One you want me to send to you?
No. How does this... I just hit on-
Oh.
It went there.
Oh, you were just...
Okay, hold on. Let's go back.
But what happened?
Join meeting.
All right, we'll just start over.
I'm going to apologize in advance. We got two folks that are coming.
We had a couple of shootings across the city that people are trying to attend to,
so please bear with us. Thank
you.It's
almost afternoon, but good morning. How are you all doing?
The Committee on Education and Child Development will now come to order.
Today, this is a committee meeting. No votes will be taken.
This is a subject matter hearing about CPS's quarterly hearings and
charter school. We will do a roll call to establish
quorum. Alderwoman Clay?
Is sitting next to-
Here.
Alderman Yancy? Is not here. Alderman Hall?
Not in here. Alderman Beale? Not present.
Alderman Chico? Alderwoman Lee?
Alderman Quinn?
Alderwoman Gutierrez? Not here.
Alderwoman Coleman? Not here. Alderman O'Shea?
Alderperson Fuentes? Not here.
Alderman Taliaferro?
Alderwoman Rosana Rodriguez,
and Alderman Garner?
Present via Zoom.
Okay, I'll get to you. Alderwoman Taylor.
We have eight, we have a quorum. There are eight members present.
Pursuant to Rule 59, we have Alderman Chico Lopez, who has asked to
participate remotely. Also, Alderman Garner.
Alderman Garner is here.
Yep, present.
Alderman Lopez, Chico Lopez
is not here.
At this time, we will begin the public comment period.
The period is limited to 30 minutes.
Out of respect for everybody's time, each speaker is limited to three minutes.
First, we will have Tywan Sims.
One second, please.
Morning, Council. One second.
Patricia.
I can't read the last name. I'm going to say that says
P-U-E-N-F-E.
Oh, you're here too, Alynn. Okay, go ahead.
Good morning, committee. Good morning.
So Chicago cannot honestly speak about public safety while
ignoring the learning crisis facing foundational Black
children in Chicago public schools.
When Black children are disproportionately below grade level
in reading and math, that is not just an education crisis or issue, it is
a public safety issue. It is an economic issue.
It is a civil rights issue. It is a generational equity issue.
If a child cannot read proficiently, that child is being locked out of
opportunity before adulthood. If a child is years
behind in math, that child is being pushed away from STEM,
trades, finance, entrepreneurship, and technology,
and college pathways. If entire neighborhoods are experiencing the
same pattern, then the city is not just witnessing inequity, it is
managing the consequences of inequity.
Foundational Black
Americans have carried the burden of Chicago divestment for generations.
School closures, under-resourced neighborhood schools, housing
instability, violence exposure, health disparities, weak
after-school infrastructures, and limited access to high-performing
academics models.
So
the question for City Council, CPS, and the Board of Education is
direct. What is the specific plan for
foundational Black American children?
Not a general diversity statement, not a press release, not another
committee meeting with no measurable outcome.
A real plan should include mandatory literacy intervention by
grade and school,
math recovery programs before students reach high school,
transparent school-by-school data for foundational Black students'
achievement, targeted tutoring paid for by CPS,
parent access systems that actually work.
And also for the conversation that I was just having, how about
adequate pay
for the individuals who work in the school?
To understand that CPS has spent, what, $27
million on private trips to Vegas and Bali
and whatnot. Also, what,
$170,000 private entertainment
or recording studio in New
Mexico.But these things don't benefit foundational Black
American children or our children, period,
in the schools. And so we see this disparity
more so playing out within foundational Black American children.
And so we ask, how do we fix it?
Is there a way or a plan for the committee, a five-year plan,
to negate this issue so that we don't have what y'all see
that took place this weekend? When a child can't read, that child feels
inadequate, that child feels locked out, and that child will
display violence. So where do we go from here?
Patricia.
Thank you.
Can you say your name for the record?
My name is Patricia Puente Blancas.
I have a concern.
I know that there are some people here asking for a
raise. They know that once they get the raise, everything goes up
too. Why? Because they're not giving the business
people that are trying to purchase all this stuff
for the Board of Education
meals and everything. Where is it going to come?
They're not purchasing a lot of this food
in the United States of America from our
farmers. They're purchasing it from the outside.
Now, my concern is
about educating our
kids. I feel that monies that
they are asking for, what, $21,
$23, $30 an hour, they should hire
more teachers,
adequate teachers. Not that only say we are only
going to teach our kids in Spanish because that's the
only language they know. No. When I came to the United
States of America,
I was taught what the first language is
English. You teach your kids at home
Spanish. No, but now they're saying, "Teach the kids
in Spanish and do not teach them English."
But then at the same time, they want a job, and they're like, "We're
fighting for our rights because we don't know how to speak English."
Sorry. But
actually,
give this money,
hire more teachers if that's the
concern. It's not about feeding the
kids. They get fed.
The beauty of the United States
of America
is that there's food for everybody.
Make the parents responsible. And thank you
very much, and God bless America, the United States of America.
Ms. Kimberly?
Good afternoon. Good morning. My name is Kimberly Penson.
I am a proud resident of the 6th Ward.
I have been with CPS 21 years, and I am a cook at
Nathaniel Green Elementary School.
I love feeding the children of Chicago.
But right now, we need better wages, more staff in
the kitchen, and I want to be treated equally.
We do not have enough staff to serve the children the way
they deserve, and I don't make enough money to
help my own family
when they need me. I am a mother of three children, four
grandchildren. They need me just as much as the
students need me. I used to be able to support my
family
when they need me. Today is impossible.
My rent has increased, and I can't afford to drive.
I am asking the Board of Education to hurry up and sign a fair
contract. Every morning, I wake up at 4:00 to get to work at
6:00 AM. I can't afford a vehicle,
so I rely on public transportation.
And when I get there, I help feed over 450
students across five lunchroom periods.
My lunchroom staff
are leaving the kitchen because pay increase is too low.
And if this continue,
there won't be enough lunchroom workers left to serve our children.
We love our job, we love our students, but we cannot
continue like this. I want to thank Alderman Taylor,
Alderman Taylor, and all the alderman people who have
signed onto our letter, and members of
education committee
that support fair wages for our lunchroom
workers. Thank you.
Thank you for your comments. Irma Garcia?
Good morning to everyone.
Good morning.
My name is Irma Garcia, and I have been working for the Chicago Public
Schools for 24 years as a cook at James Russell
Elementary School. My job is the responsibility that I carry
with pride and dedication. However, I've been
work hard to make the childrens at the school
have enough to eat. I struggle to put food on my own
table.
After 24 years
of service, I have never imagined I would have to depend
on food bank.
But today, that's my reality.
The cost of groceries, gas is gone so much high that
I'm forced to choose between buying food and paying my
billsThere have been
times when I have to
ask my
youngest child to help me financially.
As a mother, it's difficult to admit.
Our children
should be able to depend on us, not the other way around.
Today, we stand because
we want the Board of Education to treat us with quality,
not with low wages
and few staff. We have been fighting so long.
We deserve a fair contract now. Thanks everyone for
supporting us.
Thank you for your comments. That concludes our public participation.
For quorum, I want to acknowledge Alderwoman Gutierrez.
Our first order of business, can I have a motion to approve the Rule 45?
So moved by Alderwoman Lee. All those in favor, say aye.
Those opposed? There are none. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it.
Second, we will hear from CEO Dr. King.
Dr. King, can you
introduce yourself and start the presentation?
Yes.
Do you mind if I have them introduce themselves just quickly?
Absolutely.
Okay. Good morning. I am the CEO Superintendent of Chicago Public
Schools, and with me I have to my right-
Good morning. My name is Karin Massaf, and I serve as the Chief Education
Officer for CPS.
Good afternoon or good morning.
Oh, sorry.
Good morning. Judy Camacho Campbell, Deputy Chief of Staff.
Good morning. Dr. Arnise Lewis, Acting Chief of Teaching and Learning.
Good morning. Megan Hoggard, Chief of College and Career Success.
We have other
team members, Alderwoman Taylor, Chair Taylor, that will switch out.
Is it okay if they introduce themselves as they move?
Absolutely. Do we have a mic?
No,
she wants them there, she goes now.
Yeah.
We'll do it now.
Jamal Chambers, Executive Director of Government Affairs, CPS.
Fanny Diego-Alvarez,
Chief Officer for the Office of Family and Community Engagement.
Amy Lozocco, Acting Chief Budget Officer.
Ivan Hansen, Chief Facilities Officer.
Steven Stolz, Director of Real Estate.
Walter Stock, Acting CFO and Treasurer.
Ron Chvostek, Chief of Safety and Security.
Zabrina Emmons, Executive Director of the Office of Innovation and Incubation.
Conrad Summers-Assara, Acting Chief Portfolio Officer.
I believe that's everyone, Chair Taylor.
You may proceed, Dr. King.
Good morning, Chairwoman Taylor and members of the City Council Committee of
Education and Child Development.
I am Dr. Macklin King, CEO Superintendent of Chicago Public
Schools. We are here today to provide an update for the
committee on the progress we are making as a district on behalf of the
315,000 students we serve, and to
highlight some of the challenges that we are currently working through.
Our work is guided by our five-year strategic plan,
Together We Rise: Success 2029. This
plan is more than just a document for us.
It is our commitment to ensure that every student
has a rigorous, joyful, and equitable learning experience.
Every school creates the conditions for success, and
the district provides equitable resources for schools.
And three, every community has inclusive and collaborative
partnerships for thriving schools.
Today, we will provide updates on our academic progress,
operational excellence, and our unwavering commitment
to student safety in an increasingly complex national
environment.
Our academic data shows that there is continued progress
among our students, and that in some key areas, we are
outperforming national peers and benchmarks.
And
Dr. Lewis will highlight some of those for you.
For example, in our K-2 progress, our most recent middle
of the year data for the school year 2026, CPS
students in grades K through 2 outperformed the Council of Great
City Schools and the nation in both reading and math.
And as I said before, Dr. Lewis will share more of the progress.
We are also seeing and leading the work nationally,
historic gains in college and career readiness.
Over two-thirds of CPS graduates enroll in college,
and we have surpassed 25,000 early college
enrollments just this year. That's a new
recordOver 56% of
our 2025 graduates earned an early college and career
credential, a nearly 10 percentage point increase since
2022.
When it comes to early college credit, we have effectively
eliminated the racial gap for students earning 15 or
more college credits. This is equity in
action. Our CTE programs are
thriving. In 2025,
1,794 graduates earned a
2,758 professional certifications
in the fields like Adobe, Cisco,
IT, and nursing.
We are also preparing the next generation of Chicagoans through
programs like Chicago Bills and Teach Chicago Tomorrow,
which currently has 275 students training to
become future CPS teachers.
I also would like to provide some updates on our operations.
We remain focused on providing stability for our students and
improving the long-term health of our facilities because we
know how important the environment is to learning.
Today, we will provide an overview of the capital planning process
and outline the most critical facility needs so we can
provide our students with learning environments they deserve.
We are also repurposing vacant land based on what would be
best for the communities we serve.
Recent sales approved by the board will result in
304 new housing units, community service
hubs, and athletic training centers for our youth.
Today, we will also provide an update on charter and contract schools
including Aspira, Chi Arts, Epic
Academy, and Acero.
At a more global level, we are focused on establishing more
comprehensive early warning systems to identify struggling
charter and contract schools, and refining our
evidence-based charter renewal process.
For schools struggling to meet standards, we continue to provide a
two-year remediation
timeline before any closure decisions are considered.
Our schools are safe,
an assertion we make not just with words, but with action.
I want to reiterate our commitment to our immigrant and newcomer
families in accordance with the Illinois Trust Act.
CPS does not ask for immigration status,
will not coordinate with federal immigration enforcement, will
not allow federal agents to enter our facilities without a
criminal judicial warrant.
To keep our students safe, we maintain a 24/7
command center to monitor activity and protect our students.
We work closely with our community-based organizations to ensure
a coordinated response.
We provide support to members of our school communities who have been
directly impacted by federal activity.
We continue to maintain our safe passage program.
Let me be clear, no school has lost this program.
While we did adjust hours from
five to four per day to align with crossing guard schedules,
we continue to monitor the routes daily.
CPS will continue to work with all of our partners to
strengthen our response.
Budget and legislative advocacy,
one of our
most important topics we will discuss, our budget.
Our ability to maintain the progress that we are seeing while
protecting students and staff is directly tied to the
resources we are able to invest in classroom learning.
We have made significant progress in recent years in reducing
our structural deficit by cutting from our
central office, maximizing grant opportunities,
renegotiating vendor contracts, and making other cuts away
from the classroom. We have also benefited
from our productive partnership with alderpersons last year who
committed to providing CPS with enough TIF surplus
revenue to help close our budget gap.
We remain thankful for that support.
While we have done important structural work to improve our long-term
financial health, we are facing a budget deficit of
$732 million this year due
to several factors.
Federal and state funding has not kept up with our students' needs.
In fact, CPS is only funded at 73% of what the
state of Illinois considers adequate.
At the same time we are dealing with less revenue, we have
higher costs in several key areas, including
maintenance of our aging facilities,
labor contracts, employee pensions, and paying
off the district's existing debt burden.
While enrollment has declined over time, the need of CPS
students have become more complex, particularly for
students with disabilities, multilingual learners,
students in temporary living situations, students requiring
additional academic and socio-emotional support, and
students living in poverty.
In particular, the loss of pandemic-era federal aid is
still impacting our ability to deliver the same
level of services to our students that we have been able to
provide over the past few years.
Since 2019, we have added
9,700 staff who have done an instrumental
job in helping our students recoverFrom the
impacts of the pandemic.
During that same period, enrollment has declined by
45,000 students.
Earlier this month, we released school budgets.
We released school budgets that acknowledge our financial reality,
fulfill our responsibilities to our highest needs learners, and
protect the resources and supports that have the most direct
impact on our students' daily learning
experience.
School budgets are just the first part of the process.
Later in the summer, we will release our overall budget,
and for the second year in a row, we will be working to find savings
in city-wide expenditures, central office and network
office, and other administrative costs.
We are also continuing to engage with Springfield on the revenue front.
