I believe we are. Good afternoon. Welcome to the 01/20/2026 special board meeting. Before we start the meeting, I would like to share a few safety points and next meeting announcements. Please note that the primary exit and entrance to the boardroom is the door which you used to enter this afternoon. If you are leaving the room, please use this door. The restrooms are outside the boardroom doors to your left. During the meeting, we ask that you keep all aisles and exits clear. If you need any assistance during the meeting, please wave the attention of one of
our security officers. Mark your calendars for the upcoming meeting. The next board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, 01/29/2026 at 10:30AM. The board meeting will be held at 42 West Madison Street, Garden Level Boardroom. For details on how to register to speak or observe at the meetings and to learn about the speaker lottery process, please visit the Chicago Board of Education website, cpsboe.org. If you have any questions about registration or public participation, please contact the board office for assistance.
Thank you for joining us today. President Hardin, we are now ready for you to begin the meeting. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Chicago Board of Education special meeting. Today is 01/20/2026. Wow. I'm president Sean b Hart, and on behalf of my fellow board members, thank you for joining us today. We're holding today's special meeting in the boardroom at the CPS Loop office, 42 West Madison Street Garden Level. I'd like to note that board members and senior leadership are physically present in the boardroom. The registered speakers may join us personally, person, or virtually if they'd opted to do
so and registered observers are joining us in person. Special board meeting of Tuesday, 01/20/2026 is hereby called to order. Board secretary, please call the roll. Member Lozano? Present. Member Lopez? Present. Member Velez? Present. Member Boyle? Here. Member Wallace? Present. Member Custer? Present. Member Pope? Here. Member Rosenfeld? Present. Member Rivas? Present. Member Rios Sierra? Present. Member Bannon? Present. Vice president Bautista, who is joining us virtually via Zoom? Present. Member Biggs?
Present. Member Thodakura? Present. Member Blaze, who's joining us virtually via Zoom? Present. Member Zachor? Present. Member Deberry? Present. President Harden? Present. 18 members present, we do have a quorum. Alright. First, I wanna take a moment to thank all of the parents, staff, community members, and students who have stepped up to run-in this year's LSC election. LSCs are critical components of school governance, ensuring that a wide range of voices are represented when it comes to school budgets, principal selection, and other important decisions.
And in order to ensure every school has a robust LSC, we are extending the candidate application deadline by one week, January 27. So please visit cps.edu/lsc for details. The order of the meeting will be as follows. First, we'll have public participation. We'll go into closed session, reconvene from closed session, and then adjourn. We'll proceed with today's public participation session. Thank you for joining to share your comments with the board. And in compliance with the Illinois Open Meetings Act, poll participation, sometimes referred to as
public comment, is the portion of the board meeting or hearing that grants district stakeholders the opportunity to address the board with their concerns and comments. Note that poll participation is the time for board and CPS senior leadership to listen and hear from you rather than a time for dialogue with board members during or after your remarks. And while we can't discuss personnel matters, poll participation is a key component of transparent governance, and it provides us as board members as well as senior leadership an opportunity
to listen to everyone who has signed to speak. The board takes equity of voice seriously. And while we may not address your concerns directly during public participation, CPS leadership is always present at our meetings and are able to address concerns as follow ups after the meeting. As a district and as a board, we also have many other spaces for authentic dialogue. For example, each and every one of our board members host board office hours so that we can have a conversation. Please use our website, cpsboe.org, if you wanna meet with the board member during office hours.
We encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to meet with board members outside of a board meeting. Thank you for your attention and consideration. And finally, as a reminder, any representatives will be allotted five minutes to speak before public participation, and any elected officials will be allotted five minutes to speak after the conclusion of public participation. Board secretary, please share the rules of public participation. Thank you, president Harden. I do wanna acknowledge, that Elizabeth Barton, acting general counsel, is also present at the meeting.
Members of the public may submit written comments for Board of Education meetings via the written comments form on the board's website at cpsboe.org or mailed to 42 West Madison Street Garden Level. Written comments received between the day the public agenda was posted through 5PM the day after the board of education meetings will be submitted to the board and published within five business days on our website at cpsboe.org. For speakers joining us virtually, as a reminder to unmute, please enter Star 6. When the when there are thirty seconds remaining, I will inform you so that you
can proceed to conclude your remarks to allow for the next speaker to begin. For anyone standing with the speaker, note that in order to comply with the City's fire code, please stand along the glass partitions on the marked spots to keep aisles clear. Thank you. President Harden, we no members of the public register to address the board. However, we do have union reps who would like to address the board. We'll begin with Jackson Potter, CTU vice president, who is here in person. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. You know, I wanted to start by saying it's a crazy world when you have
politicians who are cheering for the Packers, trying to be representatives for Chicago while also advocating for closing schools. And I think that it's that upside down world that we have to contend with in the CEO search as well. You know, I spent part of my day yesterday, probably like many of you, feeling a little down. The Bears came so close, but also feeling proud of a team that had good leadership, good structure, good opportunities for players to grow and flourish.
