked at.
We got a lot of work to do
and we ready to roll our sleeves up to get it done.
Uh, there's no other option
other than the moving it forward.
Thank you.
Thank you, chairman Mitts, Aldo.
Thank you Madam Chair.
Byron, can you slide over a little for me?
Byron, can you slide to the left a little? Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks for having this meeting.
I pretty impressive turnout today.
I, I'd say I counted about 30
alderman at at least that were here.
So good turnout.
I know throughout the day, I know
people have been bouncing in and out.
We also had some important briefings also.
Um, but I just wanna touch on a few things.
I may, unfortunately, I had to slip out for an hour,
so I apologize if I'm repeating
some of the stuff that's gone on.
First I wanna say, uh, Pedro, just love calling you Pedro.
That's, uh, Napoleon Dynamite. Got my shirt on today.
You know, I gotta call you Pedro. Okay?
Um, so not outta disrespect, but outta love.
So I'm one of the 41 that wants you to stay,
wants you to stay at this tough time.
Um, so can't speak for the whole 41,
but 41 people did sign a letter.
Uh, we need stability. Tough times going on right now
at the end of your term, if that's up.
And the mayor so chooses
to pick his new person, I don't have a problem with it.
But right now we need stability in, in, uh, in our schools.
And you're certainly the man for the, for the cause.
Um, just wanna say, my principals pretty much,
I have eight great schools, eight great principals.
I'm very fortunate. Just all awesome principals, teachers,
students, you know, couldn't, couldn't be,
couldn't be more pleasant with the education
of process in the system.
Uh, in my community.
Uh, certainly my principals in a great job that they do.
Um, I noticed some people were mentioned.
I, I felt very important
to mention some people that I deal with.
Uh, and that's, um, Melissa Stratton, Laro, um, Jamel
and, um, JD talk to them every once in a while.
So I never have to call you
and say, these people aren't calling me back.
And of course we all miss Chuck, you know, Chuck is gone.
So is there any plans they get a new
IGA person, do you know?
Or is that in, is that in the works or is is
It it it's in the works.
Um, we definitely wanna make sure we have,
we build up our team, older person.
'cause again, we wanna have a strong coalition.
All right, good. Yeah. That, that's, uh,
that's an important position certainly for us.
I think the divided council that we are,
I think probably pretty much all 50 people would say,
we all had a good relationship
with Chuck and we appreciated him.
Um, something was touched on by Alderman Klay, and I,
and I, I don't understand this whole funding thing.
I'm, I'm basically pretty tired of hearing
how the northwest side gets all the funding
and the west side and the south side don't get any funding.
So can you explain me exactly how to works?
And I'm, I'm gonna give you a simple scenario
and you could tell me if I'm wrong or right.
You got a school on the northwest side.
They got 500 students,
40 teachers school on the west side or the south side.
500 students, 40 teachers.
Do my schools get more funding than the schools on the west
side or the south side to the exact same scenario.
So if, if the school that has a higher need older person,
so whether that's students with disabilities,
higher poverty rates, higher, uh, English learners,
they always get a lot more resources
because the needs are greater.
That's what I thought. So, so then in other words,
the schools on the north west side don't get more.
So you answer my question. Thank you.
Um, in previous,
and I don't know this, this is a legitimate question,
is our current CFO, was she part, was she the CFO
of CPS before? Was she part of
Yeah, so CFO, uh, our CFO has been
with me since I've been here.
But let me, a, let me let her answer that question.
How long you been A CFO?
Oh, no, no, no. CFO Our, our current CFO, I'm sorry.
Oh, I'm sorry. The mayor. CFO. Jill.
Jill was she, she would know that.
Was she the c was she A CFO at one point in CPS?
Uh, Jill, anybody been around long enough? No. Oh,
No. Uh, she wasn't
the CFO, uh, CPS.
She was, um, a financial advisor. Financial
Advisor. CPPS.
All right. Okay. Thanks.
I, that that was just a, an honest, curious question.
I know there's been talks about cuts at schools.
I know, uh, principals have
to make tough decisions whether they wanna have an art
teacher, a music teacher, a librarian.
So that's the reason why some schools don't have everything.
Right. E every one of us can agree on that.
We all wish we had our, we always, we had music,
we always wish we had a librarian.
But principals have to make tough decisions sometimes.