But as the budget season is upon us, we have to create a budget
with the revenue we have,
not the revenue we wish we had.
We must continue working together to ensure robust,
equitable funding
to
protect the progress of our students that our students are making,
and to keep them safe. I will now turn this over to our Chief
Education Officer, Dr. Karima Assaf.
Thank you, Dr. King, and thank you, Madam Chairwoman,
for the opportunity to be here with you today.
As our CEO superintendent said, we
are laser-focused on improving the student
experience, no matter the challenges that they
face or that our district
faces.
Whatever school they attend, our goal is to provide
every child
from every background and with every ability,
with a rigorous, joyful,
and equitable daily learning experience.
Our wish is that they are prepared for success
in college, career, and community.
We are committed to this.
To hold us accountable to this goal, we have created what we
call
the Continuous Improvement and Data Transparency,
or CIDT, initiative.
This is
a more holistic approach to accountability than was
previously used in CPS.
Previously, school quality was reduced to a single
number on a limited rating scale.
We received feedback from communities that this rating scale
was overly punitive and did not provide parents,
staff, and other stakeholders with enough
information about their students' daily experience.
With CIDT, we are able to take a broader view
of all that each school has to offer.
Everything from staffing levels to recent capital
improvements,
to after-school program offerings, to survey
responses that show how students feel about
their school environment.
We believe this system will be
of much greater value to families seeking more
information about their child's daily
experience.
This is not just a tool for parents and other stakeholders.
The data drives a loop of continuous feedback
and reciprocal accountability.
CIDT begins with our schools, which with
support from their networks, regularly analyze
instructional practice and student outcome data.
They then use this data along with their
individual continuous improvement work plan to
identify their school's unique needs.
The district analyzes data from individual schools
and district-wide trends,
using this to guide the equitable distribution of resources
more directly
tied to student needs.
This continuous loop of schools measuring their
progress and identifying needs, and the district
providing the resources to meet those needs, is
how we will succeed in improving the daily learning
experience for every child.
I'm now excited to turn things over to my colleagues to go
into more detail on how we are improving the daily
learning experience for our students,
and some of the encouraging outcomes we are seeing.
And now I'm proud to introduce Dr. Annise Lewis, our
Acting Chief of Teaching and Learning, and Dr.
Megan Holbert, Chief of College and Career
Success.
Before you young ladies start, I want to acknowledge Alderwoman
Gutierrez and Alderwoman Coleman. Alderwoman Coleman, are you there?
Yes, Chairwoman, I'm here. Thank you.
You may proceed. Thank you.
Thank you. Good morning, Chairwoman Taylor and everyone. Thank you for being here.
Today, I am excited for the opportunity to share updates on the academic
gains our students are making. But it's not possible to share these
milestones with you without sharing our strategy first.
Core to our district strategy this year is our universal
focus around effective instruction.It's built on
grade-level rigor and making sure that every student feels they
belong. It attends to the linguistic diversity in
our classrooms and the cultural assets our students bring with
them each and every day.
And within this strategy is a focus on targeted priority groups,
which includes our students with disabilities and English learners.
For us, we know when we invest in our students furthest from opportunity,
all students benefit.
In the following slides, I'll share the impact this strategy is having on
preliminary student learning measures that we monitor throughout the year.
Please note this data is our most recent as we just concluded our
end-of-year assessments this past Friday.
Starting with our youngest learners, the story in our middle-of-the-year data
on i-Ready math benchmark assessment is clear.
Our K through two students are outperforming students in both
peer districts, which includes 82 of the nation's
largest urban school districts, and students across the nation.
Looking at these charts, the green represents students at or
above grade level. In math, across every primary grade,
you'll notice that CPS has the largest green bar on the screen.
In K-two, about 70% of students that took
i-Ready at both beginning and middle of the year.
The investments we're making in effective instruction are paying off,
and as a result, our K-two students are outperforming our
peer districts and the national average.
In reading, we are also proud to share a similar story.
CPS primary students are outperforming peer districts in all
grades, and CPS has higher performance than the nation in
kindergarten and first grade.
These numbers affirm that we are setting a strong foundation that ensures our
students start strong, and we proactively minimize the number of
students who need to catch up in upper grades.
We'll now move into looking at preliminary middle-of-the-year data for the upper
grades, and we'll start with looking at a portion of our third through eighth
graders who take the i-Ready benchmark screener assessments.
While student participation in benchmark screener assessments in the upper
grades is determined locally through each school's assessment
plan, these results show student performance for
approximately 30,000 of our students in grades three through
eight who took the beginning-of-the-year and middle-of-the-year
i-Ready screener. Please note that in third through eighth grade,
this is about 20% of students that took i-Ready assessment
at both beginning and middle of the year.
We are encouraged that these data points show that in our upper grades,
we are continuing to grow the percentage of students at or above grade level
in both math and reading. And we're not just moving our kids
at the top, but we are continuing to decrease the percentage of students
who are furthest away from grade-level benchmarks.
The same story holds true when we look at the other benchmark screener
assessments for math, the Star 360
benchmark screener assessment. In third through eighth grade, about
54% of students took the Star 360 at both
beginning and middle of the year. In ninth through 12th grade, about
19% of students took the same assessment.
For the subset of students in the district who take this screener multiple
times throughout the school year, which is approximately 40% of our
students, we track student progress from the beginning of the
year to the middle of the year. Of the count shown here, about
80% of the students who are tested in grades three through eight, and at
20% are in grades nine through 12.
The chart shows students' math performance, specifically the percentage of
students at beginning of the year and middle of the year, who are at
above grade level benchmarks on the left, and the percentage who are on
watch, identified for intervention, and identified for urgent
intervention.
In math, we've moved nearly 2% more students into the top at
or above benchmark tier.
Just as important, in the urgent intervention category on the far
right, we've reduced the number of students flagged for urgent
intervention by almost 2%. That represents more
than 1,400 students across the district who have moved out of the highest
risk category because of our targeted supports for effective
instruction in math are hitting the mark.
This next slide is where you will see the true return on our
strategy. We told you that we would prioritize
effective instruction for our students furthest from opportunities, and our
students with disabilities and our English learners, and the results
are significant.
When looking at the subset of students who took Star 360 at both
beginning and middle of the year math, we are proud to celebrate that our students
with disabilities grew 1.5 times more than their
general education peers, and our English learners grew
1.6 times more as well.
In reading,
in the upper grades, the momentum is just as pronounced for the subset
of students taking the Star 360 screener at both beginning
and middle of the year.
For this group of students, we've seen a 3% jump in students hitting the
grade level benchmarks. And once again, look at the urgent
intervention category on the far right. It is shrinking.
Our focus on grade level rigor and belonging is pulling students out
of that urgent intervention category and moving them towards grade
level proficiency.
To wrap up, we are proud to celebrate reading growth in our targeted
priority students in reading who took Star 360 assessment
at both beginning and middle of the year.
Our students with disabilities showed 14% more growth than
their general education peers, and our English learners showed
36% more growth.The story here is clear.
Our district's focus on effective instruction is resulting in
real learning improvements for our students, and our students who need us
most are responding with the biggest gains.
When we support the students furthest from opportunity, we move the
entire district forward. Thank you.
I now pass to our colleague, Dr. Megan Hoggard.
Thank you, Dr. Lewis. I'm excited to share more
great news around our work on college and career readiness.
As Dr. King shared, we have record-breaking outcomes
for early college this year,
and we had our milestone ceremony last week.
We have
66,000 credits earned
by students in 87 schools, more than we've
ever had, and that totals over $10.4
billion of college tuition savings.
And what we see as important is the number of
schools that added their first associate degree earner this
year or their first milestone earner, which is the goal for
all students graduate with a semester's worth of advanced
credit or advanced career credential.
And of those students that graduated, 255 earned
their associate degree. So they earned their associate degree
before they earned their high school diploma.
I do want to call out that the overlap with the advanced
career work that we're doing on the next slide in early college
is
students are making their own path.
So we have some students that just completed the Saturday Morning
Quantum program and earned early college credit
with Olive-Harvey, who have also earned their CTE
certificate, who are also in the police and fire training academy.
Our young people are really driving these decisions as we move
forward.
This slide shows you the CTE certifications.
We have around 14,000 students who are in
CTE pathways, but we also have students in
early college and in traditional neighborhood high schools that are
earning their CTE certifications.
And this is our work around seamless transition to employment.
We have a great system around traditional four-year college.
We have a strong system around two-year college.
We want the same strong system for all students who want to
go direct to employment.
And thanks to our partnership with many of you all
and other city departments, we see this happening
through our work
with Streets and Sanitation, through our
capital team in CPS,
even with our aviation partners with
programs.
I think what we're seeing is that as young people show the
interest, our industry partners and other city
departments are stepping up to meet that need.
When you think about who's the largest employer in the city of Chicago, it's
us. It's the city of Chicago and all the sister agencies.
So when you see the numbers here, we just had 100 students
graduate from police and fire. That's up from last year.
We have a 40% increase in the incoming
CPFTA class of young women. Shout out to
all the young women taking on this challenge.
And then this summer, we're launching another 1,400
internships. That's with over 200 industry
partners. And a great example of this work is our
work with, as I said, Streets and Sanitation, but also all of our
labor partners here.
We concluded our four skilled trades fair events.
This is our fourth year. This is only the second year
hosting directly at union training centers, which is a
big step forward for us, so that the warm handoff of young
people meeting directly with union and construction
partners and learning firsthand what these careers take.
And that leads me to Roadmap 2.0 with City
Colleges.
City Colleges and UIC.
So we've had a longstanding partnership, five years, with City Colleges, and we
expanded to the seamless
pathways with zero credit loss, also with
UIC. And what this shows you is
that our roadmap of careers, if you want to go into,
say, HVAC, because you're going to
be a cryogenic technician, you can start that in high
school and earn your basic and your advanced cert.
If you decide you want to go into pre-engineering and take that
into an engineering degree, you can transfer those credits
and continue the journey. Or if you decide you want
to do healthcare into
biological sciences, into medical research,
you can do that as well.
If you have a minute, you can click on these pathways on the UIC
website, and you can see you have access to all of the
classes at every grade level that you would take to complete
this,
which is a really important step to making these pathways
transparent to all of our young people.
And with that, I'm going to pass this off to our Director of
Black Student Success, Eugene Robinson Jr.
Wait, no.
Sorry. Sorry, I made the wrong handoff.
That's okay.
Good morning. Hi, everybody. Thank you.
My name is Emi Lozoco, Acting Chief Budget Officer, and I'm here today
with a brief update on our FY27 budget.
So if we could skip ahead a couple of slides.
Do you mind?Okay.
So beginning with-
Wait a minute. Before you start, so what's going on with Black student
success?
There's not a conversation about
it?
Yes, we were going to answer specific questions, Alderwoman Taylor.
Okay.
Chair Taylor.
Thank you. Go ahead. You proceed.
So starting with some timelines around the FY27 budget.
The Illinois School Code requires that the board approve a budget within the first
60 days of the new fiscal year. This means that for this year,
the board will need to approve the FY27 budget no later than August
29th, 2026.
As we work through the budget development process, the following guiding principles
drive us. First, protecting the investments that have the most
direct and measurable impact on student achievement, engagement, and their
wellbeing.
Second, accounting appropriately for the enrollment decline.
Third, aligning strategically to meeting the goals of the five-year plan.
And finally, and as always, advancing equity and access for all students.
Like last year, CPS is facing a major budget deficit.
Our current working estimate is $732.5
million.
As Dr. King previously mentioned,
there are a number of ongoing pressures impacting our budget.
And not just CPS's budget, but across the nation, districts are facing some of the
same trends.
Federal funding has not kept pace with our students' needs, especially federal
funding for students with disabilities.
Local funding is also falling behind at the same time as the district is
facing increased costs across several key areas.
And finally, the costs associated with educating our highest needs students
continue to grow.
Next, I'd like to talk through some of the underlying assumptions that impact our
deficit projections. The $732.5 million
figure is based on the following.
First, that CPS will continue to increase its property tax levy to the cap
allowed under state law. That CPS will capture
increases in new property available under its levy, included those related
to TIF expirations.
We assume that CPS will remain Tier 1 for the purposes of the
evidence-based funding formula.
We are including a baseline assumption of $100 million in TIF surplus
revenue.
And we are assuming that CPS will not reimburse the city for MEBF.
Our current deficit figure also takes into account estimated FY27
costs for additional special education teachers, classroom
assistants, related service providers, cluster
programs, cluster classrooms, excuse me, as well as
increased debt service costs and decreasing or
stagnant federal revenue estimates.
A point of information on that last slide.
Can you walk me through the reimbursement on the
pension fund?
So you're making that assumption today?
So all of these assumptions, and particularly those last two,
are the result of a number of conversations we've had with
the mayor's office around aligning on some of these assumptions.
So those are the two that are baked into that 732.5 deficit figure,
yes.
So, and you're making a judgment today that you're not going
to pay the pension fund
or reimburse the city?
That's the assumption that's driving the deficit figure that we're presenting
today.
Okay. And that's predicated on conversations you've had with the mayor's office?
That's right.
Okay.
I would make it your business to
advise the City Council on that also.
Because based on these projections, I presume you're looking for a larger
surplus than $100 million if your
deficit is $732 million.
So in order to prepare budgets for schools, these are just
assumptions. It's not the final budget.
As with any of the assumptions that we've made here,
we understood that last year was a record amount of
TIF, which we greatly thank you for.
So we didn't want to lean into that amount.
We didn't think that that was something that we could assume a second
year in a row. However, the 100 million was, in our
opinion, a safe assumption, and maybe more accurate to
what the assumption may look like.
What's the total amount that you're not going to reimburse based on the
pension?
What is the assumption?
Yeah. Is that $175 million that you're not going to give back to the city?
The assumption that's baked into that gets us to the 732, and I just want to
state that it is an assumption that we used in order to
provide school budgets.
So the last bullet, CPS does not reimburse the city for the
MEBF. Is that $175 million?
So-
Emma?
Yeah. So last year, that was the amount that was reimbursed, and that amount
changes year to year, depending on how the final figures come in from
the fund.
