Oh, yeah, they hear me.
I said, they me, they hear me.
Okay. Yes. And they,
you'll have to go for white.
You got a good age.
I people know
What's going on with Bernard
after we remember the student.
I sent you his name.
I don't know if you gave it to somebody. I did.
I did, but I was, check me. Okay. Yeah.
Good afternoon. The Committee on Education
of Child Development now comes to order today.
There's a subject matter hearing to discuss the City
of Chicago's response
to the Federal Administration Cuts to Education.
We will do a roll call to establish quorum
Vice Chair, clay
Alderman Yancy, alderman Hall,
alderman Bill Alderman Chico.
Alder Woman Lee Alderman Quinn.
Quinn is here. Remote.
Got it. Alder Woman Hula.
Hey, Lou Al, the woman,
Coleman Alderman.
OSHA Alder person, Fuentes
Alderman, Tyler Farro, Alder Woman Rodriguez Sanchez.
Alderman Gardner. Present via Zoom.
There are eight members present.
We have a quorum pursuant to Rule 59 members, gal,
Gardner and Quinn requests
to be virtual for this meeting.
Can I get a motion for Alderman Gardner
and Quinn to, uh, participate?
So moved by Alder Women, Alder person, Fuentes.
All those in favor? All those opposed the ayes. Hi.
We have non-member Maria Hatten here at this time,
we'll begin the public comment period.
This period is limited
to 30 minutes outta respect for everyone's time.
Each speaker is limited to three minutes.
First, we have Zoe Lee.
Good morning, chair. Good morning. Uh, on behalf of Dr.
Rita Shada, founding President of CAUSE Teachers,
we are calling for transparency, fairness, and due process.
And the Chicago public schools do not hire list policy.
Too many qualified black educators remain wrongfully
blacklisted despite having no criminal records,
valid license, clear backgrounds, and no DCF is S issues.
We urge the council to take three immediate actions,
retroactively apply clear eligibility.
L you know that word, standards for removal, conduct
of public audit of the current D-N-H-D-N-H list
and create a neutral appeals process.
This is not just about policy, it's about restoring justice
and ensuring qualified educators
can return to the classroom.
Equity demands. Action, not just words.
I get tongue twisted
because I'm tired
of talking about the same stuff over and over again.
I said a couple of years ago that when I first started this,
that it was gonna be a race war,
and it's starting to become a race
war when it comes to everything.
Education, our housing, um, food,
human resources, basic human need.
Uh, we're not being able to talk to each other.
Uh, and like I said, this progressive,
this progressive verse, moderate verse,
just nobody not being heard
and we're being to the back is starting to get ridiculous.
Yesterday, the CTU, uh, budget leaked
and everybody's just concerned about winning this next
election coming up, uh, for I guess, uh, Brandon Johnson,
which is gonna be absolutely
not 'cause he's going to prison.
But, um, it's just getting to the point
that it's all about political,
political, political, political.
And it's not about education.
These kids do know how to read.
These kids do not know how to write arithmetic.
None of those things. And no one is taking that seriously.
Everything has, it's, it's, it's starting to be political,
political, political.
But no one's asking these children what they need.
No one's, uh, listening to these educators, the OGs,
people went to school to specifically be teachers
and people who are now running the schools are,
they're turning into a business.
Education is not a business.
So we really need to figure this out.
I hope that, you know, you guys can come and talk to Dr.
Rosita and, and the cause teachers
and try to figure this out
because I'm trying to tell you in the end,
the kids are gonna win
because they're going to start ra rising up.
And people like myself is not gonna allow
this to continue to happen.
Peace.
Thank you for your comments. Now we have Kenneth Jones.
Can you pronounce it? Can you go
to the mic and pronounce it for me?
And my apologies. Ms. Jones,
My name is Kha.
Oh, kni Jones. Okay.
I'm going to read a letter from calls members to
our mayor, Brandon Johnson.
The date is June 23rd, 2025.
Dear Mayor Johnson, I hope this letter finds you well.
I write to you today regarding a matter of critical
importance affecting educators, public trust,
and the city of Chicago's legal,
financial obligations.
The form of the Chicago public schools, CPS
and me and others have been calling it the Child Pornography
System since they're teaching kids porn in school
instead of education.
Do not hire DNH list.
So this letter is concerning
us being on the do Not Hire list.
And I'll say a quick testimony as I continue.
I have a master's in special ed.
My students were doing three years in advance in special ed,
ed middle school.
The principal said, my score was so high,
I can't give you the highest score
because if we give you that high, nothing is left in this.
Only the beginning of the year. I was never written up.
Not one time in my entire life on the west side of the city
of Chicago, my husband was ill.
He was dying. I went to the principal
and I said, I'm gonna have to take off a little time
because I have a emergency.
He said, go ahead, do your report cards. I said, okay.
I turned it in, gave him what he wanted.
30 days later, I got a letter.
I said, okay, hey, we need a form from you. I said, okay.
I will come to the board. I'll give you a form.
Mind you, I've never in my life ever been written up,
no probation, nothing ever.
And then I go to the board, I say what letter?
They said, oh, you didn't fill out a form for your leave.
So I said, okay, well, what I'm going to do is,
let me fill out the form now.
They said, you are completely terminated from
the entire system.
This is what happened to me.
My husband died the following year. I had no idea.
Certified with a master's in Special Education.
Me and my students, I would see 'em walking in the street.
I said, I'm taking you to church with me.
Sunday, I see 'em Saturday, I'm going to, Hey,
where's your mom at?
Tell her I'm going, coming by for chicken.
This is the relationship we had.
This is a relationship Rosita has with her children.
When they snatched all the black children out,
all the black teachers out.
The children were coming to school saying,
where are our teachers?
Where are our teachers?
Now they have our children in schools where people
who do not know them.
Thank you for your comments. Next will have Mr. Blakemore.
I can't believe it. Where are the black teachers?
Why did they get rid of the black teachers,
to hire white teachers
to hire Hispanic teachers?
Why did they get rid of the black teachers?
Because the black teachers were so good at
what they was doing.
We have a relation with our people.
It's a connection with our black children.
Say, once upon a time, I used to be a teacher
once upon a time I was young and gifted in black,
and I'm still somebody.
Why did they get rid of all the black teachers?
That's the way of not teaching
you miseducating you.
But we have black faces in high places,
black political hacks,
that's selling their people out, out.
When we had Black Wall Street throughout the
United States of America and these,
and our ghettos, our black people was teaching,
opening up business, hotels
and scientists, chemists.
And even here in Chicago, they had a black hospital.
All right, now, black banks,
something have happened to black people.
Something bad have happened to us,
and we have to get it together.
Black people teaching black people.
Sometime I give my phone to people
because I don't know the new technology
and they take advantage of me.
They block, I say, do this for me. Those that know,
That know and you,
and you got this how you teach your black
brothers and your sister.
That's why we want you here.
But we don't want these fell out
age amount. Why are they
Doing that?
We are not progress.
We are going back with in the ghetto,
no economic development in the ghetto.
We don't tend to our business,
and we can't leave it to the government.
We got to do what we got to do
for us and us alone.
Something, it's evil here. Something is un-American here.
They all Democrats here,
and we have black faces.
Look at 'em. Just a grand Indian.
Thank you for your comments Mr. Blackmore.
Next we have Patricia pte.
Uh, good afternoon, very punctual.
But that, hey, what can I say? I don't work here.
Uh, it's pointe.
Uh, I have a concern with the,
uh, budget of the schooling.
My thing is, the majority of the,
I noticed I came,
my mother brought me when I was two years
old, I went to school.
I learned English. I, you know,
there wasn't nothing like you have to learn Spanish
and you have to take the classes in Spanish.
Why are all these funds going to
teach the kids in Spanish?
This is the United States of America.
The thing is, the thing is that if you're saying the funds,
they're taking all the funds, okay?
Not only that, I try to go to work in a factory.
I'm retired from the Cook County Hospital,
and I needed a little bit of money.
So I said, I'm gonna get a part-time job.
I went to, and, and I applied in English.
I went and worked there three weeks.
And Hispanic came to me
and told me I wasn't allowed to speak English
because they were gonna take Illinois
over the Hispanics.
And then I noticed that the majority of the schools,
you are hiring Hispanic people
to teach Spanish to the children.
This is the United States of America.
The first language is English, not Hispanic.
Thank you very much. You.
That's why you don't guys don't have monies.
You're just wasting it.
And then later on, they're gonna tell you,
you are not allowed to speak English like they told me.
Thank you for your comments. Next we have Laura Pinson.
Um, Hello and
Good morning, or I'm not sure.
Time is good morning, good afternoon.
Um, I'm here today to talk about, um,
that I'm concerned about our, um, black children.
Um, I do have a sister who works for Chicago Public Schools.
She works with, uh, works with, uh, students.
She, uh, teach, uh, she works
with the seventh and eighth graders.
And she tells me all the time that these seventh
and eighth graders are at a low level.
What they can't even pronounce their vial, the vials.
And this is something that we should have learned back
in first, second grade.
And these, uh, teachers are, are passing them anyway.
And they going into high school at a, uh, with, with no,
uh, no basic skills.
They going into high school being illiterate.
And that kind of bothers me
because it's like they set these,
setting our black children up to fail.
And it's only happening in our black schools.
It's not happening anywhere else.
And I'm concerned about that.