And, and that's correct. Right?
Yes. And what's different alder person is that this year,
every school at a minimum
for the elementary schools have three elective teachers.
That has not been true before.
And so that allows schools not only have PE
but also art or music, or both.
Or they could have a third option,
which could be a librarian, could be a STEM teacher.
We leave that up to the local school council,
the principal and the team at the school.
Okay. And I, I know there's been some controversy about,
uh, um, teachers being cut and lose in their jobs.
Well, my understanding is we cut, we,
I don't understand this, but my understanding is we cut 584
teachers, but then yet we offered 'em all their jobs back,
and 505 of them took their jobs back.
Did anybody verify? Is that truth or not?
So what we have every year, uh, alder is that, uh,
we first of all guarantee
employment for all of our teachers.
That's been true since I've been here.
We've had teachers that had to move from one school
to another just based on need.
Right? Uh, it's still difficult.
I don't want to minimize that. We try
to minimize it as much as possible. Okay?
Right. And, and, and that's another thing.
Teachers do somewhat pick their schools, right?
I mean, they don't, uh, I know I heard the talk for,
you know, more black teachers, more brown teachers.
Well, I, I live in a pretty white community
and I, I have black and brown teachers.
I, I don't, I don't think anybody should be forcing them
to say, we don't want you to teach in my schools anymore.
Because if that's where they choose to, to wanna teach,
I mean, we welcome 'em.
We welcome you over here. So I, I,
that's just the way the system works.
That's part of the collective
bargaining, uh, so on and so forth.
I know Alderman Beal mentioned something about Walgreens
and, and my analogy, uh, that I'm using Hugs, Walgreens,
I'm gonna use private schools.
So I have private schools that are dangling by threads.
Private schools have closed all over the
place on the northwest side.
And I'm sure, I'm sure it's the same all over the city.
Um, if you don't have the numbers,
unfortunately they have to close down.
They have two of my private schools
that are dangling by a thread.
And, you know, every year there's just hoping they get to
that 160 students that they need or so, and, and,
and every year it's, it's real close.
So I know, you know, for some reason people
seem to be leaving the city.
I dunno, I think you guys said
that there's more students in the school
this year than there was last year.
Did anybody say that?
Yeah. So Alman for the last two years now,
this will be the second year.
We're seeing enrollment increases
after decades of enrollment clients. Good.
All right. Good. So good. We're seeing increases. Good.
That means more jobs. Okay.
Um, is there, is there a proposal, and,
and I don't know if you can comment on this or not,
'cause this may be part of the, uh, contract negotiations,
but is there a, a proposal
to shorten the instruction time in our schools?
I, that, that can't be true.
Is that, I hope you're telling me that's false.
Yeah. So, um, so the conversation we're having alderman
to be, uh, specific is how do we provide more planning time
for elementary teachers?
We're not against that. Uh,
we think teachers should have sufficient planning time.
We are very proud that our, that our schools, our teachers
and CPS have more planning time than
most districts in the, in the country.
With that, uh, we always wanna do more.
We wanna be a leader in the country.
The challenge we're having right now is that
that either requires us to extend the day,
which means we have to pay teachers more.
Um, or we would have to cut core instructional time.
And so we're struggling with that
because we know our kids,
our children need more core instructional time, reading,
math, science, and social studies.
They don't need less. And so
that's just a conversation we're having,
a very productive conversation we're having with our union.
Okay. So it's just, we're just possibly talking
that's per teacher, not students.
A little more, uh, preparation time.
So maybe, maybe that's right, sir.
Maybe teach in six hours and
preparing for two or something like that. That's right.
Okay. All right. All right. I'm fine with that.
You know. Um, and, uh, I do wanna say, um,
I served on an LSE for six years for as a, uh,
as a parent rep too, as a, a community rep.
So, um, I, you know, I put my money where my mouth is.
In the past, I also went
with Alderman Wa back, I dunno if he mentioned it.
We went to Springfield about 10 or 12 years ago.
I think about six of us went down there
to fight for some more funding.
So, um, I guess we didn't do too good of a job,
but that was a long time ago.
And I think that's about it for me.
I did wanna say, oh, one thing,
this is a point of information.
I know we're talking about the, the salvo
for our schools, and that was the lottery.
And I believe the lottery, that was the 1976 when we came up
with the lottery money, was gonna go to our schools.