And I think the point is that these are the assumptions that are baked into our
current working deficit figures, as Dr.
King said, that informed the school budgets that were released a couple of
weeks ago.
Any of these could change, and if they do, then our working
deficit figure will also change. I think that's the main point that
I'm trying to make by laying them out in this way.
Of course.
Thank you, Madam Chair, for indulging me.
Realistically,
based on this slide,
how do you plan on closing your budget
gap if you're not going to ask the City
Council?for another record
TIF surplus.
So we'll walk you through some that's further along.
However, it was something that we realized that we
do need a permanent
funding source, and we do realize that TIF is not a
structural
solution. So we did make a safer assumption
because the goal is for us to become fiscally
sound on our own. But we'll walk you through how
we perceive what some of our options are, some leverage that we could pull
to balance based on the $100 million TIF
and the assumption. These are all assumptions and the assumption of not making the
MEBHF payment.
I can't emphasize enough how important it is
for CPS to get in front of the City Council Budget
Committee. I will remind you that the mayor didn't sign last year's budget.
It was the City Council that did that.
So it's very important, sooner rather than later, that you get in front of the
Budget Committee.
Thank you for that.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for that flag. And
it is important for us that we're communicating with the alders.
And we hosted an update for alders last week, but we will
schedule a special budget briefing for the
Finance Committee.
That should be the Budget Committee?
I'm sorry, the Budget Committee.
Thank you.
So as we continue to refine our projections, we are combing through every line
item and seeking all available revenue options.
Although as Dr. King mentioned earlier, our FY27 budgets must reflect the
realities of the challenging trends that we and other districts around the
country are facing. These include declining revenue,
declining enrollment, and increasing student needs.
School budgets were released to principals on May 12th, representing the first
major step in the overall budget process.
I'd like to now talk through a few of the key elements included in those budgets.
We've adjusted school-based staff allocation formulas for core teachers,
intervention teachers, and lead coaches to account for the district's declining
enrollment while continuing to prioritize support for high-need schools.
Class size limits will not change.
Given the enrollment decline, these adjusted staffing levels will continue to be
sufficient to meet class size requirements, and we will continue to set
aside funding to allow schools with unique enrollment patterns and other
considerations to hire additional teachers as necessary to meet class size
limits in specific grades and subject areas.
We are maintaining previous year's funding floors and capping teacher losses at
four per elementary school and six per high school,
regardless of the scale of the school's enrollment loss.
This will help to minimize the impact on the student experience and ensure
that we are still providing a strong foundation for every school, regardless of
size or their enrollment trends.
CPS will also be reducing funding for assistant principals in the district's
smaller schools.
However, these schools still have discretionary funding that they may use to
support these and other positions.
As we said earlier, we are not just dealing with lower enrollment, but greater
student needs. Several key funding increases next year are designed
to improve the daily learning experience for our students with disabilities.
These include additional special education teachers, classroom assistants, and
related service providers, as well as new cluster classrooms across the city
to more equitably distribute resources and improve transportation for our students
with disabilities. Again, this is just the start of the budget
process.
Later in the summer, we will present the rest of the budget, and just as we did
last year, CPS plans to make significant reductions to the district's central and
network office functions and citywide expenditures.
School budgets are due back on June 9th, and our central office teams are currently
working and will continue to work with school leaders and LSCs to help them through
the process. In the coming weeks, we will have community engagement
sessions around the budget. Although these budgets already incorporate feedback
that we learned from last year's budget roundtables in July, as well as our
capital planning hearings, which happened earlier this spring.
From there, we will present the full district budget later in the summer.
And while the fiscal year begins on July 1st, again, the board has 60
days to approve the final budget.
With that, I'd like to turn it over to my colleague, Ivan Hansen, Chief Facilities
Officer.
Thank you. Again, Ivan Hansen, Chief Facilities Officer.
As you know, our facility portfolio is large, and our average age is 86 years
old. Our oldest is 152, and we maintain over
62 million square feet. Just to put that into perspective, that's the equivalent of
14 Sears Towers.
As you see, the recent addition of the six charter schools has only added to our
portfolio and our need.
The cost to repair our buildings has far exceeded what CPS has historically been
able to afford. Our annual run-in-place funding of $400
million is needed just to avoid further deterioration.
We have finalized our latest round of facility condition assessments in all of our
CPS-owned and operated facilities, and they've all been uploaded to our
website. The data is owned from our technical reports and feedback from our on-site
personnel.
This is now our third round of assessments that had started back in
2019.
The prioritization of critical capital needs is a process as the systems are
dynamic and constantly changing, and this can be driven by a number of factors,
including weather,
accelerated deterioration, deferred maintenance, and recent investments.
Based on these updated assessments, the new facility figures are derived.
Since we rolled out the EFMP, we have created this graph to break things down into
these four buckets. Our updated needs have now grown from
$14.4 billion to over $16
billion.We have our immediate critical need bucket, our fixes that
need to be made right away, and those are things like roofs, windows, and heating
and cooling systems. But it is a big job, and it's coming in at about
$3.7 billion.
We also have the long-term critical needs.
They're the same items as the immediate, but we have a few years to get to these.
Then we have the ADA accessibility bucket, which is making sure everyone can get
around our campuses easily. And it's items like getting ramps and elevators so
everyone can enter and access the buildings comfortably.
And then finally, we have the building upgrades, and those are improvements to make
the schools just a better place to learn.
It could be anything like giving a room or a hallway a fresh coat of
paint, or upgrading lightings to make the classrooms brighter.
Just important to note that these numbers do not include programmatic
investments. These are only the cost to do the work.
This is a quick summary of the capital budget over the last few fiscal
years. You can see the ebbs and flows in the capital budget,
which makes making a long-range capital plan extremely difficult.
And please note our annual need is over $400 million in critical need.
I do want to quickly highlight a couple initiatives supported by the capital
projects. One is our green initiatives, and number two is the student
internships. All capital projects incorporate
sustainability. Our approach to capital planning and construction is based on the
following.
At a macro program level, embedding sustainability principles into our
specifications, and these standards guide the materials, the
technologies, the construction methods that we use in our buildings.
At a micro level, integrating sustainability into our planning and design
process ensures the project scope is within budget,
supports energy efficiency, maintainability, and healthier
learning spaces. Examples include energy efficiency equipment to
reduce power consumption and operational values.
High R-value to roofing to improve insulation and reduce heating and cooling needs.
The use of low VOC paint to promote healthier indoor air quality for
every student and staff. We're also working closely with our board to implement the
green resolution that was adopted by the board last fall.
Through our student internship initiative and
coordination with our CTE partners, CPS has partnered with several general
contractors last year to connect with over 75 students, the
hands-on construction experience exposing them to career pathways in project
management, trades, and design. While supporting active
summer projects, I am happy to report that we are on track to exceed that number
this summer.
A quick update on our FY26 capital project.
Ben?
Yes.
If you can go back to slide 31.
Between 2021 and 2026, how much
was allocated to CPS using City of Chicago TIF
dollars for the projects?
Oh, I'll get that back through the chair.
You can get that through the chair.
Yes.
Thank you.
Yeah, we have it broken down by year.
Yeah. Thank you very much.
Thanks, Madam Chair. A clarifying question as we
look at the years 2021 and 2026. 2023,
2024, and 2025, it seems to be the
only years that don't have the potential outside funding baked into
it. Can you speak to why that is, and then where the
potential outside funding would be coming from?
So there's a few different outside sources that we get.
One, obviously, is TIF money. We also work with the state
on certain grants that are coming through the DCO grants.
We use OSAF money from aldermanic offices to do that through the Department of
Planning. We're also working with the federal government on THUD grants
that we go through. Just note a lot of those are up-fronted.
You pay those up front, and then you got to resubmit for reimbursement.
But they are a long process. They don't happen just overnight.
But as you note, when there was a lull
in TIF dollars, the process did stop for
approximately 18 months when they were reworking some things
with the processes to go through that.
So that's where you're going to see the lack of that TIF funding in those years.
How many school buildings does CPS have?
692.
And those are with students?
Yes.
And those include vacant buildings?
Those do not include the vacant buildings.
Continue.
Wait, wait, Madam Chair, before we skip off of that, how many vacant
school buildings does CPS still have on its books?
Do we still have in the book?
I believe there's-
20... 21.
Through the chair, can you send a list of what those are and where they are
across the city?
Yes.
Thank you.
How many of those buildings are less than 10% being
used?
Of our active buildings? The utilization?
We'll have to get that back to the chair.
Okay.
Thank you.
I'll go back to a quick update on the FY26 capital projects.
The capital budget was approved late last August.
A majority of the projects have been bid with construction commencing over the
spring and summer. We're going to be in over 200 buildings in the summer.
The FY26 capital budget process is ongoing, and our goal is to getting it
board approval later this summer.
This will allow us to able to get out to the market starting in December for better
planning of summer of '27 work.
Through the chair, can you send us where those schools are and what work is being
done?
For this summer?
Yes.
Yes, ma'am.
Again, leading into our FY27 work, we've had robust community engagements, and
feedback continues to be focused on all the capital budgets.
Last month, we held five capital budget community meetings.
Two of those were in person, the other three were virtual with a Spanish-only
meeting.The survey went live on March 18th,
and we closed it on April 30th. We're looking at as much stakeholder feedback as
possible, and we're pleased to say that we received over 6,600 surveys this year.
That's up from 5,400 last year.
Just to conclude, we need a robust and consistent annual capital budget in order to
support and enhance the experience for our students and staff within our buildings.
I'll now turn it over to Steve to talk about the ongoing work on the vacant
properties.
Thank you, Ivan. For the record, my name is Steven Stoltz, Director of Real Estate
for Chicago Public Schools.
I'll give a brief recap of the sealed bid sale process for the sale of closed
and vacant school properties. CPS conducted two rounds of bidding
over the last two years and is currently conducting the third round of bidding for
vacant school sites. Bids were received for 13 of the
21 school sites that were put out for bid over the last two years.
The sale of two properties have closed during that timeframe, and five additional
sales have been approved by the board and are proceeding to closing.
The recent board approvals include proposals for 304 new
housing units to be created through these school sales.
Two more sites that received bids are going through a community process before
proceeding to CPS's board for approval.
CPS released another bid solicitation this year, including eight vacant
school sites and 21 vacant land sites, and bids are due on June 30th,
2026.
Of the sales that have been approved by the board,
they include Calhoun, which was sold to Marillac St.
Vincent Family Services for use as a community service hub.
Altgeld Gardens Building C was sold to the People for Community Recovery for
redevelopment as the Hazel Johnson Center for Environmental Justice.
Bontemps sold to Bontemps Apartments LLC for the development
of a 72-unit multi-family affordable housing building and a
60-unit affordable senior housing building.
Hensen was sold to MKB Business Strategies LLC for construction
of 13 single-family homes and 12 three-flats.
Armstrong was sold to Breakaway Community Development for use as an athletic
training center for youth. Paderewski was sold to P3 Markets
LLC for construction of an 85-unit affordable housing development, with
a portion of the site being donated to ARC Innovation Center for use as a
community center. And finally, Shedd was sold to Peace for Preston
Foundation for a community center focused on programming for youth.
Quick clarifying question. What was the total revenue
that you brought in from the sale of these vacant parcels and
properties?
I don't have that number on hand, but I'll provide a response through
the chair.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Is there something in there that says how long these people can acquire those
buildings without doing anything to them?
There is a restriction in all of the sales that the buyer must either
demolish the existing building or complete
construction and obtain a certificate of occupancy within five
years of the board approval date.
You said they have five years?
That's correct.
You all need to change that. Those buildings have been sitting vacant since
2015. You're giving them, so 2015 is 2025.
That's 10 years already. You're giving them an additional five years for buildings
to sit. Who maintains those buildings while they're sitting and not doing
anything? Is it the owner or is it still CPS?
CPS maintains them until closing, and after closing would be the
purchaser.
Thank you.
That concludes my presentation, and I'll be happy to answer any other questions.
Thank you.
Good afternoon. My name is Ronan Chlebowski with the Office of Safety and Security.
Today, I want to briefly update you on the actions CPS has taken to support our
students, families, and school communities in response to increased
federal activity impacting neighborhoods across the city.
At CPS, our priority remains clear.
Every student deserves to feel safe, supported, and able to learn without fear.
We have developed and implemented clear school-level protocols and training for
those on the front lines, including our school leaders, clerks, and security
officers.
These trainings are grounded in real scenarios and provide step-by-step guidance on
how to respond to activity
both on and near the school property.
This training has expanded beyond the school building to include safe passage
workers and crossing guards. These individuals play a critical role in student
safety, particularly during arrival and dismissal when students are traveling to
and from school.
We've also continued direct communication with families and regularly update
the CPS website with resources, guidance, and community
supports.
We recognize that fear and uncertainty can impact a student's ability to learn
and want families to know that they are not navigating these concerns alone.
This past October, in response to a significant increase in reports of federal
activity
near our schools,
CPS established a dedicated command center line to ensure school leaders
receive immediate, specialized support to navigate these situations in real
time.
This command center continues to operate during school days, providing direct
access
to school leaders and staff to train safety professionals during the
times they need it most. It serves as an extension of our student safety center,
which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week, ensuring
continuous support beyond school hours.
Whether it's during arrival, dismissal, or throughout the school day,
school teams can call and receive guidance on how to respond based on a specific
situation they are facing, along with real-time decision-making support.
This work cannot happen in silo. Ensuring student safety in
moments like these requires a broader coordinated effort.
We need continued partnership and additional support from the city, including
increased investment in programs like Safe Passage, so we can expand
coverage and ensure students are safe, not just inside our schools,
but on their way to and from.
Now I'd like to transition to Chief Diego Alvarez.
Thank you, RonanAnnie
Diego-Alvarez, Chief Officer for the Office of Family and Community
Engagement. And so adding to what Chief Szablewski
has already listed, CPS has
ongoing collaboration with partners, including community-based
organizations and legal service organizations, the Illinois
Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the mayor's office,
and labor partners, and many others.
We have weekly phone calls with the mayor's office, including one today, where we
share our latest developments and work.