You know, they, they've already, they take away,
they took away the writing.
Kids are not even, they
don't even know how to curse with Right.
You know, they took away a lot of the trades
that's in the schools and, and, uh, in the high schools.
You know, and, and, uh, this is not right.
And I understand that. We got black
organizations and they know about this.
And all of you, all politicians, y'all,
y'all in the political field
and none of y'all not doing anything about it.
Y'all seeing it just letting us fly by.
And, you know, that bothers me
because we had some very smart, intelligent black kids
because we are left in the bottom of the barrel.
You know, it's just, it's just not fair
because the fact that we are the first generation here,
this country, we built this country, you know,
and we have good teachers,
but it's like you not allowed,
it's like the CPS is not allowing the black teachers
to teach the kids what they need to be taught.
So what I'm concerned about,
and what I'm very frustrated about is
that all you black people in here,
all you black politicians, you're not doing anything.
So why we sit there and vote for you
and come to you for, for advice, for help,
and you know, all of this stuff that's going on
and you're not doing anything.
And I'm concerned you all do something about it.
You all, we will help every other group in this
world except our own.
And we need to stop and start waking up. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments. Next we have Dr. Rosita.
Good afternoon, members of the council and the committee.
My name is Dr. Rosita Chata.
I'm the founding President of Cost Teachers, the Coalition
and Alliance of Urban School Educators.
We appreciate the opportunity
to make this statement under Rule 45 report review.
As transparency and accountability are vital
to equity in public education today, we speak
directly about the Chicago Public Schools
Do not hire list.
A policy mechanism that continues to lack due process,
transparency and alignment with state
and federal law as presented to both CPS
and CTU.
Cause teachers would like
to establish the four eligibility pillars to ensure
that the DNH processes are fair,
lawful, and equitable.
The pillars are one, teachers who have no criminal record.
Two, they can pass a background check.
Three, they hold a valid
or can hold A valid is B license four.
They have no open or substantiated cases with DCFS.
We support these pillars as a critical baseline
for reinstating wrongfully blocked educators.
However, the problem is not only who qualifies now,
but also how many qualified
educators remain on the do not hire list in violation
to these very terms.
Cause teachers has documented multiple cases of educators,
particularly black, who have no criminal record,
who have valid licenses with no revocations.
They have earned and clear background checks
and have no open DCFS matters,
yet they remain blacklisted, unable to work, apply
or clear their names.
These are educators with master's degrees, doctorates,
and multiple state certifications with decades of service
punish without fair hearings, findings, or appeals.
Let the Rule 45 reflect that we call
for an immediate enforcement of the do not hire removal
criteria across cases retroactively, a,
a public audit of all individuals on the do not hire list
who meet the four eligibility pillars.
A neutral third party appeals process for any
educator flagged under the vague
or internal misconduct code CPS.
Let her finish, please. CPS must not only ratify
policies, but uphold them, uh, with integrity and urgency.
Otherwise, this policy continues to function as a quiet
systemic barrier to reentry, especially
for educators of color.
Let the record show the cost teachers demand,
not just policies that appear fair,
but processes that are just, we urge the council
and the board to ensure the four eligibility
pillars are enforced. And
Dr. Rosita, please
wrap up your comments.
And the pillars are more than just words on paper.
Thank you. What did you say?
I was saying? Wrap up your Okay. Thank you.
And I would like to say this to you
because I can't do all the talking.
So I do write books.
This book was for the Children, the literacy gap.
It is on Amazon.
And this is a 30 year documentary history of
what has happened since the Amendatory Act of 1995.
If you wanna know the history of Chicago public schools
and the impact on the black community by this book,
'cause some of you are in it.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments. We have Loretta Thomas
Tta.
Say it again. Tta. Tta. Mm-hmm. Thank you.
Good afternoon, chairwoman Jeanette Taylor.
My name is Lynette Thomas.
Thank you for both, for your continued leadership
and making space for us to be heard today.
Alderman Taylor, I want to begin
with a personal apology to you.
I was deeply disappointed by how you were disrespected
during the November cycle, especially
by CTU President Stacey Davis Gates.
That moment was a turning point for me.
While I still love
and uplift our teachers,
especially our black teachers who've nurtured generations
of students, I had
to separate myself from CTU leadership during my campaign.
Respect must be mutual and accountability must be real.
It's also heartbreaking that CTU leadership failed. Ms.
Vicki Willis, one of their own
after her son, alter Pleasant, was murdered
by Chicago Police.
That murder was covered up
by Cook County Jail in Mount Sinai Hospital.
And yet CTU remained silent.
We can't claim to be a justice driven organization
and ignore the cries of our members when it matters most.
I'm here today to speak truth about
Chicago State University.
As a student, I was harassed repeatedly by Dr.
By Dr. Dean Antoine Cameron.
After I filed a Title IX complaint
and obtained a no contact order against him, instead
of being held accountable,
he weaponized the system against me filing a retaliatory
and false stalking order to silence me.
The court never reviewed key evidence, including video
that contradicted his claims.
That order unjust as it is, has caused me dearly.
It revoked my global entry status,
which I worked hard to earn.
As an army veteran preparing for a diplomatic career.
It bars me from the very campus
where I was finishing my degree.
It has damaged my reputation, disrupted my housing,
and triggered medical trauma.
I even had a seizure due to the stress the school caused,
and they tried to pretend it never happened.
Yet, while I have been blocked from graduation,
Dean Cameron is now quietly moving on to another university,
completely protected by the institution
that enabled his his abuse.
Chicago State University.
Not only failed to act, they covered for him, collaborated
with campus police to remove me from student leadership
roles and violated my civil
and disability rights in the process.
I now have a federal lawsuit pending against Chicago State
University Board of Trustees, its Police department,
Dean Antoine Cameron, and other others
involved in this coverup.
This lawsuit includes claims under the Americans
with Disability Act, the Rehabilitation Act.
Um, for violations to my constitutional rights,
there can be no real talk about post-secondary education
reform without addressing what's happening at us.
At institutions like Chicago State University, corruption,
retaliation, and silence are destroying students' future,
especially black women like me who dare to speak up.
This isn't just my story, it's a warning.
And I'm asking for this committee
to investigate and intervene.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comments.
The last speaker we have is Taiwan Sims.
Before Mr. Sims take the floor, I want
to acknowledge Alderman Hall.
There you go.
Oh, he was just here. I
Was just here online. Madam
Chair. Okay.
I would love one to be
Here. Thank you.
You can may proceed.
Hey, good afternoon committee. Um, good afternoon.
Leadership from CPS. It's amazing.
So when these ladies speak about, uh, divestment
and, uh, just disregard for black the youth, well,
American youth, um, it's true since 2013.
In 2013, they shut down what, 50 schools
primarily in black American communities.
Black and Latin communities, if you wanna say that.
But 700 hundred $34 million.
That's the shortfall now.
But William Hall came in here last year
and spoke and just walk.
Watching them walk past it brought, brought it back to mind
that that investment and the fact
that they not teaching our children, the fact
that our high schoolers read at a fourth grade level is all
intentional because Pedro Martinez
and this downstate team invested $1 billion in prison.
So this is the industrial prison.
And they know that the rule of thumb generally from third,
what is it, the third grade, to the prison pipeline.
So we see that all of this is coming through us,
this nation, American people, for what reason?
Who knows? But we do have leadership, Jeanette Khari.
We have these individuals who supposed
to come up and champion us.
And even for those young Americans back there,
that's why he put the jobs together, the 29,000 jobs
to show some type of whatever it is.
But it doesn't do anything
because it's just a bandaid, a temporary
for the wound, though the gaping wound
that this community is.
And y'all see it on the ELs, and everybody is in distress.
They take, call it black fatigue. How dead be that word?
Black fatigue. I'm fatigued. I'm tired.
I haven't seen my child.
Ian Walter Oby Sims since February 24th, 2024.
He attends what? Everton Township.
And because of this, this, this setup, whatever this is,
this school system, I've been removed.
They, they have legal everything against me for no reason,
just for simply support my child as a black American man.
Because there's a narrative that says
that I can't be a good father.
That I won't stand up, that I won't go to bat.
That it's untrue. And we going to prove it.
Because now it's time for us to scratch the line in the sand
because no one is doing it for us.
Khari, Jeanette, y'all have these positions in the city
while we watch our children on Roosevelt, on the a's what?
I try to do it without emotion. I wanna say the numbers.
I wanna say the $734 million. But what is that?
When we have children dying in the streets, I wanna say
that the numbers in attendance have dropped 80,000 children.
Well, we know why, because they scared
or terrified of going to school.
Most of them.
Thank you for your comments.
This concludes the public comment period.
Um, our first order of business is,
can I have a motion to approve the rule?
45. So moved
by Alderwoman Rosana Rodriguez.
All those in favor of passing the resolution
respond by saying, aye.
Those opposed, there are none.
Um, in pursuant to Rule 59, we want to allow Alderman Hall
to participate remotely.
Can I get a motion? So move by Al Alder person for win.
All those in favor signify by saying aye. Those opposed?
So we are here today to talk about the effects
that the federal government, um, not releasing funds
to the city of Chicago has on our city colleges.
Um, there has been a lot of
work done in city colleges over the last, um,
since 20 20 19 since I've been here to increase enrollment
and to make sure that young people in our communities have
the opportunity to go to college in their own city
and literally at a almost free cost
for a lot of those young people.