And with the success that we've had, I don't know where
that money's going, but we should have
tons of money for our schools.
So I, it, it nice to be, see if there's an audit about
where all that lottery money's going.
'cause we, we could certainly use a lot at.
And just last, lastly, I wanna say one thing to us.
I know one of my colleagues said, uh, she wants
to see her pool open at her school.
I'm just gonna tell you right now, if you're opening a pool
in, in her ward, you better be opening the pools in my ward.
So you can't just open one pool,
you're gonna have to open all of 'em.
So we're, I'm, I'm not gonna stand for that
or most of my colleagues wouldn't have say that.
And I know it's a complicated
thing 'cause you need security.
It's hard to get lifeguards nowadays, so on and so forth.
So you open one, you're gonna have to open all of 'em.
And I don't think it's a bad idea
to open 'em for the community.
But you can't just open one onesie twosie here and there.
You're gonna have to open all of them. But with that,
I just wanna say thank you so much.
I came to the board meeting, I spoke up for you.
Um, appreciate you.
Unlike most of my colleagues, I am not upset with the two,
the two different boards that didn't show up
because the one is outgoing, the one is incoming.
So what's the outgoing one gonna say other than we're going
out and what's the incoming one gonna say
other than we just got here.
We don't, we don't have anything to say so far.
So I'm not all that upset about it.
I just would hope the new board at one point when we have a
follow up meeting, which is that they're willing to come.
So with that, I thank you very much.
Thank your staff for always being there
for me when I call 'em.
And, uh, best wishes to you.
And, uh, hopefully all this gets resolved
and we, we all start living happily together.
So thank you. Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you sir. Thanks.
Thanks so much for having this meeting.
So we're gonna take a three minute recess.
The CCEO needs to go to the bathroom,
To be fair. It's been,
yes, absolutely. We've been sitting here. Six
Is nine, we got here 30.
Think we're fair.
We wanna go home today.
Uh, all the women howorth here next.
Thank you Chair. Thank you for being here.
I appreciate you not only showing up here,
but also for the Women's Caucus meeting.
Um, as a mother of CPS kids, it's important to me.
Um, they benefited from our neighborhood school
and, uh, um, they go and have graduated from Northwestern
and, and U of i, one of 'em, uh,
graduated in education.
Um, so we appreciate the college credits that CPS provided.
Um, I, I know
that people's blood sugar levels are very low right now, so
I will make it very brief.
Um, I do wanna say that I appreciate you showing up Again.
It's, it's important to show up.
Our students need to show up
and, um, I appreciate that you're gonna work
with our legislators
and also with our principals to help understand how the, um,
school funding formula is going
to impact them in years to come.
'cause there's a little bit of, um, uncertainty there.
Um, and also I wanted to say thank you
for, uh, Alder Women's MITs, um, words.
It, uh, schools are the reason why people are moving
to Edgewater and Uptown.
Um, it's a very walkable area.
My kids were able to walk to school
as I did when I was a CPS student.
Um, when I lived on, um, Yates in 93rd,
we got to walk to Buckingham School.
Unfortunately, it's now closed.
We would like to prevent more school closures
and we would like to prevent, um,
neighbors from having to starve themselves
to keep those schools open.
I wanted to also say, I, I appreciate your
work and your commitment to work with, uh, all of us
and to encourage more conversations in Springfield.
We absolutely need that commitment.
And because we need stability, you know, the, the,
uh, effects of losing, um, staff teachers,
uh, will be devastating.
Um, I also wanna shout out to Jamele Chambers
and, uh, also Jaden Chow.
We've had public safety issues
and every single person, um, at CPS who we worked with
was vital to help the students not only deal
with the crisis at hand, but the after effects of it.
So, so the, it is essential that we have stability.
Um, I wanted, I just had one question
and that is that we, uh, went to a great celebration
for new LSC members.
I was an LSC member at Jones.
I think it's so important for everybody to,
to be involved in many ways and, um,
and to help get out the vote.
So I know you already do that.
Are you also planning to help educate our families?
Um, you know, my, my schools are very diverse
in 6 0 6 4 0, 6 0 6, 6 0, where we have, you know,
60 languages spoken.
And, um, even though we are a desirable area,
we also have our issues with housing insecurity
and also with accessibility in some of the schools.