This year, we have also established dedicated spaces and opportunities for
school leaders, staff, and community to share experiences,
engage in collective problem-solving, and discuss the impact on
students and families. For example, there's collaboration
between our CPS Department of Principal Quality and
CPAA, the principals union, in holding
lunches where school leaders share with each other the challenges and
successes of the moment.
CPS also continues internal and external coordinations
as families face challenges after the Midway Blitz operation,
and also new families are impacted weekly.
This means working closely with community-based partners, and pretty
rapidly on follow-up and warm connections between families
and their services. Lastly, we are
increasing our preparedness for future federal activity by reviewing our
practices, and increasing our partnerships and collaboration with
sister agencies. This is especially important as we go into the summer
months, and as we prep for the new school year.
And that is
the end of this slide. But if anybody has any questions.
I do. How you doing? Can you send me through the chair how many schools are
sustainable community schools,
number of students and families that you all are
helping, and
is there a thought to halt
putting in any schools since we're still in a budget deficit?
I know that this is in the CTU contract,
but we in a $732 million
deficit, and so is the thought to
do a two-year pause or conversations about a pause until
we figure out more funding?
So Dr. Hougaard is about to start a presentation
that includes sustainable community schools-
Okay
... so I'll hand it over to her.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
So we currently have 36 sustainable community schools, and
as you shared,
the CBA with CTU has
us
adding 34 additional by 2029.
So right now, we
have invited 40 schools. We've done multiple rounds of
application, and 40 schools
are invited to apply to the final round.
So no awards have been made for this
school year, but we are in that application process.
We did onboard new lead partner agencies
who are our community-based organizations who are meeting
with the schools to submit the applications together
this year. So as far as the pause of expansion, we've not had
that discussion.
So I'm going to say this on the record.
It needs to be a pause on everything, not just sustainable community schools.
There is no way that we could be responsible for
owing $732 million in deficit and starting
any new initiatives. And
I'm going to say this to you, Dr. King, because I can.
CPS needs a forensic audit.
I am not convinced that we are spending money in the right spaces, and that's not
on you, Dr. King. That's what has happened at CPS historically.
And so I don't know how we're starting any new initiatives.
I'm concerned about these school buildings as well because the
TIF surplus goes to a bunch of things.
And when it goes back to you, Dr. King, can you talk about
funding resources that CPS currently gets now?
What, you want me to address that with you?
You don't have to now. I got a whole bunch of questions, but
just because I was making a speech.
And so there should be a conversation about us
starting anything new. We can't afford it.
Let's be honest, especially if you're looking for the city.
Now, if you all are looking outside of
City of Chicago, then maybe if you all could get the funding or the
grants from somewhere else, but definitely not on taxpayers.
Thank you.
You continue.
That's it for me, actually. I'm handing it to Sabrina Evans.
Thank you so much. Now we are about to
discuss charter and contract school oversight.
So as we discuss charter and contract school oversight, it is
important to understand that schools within District
299 operate within different legal and governance
structures while serving the same students as well as in
the same community. One area that often creates
confusion publicly is the distinction between charter schools
as well as district-managed schools.
Charter schools operate under Article 27A of the Illinois School
Code, while district-managed schools operate under Article 34.
This distinction, for an example, impacts governance, staffing
structures, labor agreements, and operational
oversight. To give some color into that, for an
example for governance, charter schools are governed by their own independent
nonprofit boards, as district-managed schools are governed
by the Chicago Board of Education.
Staffing structures, the district operates under licensure requirements.
Charter schools have a minimum of licensure requirements as well as
residency policy, as well as collective bargain agreements that
are different from CPS.
In addition to over-Operational oversight.
This is a huge difference as our district-managed schools are
managed through different CPS central departments, as well as a network
structure. Within charter schools, they are operated and managed through
their management organizations and/or the charter operator.
Because of these legal distinctions, CPS cannot
absorb a charter school in its current form.
Instead, the charter operator must dissolve its charter
entity, and the district would establish a new district-managed
school structure, as we have seen this year with Chi Arts as
well as Acero.
This is important because public conversation sometimes uses the term
absorption when legally and operationally, we cannot
absorb a school, a charter school, a contract school
entirely in the same form with the same
governance structures, same staffing structure, and labor
agreements. So contract schools operate under
a different
legal framework. It's considered to be a hybrid framework.
And we can move
to the slide that talks about contract schools.
So contract schools operates under a hybrid
governance model. While they operate under agreements authorized by
the Chicago Board of Education,
some of its
operational logistics is under Article 34 of the
Illinois School Code. However, the day-to-day operations are
managed by a vendor. So contract schools are public schools.
They follow CPS and state licensure requirements, but they
operate under district-managed agreements with different staff and
structures, as well as academic model structures that
are different from district-managed schools.
Ultimately, regardless of the governance model, the district
responsibilities remains the same, to ensure students
experience a rigorous, joyful, and equitable learning experience.
With that legal context, it is important as Chief
Conrad speaks about the different scenarios with Acero as well
as Chi Arts,
it is important that we understand that we have to have
different approaches because of these legal frameworks.
And I would like to move now and talk about the charter and
contract renewal process and how it works.
Before he starts, can you tell me how many charter schools and contract schools we
have in CPS?
Yes, we have a total of 93 charter and contract schools
within the district.
They're charter and contract?
Mm-hmm. Collectively.
Oh, collectively. Can you give me-
Breakdown
... through the chair, could you tell me how many are charter and how many are
contracts? How many of them are
under contract to close? Is that something that you have?
Under contract to close?
Mm-hmm.
We only-
Or their contract has ended.
So we currently do not have, besides what
our board has voted to approve in regards to Acero,
as well as Chi Arts, those are the only operators who
have contracts that are planning to
close this year. So with Acero, those five
campuses that our board decided to
transition to the district, those
entities will transition to district-managed.
For Chi Arts,
that contract with Chi Arts will end this year.
Chi Arts will transition to district-managed, and then you also have
Epic, who is winding down operations for this year.
Can you tell me-
And ARIS, sorry
... what does that look like?
Thank you for the question.
It looks like us having multiple
conversations with the operator in regards to
the need to wind down, conversations with the community in
regards to
the need to wind down. We have a wind-down process that we
follow. We meet with the school operator every single
week. We have strategies and support in place to transition
students. We work with different departments within the district to
make sure that the student needs are ensured,
that continuity of academic is
there for when a student transitions from one closing school to
another. So it involves a
multi-facet approach to ensuring that students
receive the services they need.
So you--
Go ahead.
So you're saying that those schools are going into
other buildings? Make me understand so far.
So I have Urban Prep. Urban Prep is closing one of its campus.
They're going into the bigger campus, which makes sense.
It saves money on that side. Is that what's going on with the other schools?
And how are you all doing that transition work?
So, Urban Prep's situation is a little bit different-
Mm-hmm
... from the ones that I explained just now.
So in regards to Urban Prep, they are
requesting from the board, and the board will vote on this on Thursday.
They are requesting to modify their current agreement.
So that's a difference in regards to the other
schools. Their contracts are ending, or their attendance centers are ending.
Urban Prep is asking to basically transition one
school to make a unified school in their larger
facility.
So these schools are actually losing their contracts altogether or becoming
district-ran.
Correct.
How much is the-- What's the cost difference
in the district-ran
versus what they're doing?
That-
If you don't have it now, you can send it to me through the chair.
Will do.
You can continue.
Thank you.
Did you have something, Ald. Coleman?
Yes
I just wanted to, because I know some Acero schools that
you mentioned are being absorbed by CPS. Those are five.
So how many schools are closing?
So those five attendance centers are closing.
Acero is a multi-site charter school, so they have one agreement
with the district, but they operate multiple attendance centers.
So for that agreement, those five campuses will no longer be under
Acero management. So the agreement will continue.
They are also up for renewal for this current cycle.
So the board will vote on their renewal on Thursday.
But for those five attendance centers, they will no longer be under Acero's
agreement.
But those are the schools that are being closed, and kids are going to be
transferred to any other community schools?
Well, we're hoping that they stay with the school to
transition to district manage.
Yeah. No, just for a point of clarification.
So how many schools from Acero or any other charters are
closing that are not being absorbed by CPS?
Thank you. So it would be two. Two of those Acero,
seven of... It was a totally seven.
Of the seven, two are closing and five are being transitioned.
Okay. That's it.
Yep. Not absorbed.
Thank you so much.
Mm-hmm.
That was the question.
All right. We can now move into the charter
renewal process. Our charter renewal process is designed to be a
structured, transparent, and evidence-based process.
CPS conducts a comprehensive review of school
performance across multiple domains.
These findings then inform renewal recommendations presented
to the Chicago Board of Educations.
Potential outcomes may include renewal with
conditions, a short renewal term, longer renewal term, or
non-renewal recommendations. It is important that the
process
is not based on a single data point
or an isolated event. It is basically based on a
body of evidence collected over time.
Our goal within our charter renewal is not just simple compliance.
Our goal is to balance accountability, school quality and student
experience, operational stability, and within those legal
frameworks that I mentioned earlier.
To support consistency and transparency, evaluations are
conducted across four performance
domains. So we can move to the next slide.
The renewal frameworks evaluate schools across four
domains: academic, financial, inclusive programming, and
equitable systems, as well as organizational compliance.
Academic performance, we look at students' outcomes,
how the school is improving students' reading and math scores.
For financial performance, we evaluate schools based upon their
independent audit findings, as well as indicators of financial
health, such as cash on-hand ratio.
IPAS is assessing the systems and structures that
schools have in place to support students' experience for students with
disabilities, English language learners, as well as systems to
support all students within student discipline, as well as their
teacher licensure.
Organizational compliance looks at governance, legal compliance,
and as well as other operational systems.
This framework reflects the district commitment to ensuring that every
student has a rigorous,
enjoyable learning experience, as well as ensuring
that we are supporting our subgroups of students,
students with disabilities, as well as English language learners, and
ensuring that our schools have the operational and financial
stability to continue and operate.
Renewal term recommendations are aligned to
performance outcomes across these domains and
also are aligned to outlines... I mean,
are also outlined to requirements within the Illinois Charter
School Law. Next slide.
The Illinois law allows charter renewal terms to be up for
10 years. However, CPS applies rigorous performance
standards before recommending extending renewal terms.
To qualify for a five-year term, school must meet
standards across all of those academic domains that I mentioned.
And to qualify for terms greater than five years,
schools must demonstrate the highest level of performance
consistently across all domains.
This approach reflects national authorizer best practices and
emphasizes accountability alongside school autonomy.
Conversely, Illinois law outlines the
circumstances under which a
non-renewal recommendation may be considered.
Under Illinois charter law, non-renewal recommendations may occur
when schools materially violate charter conditions, fail to
make reasonable academic progress, fail to meet
acceptable fiscal management standards, or violate
any applicable law that a charter school is not governed to.
These decisions are not taken lightly.
When schools experience challenges, CPS work to provide
monitoring, and more specific interventions,
remediation opportunities, as well as improvement for support
whenever appropriate. At the center of every
recommendation is one core question: What is in the best
interest of students? Our responsibility as an authorizer is
to balance accountability, equity, operational sustainability,
as well as student continuity. Ultimately, this work is about
ensuring that every student has access to a rigorous and joyful
learning experience, that each school operates
responsibly as well as sustainably,
and also that every community is engaged with transparency
as well with care. So with that, I am going to turn it over
to Chief Timbers to walk us through Aspira as well as
updates for ChiArts.
Before you start, does this include alternative schools?
So, this does include alternative schools.
Their renewal framework may look a little bit different, but in regards
to the domains and the process, it's the same.
Through the chair, can you give me the number of charter, contract, and alternative
schools?
Yes, ma'am.
And were they are in the... Because I'm hearing from alternative schools,
some of them don't want to renew their contracts for
some reason.
Okay.
We got to have a real conversation about how to, A, capture
more students,
B, the buildings that some of these
charters live in or exist in, and a
conversation about the difference between district ran
and,
I guess, what do you call it?
On their own.
Yeah, the folks who-
Private
... who run on their own, and the responsibility of the district.
Will do.
Alderwoman.
Yeah. Thank you, Chairwoman. Just wanted to ask,
prior to those five years for renewal, is there any
work between CPS with charter schools and checking their finances
year-by-year? Just,
I'm wondering this because I know, for example, Acero was up
for renewal, and they got it. And after the renewal,
months later is when they advised everybody that they were closing
some schools, that they didn't have good finances, and all what we
know that happened. I'm just curious about what steps CPS is
taking in order to hold them accountable and make sure
year-by-year that they're in good stance now for them to
approach, not only them, but any other charter entity.
When they approach their renewal, we know already how good or bad they've done, so
no surprises arise again like we had before.
Yes, absolutely. So we can pass that information along to the chair, but
as Dr. King, CEO, mentioned early in her opening
remarks, that we are implementing early warning indicators,
in addition to mid-cycle academic
visits to schools.
And we are also changing our financial framework in regards to what is
anchored in charter renewal. So with all of those things, yes, we
are looking and understand what we all experience to
strengthen our oversight practices for charter schools.
I think it may be important to note too, that you stated that
Acero is a single-- They held one agreement, right?
Mm-hmm.
So when they're up for renewal, it's all of their schools.
It's not their individual schools. So that's something just to note.
But we will definitely follow up with through the chair to respond and more in
depth for you, Alder.
Alderwoman Lee.
Thank you, Madam Chair. And just to follow up on my
colleague here's comment.
Excuse me.
Is there anything in the... And I know you're working on sort of
amending the charter agreements and how do we do early warning systems and
everything, but was there anything existing in the charter agreements about
school closings at all?
So,
we can follow up just so we can make sure that we have
the clear information. But in regards to our
agreements, we do have where charter schools have to give
us an advance notice, and it's also by mutual agreement.
As it was stated before, Acero was a little bit-- That was a
outlier. But charter schools have to
provide us an advance notice, and we also have to have a mutual agreement before a
school closes.
Got you. It seems like this was a great case study
for us to learn a-
Absolutely
... hard lesson, but glad that we're coming up with solutions that are working for
the families, for the students in these schools.
But we certainly don't want to be in this position again.
I think charters provide great choices, but if they're not well run,
they could be detrimental completely to whole communities.