Um, we all know, as Mr.
Blakemore say, we are democratic state.
And so the federal government is not coming to our rescue.
And so what do we do to support those young people
and have our city colleges have a plan in place to make sure
that young people can still attend those colleges?
And so we're going
to hear today from the presidents of those colleges.
But we're gonna start off with our city college chancellor.
Um, Juan Sanga.
Juan Salgado, who will give a brief statement
and then he'll introduce folks in the box.
Okay? Um, good afternoon, uh, chair Taylor, members
of the, uh, education committee, uh, committee staff
and members of the public.
Um, I will introduce the folks in the box.
I'm gonna wait, get through my, uh, presentation
and then introduce everybody in the box.
Okay? Um, but first of all, we're thrilled to be here
with you all today to up,
you update you on a significant progress.
We are making. It's really important
to ground this moment in, you know, the progress
that we've made, right?
Um, so that, you know, we can use that
as momentum moving forward.
Um, you know, uh, I'm honored
to have served city colleges now for eight years.
Uh, are more than 4,000 faculty
and staff served more than 73,000 students this year.
Um, and there were three quarters whom are black
or a, across our seven colleges
and our five satellites we're growing those satellites too.
Um, we are our city's most accessible engine, uh,
for socioeconomic mobility and racial equity.
Uh, I wanna talk to you about our 2026 budget
because budgets are about priorities.
Um, we have a $648 million budget. It's balanced.
It represents an increase in resources
of 9.5% over last year,
and invest in key strategies
to meet our ambitious student success goals,
including growing our high qualities programs.
Um, chair Taylor attended the announcement of our expansion
of the City College of School of Nursing program operated
by Malcolm X College at Kennedy King College,
and the construction of a new Malcolm X South Campus
facility in Washington Park.
This project will create the city's first clinical lab tech
program right next door
to our partner U Chicago Medical Medical's forthcoming
clinical lab facility.
The budget supports the launch of the City Colleges
of Chicago School of Engineering that will grow engineering
to four more colleges over the next two years,
and includes a transfer partnership
with the nationally ranked UIUC,
Granger College of Engineering.
So our students gain a clear path
to a bachelor's degree and beyond.
This budget invests in faculty positions that will allow us
to grow our programs, including funds to hire faculty
advisors, transfer team members, and student affairs.
This budget invests in the Chicago roadmap,
our unprecedented partnership
with the Chicago Public Schools.
That is ensuring Chicago students are prepared
to achieve their dreams of college,
which I will speak about more shortly.
We continue to work to eliminate every barrier standing in
the way of our students because we know when we support our
students, they succeed.
This includes funding a full compliment of advisors, tutors,
career and transfer center,
undocumented student liaisons and more.
We maintain our historic 20% increase in wellness staff
and grow our investment in student basic needs from our
investments in food support, housing and more.
This budget also supports our strong enrollment growth
and maintains our affordability with our credit rate
of one a hundred and fifty seven per hour.
And continued investments in, as chair Taylor mentioned,
free college programs like STAR Scholarship
for our recent high school graduates.
Future Ready for people seeking
to earn short term credentials at no cost
because you're a resident of the City of Chicago.
And the options for the future scholarship,
which is very near and dear to my heart.
For graduates of the schools options high schools,
they need no B requirement.
They simply need to graduate from option school
to get a free ride to city colleges.
We are also delivering on our commitment to faculty
and staff and our labor contracts,
strengthening our marketing enrollment infrastructure,
and maintaining a strategic capital program,
which includes technology, deferred maintenance,
and funds to expand programs.
The budget's balanced, it's balanced
through strong fiscal management.
You can see the mechanisms that we are using to balance, um,
this particular budget.
I am proud of City College's Financial Position Day,
and it's pertinent to
what Chair Taylor has asked us to talk about today.
It's been a primary focus of my tenure.
When I arrived, we had, um, you know, a financial crisis.
Cash on hand was well
below the level recommended by our board guidance.
The system faced a four notch downgrade in its bond rating,
and it was placed on credit watch negative.
We immediately took action.
Um, we, we took the difficult step of
reducing a hundred administrative staff.
Actually more than that, we sold our long
time downtown headquarters.
We removed the majority of the people to staff
to our colleges so they could be closer to our students.
We began to run, fundraise and reduce student debt,
and we put systems in place for the future.
Since that time, we have dramatically improved the city
college's financial position.
We've overcome the structural deficit
that we encountered on day one, turning
around a negative 114 million in unrestricted net
assets to a positive 42 million today.
Um, uh,
we've achieved the strongest cash reserves since 2015.
Allow us to make key investments fueling our growth.
We achieved upgrades to both of our credit ratings,
and we have tripled the dollars.
We raise net, net raised annually from
philanthropic and other sources.
Our investments are also possible
because of our enrollment growth, like colleges
and universities nationally, we saw declines in enrollment
during the pandemic, and I'm proud
to say we have fully recovered
and we now exceed our pre pandemic enrollments.
At 73,000 students, credit enrollment is up,
and it was up for all colleges compared to last year.
We are seeing strong growth among black
and Latin A students, which make up nearly 80%
of our student population.
Since fall 2021.
Our credit enrollment is up 35% for black men, 31%
for Latin A men, 28% for black women,
17% for Latin A women.
Our fall credit enrollment outpaced community colleges
nationally, as you can see here,
enrollment in our adult education programs,
which is our free high school diploma.
Preparation in English as a second language has increased
by 55% since the pandemic low of FY 22.
This year, more than 500 adult education students earn
their high school diploma.
And the 375 transitioned into credit programs.
We also offer a gateway scholarship
to help provide free college in that transition.
The total number of degrees
and certificates awarded this year exceeds
pre pandemic levels as well.
We are up 18% in credentials awarded year over year.
And with the enrollment growth
and the outcome growth, you all, this number is going
to keep rising.
In fact, as you will see here, all
of our colleges were up year over year in total
credentials awarded.
We have a North Star, which is a 55 for all goal.
That means that at least 55%
of new city colleges students across all racial groups,
will complete their programs
or transfer within four years of starting at city colleges.
Reaching this goals means we will meet
or exceed a similar rate
that selective public universities such as UIC,
are currently performing at across all racial groups.
And when we reach this goal,
and we mean when we will have changed the lives
of more than 5,300 additional students.
So here's where we are today.
We have since seen a five percentage point increase on this
measure, including a four percentage point increase
for black students, and a five percentage point increase
for Latin A students in 2024,
city colleges completed more black undergraduates than the
next three colleges combined.
So if you take the number of students
that completed a degree at the top,
three other colleges in the state
of Illinois wouldn't add up to what we produce.
I've already touched on the many strategies
that are helping us reach this goal from growth in
high demand programs.
So I won't go into that,
but I really need to tell you more about our work
with the Chicago Public Schools
because I want you to know how,
how deeply committed we are to that work,
which is coming at no cost
to the Chicago public schools whatsoever.
Not to their students, not to the institution.
Um, we've increased early college enrollment
for CPS students by 57%, adding nearly 4,000 more students
who reflect the demographics of CPS.
Black students are overrepresented among students earning 15
or more college credits while in high school.
That is 40% of our, uh,
15 credit hour completers are black students
and 36%, um,
of high school completers are, uh, black students.
So we're very, very happy about that.
We've expanded access to 20 CPS schools
to more inand in demand,
hands-on career pathways in fields like tech, healthcare,
manufacturing, and construction.
City colleges has a capability
to reach the private sector in demand jobs and careers.
We can bring that increasingly so to our high schools.
And we are doing that.
We also expanded access to future, future career exploration
for more than 3000 middle
and high school students annually through
what we call spotlight days, bringing high school students
to our campuses.
And we've significantly increased career guidance
by increasing post-secondary navigators from seven, uh,
total navigators to six in, in 16 schools,
to 18 navigators in 91 schools today.
To highlight the strong growth in early college, uh, all
of our colleges grew the number
of high school students taking free classes since
FY 2022.
The second phase of this work work, which we launched,
is called the Chicago Roadmap 2.0,
where we focus on increasing transfer
to bachelor's degree programs.
Today, 51% of those students
who complete an associate's degree transfer
to four year university within two years
of completion at city colleges.
So with the Roadmap 2.0,
we're adding our public four year universities
to this effort.
So we have a stronger pipeline, uh,
to bachelor's degree completion.
And what do we do? We added
transfer staff at all seven colleges.
We implemented a system of, uh, you know, better transfer,
uh, advising, and we're working deeper with those partners.
Here are the early results one year working on this.
And guess what? 100%.
18, 118% increase of applicants to Chicago State University
and a 32% increase to university of, uh,
uh, Illinois Chicago.
So, um, if you wanna know how we're being impacted
by the changes in federal funding priorities at the federal
level, let me just start by reiterating, we are ready
for this moment at City Colleges of Chicago.
Okay, um, city colleges, uh, we're we're committed
to a full investment in adult education.
Uh, our adult education dollars were frozen
for some time now, along with a set of other K through $12
that were frozen by the federal government.
We learned on Friday that they were unfrozen chair Taylor.
That's a good first step.
But I want you to know that even if those,
those dollars were unfrozen
and even if they were permanently frozen,
we were gonna stand true
and fully fund the the Adult Education Program.
We set it to our stakeholders.