So I hope that you will continue to work with us,
for instance, at McCutchen to make sure
that there is accessibility there, um, in many languages,
um, spoken.
But do you have plans to help people understand why
this school board election is
so important in November? Yeah.
Yeah. So Alderman, we've been definitely doing our part
to make sure at least information is being shared
around the importance of the elections.
You know, uh, some of our team members even been part
of just panels, not in particular for elections in terms
of any individual person, but just
to make sure people understand
that there's elections going on.
We'll continue to use our, I'll use my voice as well just
to continue to remind parents
about the important of, of voting.
Uh, you know, our high schools are great places for also
to register our students as voters.
So we've been doing that. Um, I, I think, you know, for me,
what I see as a huge opportunity is
with our local school councils, with our incoming, you know,
board members that are gonna be coming in.
It really is another chance to almost reset a little bit
and really talk about how do we partner together
to understand our finances, our investments, um,
how do we, how do we work together?
Because, uh, you know,
when I talked about elected officials, state electors coming
to our schools, again, I've always envisioned that
with our elders, ideally with our LLC chairs,
because they're there
and then, you know, this from being on the LSC,
they're there at the school.
They can, they can talk about here are the things
that, that we're proud of.
Here are the things we want to invest in.
So that, that is the plan, ma'am.
And so we're gonna be rolling that out as we go into just
before the new session starts.
Uh, and I really, like I said, I, I really, I want,
I want an open invitation to not only our elders,
but again, our state elected officials.
Thank you. And I, I do wanna shout out
to the school board members who did serve
and to the incumbent members.
They're doing this, um, you know, their own time and money
and, um, but they, they're there to represent the area
that their district
and 20, 20 plus 27 sounds like a lot.
But you know, even, even in the 48th ward,
we have two community areas,
but we have 12 different neighborhoods, you know,
and each neighborhood is very different.
Each school is very different.
And so local invite,
very hyper local representation matters.
So I hope that you will do your best to, um,
to promote elections in November. Yes, ma?
Yes ma'am. Thank you. Thank you. Chair.
This is knocking, But all the woman Lee. Thank
You Madam Chair.
And, and thank you for everybody hanging in here.
Um, I'll be brief 'cause I know we've been here,
um, for quite some time.
Um, I'm gonna submit most of the, my questions to, uh,
to the chair, but I wanted
to just follow up on a couple of things.
Um, we talked a little bit about special needs
and, uh, special education earlier.
One of the slides that you guys had up, um, I think it was
for one of the elementary schools, Pullman.
Um, it showed, uh, that there were
currently seven special ed and 20 ikas.
Um, can you tell me how many students they're serving?
I saw one, one thing on the, uh,
on the sheet said 33 with disabilities.
Does that mean those seven teachers in 20 cGAS are serving
33 students or are there more students
in, I just wanna understand that.
Is it 33 students? You, you want Yeah.
Rock, paper, scissors. No, I know.
So the, that particular school is serving 33
students in a cluster setting.
Okay. And then there's additional students getting that have
IEPs outside of the cluster program.
So those seven teachers
and 20 aides are serving both the cluster classrooms
and the students that have IEPs
Outside. And what happens
older women is with cluster programs, um,
sometimes they start at one set of grades,
like primary grades,
and then we add, you know,
upper elementary grades all the way into middle school.
So, you know, the staffing grows as we continue
because we wanna make sure that students have the ability
to stay in the school all the way to eighth grade.
And are, are there federal mandates to the, the sort
of ratio for teachers and secas to students?
It's not federal, but we do, um, we have,
we have our own policies and guidelines.
We also have state guidance. Uh, at the federal level.
It's more about compliance with laws and service.
Uh, but, but uh, you know, as you can imagine,
the more severe disability,
the more higher the staffing ratio has to be.
Yeah. It's just the, the point I was trying to get
to in terms of just the question was just are, are any
of these unfunded mandates? Right.
So the short answer is yes.
Um, both at the federal
and state level, we probably are getting about half the
funding we should be getting.
Uh, not just us. By the way, this is nationwide.
Great. And then the second point I wanted to make, uh,
the second set of questions, um,
is just about performance and attainment.
Like we talked a little bit about performance earlier.
Um, I know that, you know,
attainment means grade level at attainment
and that great on the progress that we've made.