So appreciate the work that you guys have done to ensure that
we are able to preserve
the quality of education for these students.
But I think it also raises some red flags for us on the council
as well,
about how
charters are managed and really what the ramifications are.
Because it seemed like that was a little bit of a domino, right?
With Acero,
and then came several other charter schools
coming, asking for assistance when frankly,
I don't have to tell you all this, you all are in a position to do it.
So I think there's a lot to be discussed with the charter
stuff. I'll save the rest of my questions for the end.
Thank you.
So I want to acknowledge Alderman Hall. Alderman Hall, are you here?
Yes, I am. Thank you so much, Chairwoman.
You're welcome. You may proceed.
Good afternoon. Conrad Timbers, SR, Acting Chief Portfolio
Officer. I'm going to talk about some of the updates.
I'll start with Espira.
So with Espira,
these are the updates. All of these students have transitioned out
of the Espira campuses that recently closed.
Students were deliberately clustered at nearby schools.
For example, Schurz, Roosevelt, Calvin Park.
Roosevelt was designated as the central transfer hub for seniors.
CPS has allocated approximately a little bit over
$485,000 to help with the transition
needs of those students, including bus cards and other needs such as
a staffing influx.
This staffing influx is strictly at the school level.
This does not include a staffing influx that we had to do for
the dual credit and also advanced placement courses that we had to
do to ensure that all of those students who
transitioned were successful. 100% of those students were
re-enrolled in DC coursework within the districtWe have
held a resource fair
for those students and families recently last week at Schurz.
Again, with that staffing influx, that included youth intervention
specialists, additional spare positions, additional security,
additional teaching positions as well.
CPS was also able to mitigate the credit loss, so all of those students'
credits were aligned with the CPS catalog to ensure that there was no
disruption to those students and their graduation progress.
And right now, we are currently working on finalizing senior
milestones for those students specifically that were
seniors at Aspira. Even though they have transitioned to other schools
and haven't participated in those senior milestones, we're working to ensure
that they can have something that is exclusive to them as well
during senior week, which would be next week.
With ChiArts, which is actually-
Wait a minute. Can you talk about what the support's for students who didn't go to
the, I guess, the anchor school?
So students that didn't go to those specific schools,
those supports were also extended to those additional schools as
well. So even if the student went to, let's say, a charter school, we did
extend additional resources, the same resources that we offer
to our own district-managed schools.
Through the chair, can you send us that data, please?
Absolutely.
Thank you.
Next is ChiArts. So updates with ChiArts right now,
the staffing and talent acquisition.
Of the teaching positions that they were allocated,
approximately 87% of those
teaching positions have been offered to current ChiArt staff,
which is a great thing. We also plan to hire an additional
20 resident artists
to help with the pre-professional arts training.
Those resident artists will be housed directly at central office
to ensure that the pre-professional training
that the ChiArts community has become used to continues.
The transition has also yielded a unique school
model for that school, which is going to be approximately eight hours and 10
minutes, which will run approximately from 8:10 to 4:20, and that
includes 150 minutes of pre-professional arts instruction,
which is something that the community really wanted to continue as they
transition from a contract school to a district-managed school.
We're currently about 96% on track for the incubation activities.
Actually, the team is there today.
We'll be there today and throughout this week doing some assessments on the needs
that they need as they transition.
The current principal, the incoming principal, excuse me, Dr.
Feese, is working with the marketing team to launch their
unique branding proposals and unique branding for the school now that it's
transitioning to a district-managed school.
Also, the ADLC, which is the Advisory and Design Leadership Council,
is working with Dr. Feese, CPS altogether.
They're having community incubation meetings, and those will continue throughout
June. And that we have announced that the Children
First Fund has
been designated to receive philanthropic support that
they used to get as a contract school directly through CFF.
And so the
school will continue that process, and also that the ChiArts
community is now initiating a Friends of, like many of
our other high schools have, so that they can get philanthropic support, additional
support as well.
Through the chair, can you send how many students, what's the racial makeup?
Yes.
Thank you.
Next is Epic Academy. So this is a school that is closing and is
winding down. This school is not transitioning to district management.
Right now, we are working with their
leadership team to do our wind down agreement.
This will include any
type of assets that the school has
that were purchased with public funds will return back to the
district, and that includes potentially the property that they
had purchased at 8207 South Shore Drive.
Currently, there are approximately 164 students who remain
enrolled at the campus, because again, this campus is going to close at the end of
the school year. But our teams have been intimately involved in ensuring
and working directly with families to find specific schools for
their specific needs. And we'll make sure that, like we did with previous
transitions, to ensure that all of our students find a school that best fits their
needs. We'll continue that, and we'll continue to provide updates as
that continues to transition over the next couple of weeks as that school
winds down and closes officially.
Through the chair, can you tell us what wind down looks like?
Yes.
And then finally, again, talking about Acero.
Again, the incubation of the five transitioning Acero campuses is
underway. School leadership and foundational staff have been hired at the school
sites. The principals there are leading school design and
community meetings while also interviewing and hiring school-based staff.
CPS has allocated approximately $20 million for the incubation to
date and has identified tens of millions of dollars in capital needs across
the five campuses.
As of February 26th, the Chicago Board of Education, of course,
voted to allow the district to add leases for all five current school
buildings to the district's master lease agreement with the archdiocese, because
those buildings are in archdiocese buildings.
Individual leases for each site are still being negotiated.
And to date, since December 25th, approximately 70 school sites
have been executed across all five schools by various
CPS-- school visits, excuse me, have been executed by multiple
departments
to ensure that the school is ready for opening in August of
2026. We have more of those visits coming in the coming weeks and
over the summer as wellTo ensure that the
facility readiness is ready to move forward for those students and those
staff members. The December 2024 Board of Education
resolution to maintain those campuses, as we spoke on earlier,
was to transition those five campuses to district management, and there were two
other campuses that effectively closed.
How much are we paying the archdiocese?
We can get that for you. We can get that through
the chair for two.
Okay.
But
the projected deficit was about $5.5 million
higher than what we had projected in the preliminary
budget due to revenue loss and the loss of enrollment, which was talked
about earlier for the Acero organization.
And so because of that MOU, CPS is obligated to fully fund this
deficit
of March 1st,
2025, which was the transition agreement, and we're obligated
to fully fund that all the way through
June 30th of 2026. So that went from the 1st of
2025 to June 30th.
Is there any conversation about how we look at these contracts?
Because I feel like when you all do five and 10-year contracts, we get caught in
a trap.
So for point of clarification, Chair, this was in direct regards.
This is not about the renewal. This is separate.
This was a MOU for the charter
organization to maintain those campuses to stay
open for the current school year while we transition them to
district management.
Can y'all send us a copy of the MOU?
Yes.
And now we'll turn it over to my partners at NGA.
Thank you. And good afternoon, Chairwoman Taylor and members of
City Council. So as you know, this week
is the last week in Springfield, but we've been working really
hard on building relationships, on understanding things that
work really well and things that haven't, and really rebuilding
relationships down in Springfield.
When Dr. King took the helm of CPS, we had
introductory calls. We've had multiple budget sessions,
executive committee hearings, and also working with many of our partners on
advocacy efforts, even from the summer into veto session,
having legislative breakfasts, and also
calls to many of our state electeds as well.
Going down to veto session and doing briefings with elected
officials throughout the fall, and ultimately developing some
priorities on the legislative front and, like I mentioned,
building those relationships,
and having constant communication with
our state legislators.
This particular session, CEO has
attended not only the budget address but has attended
multiple events in Springfield, and our newly appointed
CEO has as
recent as a few weeks ago.
There's been opportunities for testimony.
We've had advocacy days that our board members have participated in, and
we've had really strategic engagement throughout the session.
We've had constant monitoring of bills and sharing with our board
members and have provided them opportunities to also be involved.
And now, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, Jamal Chambers, who's going to
give more detail into our legislative priorities.
Thank you, Judy. Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee.
Our legislative agenda is focused on one core problem, structural funding
inequity that cannot be solely solved
locally. CPS is only funded at 73% of what the state of Illinois
itself deems as adequate. Subsequently, our five
specific acts are fully funding mandated categoricals, otherwise known as
MCATs; increasing the early childhood block grant to better serve our youngest and
most vulnerable learners; increasing state support for our Chicago
teacher pension, otherwise known as pension parity; and raising our
evidence-based funding tier allocation, which is
a shared act across all school districts in the state of Illinois.
And lastly, waiving or delaying repayment for our EBF
overpayment from the year 2019 through 2022,
which is compounding an already severe deficit.
Each of these items has a direct impact on what happens inside of our
classrooms. Underfunding at the state level means fewer
opportunities and supports for our classes. We can go to the next slide.
Since the start of the 104th General Assembly session, CPS has
significantly stepped up its visibility and advocacy in Springfield.
This level of engagement is intentional and unprecedented in recent
history. Our superintendent, Dr.
King, has personally met with both Senate and House leadership,
budgeteers, in bringing the student achievement data and fiscal
reality of CPS directly to the people who
have the power to make the decisions at a funding level.
Our board members are making regular visits to Springfield to meet one-on-one with
their state legislators, putting faces and relationships behind our legislative
acts. Our NGA team is present in Springfield every week,
tracking bills, building relationships, and ensuring CPS has a
consistent seat at the table throughout the entire budget and
legislative process. The message that we are carrying to Springfield is
simple. We believe that working together with our state partners, we can build a
funding structure that gives every Chicago student, regardless of their
ZIP code, the resources and opportunities that they deserve in the classrooms.
I thank you. This now
concludes our presentation.
Can you tell me what the ex CPS was? How much did you all ask them for, and did
they commit?
Yeah, so we asked for it to be fully funded for our MCAT, mandated
categoricals. That's special education transportation, general
transportation, free and reduced lunch,
and private
tuition. We did not get it fully funded.
There is a proposal in the budget to increase, I want to say it's
$51 million increase for MCATs. That budget has not been approved
yet.
So
you all asked for, what was the amount?
For the what?
We can give it to the chair.
Okay. We need to be able to follow up, and so we need that amount.
So I'm going to turn it over to vice chair. Are you well down?
Yes. That concludes our presentation, and we'll turn it over for any
questions or...
We have loads of questions.
Okay.
So we're going to go Vice Chair Clay, then Alderman Quinn, then Alderman-
Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, CPS, because I know you all start to
move in your seat a little bit when the questions come.
So I want to first just say thank you so much for your commitment to our babies.
I know that this is a huge ask when it comes to financing.
But I got a couple of questions.
One on the infrastructure side, what metrics do you use to
decide infrastructure updates when it comes to our
buildings? I bring that into the conversation because in
my ward, we have a
beautiful school by the name of McCutcheon Elementary that does not have a gym.
And this has been over 10 years that we have been trying to figure
out what are the steps to build this gym, now to the
point that we are starting over. So trying to understand what are the
metrics that you use to identify some of the capital
improvement plans, and how some of those decisions are made.
Sure. Again, Ivan Hansen, chief facilities officer.
So, as I referred to in the presentation, we do the facility assessments
every two years, and those are uploaded on our website.
Our mechanical pieces, the windows, doors, roofs, all those items, flooring,
restrooms, are all rated by tiers.
Right now we have a lot of tier ones, and that's immediate critical need that
we have to do.
So unfortunately, we've got just that little bit of peanut butter that we're trying
to spread very thin across the district to make sure that we've touched every
school and made sure that the warm, safe, and dry piece of it.
McCutcheon, as you know, we've met with you, the state.
We're looking for some help on some outside funding.
We've fully designed the gym annex.
It's just we need some help on the assistance to get the
capital dollars actually to build it.
They do have a gym. They just rent it from the Boys & Girls Club next door.
So they do have it as they're needed during the day.
No, we got the cost. I'll give you the cost.
But the chair would like to know the cost of how much you're renting the gym next
to McCutcheon. That's not the actual McCutcheon gym, but the rented gym at the Boys
& Girls Club.
And send us all the tier ones that you have.
CEO, you should just be aware of this only because I think that this is one
to continuously come up into the conversation based on the metrics that
we use to identify. Obviously, if it's a roof caving in, that
is top priority. However, this process has been going on for
10 years, and it's left the community at a standstill when
there was funding for it, and then the funding disappeared, and now we're back
at square one.
The issue is just accessibility as well, right?
And so that's why I'm trying to understand what the metrics are so that we can have
a full picture as to how we're evaluating what's a
priority or not. And if it's not this year, what's the
five-year priority? What is the metrics to
still get us to the point of getting a gym, right?
Because at this point, I am sending
babies who desperately need this education at McCutcheon to different schools
because they don't have the accessibility component.
We are pushing people in wheelchairs down
steps at a Boys & Girls Club next to the school,
right? So I'm really concerned about that aspect
because it has left a huge hole in my neck of the
woods as far as accessibility for our babies.
The other question that I had that I didn't see anybody bring up in this
presentation was around truancy.
Can anybody speak to the truancy levels in CPS, or who
can I bother about that?
I think she's making one point.
And to add to that, what is the plan to get young people back into
CPS?
Because you all have an online school, correct?
There's some type of online school that you all have?
It's an alternative-
There's a virtual academy-
Absolutely
... but that's only for specifically identified students with
disabilities, medical needs.
But in terms-
There needs to be a conversation back with the state because you got young people
on that virtual school who haven't been in a school in six years.
We have not found the 5,000 students that we lost in 2015, and
so I need you all to put all those brilliant minds together to figure out how we
get young people back in the seats, because that'll solve part of the
problem.
Can I share part of just my vision? I know I haven't spoken a lot about
that. However, for me, the student
experience is really important, and that's
a true focus for us because we know across the city, every
neighborhood is different, and there's 77.
And we know a school across the street from the other school can be very different
in Chicago public schools. So when we budgeted, and
we all know that this is a huge deficit, we did so with the
student in mind, so the direct impact on students.
Because if the student experience is one that the students desire within the school
community, they will come to school.
And so it's a matter of us ensuring that those schools that our students are
attending are ones where students feel like they belong,
and that there's opportunity for them to explore, grow, and to learn.
There's teaching that leads to learning.
The otherThe other
strategy that we have is really building out our student voice department.