We set it at our board meetings, and we're saying it now.
Uh, in our overall budget,
we've budgeted 24.2 million in federal grants.
And federal, federal grant dollars make up 3.7%
of our overall budget.
At this time. Five of 78 federal grants were canceled
with an impact of roughly 1 million.
There may be some other grants that don't continue.
We actually expect to have fewer federal grant dollars,
but we will not expect anything less of ourselves.
Our goals are our goals, and we will achieve them.
We were very pleased though.
Let me just say, the Trio grants were renewed to Malcolm X,
Harold Washington, and Truman.
Um, that program supports first time college students,
and we were quite frankly, concerned
that they would go away.
Let me just tell you, the BBB bill, let's call it, um,
included some real bad stuff that was averted.
Chair Taylor. Um, you know, uh, you know, there were changes
to Pell Grants, which would have affected us greatly,
would've affected our students' ability
to access Pell Grants.
Um, thankfully. So, uh, they were not included.
Um, there are other, uh, technical changes that, uh,
will need to wait for, um,
actual guidance from the federal government to understand,
you know, what the exact nature of those changes are.
There was one good thing in that bill,
which is Workforce Pell, uh, which will allow us
to grant Pell dollars for short term programs.
We think this will help a lot of our adult students
and community colleges across the country have been pushing
that for many, many years.
But let me tell you, the one big thing,
which you all know about
that is really gonna hurt us the most, and that is the snap
and the Medicaid cuts
because our students, you know, are those students
that rely on these supports.
Um, and our students, you know,
they already have high levels of food
and housing insecurity.
Um, and so, you know, we are the most concerned, you know,
with their lives, their lives,
just not just in the classroom,
but outside of the classroom.
So we're working on substantial new supports
for our students this coming year.
And I want to tell you about one in particular
that we will be fully announcing in, uh, September.
But this includes, uh, an effort
to ensure our students have access to food
through dynamic on-campus markets, healthy, ready
to heat meals and nutritious snacks
so they can focus on reaching their goals.
We call this effort Food Security for Life.
We know if our students complete, they will achieve careers
that provide for their families for a lifetime.
And so I look forward to sharing more about that.
And I look forward to rolling out at
every one of our campuses.
We started with Kennedy King College on a pilot.
Um, and, uh, we've grown that small pilot to Malcolm X
and Olive Harvey College.
But just assured this will be at all of our college is, um,
I, uh, I think, uh, uh, chair, uh, Taylor, you also asked me
to share some ways in which the city council could
partner with you all.
So I'd like to do that as well.
Um, you know, number one, you know, if the, uh, city, uh,
and the city Council put together a citywide strategy
to help with the Medicaid work requirements, you know, uh,
volunteer requirements, we stand here ready to be
of assistance in any way that we can.
Okay? Uh, number two, uh, city colleges is seeking,
uh, the ability to offer bachelor's degrees,
not bachelor's degrees in every degree,
bachelor's degrees in those areas
where the economy is calling out for us.
And the people in our community are calling out for us
to produce more.
What? More nurses, more cybersecurity professionals,
more early childhood educators, right?
And in those instances, we can help those people if we had
that tool that Governor Pritzker supports, right?
We need a little help with our state legislators.
Were happy to talk to you about the help
that you could provide.
Um, we appreciate, by the way, um, your support
and our efforts to raise capital dollars
for the Washington Park Project.
Uh, I want you to know the city, you know,
city has a commitment that's substantial.
City Colleges has a $30 million commitment
through a bond deal for that effort.
We want the state to come in with at least 20. Okay?
So, uh, help us to get that.
We always appreciate the work on
deferred maintenance projects.
It's important for your, you know, you know, just your roofs
and your windows and those kinds of things
to be well taken care of.
Um, and so, uh, the state helps us with that.
Uh, and, uh, and, and really important, uh, your advocacy
and your voice spreading the good news about city colleges.
And that's why I shared it.
So that, you know, uh,
more people will take part at city colleges.
That's always helpful. Uh, and then the last one is,
and we are looking at it.
Presidents are looking at it.
We don't have something specific right now to bring to you,
but trust me, we're looking at housing
and what else city colleges can do in the area of housing.
So when we have something to share with you, um,
we will come and share it to you.
Look it, uh, I've said a lot. We have a deep commitment.
We're ready to meet this moment.
Our presidents are ready to share how they're doing
and how they're gonna meet the moment.
I want to introduce them.
Um, and then I'll take any questions, uh, chair,
however you'd like to do it, have the president speak,
and then we take questions, or I can take questions now,
but let me introduce them. Okay?
Absolutely. Go ahead. Okay. Um, I'm gonna start over
with, uh, uh, Kenny King,
college President Katanya Webb Walker,
if you raise your hand so everybody knows who you are.
Yep. Thank you. Oliver Harvey,
college President Kilman Hollinsworth.
Uh, thank you. Uh, Truman College, uh,
president could not be here, Dr. Sean Jackson,
but he, uh, uh, has an incredible Vice president,
vice President, Gail Gordon.
Allen, thank you for being with us today.
Um, Wilbur Wright College President Andres Soros.
Um, uh, Richard J. Day Col.
DJJ Daley College, interim President Peggy Carles.
Um, Harold Washington College President Daniel Lopez.
Um, and Malcolm X College President David Sanders.
Behind him is seated Provost Mark Potter, vice Chancellor
of Administrative Services.
David Anthony, CFO Maribel Rodriguez,
and the Vice Chancellor
of Enrollment Management Will Barefield.
And they're here to answer any questions along with myself.
Of course, I'm seating with, um, our Vice Chancellor
for Legisl Legislative Community Affairs, Jen Mason, um,
who, uh, it's been with me since the beginning, seven
and a half, eight years ago.
Thank you chair for this opportunity.
Thank you, chancellor. Um, I just wanna say that I'm
never really impressed with anything in anybody,
but impressed that young people are going to be able
to have their college experience that a lot of us had.
I went to Dawson Tech, that was my neighborhood school.
I couldn't afford to go to college 'cause I had kids.
And so was glad to have the support of Dawson Tech
and to have, um, city colleges that are available to us.
Um, before I was the chair of the committee,
my questions were around how we connecting
with local high schools and even elementary schools
because we see that the biggest part
of young people are not going
to college is often them not their ability not to pay for,
they can't afford it.
And then even when they want to go to the University
of Chicago's, of University of Illinois, knowing
that they could go to city colleges first
and then go to those universities, which will save, um,
their families a lot of money.
So I appreciate that. Um, I had questions.
You pretty much answered most of them.
Um, what did you all do different this year round?
'cause we know that during COVID we lost
a small amount of students.
Were we able to attain those young people back?
And is there lesson
that the city colleges learned from COVID?
Yeah, so number one, coming out of COVID, um, we,
if you remember, we started, uh, you know, remote classes,
which allowed students to, you know,
have the teacher present.
But on Zoom, uh, you know,
pretty much recreating the classroom experience.
Uh, we can do that for many classes
unless they're like lab and hands-on.
We have continued that,
and we think that's helped us with the enrollment
because we're dealing with a lot of students
that are, you know, working.
Most of them are working by the way, right?
And so if you can come physically to class a couple days,
but then take a remote class the other two days, all
of a sudden you can manage childcare, you can manage work,
you can manage lots of other things.
So we have more flexibility than we had,
um, going into COVID.
Uh, and our faculty
and staff rose to the occasion during COVID.
So, you know, they, uh, really enjoyed the medium.
We, we've been able to, you know, I think,
I think it's been a part of our grow
enrollment growth story.
But the other one you talked about young people.
So last year we tried something out,
which has worked incredibly this year.
Um, and I'm smiling about it
because, you know, what happens is, uh, so,
so I'll tell you what we did last year.
Last year, we, um, we created these enrollment days
for CPS schools
where our CPS schools in May could identify those students
that didn't have a place to go in terms of post-secondary.
A lot of them are getting their college
acceptances and everything, right?
Well, these are the students
that weren't getting the acceptance.
They just never applied. They never thought
that college was for them.
There's roughly about 8,000
of those students in CPS on an annual basis, give or take.
So last year we created these enrollment days.
All seven colleges participated.
We said to the CPS schools, bring the kids on that day.
We'll do everything, you know, we'll get your,
you know, application.
We'll do the advising, we'll do the counseling,
we'll expose you, right?
So, and, and, you know, let's be real,
like the last couple months of senior year,
this is probably the most productive thing
that a high schooler can be doing, is coming to our facility
for one day to take care of that.
Well, we brought a thousand students, five last year, 500
of them enrolled on the spot.
And then as the summer went on, another 300 enrolled, 800
of a thousand enrolled.
So this year we set a goal for 4,000
and we got about 3,800 to register.
And we got about 3,300 to show up.
And of the 3000, that 300 that showed up,
and I think I got my numbers fairly right, Peggy,
but correct me if I'm wrong, it's about 1,800, right?
Whoa. Oh yeah. Okay. We're almost at 2000 now. Okay.
Almost at 2000 of the 3,300.
And we still have a significant number
of days for enrollment.
So Will Bearfield Wilford will stand up for a minute.
Um, so Will's our vice Chancellor of Enrollment management,
and he works to support the teams at the colleges.
So the presidents are all leading this effort to make sure
that those students from all those high schools were
welcomed on their campuses.