Where are we in terms of like how does
that progress get us towards
attainment and how are we tracking on
That? Yeah, so, so
for the first time, like I said, since 2016,
we are now starting to outperform the state.
And we, and all of our measures are showing
that we're starting to perform the nation with that.
Uh, we still have a ways to go.
Uh, you know, what we've seen always
is it's a function of poverty.
So many of our children start two grade levels below.
It doesn't matter what city I've been in,
we're seeing amazing growth,
especially in the primary grades.
What's interesting about our, our data, the high,
the more students are with us,
our proficiency rates are the highest at eighth grade.
And what the rea and what the really that, the reason that's
so important is that that allows us
to then provide high school credit bearing
courses in middle school.
So algebra for example, is our most popular,
but we're also looking at career tech classes,
uh, language classes.
And so what I tell families is, if your child is young,
even if they start below grade level, what,
what our data shows is over time, we get them to that level.
The complexity is always the fact that, you know, not all
of our students stay with us all
till eighth grade and so on.
Some of our students start older as well,
especially our multilingual students.
Um, I'm gonna, that was my last question
'cause I promised only to ask two.
So I'll, I'll leave you with just a couple of comments.
Um, finally here, and thank you again, chair Taylor
for making this possible.
Um, I'm really glad that we did it.
I know it's been a long day, but I don't
for one minute think that any of this was a waste of time.
I think this was a really great opportunity for us
as elders, as well as members of the public
to hear from CPS about just really important issues
regarding school funding.
Um, and what I'm taking away from this is that, um,
there's a lot of need and there's a lot of need
for continued conversation and partnership.
Um, it, I may still question whether
or not it's a good idea to, to have 39 students
and 39 staff members at a school.
But I, I get that you have a vision for it, um,
and that it takes investment.
Um, I'd like to hear at a certain other point,
and you don't have to answer this now,
but what does evaluation
and rubric look like, um, moving forward?
Because at a certain point, if it's not working,
then we have to look at what's not working and fix it.
And I think that, you know, what we want is a partnership in
that because you can't fix that, um, with the one school.
You have to have everything else that's working
around you in that community as well.
If you want people to come back to the community,
there has to be economic development.
There has to be businesses, there has to be people wanting
to move back into the neighborhood
or to stay in the neighborhood.
I shouldn't say 'cause there are people in the neighborhood,
they're just, all the kids are leaving.
Um, so know that we're here to be partners.
Uh, but the, the real reality is, um,
you can't squeeze blood out of a stone, right?
We only have so much money as a city.
Um, and, and while I may want to be able
to give you more tiff money, I
don't know how much there's gonna be there.
And that's a, a short term solution.
I think there's gonna be really tough decisions, uh,
at CPS as well as at the city.
Um, and I think, you know, we as elders are, are gonna have
to be prepared to, to work through that
and minimize the impact to both students
and citizens across the city. So, thank you
Elder One,
Elder person for test.
Thank you, chairwoman. I just have one question.
Uh, but first I wanna thank you. It's been a long day.
Some tough questions. So I I appreciate the dialogue.
Uh, c can you explain to us
how the same general council is able to simultaneously
represent the board and report to you?
And do you find that at all that is a conflict of interest
To clarify? Older woman,
the general counsel of CPS,
uh, they actually report to the board.
They don't report to me. So they, they consider, I,
I am considered a client basically, uh,
for the general counsel, but they represent the board.
But they do also represent you?
No, they, they we're a client
because again, they protect us in lawsuits and et cetera.
But, but they represent the board.
And so just to clarify, they don't at all report to you,
so you do not have any sort of engagement interaction
or official meetings with the general counsel
that represents the board.
So they don't report to me at all.
Uh, what they do is they fill me in on lawsuits
because, you know, they're, they're about our schools, uh,
potential risk, but, but they don't report to me.
Okay. Thank you. Chairman
Autum is Child Lopez.
Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair.
And, uh, these are just, um, some, uh, uh, more local
but pending matters in terms of these, um, um,
issue with Velma Thomas.
I, I do wanna, um,
focus on the conversation about being fiscally responsible.
My understanding, you know, from the parents is that
the co-location plan seems to be more expensive
that the cost of actually keeping in, in the school for
what we heard from some of the parents and,
and students that we are gonna hear more
tomorrow in a public meeting.