So there were a lot of school visits, with
myself and SIDO, as we go around, we listen to
students. And I think there is a space where we could actually
leverage more of the student voice in how
school looks and feels through their lens.
And I also believe that that will help to make schools a welcoming place
for students, in addition to some of the other work that Chief
Hoggard will share. But overall, we are going to be looking to
partner with our electeds, our community-based
organizations. Because if we're going to create school environments where students
feel welcomed and belong, they feel like they belong, it's
something that Chicago Public Schools,
we cannot do alone.
You don't have anything else? Okay.
Hey. I can say some more.
Our chronic absenteeism rate really has been decreasing
year over year, so there's been a lot of news around
chronic absenteeism. We didn't include the data in this
slide, but we can share how we're reducing that.
We also know that the federal impact this fall really
did hit those schools' attendance rates.
However,
what we saw was a significant rebounding over this
year. Our dropout rate has decreased year over year,
and I think it's an important point to look at where do we
see increased attendance rates, and as Dr.
King said, our schools that have
high interest programming, especially when you look at eighth graders
and seniors, are the schools that we maintain the
highest attendance rate. And we've made really significant
progress in the transition from eighth to ninth grade, where
historically we lost a number of students, we
maintain much more students in that transition.
And student voice is really important to the middle grades strategy that
is part of our strategic plan,
increasing middle grade. We don't say middle school because most of our
schools are pre-K to eighth grade, but that's a
really important transition point as well.
So there's been great work across the city and with
schools, and now with partners. There's some big
non-city funding opportunities
that are coming up to support attendance across the district.
But Chair, we will make sure that that's a part of our regular updates moving
forward.
Yep.
Would love to get truancy data through the Chair, would also love to
understand what are the steps. I had a principal
reach out to my office last week about a student who hasn't been in school in over
a year.
Mm-hmm.
And I had no idea that that was even a possibility for a
student to not be in school in over a year.
And what are the steps that we take, whether that's with DCFS, whether
that's with other agencies, to either capture that student back
into school, work with the family?
I had no resources to offer him. So I would love that, and I
would love to share that with my colleagues.
I also think that it would be beneficial to map out where are you
seeing the highest truancy levels across the city.
Give us some of that demographic data so that we can look and see how we can
be beneficial in those parts as well.
But I just think truancy is a big part of a lot of the
conversation, especially when it comes to funding, right?
That is tied to some of the money that we need, that we got to go find.
My other
question was going to be around the amazing men and women who I
suppose took off of work today to stand in this beautiful crowd
around lunch room teachers, lunch room cafeteria workers.
If you are here on behalf of a cafeteria worker, can you just raise your hand
really fast? I appreciate you all and I want you all to know that that's about
half the room, okay? Can you speak to how
we are adequately funding our lunch room workers?
Because I feel like this has been an issue that was
brought to my attention, Chairwoman Taylor's
attention, that we've been trying to work through and make sure that we are
not keeping people in a state of poverty.
So, as a school principal, and I
value everyone that supports the learning
environment. And
just I talked about the student experience being a primary focus for
us, that includes our lunch room workers.
And I want to say that we value them and
everybody understands, and the lunch room workers know as well, the employees know
that students value lunchtime, for several reasons.
But we are continuing to work and negotiate with our
labor partners. I believe they're meeting this week.
I know that during the process, we
found an error in their pay, and we
did what was right, acknowledged it, and we want to move
forward from that point forward and continue to
negotiate
fairly and in an honest. So we are continuing to
negotiate with them.
Would love to continue to be abreast upon those negotiations
because again, these men and women took off work to be here today, and I
know that that is a cut out of a very needed paycheck, right?
And again, I think that just them
physically being here shows you how concerned they are.
Because again, they're not just serving our babies food, they are serving in
relationships and connections that they get outside of the classroom.
That isBigger than what goes in their
belly sometimes, right? And so as you can see, myself and Chairwoman
Taylor are adamant about making sure that they are brought up to
a higher quality of pay, to make sure that they are also
benefiting from everything that we have to offer as a school
system. So just wanted to acknowledge them.
Last but not least, Chairwoman, if I can, before I let my
colleagues ask more questions. Screen
time. Can somebody talk to me about the district's policy
around screen time in the classroom?
In regards to, is there a limit?
Yep. I want to know it all. What's the limit?
What's the protocol? How are we allowing
apps to get chosen? And I say this, you should know
because I'm new in the CPS space. My baby
will be graduating on Monday, going to first grade.
But she does not have a tablet or a screen at home, but
she does in the classroom. And when I started to ask
questions about, "What are you doing?" And brain breaks and pops and all of the
things, it was like, "Yeah, this is what we do." And it was like, "Okay,
cool. Well, for how long? And what are you learning?
And what are you doing?" And so I want to just bring that to the table
because I don't know if we have a district-wide policy when it comes to screens.
I don't know how we are allowing schools to make that choice
in the classroom, and I've never, as a parent,
been told or brought into the conversation around screen time in
the classroom. So just wanted to get some information on that.
Yes. Good afternoon. Thank you for that question.
Anise Lewis, Acting Chief of Teaching and Learning.
And I have been an active member of our AI steering committee this
year that we've worked on our technology guidance.
As you see, technology is ever evolving and has evolved
very significantly, especially with AI tools and resources.
And so we've actually published a new version of our
guidebook and technology expectations for all schools, and actually will
be training our school leaders on that guidance this summer as a part of their
school leader development. And so that information will be coming out so that
we can make that public and schools can make it public for their communities.
Got you. But right now, is there a certain limit?
Is there anything in place right now that I could go and look to and see how
long my baby's on a tablet or a screen in school?
That, I'd have to get you that information.
Okay. Would love that. I think all of us should know that,
especially if you have a baby in CPS.
I also just don't want screens to be used as a handicap.
Right? When I was in school, it was the TV coming in the room on a nice little
roller.
But now it's actually in their hands, and they can go pick it up at any given time.
Yeah.
And screens have evolved, right?
Absolutely.
And so how am I balancing screen time when you get home with the screen time
that you've already had in the classroom?
Yeah.
I don't really know how to do that right now because it hasn't been explained to
parents, and so I think that that's something that needs to be brought up for
conversation.
Absolutely. And there is an instructional balance, I just don't have the exact
amount of time-
Got you
... for you. Absolutely.
Can you send a step through the chair, and then what are you all doing as far as
technology? Google is moving across the street, and so y'all should be the first
people begging.
They hear you talking right now.
Absolutely, they should.
Thank you. Alderman Quinn.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, CPS, for a very thorough report.
We have a fully elected school board coming on board,
sworn in January.
What does detanglement look like from your
perspective?
So I have gone through the detanglement
report that was released a couple of years ago.
However, a start would be the TIF funding.
And so when we're looking at those structural changes that we could make
within the district, that is a starting point.
Those places, areas where
there was a relationship between the
city and the district, looking at ways that we
can detangle and find ways in which CPS
will
begin to implement these things on our own. Budgeting is one of them.
But it's a huge question, and because there are so many different
places, which I'm sure you're probably aware of, in which there are entanglements
across the district and the City of Chicago.
So I could give you a breakdown of what we have thus
far in areas that we've identified.
However, just going back, the budget is one of them, relying on TIF
funding and not a structural shift in our finances.
Yeah. And the
pension payment as well?
Yes.
I think it makes sense, and I recognize that this
a very big lift, but I think it makes sense to begin thinking
through what that looks like maybe through
a
three-year lens. And I believe we'd probably need Springfield's help as well.
I believe Senator Martwick has a current bill that
discusses detanglement of CPS from the City of
Chicago. But I think it makes really good sense to
start looking into it. There's no sense of having a
elected school board
that's going to be making decisions, and then every fall
CPS is right back in this building looking for more money.
On the topic of money, it's been widely reported
that many CPS employees owe debt to the City of
Chicago.
Can you help me understand how perhaps your office could be
collaborative with this body in recouping some of that
debt?
I know that there's a process. I don't know if we have anybody in from
budget that would be able to address it, but we can follow up through the chair.
I think it's very, very important that we have
a cohesive plan with our sister agencies on debt collection,
and the City of Chicago has a very robust plan, a very strict
plan. But if we're all grabbing from the same bucket of money,
it makes sense that if you owe money to the City of Chicago, you work for the City
of Chicago, you got to pay up.
CPS does have a plan, and I'll make sure that we provide that
process to you for debt collection.
It would be helpful perhaps, Dr. King, if
your budget folks could perhaps work with our chairwoman
and
the chair of the budget committee, and our device chair is right here, Nicole Lee,
on perhaps how much outstanding money
CPS employees owe to the City of Chicago in the form of debt.
The last item I have is more of a critique,
and it pertains to crossing guards. I believe CPS got it wrong.
I felt blindsided by crossing guards getting plucked out of the
neighborhood, absent of any collaboration with my office, and
specifically at 62nd and Austin. I interviewed Dan
Ryan, the crossing guard there.
He crosses 86 people in the afternoon, 66 of which are Hale
students.
You guys got it wrong. You need to fix it as soon as possible.
So I will be very interested in getting that report.
Austin is a major thoroughfare. There's railroad tracks at 60th
Street. There's speeding all the time.
In the future, I would hope that if something happens pertaining to crossing
guards or the safety of kids, my office would get a courtesy
call on the front end as opposed to several calls from parents on the
back end. It almost felt retaliatory
that crossing guards were getting taken out of neighborhoods.
So I just share that with you because that's what's
being said in the 13th Ward. So,
my hope is that this gets fixed as soon as possible. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you for that
critique, Alderman Quinn. It is our goal to be
more collaborative under my administration, which is why we have worked
diligently to try to host more elected meetings because we
do value what's happening across the city in the
different wards and neighborhoods because you are our
voices, our parents are our voices.
We do not know what's happening unless we are in contact with you.
So there will be an ongoing opportunity, and we will review what
you just shared with us.
For the record, I host a monthly meeting, Jamal's aware of this, for the last
15 years. There's a standing invitation for CPS to be there.
It's with the principals, with the parents.
So you're more than welcome. But getting blindsided by CPS,
not a good thing. So I hope that you'll do better in the future. Thank you, Dr.
King. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Alderwoman Lee.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and I echo the thanks to CPS and
everybody that's here who worked on the presentation.
The presentation is just one aspect of the everyday work that you all
do to manage this behemoth of an organization.
So really appreciate all of the work that's gone into it.
I'm going to bounce around a little bit because I saved my questions to the end, so
forgive me. Through the chair, can someone provide
the decline in enrollment year over year and then for the last five years?
And then looking at the budget and the
way that you've built it, I know the assumption is on getting $100 million
from TIF surplus and no MABEF payment.
In the past, I know what's been sort of
negotiated is you'll land on a TIF number, and then
anything above that goes back towards the MABEF
payment. Can we get some sort of commitment to that?
We have no idea what the TIF surplus is going to be.
I know that it's been touted that it was a record surplus like it was some great
thing. For the record, that 500 million didn't all go back to
students. 175 million of that came back to the city for the
pension payment.
And obviously, every penny that is going towards education is something that should
be well spent towards the education of our children.
But as we're both in some serious budget crises, I'm
looking for some direction. I know that this is a starting
place. This is not anything final at this point.
And I know that you've been working with the mayor's office.
Has there been any conversation at all about something above a
certain number that's needed from CPS?
We're talking about $275
million at this point as is, right?
100 million currently that you've budgeted in for TIF surplus.
And if we add back in 175 million,
that's what you would, I think, be minimally looking for from the city
if we're to get the 175 back. That's just how it's worked for every year that I've
been in office, which has not been a long time,
mind you. But I'm looking for some direction in that perspective
about what we should be looking for in terms of how we
provide
direction. And we're not the ones that decide on the actual TIF surplus at
the end of the day. The mayor's office really does that, and we're looking for more
engagement obviously on that because we lost a lot of development dollars
because of it. But if you can give me some sense of where you guys would net out
on something like that would be really helpful.
Yeah.
Again, Emmy Lizoko, acting chief budget officer. Thanks for the question.
I think this is one of the things that
when we talk in the presentation about how the release of school budgets is really
the initial phase of the budget development process.
And so these are exactly the types of details that we in collaboration with
you, with all of our stakeholders, would come to
discuss and agree upon.
Before the, obviously in time for the budget to get
presented to the board and then hopefully approved.
So I don't think that there is a specific number or a specific
direction that we could provide today.
We're still working through the budget process,
and have really just kicked it off and are really looking to refine these and all
of our assumptions
here in the coming weeks so that we can
get a solid balanced budget approved this summer.
I appreciate that, and I appreciate that your task is not small at all.
By the time you approve your budget, we wouldn't have even heard the presentation
from the mayor's office yet on what our budget's going to be.
So let's just stay in touch.
Yeah.
I know principals are going through their budgets now.
I know that there's going to be a time when you're going to have to go back and
wrestle some numbers back and forth.
I'm hoping that that variance is not too big
in either direction.
Obviously, bigger in the one direction would be great, but we know that's not
realistic.
But really how we're going to close this gap and help
together, obviously,
is in everybody's best interest.
I'll get off that topic now. Let's just stay in touch.
I'd really like to just better understand how we can plan for that, from a city
budget perspective as well,
really understanding where that number lands.
And we'll know that ahead of our budget, clearly.
Last question
for you.
Oh, on the
charters. So I know on one of these slides, I'm sorry, there were so
many of them, but it said something about CPS is obligated
to make sure that we close the deficit for the charter schools.
It was like $5.5 million.
I'm just wondering how,
if they
weren't failing, I guess is the simplest way I'm going to say this, if they didn't
need the rescue,
there's a
delta between what it's costing CPS above and beyond what it was planning
to spend just on a per-student basis.
Can you give me some sense of what that actually is, the net
number, net additional cost to CPS that these
schools are costing the district that it wasn't
planning on having to if these schools were better run?
So
again, Connor Atterberry, I'm sorry, acting chief portfolio officer.
The 5.5 million that was mentioned in the slides
was specific to the memorandum of understanding for just
Acero's five campuses to cover the
deficit that was caused by enrollment loss for
this current school year. So that's a little bit separate,
so I wanted to clarify that first.