They each have enrollment teams
that have hustling really hard.
We think, you know, 2000 maybe somewhere
around 2004 and 2,500 of the 3,800.
And, and, and I honestly, I said this to the mayor,
you know what we did differently?
You gotta show 'em love. That's what we did differently.
They came and they felt cared for, you know, um, and
because they felt cared for, they took the next step.
And because they took the next step, they're now enrolled.
You know, and we, everything I said earlier was,
we're gonna make sure that when they step in our doors,
they continue to be cared for.
You know, in academic institutions,
we talk a lot about rigor and there's a lot of rigor.
And we have to maintain the rigor
because that's what keeps our accreditation.
That's what makes sure that we have the standing
to be a higher ed education institution.
That's what makes sure that the employers will hire our
students and the universities will transfer our students.
But rigor, you know, doesn't mean that we can't be a loving,
caring community.
Okay? And so, um, that's the message that we're sending
to our students, but that's a
big thing that we did differently.
And by the way, we're gonna keep doing this this way.
You know, I don't know if we'll hit, you know,
ever get the all 8,000, um,
but if we keep doing this, it'll be thousands
and thousands of extra students every year, uh,
because we're doing this a little bit differently.
And I want to give props, um, you know,
to all the teams at the, you know, you know, like CPS, um,
that actually work with us
because there's no way for us to do this alone.
This is a partnership.
That's why this works, because we're actually working
together, um, and, and seeing ourselves as one single team.
So before I turn it over to the
presidents, what I want the presidents to do do is
to be able to talk about, um, your school,
where it is geographically, what, um,
neighborhood you represent,
what your school community looks like as far as race,
and then what supports do you need from us?
Um, but before I do that, I think I got a couple
of questions for chancellor.
So I got a Alderwoman, uh, Rosanna Rodriguez.
Uh, thank you so much, uh, chair,
and thank you for that presentation.
It felt like a hug.
It's really beautiful to see our, uh,
city colleges succeeding.
I, um, a former student of Harold Washington
and also Truman,
and I can't speak highly enough
of my experience in both institutions.
Um, on the slides, there was, uh,
there was a slide about applications to CSU and UIC
and you said, okay, so CSU is at,
um, a 118%,
and UIC is 32%.
Um, can you talk about why the difference is so stark?
What is it about CSU
that is attracting more applications? Yeah,
So I, that's the percent, so here's the interesting thing.
Um, you know, we, so the total number last year of students
that transferred to CSU was actually 118, right?
And the total number that transferred to
U-U-U-I-C last year was 612.
So UIC is actually our largest transfer partner.
But in this effort to increase applications right now,
CSU is actually seeing greater growth.
Um, so, you know, there's 257 completed applications,
which we're really happy about.
Let me just start with CSU,
and I'll talk about USC in a minute.
But we're really happy about,
because there was an historic strong relationship
with CSU
and city colleges, um, that, you know,
broke down some time ago.
I didn't say broke down, but the fact we're only,
we're only at 118 gives you evidence of that.
Um, you know, and it was some years back when, um,
around our administration
and there were some challenges going on.
I don't know the details at CSU,
so it broke down presidency.
Scott and I, we were rebuilding it.
We were working really closely together to do
that right across all of our colleges.
And this is the evidence of it.
I don't know how many of those students actually go to CSU,
but we move them to apply.
Right? We'll,
we'll let you know when we have the
final count in September.
Um, UIC has increasingly gotten more
and more of our students, and
that will likely to be the case.
You know, um, the, um, uh, you know,
so even though it's only a 32% increase, right?
The total number of added students is almost 200
applicants, right?
Because they're already one
of our biggest transfer partners.
So I just wanted to explain a little bit the difference.
We're working very similarly with both, very closely
with Chancellor me, Miranda, um, at UIC
and with Chicago State
and our next college that will be working very closely
with in the same way as Northeastern.
Oh, great. Mm-hmm. So I look forward to
That. Um, I
also wanted to, um,
ask a just word related question.
And this is, you can do this through the chair.
I don't need to have my colleagues here
listening to very specific stuff.
But any, um, agreements
or programming that you are running
with Roosevelt High School, I would love to get
to understand it well.
'cause I interact a lot with that high school,
and I would love to be able
to be an advocate, um, if needed.
And then my third question is about, uh, the possibility.
And, um, I, I don't expect,
uh, uh, a huge answer out of this,
but it is, uh, a thing that have been in my mind for a while
and I would like to bring it to you.
Um, here in Chicago, we have the care, uh, model.
And what I have seen is that in different cities,
community colleges are taking on the task
of designing curriculum to be able
to train mental health workers
that are not necessarily clinicians
and people who might come from other walks of life
and that don't want to do those jobs anymore, want
to be trained to be able
to intervene in mental health crisis.
And I think that that is a great opportunity to collaborate
with, um, the city colleges so
that we can actually have a pipeline
because we know that there is a shortage of clinicians.
Um, and if we could train people specifically for, uh,
mental health crisis intervention, we might be able
to increase that pool of candidates that we have
and also make it easier for people
that don't necessarily have a higher, um, education
to be able to apply and to get a good wage with a union
and, um, and benefits.
So I guess I am throwing that at you in the hopes
that we can have a longer conversation about it.
Um, and that perhaps it is something
that we can collaborate in in the near future.
That's an easy one. Yes, we can.
Thank you so much. That's all chair.
Thank you, chairwoman Chancellor, I, I just wanna say,
you, you are the embodiment of
what true leadership looks like.
I mean, I, I remember sort of the financial reality
that City Colleges was in, uh, when you took your seat.
I remember being at the Puerto Rican agenda as a co-chair
and you coming to be very transparent about the moment
that we were in and what it was going to require of you,
your team, um, and the city.
And I can't say just how proud I am to see these metrics.
Um, and it, it is due to your leadership.
I mean, I wish we could just transfer you over to CPS.
They could fix some of the problems we're having there.
I so don't start that rumor. Um, have to say,
Can you teach them what they're doing
wrong? But apparently,
But this, this is, this is what it means, uh,
to have transformative leadership, to think outside the box,
but more importantly, to be a true partner.
Uh, the way you have handled, you know, your relationship
and conversations over labor contracts
and how you have managed your relationship with the union,
the way you have brought in community partners,
the way you have envisioned expanding
satellite sites like the one I have in Humboldt Park.
That is what young people in the city of Chicago deserve.
They deserve to have a city college system
that cares about them, that meets them where they are.
And we hear that in your initiative
and enrolling CPS students every single year.
Um, and so I'm excited for this moment.
I don't, I don't have a lot of questions
'cause I, you know, I'm privileged enough to, to be privy
to some of the work that you're doing.
Uh, but I would love if you always let us know
how you need us, right?
Because I think in this moment, rather than us asking you
to do more, um, I'm interested in how you ask us to do more.
Thank you, chairman.
So we are gonna start with, can I,
oh, um, of course, I'm not gonna start
with my own president as I should,
but I'm gonna start, um, with president, uh,
Sanders from Malcolm X.
Thank you. Thank you Chairwoman.
Uh, Taylor, certainly it's an honor to be here
and certainly to the members of the education, uh, committee
and to the city council
and to our interns that we have here today.
My name is David Sanders.
I serve as the president of Malcolm X College.
And Malcolm X serves at the Center
of Excellence in Healthcare,
but we also are broadening our programs, um,
and expanding, as you will see later, to meet student needs.
We are located right in front of the United Center, um,
and, uh, we serve the near west, uh, Austin
and West Garfield communities directly.
But, uh,
all our students come from every single
ward in the city of Chicago.
Um, in large numbers,
and we're gonna talk about that in just a few minutes.
Our, our top priority
and our focus has remained on students.
We focus on retention, completion, and placement.
We wanna make sure that students have an opportunity
to achieve their academic objectives.
And so we've devised the plan to give additional touches
and holistic advising to our students so
that we are providing all of the supports necessary for us
to reach that 55% target
because we are determined to, determined to do that by 2032.
And we believe we can do that.
We have many achievements that we have at Malcolm X,
and I'm gonna just focus on a few.
One of those is record enrollment.
Malcolm X surpassed 11,000 credit students in FY 25
for the first time in over 20 years.
Our enrollment increased by 15% over FY 24.
And that growth has been particularly strong
with black students.
In fact, Malcolm X is one
of only two colleges over the last 10 years
with composite enrollment growth
and our growth, we led the entire state of Illinois, uh,
with a growth of 68%.
Our retention rate, um, we are happy to report has increased
to 73%.
That represents a 3% increase over FY 24
and 10 percentage points
over the past decade since Ffy 16.
And it's going to continue to rise.
We're happy and thrilled about our mentoring program
and our study abroad program.
Back in 2021, we found out that black students, uh,
were our lowest performing students as well as retention.
Our retention for the entire college was 72%,
but for black students it was 57%.
We started a mentoring program, wraparound services
around the students, and in one semester,
that retention rate for the pilot program went to 93%.
We then went to Congressman Danny Davis.
He gave us a $1 million, uh, congressional earmark.
And we use that for study abroad programs
where we are getting fantastic reports from students about
the impact on their lives
and how they will be coming back to be, uh,
great citizens of the city of Chicago.
We have expansion projects
'cause we're running outta space, believe it or not.
Um, we are approaching 16,000 students at Malcolm X College.
Uh, I have no office space whatsoever.