Uh, but sounds like the decision is almost like a done
deal for what I'm hearing.
Uh, and I yet I, I wanna, I wanna hear
how can we justify expanding, and again, correct me,
but the numbers are wrong for what I hear from the parents
and the teachers, a $7 million colocation that will affect
and destabilize two potential school Cooper
and Shields when the cost,
and this is again as Alman Ramirez mentioned,
and archdiocese, uh, own, uh, a site.
So how do you see that as, as, um, in, in,
in the terms that I've been hearing as justifying
a fiscally sound decision?
Um, just if you can explain me that,
and also if this is a done deal,
because like I said, this could be destabilizing three
school communities, not only Velma,
Thomas Cooper and Shields.
Yeah, so, um, so right now, just a couple
of, a couple of, uh, facts.
The, the, the building itself would cost about
$2 million to purchase.
That's not the big issue.
The big issue is that deferred maintenance is close to 14
to $16 million.
Uh, so the total cost
of the property is really closer to $18 million.
It's also in a community that, uh,
we have under enrollment across, across the neighborhood.
And so, um, I would have to convince our board, um,
you know, to purchase a building in an area
where we already have access capacity.
And that's been difficult for me in the past.
I'm not saying it's not possible alderman,
it's not a done deal, but it,
but that's what I'd have to do.
The, uh, what we're trying to avoid is an emergency move,
uh, because the building is on sale and so and so,
because our board is not interested in buying it, um,
or better yet, let me correct that.
I would have to convince our board.
Uh, but again, you know, it's, that would,
that would be my challenge because I,
it's not just the 2 million, but it's deferred maintenance.
The district would prefer to invest in our own buildings.
Again, it's not a done deal about location.
Really what we're asking the community is partner with us so
that, uh, if you, if we could find a good location for you,
and by the way, we're looking at campuses that, um, so
outside of Pilsen, uh, Pilsen was one option,
but even campuses that have separate buildings,
they could have their own entrance.
And what we committed to is
that we do have money set aside specifically to make
that space a good space.
Because what we don't want is to go from one building
that has a lot of needs and it's,
and it's not ideal for our children to another space
that is not ideal for our children.
And so, so I'm not saying we're gonna solve it all alderman,
but that's our commitment.
Thank you. And the reason why I ask is
because the, as you know, with a set of closing, right,
this will have impacts.
I mean, we have Casas ampa, um,
CASAS is also in an empty church, um, also owned
by the archdiocese that they also wanna sell.
So my concern is that we already have to think about,
and again, unfortunately today I did not hear a plan,
you know, on how we going to help those 2000 kids.
But I tell you that we already in conversations
with those parents, right?
And you know that proximity to Cooper as well.
So we will be asking of Cooper.
And now my my next question is, um, the Tiff conversation
to me is a little con you know, surprising
because another mayor has been supportive
of the tiff surplus he has in the past.
I don't think he has at any point indicated
that he wasn't to the current needs.
Um, but I to al do, uh, uh, questions
and concerns, uh, this has to do with a holistic approach
to what's going on in our neighborhood, right?
So to my, to my concern is
that we do have the highest property tax increases in the
city, but yet we're closing two schools in my ward.
That is a fact that it seems to me very hard
to reconcile when we talk about property taxes that are,
have gone up and also a community like ours
that has received a lot of the new neighbors that
are now enrolling our schools.
So my question to you, in terms of this stiff support
and this steep proposal, I would like
to have a conversation, as you know,
or community has been discussed discussing the quality
of life plan for quite some time.
Um, I've been insistent in your team on several
occasions to invite you over.
That's what I think is important that we have a conversation
because it's not only to al actual point,
it is not only about enrollments, it's also
how we keep those enrollments when there's a lack
of affordable and public housing.
So my question to you is how do we work with you
to make sure that these stiff surplus is along the lines?
Just what Alderman Irving mentioned,
that we are not penalizing the communities
who have been paying, contributing,
helping when nobody else wanted.
And now we have to hear from people that are,
talk about being fiscally responsible,
meaning push punishing communities like mine.
And this is again, we've been in discussions with,
with the mayor's office, but with CPS,
honestly it has been very difficult
to have the conversation about a holistic approach
to the t As you see, one size doesn't fit all.
I think that $2 billion
to two developers would never build anything versus helping
TIF to build housing playground for the school like Cooper
that we ask him to do even more.