Okay.
The other piece is that,
for those charter schools that are
closing, when those schools
wind
down, generally it's kind of cost
neutral. What has happened is that
the board has decided to transition
charter schools and a contract school, Chi Arts, to district
management,
which has incurred additional costs to abate
schools.
And as you know-
Because charters and contract schools
are managed differently than district-managed schools, you
cannot absorb a charter school. You have to effectively
close that school, that charter or contract school, and
then open
a new CPS school. And what CPS is doing is doing that
all at the same time.
Say that again. Yeah. Effectively opening five new schools.
Well,
no. Actually, there's five Acero campuses
and Chi Arts.
So six.
Six. Okay.
So you can't absorb, it's a misnomer, you can't absorb a
charter school. Technically, you cannot.
So you have to effectively close, which is a wind-down
process. So all of those schools that we mentioned, we're closing
them while simultaneously opening new CPS
schools at the same time.
Well, who wrote that?
The Illinois School Code-
Makes no sense whatsoever.
Yeah, because
a charter school, by definition, is its own separate entity, and
a contract school is a hybrid. And so when those schools,
generally, historically what has happened is when schools closed that were a
charter or contract school, the district just went and got the students and
then transitioned to district-managed schools.
Recently, has been a change where those schools are now being
transitioned to CPS schools. So what you're effectively happening
is you're closing schools while simultaneously
opening new CPS schools
amidst all of the other things that are happening as far as the budget crisis,
the enrollment crisis, et cetera.
You guys just wanted a few more plates to spin, clearly.
Thank you. That's all the questions that I have.
I appreciate-
Just playing our role.
Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, sure.
I again, want to just reiterate a couple of the things that my
colleagues have said. I'm hopeful that we come
to an agreeable
contract for our lunchroom workers.
I know that many of them may have taken a second day off of work to be here, and
again, apologize that we weren't able to pull together a quorum for all of you to
be heard the first time last month.
But glad that we were all able to do that today. It is really important.
My great aunt was a lunchroom worker in
San Francisco for her entire career, and she kept up with
students
who came and went. And those relationships are really important.
You don't forget the people who make
you the food and put the food in your belly. Well, I'm a foodie person.
You can ask anyone up here.
That is my love language. And I know that for all of you, that is what it is
as well. And together, collectively, everybody in this room, and
everybody throughout CPS, I know has the best interest of students at heart.
So,
I appreciate you guys keeping that in front.
And CEO King, I wish you all the best of
luck. You've got a lot of responsibility on your shoulders and
I know you've got a good team behind you.
So we'll look forward to continuing to work together with you, and we're all in
this together. So thank you all and I appreciate all the time. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you.
Alderwoman Gutierrez.
Thank you, Chairwoman. I also want to echo the support.
As you all know, I also was a CPS worker.
When I started working, I earned $34,000 a year.
So I come from humble beginnings as well.
And,
because of you all, working with you all, I was also a dean of students later on,
and I worked together with many lunch staff, because a lot of stuff,
we had to handle it throughout food, right?
Throughout those conversations in the lunchroom and during
recess in order for us to continue to help those kids.
So I really value all your hard work and sometimes even the
ones that only speak Spanish as well, you guys help them.
Because you also
help them feel at home when they are coming to you, and
sometimes they don't like food, and you convince them to at least eat a little
bit, right? Because they need those nutrients to continue learning.
So it's not only giving them food, but also that comfort
and that push for them to continue throughout the day.
So I want to thank you and reiterate that we'll continue fight and work
with you all, for you all to get a decent
and well-deserved pay.
Just wanted to also ask for those percentages I've
seen. As I said, working at Hernandez Middle School in talks with
the administration, they no longer have those thousand and something students they
used to have. So I know enrollment has been declining
along all our schools. So I'm interested in knowing throughout the years how many
students have transitioned out of CPS.
Either they're transferring to the suburbs or going to other states.
I would like to see throughout the years those percentages, and especially in the
14th Ward, if you can please get them through the Chair.
And also, I'm interested in knowing
if there's-- I know the Office of Safety and Security worked alongside
all our schools.
There's been a lot of accidents around our schools.
Unfortunately, a lot of reckless driving.
Is there any other opportunity? I've been working with our
principals to send letters to parents.
I've been working with the community also to point that out and how important
it's to not only slow down, but understand that we just need to take care
of our pedestrians and our kids and moms around the schools.
If you can share any other efforts, and now that school is winding down,
but any efforts that will be coming up for the next school year, and
how can we all in our offices be in support of those campaigns or that
information so that way we can continue to
address the importance of driving not only around schools and parks,
but everywhere safely.
Yeah, and thank you for bringing that up. So, Ronan Chlebuski, Safety and Security.
So we are having active conversations with CDOT
regarding any kind of information material that we can share with parents.
And then work with training with our principals.
So it is something that we are actively working on, and we definitely
would be open to working with you as well to do
that.
Yeah, we hosted some meetings. We've done some improvements around our schools.
But I want to continue to work with you all in engaging our community in
showcasing the importance of driving correctly.
As I said, not only around the schools, but everywhere, for our safety of everyone.
As also we were mentioning how we lost some of our cross guards
as well. So it's also important to continue to work towards that as
well.
Thank you. And thank you so much for answering those questions.
As you all know, in my ward, we used to have
six SERO schools.
So from the 13th they have. So I'm worried about
those schools. Hopefully, they continue to thrive, so we don't have to be closing
and reopening more schools.
But then if we continue to work together with that,
and as a mom and as a former CPS worker,
anything that you guys have that we can collaborate with you all as well as my
colleagues, please let us know. We're in this together. Thank you.
Alderman Chico.
Well, thank you, Chair, and thank you all for being here.
I have a couple comments and a quick question.
Number one, I echo the sentiment of Alderman Quinn in
regards to the crossing guards.
I think he is right. We need to be brought in.
Oftentimes we get calls, routine calls to the office,
in regards to crossing guards being removed
and kind of no plan in place to deal with that.
So I do agree with him on that front.
Number two,
I want to thank you. As you know, on the southeast side
in the 10th Ward, we have an opportunity around the Illinois
Quantum Microelectronics Park. And one of the things I've been championing
is Saturday Morning Quantum. And as Megan could attest to,
we've had two wonderful, great cohorts that have happened
of over 40, 50 students. And to see that opportunity
being provided through partnership with the city colleges and through
CPS is something that I look forward to continuing
and really providing our students with something
thatThe exposure that we're giving them
is really unbelievable, so thank you for that.
The question I have is something that we haven't touched on yet in regards to
transportation, and just looking for some follow-up.
I know there's always issues around transportation, but kind of where we sit
now with those issues and how we
look going into the next school year.
We'll have to follow up with you, Alderman, through the Chair. Is that okay?
That's fine.
Can we have it before August and when school start?
Because y'all know these people going to call us in June cussing us out about their
young people can't get to school in August.
Yes, we will make sure you have it before August.
Thank you.
Before we go to Alderwoman Coleman and Hall,
I got a question around...
What happens if you all don't get TIF surplus?
Are you referring to the $100 million that-
Mm-hmm
... we budgeted for?
Mm-hmm.
You take this one?
I just want you to say it, that's all.
We've done so many presentations on the budget they're starting to cross,
but we at one point had presented,
before we landed on the $732 million deficit,
we were running multiple scenarios and still kind of have those in our back
pocket. So at one point we had said that our deficit could be as great
as a billion dollars under a number of conditions.
It could be as low as the $520 that we published in the budget book last
year, it could be as high as the $100, as the billion dollars.
And so what we're facing with the $732 is
our mid-range scenario, under which,
I would have to go back and look at the exact percentage, but I think that
represents about a 13% reduction
in what we call addressable spend, or unrestricted
spend across the system. And so essentially all of that's to say
that
if we had to address
a $732.5 million deficit solely
on reductions,
it would be quite devastating to the system, and that's why, as I
referenced in the presentation earlier, we are looking at exploring
other revenue options.
We are combing through our budget lines, we are combing through our central and
citywide lines and mapping everything against
truly looking at it against a couple of different lenses.
So first, what is truly essential to the system and what
isn't?
Or what was held over from ESSER that is no longer continuing to work.
So we're looking at what is essential, what is
truly working, and what is truly aligned to our strategic plan and our goals.
We've also mapped every single line against
the proximity to students. And so my colleagues on the academic
side have really led us through a process through which
we are looking at
a prioritization exercise to understand which of our investments
is direct to students and which are further removed.
So not necessarily to say that the ones that are further removed
are any less important, but in a
resource-constrained environment, we need lenses in which to
prioritize. And so that's how we're approaching this.
So in addition to looking at things on the revenue side and digging into where we
can, for example, seek additional rebates on our healthcare insurance,
seek additional rebates through our vendor contracts.
So we're looking at what we can do internally in terms of bringing in
additional income in order to shrink the gap.
We are also looking at our investments on the expenditure side
and really working to prioritize and shield those that are closer
to
students.
What are you all spending on 42 West Madison?
You mean the overall budget?
Mm-hmm.
I would have to go back and look and follow up.
Start there. It's the same conversation I'm having with the city.
You all have how many network offices?
Y'all can go into vacant schools, repurpose them.
You all are paying to clean them up.
You all are paying to maintain them.
Y'all need to go in those buildings.
I'm having the same conversation with the City of Chicago.
CPS and the City of Chicago spend billions of dollars renting out other
people's spaces. Why when we got 21 vacant schools?
It's a waste of money and a waste of resources.
And so I don't want to see us cut at the
bottom. I want to see it come from the top.
How many network chiefs do you all have?
Yeah.
And what do they actually do?
See, this is where I'm at when it comes to CPS budget and the City of
Chicago. Everything needs to be on the table.
Everything and everybody.
Yeah. And we agree, to be frank, and have
really taken an approach this year
to take a zero-based approach to the budget and build it from
scratch, essentially, through those lens, looking at what is truly essential
and looking at what is closest to building, what is closest to students.
And that administrative footprint,
we're combing through that. It's about $270 million of the
overall $10 billion budget. And
so we're really looking to understand where we can make
efficiencies there.
So that is on the table and we're looking at that.
Everything is on the table, Alderwoman.
I hope so, because Dr. King, how long have you worked for CPS?
33 years.
Wow. Just as long as some of the lunchroom workers, and they make way less
than you.
And that was
shade, and it wasn't towards you. It's toward we got to figure out who
and what the priority is.
And a lot of times it's never been the people who actually service.
The people in our communities and in these schools.
And so I want you all to look, because I'm having the City of Chicago do
everything. I vote no on everything where we're talking about renting
buildings. We can't do that anymore when we got our own buildings.
And so you all need to take a real good look.
I got the most vacant schools in the city. It's six. Come on over to 20.
You all can fix those buildings up and clean them up.
And there needs to be a real conversation about what do you all do with the things
that we pay for. Because when you go into those vacant schools, it's just like
you all took the electronics and the bulletin boards and left the desks
and everything else. That's a waste of taxpayers' money.
We could've sold it.
We got Swap-A-Rama.
I'm going to tell you what I told them in DC, I need you all to check the change
out the couch, because that's what we are in this.
And I want to say to the lunch workers, thank you.
Thank you for feeding our young people, not just during school time, during COVID.
We know that our young people didn't eat if it wasn't for you all, and so I
thank you. But I also want you to think about what if these people walk out?
What if they decide to strike? And rightfully so.
I do appreciate and respect you so much, because you did say, "We made a mistake."
And too often we don't say there was a glitch or there was a mistake, so I
appreciate that. But I want you all to get this contract ratified before
young people start school.
Thank you. Alderwoman Coleman.
Thank you, Chairwoman Taylor. I think if
none of your six locations work, certainly there is a huge school on
79th and Green, I'm sorry, 69th and Green, that would be a
wonderful headquarters for the district.
It's so good to see some of Englewood's, our former
network chief Lewis, Megan, and Principal Assad,
all from Englewood, seeing you all advocate and being a part
of Dr. King's leadership team. But I'm going to
kind of go back just a little and ask
about
the Youth Connection charter schools.
Now, they are
one of the oldest in this network, and it's my understanding
that they are not being recognized under the Incubation and
Innovation department, but they're forced under the Options
department. And I believe this
changed COVID maybe, or right
before COVID.
And what are we doing to rectify and make sure that those
YCCS campuses that are South Side, North
Side, West Side, that they are receiving
the resources or just the attention from the district?
Conrad Tempa, sir, acting chief portfolio officer again for the record.
YCCS campuses are part of the network
that is not-- So the Office of Innovation and Incubation is not a
network, so the YCCS campuses are part of our
Options Network. So just like all of our other schools that are part of
networks, they have the same network supports that
every other school in the district has.
So if there's a specific ask, we can definitely take that back and
get that information to the network chief to ensure
that the ask is
taken care of.
They must-
Oh, absolutely.
And Principal, I'm sorry, Chief Assad, I met
you when you were principal of an option school at Ombudsman
South. And so if anyone can advocate and
understand the importance of this other
option, especially for the
day-long campuses that YCCS
offers, I will hope that you will be our biggest
champion. Especially I've witnessed firsthand what in
Alderwoman Taylor's ward, I've witnessed YCCS over on
Keene Drive,
the impact that those students, the school makes.
So I would like to further that and arrange for, with your
team, Dr. King, and with you, Chief
Assad, on what that looks like sooner rather than later.
I would hope that they would be a part of the Incubation and Innovation and not the
Options Network.
Thank you so much for those comments and the idea of
meeting. We will definitely invite you over to
discuss the option schools and YCCS.
And I also want to say to Jamil, you make
us so proud being a product of Urban Prep,
and seeing you in Springfield, and you are the epitome of a
product of Chicago Public Schools and being a native of the South Side.
That's all. Thank you, Chairwoman.
You're welcome.
Jamil, you're probably the reason why we
burned down 42 West Madison, so thank you.
I'm sure that there is
something to be said about coming from CPS and actually working at
CPS.