Uh, so we have a 19.5, uh, percent million, uh,
$19.5 million expansion at our Malcolm X College West Campus
that's under construction right now.
If you go by there on Madison, you will see it.
Um, we are excited about it.
We also have a 55 to $60 million, uh, project that's, uh,
that the chancellor mentioned.
Uh, Malcolm X College, what we will call Malcolm X College
South Campus, which is in partnership
with the University of Chicago.
We also have a, a partnership
with our sister college Kennedy King, uh, to create a new,
um, avenue for nursing students right on
the Kennedy King Campus.
Um, and we have five other major, uh, construction projects
that we are conducting to ensure
that our students get everything they need in order for them
to be, uh, successful.
We have the pilot meal plan that we talked about, um,
before, and that has
been tremendously received by our students.
They're extremely happy about that,
but most of all, we're happy about the culture
that we created at Malcolm X.
We want every student to be successful.
I was telling our interns, uh, they said, what's your goal?
I said, my goal is for 100% of our students, uh, to be able
to complete their programs.
I know they're not realistic,
but if you don't have that mindset,
there's no way they're going to be able to reach the end.
So we're determined to do that,
and we're going, you're going to see that
as we continue to move forward.
Thank you. Welcome.
Just go down the line, president,
Go next. Okay.
Alright. Good afternoon everyone.
Thank you, chancellor.
Thank you chairperson for inviting us.
Uh, it's great to be here. I am Daniel Lopez.
I am the President of Harold Washington College, proud
graduate of Harold Washington,
and now, uh, serving as president.
So very, very happy to be here.
Um, Harold Washington College remains an essential part
of Chicago's educational landscape, continuing our role
as a student centered Hispanic serving
minority serving institution.
We're just a few blocks away here in the loop
With just under 9,000 students
and 80% of our students identifying as black
and Latin a, we remain deeply committed to advancing
equitable access to high quality education.
Our mission to provide affordable pathways
to academic success, career readiness,
and personal growth is, is as vital as ever.
Our focus on equity has been sharpened through our work
with achieving the Dream Network.
Through our participation
with a TD Equitable Outcomes Cohort, we have created
a clear vision of equitable student success
through our Harald Promise plan, with a focus on advancing
outcomes for students from black latine, indigenous,
and low income backgrounds.
Our held promise details our plan of action
to equip students with academic tools
and supports they need to succeed in the classroom,
encourage them to take ownership of their college journey
and be their own best advocates,
and help them navigate college with ease.
Our approach to our Harold Washington Promise Plan centers
an an ideology of innovation constant
and continuous improvement
and deep data integration to best understand, assess,
and improve student outcomes.
We have a strong tradition of preparing students
to earn associate degrees
and transfer to top competitive four year universities
to study a wide range of disciplines.
We are building on our momentum
to establish Harold Washington College.
As one of the city's leading transfer institutions, serving
as a vital bridge from high school to the university.
We are already seeing meaningful progress towards this goal.
I'm proud to share that in our 2025 fiscal year enrollment,
we surpassed our 3% floor
and 6% reach, achieving just under 9,000 enrollments.
Our student portfolio includes roughly
2,700 new students, about 1800
early college students for a total of 45, uh,
hundred students, and another 4,500 of continuing students.
About 70% are part-time, and another 30% are full time.
Our yield rate continues to remain strong
with an annual average of 42%.
Our four year outcomes have also improved with 40%
of degree seeking students completing
or transferring within four years,
reflecting a seven point increase since the pandemic.
Harold Washington College now holds the second highest fall
to spring retention rates
for first year students within the city of Chicago, uh,
city College of Chicago at 80%.
These accomplishments reflect the commitment
and hard work of our entire college community.
Our summer 2025 semester began with our new enrollment cycle
by exceeding our goal of 2,560 students by a total
of 153 students.
With a summer enrollment of 2,692.
We are well poised to meet
and hopefully exceed our fall goal of 6,266.
As of today, we are steadily progressing
and 40% towards our fall enrollment goal.
And as the chancellor said, we still have a few weeks left.
As President of Harold Washington College, I am proud
to share that we offer strong, well supported programs such
as business economics, psychology, computer science,
and, uh, in an associate degree path.
At the same time, we recognize the tremendous potential
within our specialty programs, including engineering,
cybersecurity, visual performing arts, and architecture.
Harold Washington also maintains a strong partnership
with leading industry, including Aon Bank
of American Zurich.
These collaborations help connect students with minimal
meaningful learning experiences and career pathways.
We remain committed to investing in
and expanding these areas
to create even greater opportunities for our students
to meet the evolving needs of our city and workforce.
So let me end by inviting all of you
to visit Harold Washington, meet our students, our faculty
and staff, take a class and continue to advocate
and refer students to our colleges.
We have excellent academic programs
and student opportunities.
Second to no one in Chicago, I know
because of what Harold Washington did for me as a student.
And I can tell you the many stories that I've heard for our,
the students that are there
and we are transforming their lives
and their families. Thank you.
Thank you. I I I, I would like to ask the presidents
to please keep it to the two, three minutes tops, uh,
that we discussed before.
Thank you.
Hello, everybody. I am Peggy Corliss.
I'm the, um, interim president at Daley.
Daley College is a Hispanic serving institution located on
the far southwest side of the city is 75th and Pulaski.
And our, um, satellite campus is also, uh,
on the southwest side at 28th and Western.
Uh, like I said, we are a Hispanic serving institution.
About 80% of our, of our students identify as Latina,
and 10% of our students are black.
And then, uh, you know, a mix of white and Asian.
Uh, we also had an enrollment increase from FY 24 to FY 25,
about 11%.
And the biggest driver of our enrollment increase was within
our male population.
We had a 10% increase of black males
and a 51% increase of Latina males.
The programs where we saw our biggest increases include
manufacturing programs, our, our IBEW,
which is our partnership with the Electrical Workers Union,
um, cybersecurity,
and also for our, uh,
Latina males in our community healthcare worker program.
We also saw a,
a nice increase in our manufacturing enrollment,
which is something that we're continuing to work on
and push for growth in our manufacturing programs,
which is our center of excellence.
And we saw a 24% increase.
Right now, we're trending ahead, um,
when you compare fall enrollment to last fall, so we're,
we're trending ahead and we're, uh, about 40%.
So we're looking forward to, to meeting that goal.
I do wanna brag for a minute a little bit about our early
college enrollment.
So early college, uh, students are our high school students
that take college courses for free.
Um, at daily.
We saw a 19% increase over the last year in our
early college enrollment.
And, um, our students in just one year earned over 14,000
college credits at daily
and saved over $2 million in tuition for their families.
We also had the largest number of us. Oh,
Oh, you got one minute.
I'm gonna give you guys the one minute side.
Okay. Okay. We also, um, had the largest amount
of associate degree completers
with 103 high school students earning
their associate degrees.
Um, our our biggest, uh, focus this year
and, um, is our new credit programs.
So we just launched a new Spanish English translation
and interpreting program, which will really help
with the influx of immigrants that we've had this year.
Four new associate degree programs in manufacturing
that really speak to, um, new developments
that are happening in the city with, uh, you know,
the quantum and, um, micro electronics.
We have some new continuing education programs
focusing on solar, um, installation
and also the ev, um, chart battery charging station,
and, um, new transfer pathways working with the Roadmap 2.0.
Um, all right. I guess I'm wrapping it up.
Uh, there's a lot more that I could say,
but I'll, I'll wrap it up there.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, everybody. Good afternoon. My name is Dr.
Andres Soros, president of Wilbur College.
Um, Wright College is a Hispanic serving institution
with 61% of our students identified Latino, 10% black,
and overall, 80% of our students identified as a minority.
So, lemme begin with enrollment.
We have seen encouraging growth over the past year.
Enrollment has increased significantly across our credit
programs, career, technical education,
early college programs, as well as our adult education
with meeting and exceeding goals.
Importantly, we are not just enrolling students,
we are also seeing better outcomes.
Our official student outcome measure improved from 36% from
fiscal year 2023 to 42% this year
on our way to reach 55% for all.
That means more students are completing degrees
or transferring to a four year institution.
This year, we awarded over a thousand degrees
up from 935 from last year.
As we continue to grow, our focus
and vision remains the same.
It is about access and excellence.
Last year, Wright College celebrated nine years of service
to the northwest side of Chicago,
including our humble Park campus.
That milestone help us reaffirm our mission to be accessible
to all students while maintaining high academic standards.
Not to push students out, but to lift them up.
One of our proudest achievements is earning the sea
of Excelencia recertification, this national recognition,
our firm success, our success in serving Latino students.
But our commitment extends to all students, our efforts
to improve outcomes, foster belonging,
and connect students to opportunities
that are grounded in our belief in the power of education
to transform lives, lives.
Looking ahead, we're preparing students for the future work.
Our faculty is collaborating with district, office
and industry partners
to introduce our first artificial intelligence certificate
and Associate's degree programs.
These programs are designed to meet the needs
of rapidly changing job market
to ensure students are not just college ready,
but also career ready.
Finally, we'd like to address an area
where we would welcome your partnership and support.
We know the benefit from, from CDS, securing funding
and partnerships to modernize our labs of technology,
infrastructure, insurance, equitable access
to cutting edge tools and learning environments.
Thank you again for your time and partnership.