I wanna hear your thoughts on this.
I mean, it is not one size fits all,
but what you asking of the city council is quite a bit.
Yeah. So first of all, alderman,
let's count on getting together
and let's have this conversation.
It's complicated. So that's number one.
So you have my commitment, let's get together, you know,
you know, not sooner than later.
Let's do that and talk about, again,
we are gonna be studying what's happening with aro.
You know, that's again, we literally just happened recently,
so I wanna make sure whatever plan that is,
that it's a comprehensive plan
and we'll share with you and the other elders.
Um, and let's continue
to have this conversation about tips I am with you about.
You know, there, there's a few things that I, that are,
that are pet peeves of mind.
One is playgrounds and the other one is bathrooms.
I I think it's unacceptable that we have schools today
that don't have playgrounds and
don't have acceptable bathrooms.
I think those are basic, you know, basic dignity issues.
So again, uh, you have my commitment.
Let's, let's work together on these issues.
Yeah. And then finally, just to, just to end with this.
I, I know that today we hear a lot about, um, the
irresponsibility of the past.
I think it's, it's clear that there were a lot
of irresponsible decisions and how we move forward, right?
We hear, I hear a lot of people here talking about, um,
you know, the payday loans and, and credit cards.
Many of our constituents leave,
you know, paycheck to paycheck.
Uh, many of our communities don't have the luxury.
And I think any, any father, any parent would tell you
that one thing that we are not going
to allow is our kids to go hungry.
To go un shelter, to go on house.
And worse now with any, you know, safety net like schools,
you know that a lot of our communities are in
that situation right now in our community.
We have, again, not only the ace of PA parents, OMA
and many others, we do need solutions at the state level.
This is not sustainable.
The revenue for TIF is a temporary solution,
but we do need to make sure that we have from CPS
is any strategy
and I will wait for, you know, the answers from the chair
to see what are the coalitions to ask
for help at the state and federal level.
I don't buy it from the state and the federal
level, that is not money.
When I see billions of dollars again that I mentioned to go
to rebuild prisons, a lot
of our kids are being failed by CPS.
They continue to be failed and is unfair to ask
of our same communities that are trying
to build playgrounds.
I hear some, so many called fiscally responsible people
that are asking for my community to now build out even more.
This is time for us to be fair. Communities like ours.
And now that we have this Madigan scandal, that is part
of the things that the fiscally responsible people should be
asking about how we ended up in this situation.
And I hope that they leaking also the look into this trial
that is shamefully now in the public.
So that when we ask communities like us to,
to treat people even more,
we also look at holistic approaches
because we need housing as well.
These 24,000
and housed children from CPS need your advocacy at
the state and federal level as well.
Yeah. Count on it again, we have 15,000
that are unhoused today alderman.
But again, count on our commitment to partner with you
and advocating with the state.
Let's not let 'em off the hook.
There are plenty things left to be unsaid,
but I think we've all made it clear that we're already
to dig in our heels to make sure
that young people across this city get the support
that they need no matter what community they live in.
'cause at the end of the day, these are our children.
And I don't think we, we talk about that enough.
I agree with, with the aldermen about
when it comes to TIFs.
'cause remember they ported TIFs
with certain community to get things built.
So let's not forget the history
and history is just going
to repeat itself if we don't actually look at
what the CPS budget is.
So the first thing that I asked the mayor for
before I took this seat was a forensic audit of CPS.
It just needs to happen. 'cause at the end of the day,
I feel like even though as city council
and as the city, we are very wasteful.
We just are. And so people don't like that honesty.
I don't want to talk about it, but oh well.
Um, I appreciate you coming today.
Um, why do understand why board members come,
you can't take this seat and not be able to take the heat.
You signed up for it, you chose it,
you should be able to come talk to us.
And so I understood the old board wanting to continue
to do business and make money and not be put on the spot
and the new board saying that they weren't ready.
But we can't continue to accept those
excuses, excuses alike.
And y'all know the saying, I ain't gonna say it
'cause y'all used to me cussing, so I'm not gonna do it.
If there are no further questions for the committee,
can I make a motion to adjourn?
So moved by all the person fuentes, the meeting for child,
the meeting on child education
and child development is now adjourned.
Thank you. Thank you elders. Thank you gentlemen.