Dr. King, before we got to Alderman Hall, I wanted to have a
conversation because we have not addressed Black Student Success, and
I'm real irritated that you got to go to DC and talk
about diversity and inclusion and what you do with
students other than them writing you a check to say, "Hey, this
is how you're going to balance your budget." And so I don't know if you're going to
allow
Eugene to have a conversation with us because we had not finished what
was going on with Black Student Success, and I don't want to be in a
fight with Chicago Public Schools about something that people invested
their time and energy in and working on to actually make sure
that Black students get what they deserve and what they need.
Is Alderman Hall going to ask a question first or-
Oh. Well, yeah. How did you want to do it, Chairwoman?
I yield to you first. Yeah
Go ahead, Alderman Hall
Oh, got you. Well, again, I want to
echo what was just recently said from Chairwoman Coleman
about the great work that is already in motion in the 6th
Ward, a lot of it, which has been done due to Jamil's just
excellent presence and leadership.
So we have a great, great, great, great,
great future largely in part because of his hard work and
dedication in showing up. So want to definitely say thank you.
And secondly, as a recipient of many a meals from
a lunch lady who just looked out when I needed to
be looked out for, definitely stand with and looking
forward to the resolve that preserves the dignity of both the worker
and the children that need the workers.
And I just simply want to say,
President King, you're doing a
great job weathering some challenges that you didn't ask for, but
you have
really just taken them on
head-on, and a lot of which have been mentioned prior to.
So I don't want to waste any more time around budgetary issues, and it's enough
going to the Chair. That encompasses a lot of the questions I had.
I wanted to, similar to Alderwoman Clay,
share a bit, and I believe that her questions
have already lended to the answers that I'm needing as well.
And the school is Jane Addam, and a historic school in its own
right.
And it is a school where a lot of the children that go to
the school are literally facing physical disabilities.
And we have what I consider two classrooms
combined that's labeled as a gymnasium,
but it's a very, very small contraction.
And the concern is, it has been mentioned multiple times by the
principal, is just the mobility of wheelchairs
and accessibility for a full
assembly of any kind is virtually impossible.
And there's been concerns a lot around safety,
if there were an emergency or just getting kids in and out with
wheelchairs to participate in those gatherings.
And so just wanted to know what would be also
the guideline for Addam to
be on that list of schools to give accessible
gymnasiums.
It's a concern of great magnitude because it
impedes upon their learning experience, coupled with the fact that there's no air
conditioning in it as well. So on days like today it's
pretty uncomfortable for children that are already dealing with physical
discomfort. So just would love to get some information on what
would be the
best method to
better their educational experience using a gymnasium as
well, with accommodations for the kids with disabilities.
So in addition to, again, the work that's already been done and all
that's been said,
I just want to, again, let you know that you're always welcome to the 6th Ward, and
whatever we can do and whatever I can do to further your vision, I
definitely would love to be of support. Thank you so much, Madam Chair.
Thank you.
Eugene Robinson Jr., Director of Black Student Success for Chicago Public Schools.
Thank you. Can you talk about where we are?
We know that the country has lost its absolute mind
in asking us to roll back things that support students of
diversity, especially Black students.
And I know that over the last year and a half, we've done some
work to sit with community members, principals, teachers,
to say what success looks like for Black students who
we know are still lagging behind because they don't have that
support.
Yeah.
And so can you talk about where we are and kind of what's going on?
Yeah, so two points of clarity. So I just want to sort of
clarify things. There is the state statute that
created, as you know,
the newly elected school board requires that board to
establish what's called a Black Student Achievement Committee.
So that is the board that is separate from Chicago Public Schools.
And that committee will serve
as the sort of accountability and governance to ensure
that we meet the outcomes outlined in that state statute.
So I can have the board office get you an update on where that committee
is for the record.
The second piece is in alignment with that state statute, in
alignment with our five-year strategic plan, and off of
community voice, grounded in data.
As you know, the district launched the Black Student Success
plan in February of 2025. And so
we've stayed committed to that because of that state statute.
It's in our strategic plan. It is one of five priorities within the
strategic plan. And then also it's grounded in our equity
framework. We were one of the firstUm, so the large school district to
sort of develop and launch an equity framework, particularly around targeted
universalism. And so just stating that this work and targeted
universalism is not about changing the goal, it's not about removing
the North Star. What Dr. King outlined and what Dr.
Assaf has outlined, those are true for Black students
as well, that daily experience. It is the system
recognizing, and based upon data and based upon research, the
development of this plan to ensure that Black students can gain that access,
have those opportunities, get to that North Star that you've heard
through today. And so we launched that plan in February 2025.
And since then, there has been internal work happening
amongst offices related to the goals that are
outlined in that plan. So from Office of Network
Success-- I mean, ONS, our Office of Network
Supports, to teaching and learning, to talent, those different
offices that are outlined in the
plan that have goals directly related to that.
And so we've continued to do that internal work using data,
and then this past year, we focused on
hosting community roundtables. So we have internal work that we do and
external work that is happening. And so this past March, and
including in April, we went back out to the community to host
roundtables to let the community know, "Hey, this is what we've been up to."
Right? And also to continue to receive feedback.
But outlined in the plan it is we're staying true to being
transparent about what is the internal work that the district is doing, and
then how do we
build that muscle of external partnerships and working.
And so we've stayed true to that work related to
engaging community, so we have a quarterly community meeting
that anyone can be a part of that is outside of the Black Student Achievement
Committee. So it's quarterly meeting with different parents, community
reps. It's higher ed folks who are joining.
So virtually we meet and I share updates, get feedback, and we
socialize all of that information related to that.
We continue to actively seek funding
through the philanthropic community.
So baked into, and I think you've heard here today, around the
ecosystem, right? Everybody in this room is a part of the ecosystem to
make this work. And so in the plan, there is an ecosystem to activate.
And so we've actually had higher ed institutions, philanthropic community, that
have raised their hand, that have reached out to me directly to say, "We want
to be a part." Community-based organizations have reached out, where we have
done--
Faith-based leaders have reached out where we've done push-ins, where I go out
to different communities, different groups, to talk about Black student success and
where people can step in to do this work to activate that
ecosystem.
Do you feel like because of the federal government, you all aren't
able to move forward in a way financially?
I will say that the commitment, the district still
has a commitment, the board still has a commitment.
And like you've heard here before, in our equity framework, we talk about
resource equity: people, time, and money.
So we're actively activating
those that-- What are the internal resources that we have?
Who are the people that we need to have conversations with?
And then what are the current state of our resources to be able
to sort of support this work? And I will share that we
still do have an active sort of inquiry investigation by
the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.
And so-
That's good
... we will respond, our legal counsel will respond accordingly.
But our commitment has been focused, because the state statute that
guides this work, that committee from the board, it's in our strategic
plan, and the data. The data is guiding us and telling us that
we no longer want pockets of success.
We want Black students to experience the success that we've talked about across the
entire system.
Thank you for that, Eugene.
Gentleman that's standing right here.
Through the chair, can you give us the number of federal incidents that you've all
had, and incidents around streets and
with CDOT? Because there's a lot of conversation
that I get from schools about the monitoring that we have.
So now we have, they're not speed cameras, they're just the sign that
says, "Slow down." Have you all seen that any
of the schools have-- Has the traffic changed, I guess is the
question.
So I would have to connect with CDOT regarding-
Okay
... that particular information, and I can follow up on the data around immigration
enforcement calls.
Okay. And number of school shootings and young people killed
in CPS. I know that's-
Mm-hmm
... a touchy subject, but we want to know that data.
Yeah, I can provide that.
Yes.
And so...
So,
today has been a long day. I do want to apologize for us being late.
That is on city council members, not on you all.
And actually, a double apology, because we had to cancel last
meeting because we didn't have quorum.
We got to rethink how we schedule meetings, because there's also another meeting
that's happened
in City Council Chambers.
I have no children in CPS, and that's something I thank God
for.
And it's because the conditions in CPS, to me,
haven't gotten any better, because we haven't figured out how to make
sure that every student has access to what we know is a good
school. And that's not over 30 young people in a
classroom. That's young people able to have gym.
That's young people having access to electronics, knowing that
we're in the 21st century, and we have a city where robots
deliver your foodAnd so I want our CPS and our city
council to look the same way. And we do that about being honest about where
we spend our money and where our money actually comes from.
It's very disappointing that the federal government, because
we're a blue state, would ignore the needs of young people.
Your job is like the
police department. You are supposed to serve and protect.
Doesn't matter what you look like, doesn't matter where you come from.
And so partially being ashamed of the country I live in, if I'm being honest.
I also want us to take a real good
look at what's going on when it comes to us contracting out services.
Because we're in this space because you all did that. That's on y'all.
If Aramark would have never took over lunchroom workers and
custodians, we wouldn't be in a place where we're trying to figure out why
people didn't get paid and why they've been there 30, 40, 10,
20 years, and they make less than
$40,000. That ain't humanity.
That says a lot. I remember the first time that I ever had pizza.
My parents from Arkansas and Mississippi, and so pizza was not on
the list of things we eat. First time I had it was in CPS, and
it was the most amazing thing that I ever tasted in my
life. And it wasn't just about the food that they serviced me, it was the
woman that was giving it to me. And based on how
I look, I have five children, and two of them a
little extra thick. And so those lunchroom workers made sure my babies
went hungry. They had snack time.
They were made to eat their vegetables.
And what we serving them, we know we spending way too much more of our money.
Let's get back to, and that's the one time I'ma agree with
Tawanda. He ain't in here. We need to go back to our gardens and to our
farmers so that these people can actually cook and nurture our
kids.
These some of the heaviest kids I've ever seen in my life, and part of it is
because of the food we eat.
And so let's stop giving them that frozen food that they going to warm up in the
oven. That's not food. That ain't nourishment.
It's why the people come out of prison fat. It's the same reason.
It's commissary. It's just a different way we pay for it.
I said it, yep.
And we got this problem with how we spend our money.
We're not conscious of taxpayer dollars. We're just not.
Because I could imagine, how long y'all been in 42 West Madison?
Over 10 years. Probably over 20 years.
How rich have y'all made the person who actually owns the building?
And y'all a bunch of teachers and educators? Hmm.
I find it funny, and I'm not laughing.
I want us to take a real good look at how we treat the people that are in our
building. Because my mother always told me that just as
important as the principal is, it's just as important as the custodian and the
lunch worker. Because at the end of the day, those are another set of people that I
depend on, that I pray on, that I'm grateful, that'll help me raise
my children.
And so I want us to look at it such. I want us to look at it so.
I want us to think about even when it comes to security guards and
safe passage. What happened to young people being security guards?
Remember we used to do that? Remember you used to have that little vest on that you
gave, and we helped young people cross the street when we didn't have
our crossing guards?
We don't have to reinvent the wheel to make great schools.
We know what we're doing. We just got to do it.
And some of y'all got to put your big girl and big man panties and drawers
on and speak up when you know we're being wasteful.
That's the issue I've always had with Chicago Public
Schools. You got people in spaces who are telling you, "This ain't right.
Don't do this," and we do it anyway.
And we're sitting here now trying to figure out how to get a dollar out of
15 cents. Y'all remember that?
I learned that in school. Absolutely. You can't.
It's almost impossible. And so we're getting to a space,
and this wasn't talked about a lot, but we got young people who graduated out of
high school who can't read, who can't divide, and who can't multiply.
They can test great. They're great tests.
Even though that's also an issue when it comes to adult.
And so what does that conversation look like?
What do we look like? I got young people who are seniors in
high school who can't read me a book.
And education don't just start at CPS, it starts at home.
And so there has to be a real conversation about how we continue to
be community.
And Dr. King had to leave because she has another appointment.
But I'm going to say to that Black woman, listen to her.
That's why y'all country how it is now, because y'all didn't listen to the Black
woman. And look where we are.
And so appreciate
what you got into her. Because not only was she a teacher, she a
principal. How often do we get CEOs or BOs or whatever y'all name
it, because y'all change the name every five to 10 years.
And half of them should've went to jail, but didn't, had all those
problems.
Looked over all that money. Some of you have been sitting at CPS for 30,
40 years. Y'all know what it looks like for it to be a great school.
And we going to have to have a real conversation about closing schools.
The moratorium ends in 2027.
I hope y'all don't make the same mistake that y'all made in 2015, because there's a
number, I asked him for that number for a reason.
If y'all knew the
amount of young people who got killed from the 2015 school
closing that didn't ever go to the schools, y'all would look at y'allselves
different, because y'all made that decision, not us.
And we got to talk about how we close schools, because it's going to happen.
We don't want to be honest about it, but it's going to happen.
And so are we putting schools inside of schools?
Are we going to have three different schools in a building?
And that little experiment y'all didIt happened at what? What was it?
DeLaSalle? No, DuSable. It actually worked.
The things that actually work, y'all kill.
Ham Bowen, that's right. And so a school inside a school inside a school.
We got to go back to Springfield and change some of the laws, because the law also
says that a closed school can't
open up to another school. And so there's some real conversations before you
all go back to Springfield that we got to have about legislation.
Last thing I'll say is,
at the end of the day,
what these young people do on these streets and around the city is on us.
And so look at yourself. This generation, amen, lost, has been neglected.
I own it. Do y'all?
Because we kicked them out of schools. They was touched in schools.
They was abused at the after-school program because nobody paid attention.
They were touched in church. Oh, I ain't leaving nobody out.
Nobody gets a pass. And then the people we actually look
to serve and protect didn't serve and protect our young people.
They locked them up.
And so those are all things that we're all guilty of.
Look at the man in the mirror.
I do it every day. I spent 23 years on a local school council,
and every day I would get up and say, "This is an opportunity for us to do
something different."
That's what I want y'all to do every day.
I know for a lot of y'all, this ain't a paycheck because it ain't enough money to
pay y'all for what y'all do, especially those people that make under
40,000.
They do it because they love these young people.
They do it because they love students.
And I've been saying this. Are these the kids that Whitney Houston was
talking about?
She said, "I believe the children are our future.
Teach them well and let them lead the way.
Show them all the beauty they possess inside."
But it also said for us to lead. Where are we leading young
people?
Can I get a motion? I'm going to have to use somebody online to adjourn this
meeting.
I second that motion, Chairwoman.
There's nobody in favor because there's nobody here. Thank you all for coming.
Have an amazing day. Meeting adjourned.