We are proud to serve the city,
and thank you for your support.
Good afternoon. I'm Gail Gordon Allen,
senior Vice President of Academic Affairs at Truman College.
Um, Truman sits on the north side of Chicago,
far north in the uptown neighborhood off of Wilson Avenue
and Broadway Avenue.
We continue to serve a diverse population
with approximately 24% of our students identifying as black
and 38% identifying as Latin A.
Um, regarding our programs, we're really proud of our Center
of Excellence in Education,
where we have our early childhood education program as one
of the highlights of the, of the area there.
Inside of the program, we have our endorsements,
which currently serve about 33 out
of the 91 Chicago zip codes.
Most popular is our associate of Applied Science degree,
which transfers to many
of our four year colleges and universities.
And we have increased enrollment over time from 2020 from
138 students in the program to over 300 students.
So we we're certainly proud of
that unduplicated enrollment in our, um,
childhood endorsement programs.
Our top priorities is that as, um,
the City College is offering the only City College
that actually offers the endorsement program, as well
as the Human Development
and Family Services Program,
it makes it unique in the Chicago pipeline
for our educators, our endorsement program support CPS
teachers and meeting the ISBE requirements
and directly impacting our classroom
quality across the city.
We also have our Education Workforce Center,
which is a center city hub that supports students
and professionals in the early childhood field, which aims
to positively impact
and recruit them for, um, growth through, um, uh,
professionals throughout the city.
We have a, um, location of it, also at the Arturo
Velasquez Institute as well.
Our EWC is a one-stop shop, providing academic support,
career planning, and mentorship for, um, our teachers
as well as for the community.
In partnership with the early learning, um,
workforce ourselves,
har s Truman administers that scholarship.
We are proud to say that we have offered over
17 1,742 scholarships, 897 degrees
275, professional educator license,
and 112 associates through our partnership program.
Our awardees of our awardees, 87% identify as black,
African American, 90 or Latin.
A 94% identify as female,
and 72% are Chicago Early Learning staff.
We help fund this program through innovation grants
and Perkin grants that support assistive technology devices
and kits for our teachers, training for them,
a lending library to help them to have information.
Alright, one minute and I'm going to get there.
And also pocket translators.
We're continuing to develop our curriculum
and supporting our partnerships with our, um,
colleges like U-I-C-N-I-U
and NLU, as well as our CPS partner for support.
We will certainly hope that you come
and attend our, um, completer ceremony, which for our, um,
sales scholars, which will be on August 14th from five
to 8:00 PM Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Kimberly Hollingsworth.
I have the pleasure of serving
as the President at Olive Harvey College.
Uh, we are located at hundredth
and Woodlawn, uh, in the Roseland Pullman Community.
Our center of excellence is transportation,
distribution and logistics.
But I can assure you that we are more than just a truck
driving school, and I'll
tell you a little bit more about that.
Uh, one of the gentlemen asked today,
where the black educators are, are,
where are the black educators?
66%
of the faculty at Olive Harvey College are full-time
faculty are black.
68% of our students are African American
with 24% being Hispanic.
Over 92% of our student population are black
and brown individuals.
So if you wanna know where the black students are,
they're at Olive Harvey College as well
as the black educators.
Uh, our un-duplicated enrollment
for 2024 was just over 5,800 students.
33% of our students are first generation college students.
75% are Pell eligible,
and the average in the median age is 27 years old.
Uh, we too have experienced exponential enrollment growth,
something that we're really proud of, particularly
for our African-American male students.
As an example, in 2021, right during the pandemic,
we had about 484 American male students.
As of 2025, we have 1,103.
That's a growth of almost 700
African American male students.
We attribute that to our intentional programming
that speaks specifically to students of color.
Uh, obviously we have our CDL, which, uh,
is constantly enrolling students.
Uh, we are moving to a 24 hour operation, uh,
because there is such a high demand for that.
But we also offer something I'm not sure everyone knows
about, is our one year in Out program, uh,
which is a partnership with the Chicago Police Department.
Disproportionately what's been hindering students from
getting into the police academy is the written exam
CPD has agreed if our student,
if the students complete our one year program
to waive that exam.
We started off with 27 students in
our criminal justice program.
Uh, as of May, we had 296 students and 90 graduates.
Uh, we are also proud to say that we have, at least,
we have 13 students currently in the Chicago Police Academy.
Uh, we were also one of the first colleges
to offer cannabis studies education.
Uh, we started with a certificate program.
We have grown that to a full urban agriculture department.
Uh, we have a statewide designation
and are able to offer that program,
that program anywhere in the state.
Um, and access for non-traditional students.
This is a, a, a, a major focus for us, uh, is our ability
to impact, um, our community.
We are the first City college that will be offering, uh,
onsite forklift training at the Cook County Department
of Corrections starting August 25th.
So that's something that we are really proud of.
Uh, and to wrap it up, I just wanna, um, ask that you all
continue to amplify the value proposition
of City Colleges of Chicago.
William Hall, uh,
was my student 25 years ago, and look at him today.
He is now an alderman. Kaari is my neighbor.
Kaari is always on our campus, constantly bringing students,
uh, to meet and to connect with individuals to ensure
that students are successful.
So if there's anything that you can do for us, is
to continue to amplify the good work of city colleges.
Greetings, chairwoman Taylor
and members of the Education Committee.
My name is Katanya Webb Walker,
and I'm the proud president of Kennedy King College
and Englewood home to an array of programs,
including Washburn Culinary
and Hospitality Institute, one of our centers of excellence,
as well as our satellite campus,
Dawson Technical Institute Homes
who are Construction Trade Center
of Excellence in Bronzeville.
We are a predominantly black institution
with approximately 70% of our students who are black,
25% Latina,
and we are federally designated as a PBI.
As you heard earlier, enrollment at KKC has grown
dramatically in recent years
with a 21% increase in the last year,
reflecting over 6,000 students served in FY 25
and the second highest growth at community colleges
in the state of Illinois.
We have also achieved increases in our four year student
outcomes and in the number of CPS students, taking advantage
of our dual enrollment
and dual credit programs through early college.
Serving over 1300 CPS students last year up from
500 in 2022.
Priority number one for KKC is ensuring the relevance
and responsiveness of our academic programs.
This fall, we're launching new programs aligned to community
and industry needs, including basic nursing assistant, uh,
a program that's returning to Kennedy King this fall.
This is a basic certificate program
that provides a pipeline into the nursing program
that will be housed at KKC in collaboration
with Malcolm X College, with a targeted start date
of spring 2027.
We're also launching community leadership,
a basic certificate program developed in collaboration
with Southwest Organizing Project Teamwork, Inglewood
and Lase Palenque, LSNA and Northwest Center.
We are also in the final stages
of developing a direct entry certified professional
midwifery program in collaboration
with the Black Midwives Collective.
This program will directly address disparities in maternal
health outcomes for black women on the south side of Chicago
through community-based culturally congruent care.
And we're currently in conversations
with the Simpson Academy for young women
to establish a direct pipeline from the Chicago
Public Schools into this program.
Another critical priority
for us is doubling down on our focus on
bolstering student retention.
As you've seen, our enrollment is growing rapidly,
but we need to ensure that students are supported
through successful completion of certificates and degrees
and transferred four year institutions.
And we're targeting our efforts by subgroup, um,
highlighting one-to-one mentorship
for our black male students, connecting them
with a supportive network of faculty, staff,
and administrators who can provide the personalized support
they need, particularly students who are often
among the first in their families to attend college,
while also juggling the demands of work, family, and life.
We've also developed short term workforce programs
for justice impacted returning citizens through partnerships
with the inner city Muslim Action Network,
or Iman, which will provide a fast tracked Friday
and Saturday program in heating, ventilation,
and air conditioning, or hvac.
We're also working with Cara Collective
to provide a 10 week program to prepare returning residents
to earn the nationally recognized serve safe Food Protection
Manager certification,
and a pathway to work in our first ever
registered apprenticeship program.
In collaboration with Compass
and other business partners, we've also developed programs
to support our growing number of Spanish speaking students
who are enrolled in our English as a second language
and GED programs,
launching Spanish language adult education,
bridges in culinary arts
and construction trades so
that they can learn essential workforce skills
as they become proficient in English.
Finally, and not least importantly,
KKC is in the final stages of preparing
for our upcoming 10 year reaffirmation of accreditation
by the Higher Learning Commission.
This regional accreditation is required for us
to access federal student aid
and serves as the stamp of approval for our college
in terms of support and collaboration with this body.
Dollars are always welcome,
but I will defer to Chancellor Salgado
to have further conversations about that.
Uh, but I also, I wanna reinforce
what President Hollingsworth said to,
to have this body serve as a collective,
to help us raise the, the profile of our programs
and all of the wonderful work that we're doing so
that we can make sure that we're servicing even more
students in our catchment areas
and across the city, um, will yield tremendous results.
And so, I am honored to speak with you today,
and I welcome you all to join us for lunch at Zakia,
which has recently reopened.
We'll be serving lunch when our students returned
In in August. So
thank you.
Thank you. Um,
too often we complain about the institutions in our
community not serving us,
and that's just not what's happening at City College.
And I want to say thank you to all of you.
I have appreciated you all listening, listening
to my rents a little bit,
but also listening to make sure that we create change
where young people have, um, access
to our secondary, um, education.
