Six days left to count: Chicago's four undecided school board races, and what the winners inherit on Jan. 15

Four races for Chicago's first fully elected school board remain uncalled eight days after the election: districts 3b, 5b, 6a and 7a. We found no outlet calling any of them as of Wednesday morning, and we are not calling them.

Why it matters: the 21 members take office Jan. 15, 2027, under state law, and immediately face a budget that could be short if state money doesn't come through. The four seats decide how many members were endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, Chalkbeat reported.

This follows Tuesday's story.

The newest figure we found

• 6a (Downtown and Near North Side): Isaiah White led incumbent Anusha Thotakura 10,541 to 10,354, a 187-vote margin, as of Friday, Nov. 6, the Chicago Defender reported. That compares with a margin of fewer than 240 on Thursday evening, Nov. 5, per the Sun-Times and WBEZ. All results are unofficial.

For the other three, the most recent published figures we found are still from Nov. 5, in Tuesday's story: Jason Dónes led incumbent Carlos Rivas Jr. by about 180 votes in 3b; incumbent Michilla "Kyla" Blaise led Anthony Hargrove by 1,302 votes in 5b with one precinct out; and Emma Lozano led Jesus Ayala Jr. in 7a, without a confirmed current margin.

We tried the Board of Elections' results page again at 9:36 a.m. Wednesday. It returned an access error, as it has to us since Nov. 2.

Key dates

• Nov. 17: the last day for the Board to count mail and provisional ballots. Mail ballots count if postmarked by Election Day.
• Nov. 24: official results.
• Jan. 15, 2027: the board president and all 20 district members begin their terms.

What they inherit

Chalkbeat's look ahead, based on leads as of Nov. 5:

• The budget: CPS faces a shortfall if state money the current board assumed doesn't come through in the legislature's fall veto session. A majority of the presumed winners oppose automatically raising property taxes to the legal limit.
• If current leads hold, CTU-endorsed candidates would hold nine seats, and candidates backed by school-choice groups would hold 11 of the 21, including the presidency won by Jessica Biggs (our story).
• Under-enrolled schools: only six presumed members have said they support closing schools.
• AI: a majority of presumed winners pledged to ban AI-based tools for students and employees.

What our records add

The City is part of the CPS budget picture too. The Mayor's 2027 plan counts on declaring about $520 million in TIF money surplus, and CPS is counting on $285 million from the City next year, as we reported. The Council, now split over the City's own budget (our story), decides that by Dec. 31, two weeks before the new board is seated.

Turnout ran about 45% citywide. More than 568,000 votes were cast in the board president's race and slightly fewer than 540,000 in district races as of Nov. 5, Chalkbeat reported, against more than 800,000 votes in the 2024 board races.

We'll update this story when the Board's figures are reachable and when races are decided.