We know oftentimes you have young people
who live in our city and can't tell you where Malcolm X
or Kennedy King or Washburn is,
is they've never been
to their own city college in their own city.
And so it speaks volumes that you all are kinda, like I say,
the black church shouldn't be four wall churches.
Y'all, not four wall colleges.
You all actually go out into the community
and make sure you bringing young people in.
So I appreciate each and every one of you.
Um, all the women Rodriguez,
Um, I I'm so happy right now.
I, I know that we are talking about numbers
and we get really excited about increases in numbers.
Um, but each life that is touched by any
of these programs is transformed.
So many people are the first in their families
to pursue higher education.
It is the path to healing in this city,
and we are watching it in real time.
And I am just so grateful that we are here today
and that we get to hear this.
I would be really interested in
hearing about some of the real life stories of these lives
that have been changed, right?
Uh, 'cause that always have a deeper impact than any numbers
that we can hear.
Although the numbers are impressive,
and I am rooting for you all so hard.
Um, I do have a question, um, around the,
uh, landscape, the political landscape
that we have right now in this country.
Um, we know
that the Trump administration has waged a war on people
of color, particularly black
and brown people are under attack right now.
And although you spoke a little bit about the money aspect
of it, I am interested in learning if there's anything else
that you are worried about when it comes to
all of the policies that are coming out
of the president's desk at this moment,
particularly the attacks on DEI.
Um, we have been talking a lot here about
how we are improving the lives of black
and brown people in the city.
Um, and I I, I'm curious to know
what are the things that we should be paying attention to,
maybe worries that you all might have that, of things
that haven't happened, but that could,
and that we need to be aware of so
that we can be supportive.
I would just say, you know, the, um, I said earlier,
the biggest worry is, as you said,
it's the attack on human beings, you know,
and the supports, um, that, you know, they count on.
And, and those are our students that are being attacked.
Um, one thing that's really important for us is, you know,
making sure that they understand that when in these moments,
uh, occur, it's better to be attached to an institution.
You know? So that's our message. You know, stay with us.
Keep on, you know, what can we do to help you, right?
Because we know if it's hard,
it's gonna be harder if you're not attached
to an incredible institution like ours, right?
Or your church, or your school. Um, but, uh, so that's one.
The one thing I worry about that we're,
I don't think talking enough about is the economy itself.
You know, these tariffs and whatnot.
Um, we don't know the effect of them right now.
Um, uh, this is unprecedented.
The one thing that's a guarantee is
that our students will be hurt the most in a
recession, you know?
Um, and so, uh, you know, we need an economy that's growing,
where economic opportunity is abundant
that gives our students a, a shot, you know?
Um, and we're positioned to make sure they take advantage of
that shot, but the shot's gotta be there, right?
So in the first place, and, uh,
and we had an economy that was doing, you know, yeah,
there's increases in inflation, you know,
work was done to get it down.
Um, but the job market kept on going
and, and it's been resilient.
It's, it's continues to go right.
But I don't know how much more it can take, you know?
Um, this president is really working hard to pull on levers
that have never been pulled on before.
It's incredibly risky.
Um, and so, uh, so I think that's, you know, one of our,
you know, bigger worries, um, as an institution.
And the, the, I think the last thing,
and you know, you're very well aware of this is, you know,
the mental health of our students when you are getting,
you know, uh, bombarded, um,
with negativity too, by the way.
It's, it's not just that your services are being taken away
or you know, your food's gonna be,
but there's just negative stuff coming at you all the time.
So this is what you're getting from us.
What you're getting from us is what you,
our students are gonna get from us.
Just a ton of positivity, right?
We have to bring it to them
because everywhere else around them, you know, so I want
to give a lot of credit as Chair Taylor did to our teams,
you know, uh, because every day they're faced with,
from the presidents, to the advisors,
to the counselors, everybody.
They're faced with a community that, you know, um, is,
is is dealing with very hard circumstances, our students.
Um, and yet, you know, we're, we're meeting them with care
and concern and joy and, you know, that kind of thing.
So I think that that's really important.
One thing you should know in particular on the mental health
side of things is, um, you know, we've,
we've increased services, you know, to the point, um, where,
uh, and I'll get the specific number.
We had a significant increase in utilization last year
that we were able to meet, you know,
and we're committed to continue whatever the demand is.
We'll staff up to meet that demand at city colleges.
'cause we know there's limited supply
of mental health supports outside of us.
So if our students can tap into it within city colleges,
it's better for the whole ecosystem.
So I make sure to make sure that you
and your committee get that, you know,
additional information on mental health. Be great.
Thank you. Um, yeah, when you speak of negative things
that people are being exposed to all the time,
dehumanization of black
and brown people right now is, um, very prevalent, right?
Um, so definitely those supports are needed.
Um, I think the other question that I wanted to ask is about
sanctuary and ice.
We are seeing an escalation in our communities,
and we are having to work really hard to ensure
that we can keep people safe.
But knowing that a lot of students, uh,
and even faculty in, um, in
city colleges are Latina, I would love to know.
And if we don't think that it is good to say it out loud,
you can send it through the chair.
But I do want to have a better understanding of
what are the measures
that the city is taking at this moment.
So we, we have been working very closely,
and particularly with the Illinois Coalition
for Immigrant Refugee Rights, um,
which we have a very strong working relationship with.
Um, we have, uh, made sure that all of our, you know,
security personnel are very well trained.
Uh, in fact, we even do spot visits.
Uh, because sometimes training's not enough, you gotta go
and test the training out a little bit.
Um, and so we go and test it out,
and if we see some vulnerable spots, um, in staff, uh,
that just need to relearn, we, we take care of that as well.
So again, um, we're on top of that end of it
with the Illinois Coalition.
We've, uh, they've produced a video that we distribute
to our students directly so that they can consume that.
And, um, we think that's the most effective way.
You know, in the old days, we would do a bunch of workshops
and ask people to come, but now we push out content to them,
you know, very directly that they can consume
and that they can kind of, um, also share.
And that's really important as well.
Um, and then it's just making sure always that they know
that there's somebody on our campuses that they can go to
that they can feel comfortable with, right?
You know, it could be your
faculty, it could be your advisor.
So increasing the comfort level, which is part of
what we're doing generally, you know, um,
but increasing it particularly
for our undocumented students is really, really important.
We do have, um, you know, uh, li liaisons on every campus,
you know, that, uh, you know, that,
that students know are available to them,
but it may not always be the last one
that they feel close and comfortable with.
It could be somebody else in the environment.
Um, so we're very conscious of that.
Um, we consider ourselves
what we call caring campuses, right?
That's an important thing, right?
For us, something we work at.
We know that we can do better at every day.
So we keep working at it.
Um, and thinking about the very close, uh, relationship
that you all have with community, I also wanna say that, um,
many areas of Chicago now have rapid response networks
that are run by community.
And if at any point you want to connect campuses
with the rapid response networks, I think
that would be a great thing to do, um,
because there are eyes everywhere
and you can get information.
So if you're interested in doing that kind of collaboration,
you can reach out to me or other woman Fuentes,
and we can put you in touch with the Rapid Response Network.
That's all I got. Thank you so much for being here today,
Chancellor, with that same, um, thought process,
did we see any decline in enrollment,
in attendance during this time?
That's kind of been hectic. I see.
So adult education has actually gone up, um,
over this period of time.
However, I would just say, which is the place
where we would see the decline
because of, um, uh, you know, well,
if you're asking a question about, because
of the ice presence
and everything, uh, one of the things that we did do, uh,
is we, we, we, we offered more remote English classes.
So, you know, students don't have to come onto campus.
And I don't have the specific percentage maybe do it,
but what's that almost doubled?
Yeah. So, um, wow.
Yeah, that's, uh, uh, you know, so it's, uh, the number
of students, you know, in the recent term that decided
to take remote versus coming online, uh, has almost doubled.
So we're seeing an increase.
We still have more that are in person, right?
It's just the number that have chosen remote.
Normally you wouldn't choose remote learning
for like English as a second language
because you know, the community
that's being built in the classroom
is really, really important.
Um, but in this instance, you know, students don't want to,
uh, discontinue their education,
but they also don't wanna leave.
I just wanna say that it is important
that we build these relationships for too often.
We've done silo work and then that silo work that we do.
Often our families get left behind
because they don't know about all the resources
that not only CPS provide,
but just as well as our city colleges.
I think sometimes city colleges are forgotten about, um,
which is a mistake on our end.
'cause you all are doing some amazing work
and the thought that you all are actually providing
wraparound supports for that whole family speaks volumes to,
you all have thought about it.
And you all are thinking about the families
that we serve in the city of Chicago.
And so I'll say thank you on behalf of myself
and our city council members
because this is the type of work that we to prove
that when we work together, we can win.
Um, if there are no more questions, um, for the committee,
I also want to thank the one summer Chicago, uh,
summer interns that we have who are over there freezing,
but they've been here at it all day.
And so I want to say thank you to all the young people
who have spent time with us, um, this summer.
Some of them are coming to city colleges. They, they are.
And so excited
and thank you all for talking to the young people,
but we also need more opportunities like that as well.
And so if there is no further business for the committee,
um, I make a motion that we adjourn.
So moved by the person es all those in favor?
None opposed the meeting on the Committee of Education
and Child Development is now adjourn.
Thank you Chair. No, thank you. I appreciate, heard you.