And in no small way, that's your role here is to put together a winning team. And as we were celebrating Kings King Day, we have to remember the man, not the myth, you know, talked about the giant triplets of racism, materialism, militarism that we are contending with constantly every moment of every day as Trump is addressing billionaires in Davos while cutting the social safety net and threatening public education as we know it. Minnesota shows us the way.
Massachusetts saw no gap in funding from the COVID era to the present because they tax millionaires. So there's a will and a way. The problem is that our past could really set the tone for the future if we're not careful. And we've relied on privatizers, CEOs, and superintendents that have adhered to a politic that misrepresented the public and certainly didn't care enough about the children and families that were
put in harm's way when so many schools were closed, so many children's lives were disrupted, Violence saw an uptick. You know, you have these buildings that are still eyesores in communities that haven't been invested in in generations ever since the era of deindustrialization. And so you really have an opportunity here to set the record straight and true. That arc leading towards justice, it means you can't rely on the same old search and destroy firms that identify CEOs that come out of the Broad Foundation who are
trained in this management philosophy of shutting down schools, cutting budgets, relying on predatory loans. You need somebody who actually knows what moves the hearts and minds and transformation every day in schools, somebody who's been an educator, somebody who actually knows what goes on every day, someone who understands the human element and dimension of what it takes to have a pedagogy of liberation that doesn't, you know, buttress what's happening now at the federal level that says children don't belong or their history doesn't matter.
So if any candidates don't reflect those values, they're unqualified as far as I'm concerned. I hope you share that. It if they have superintendent attached to their name, it doesn't mean a damn thing. If they're not gonna stand up for their kids and their families in a moment like this with moral certitude, with backbone, with clarity of purpose. So I hope that that clarity of purpose is centered in your search. It's okay if the candidates didn't show up in that first round. It means you're being discerning.
It means that it actually matters who it is and what they bring to the table. And are they ready for this moment? Because it's one like no other. So it's an awesome responsibility. I hope it's one you all, you know, will embrace fully, and definitely know that we're on a new path. It's something that's different than what we faced before. You have ICE agents entering buildings in Minneapolis. Bovino has promised they're gonna replicate that 3,000, 4,000 agent force in Chicago in April. It's probably March.
So we better be ready for somebody who's not gonna allow them to go along to get along, but is gonna stand strong, maintain our practices and policies, and strengthen them. Thank you for your time today. Thank you for your comments. The next union rep is Caroline Rutherford, CTU Charter Division vice chair, who is joining us virtually. Please enter star six to unmute. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. Please proceed. Good afternoon. Thank you to the board members for all the work you do. I've noticed a change in the board meetings these last couple of months. Board members and CPS officials have not been addressing public comments after speakers have given
their remarks, and I'm hopeful that some of our continued questions and concerns will be addressed today. Parents, students, and staff at Shirets spoke at the agenda review committee meeting last week and requested that CPS provide us with updates on the conservatory funding progress. At the November 4 special board meeting, the board passed the following language. The district will endeavor to revisit the conservatory funding by the January following the completion of the public engagement efforts and the consideration of available financial options. We have some questions. Number one, will the district in I and I put forth a plan for the
board to consider in regards to the Shai Arts Conservatory funding at this month's board meeting? If it's not this month, can you tell us when? Number two, what is the update from CPS on the engagement efforts with the public for available financial options for maintaining the conservatory program at Shay Arts? And finally, a parent advocacy group from Shay Arts provided this board and CPS with a detailed proposal for the financial structure of the conservatory program. Has this proposal been considered? Have you as you heard last week, the planning, programming, and scheduling of the 2627
school year for Shai Arts is underway. But without answers to our remaining questions, this process is stalled. These items need to be addressed urgently in order to avoid any delay and a strong start to next school year for the students at Chey Arts. Any answers you can provide today will be helpful. Espira is also hosting a town hall today at 05:30 with the Aspira school community to address the potential merger of their two traditional high schools, Aspira business and finance and Aspira Early College for next school year. But this conversation is about next school year, and we still have to figure out
what's happening with Aspira schools this year. Initially, Aspira management communicated their finances were good until January based on CPS advancing quarter three funds. And now Aspira has stated that their finances are good until April, And and we're confused about whether that means CPS is going to advance all funds for the year or whether CPS is providing Espira with more funds in addition to advancing quarter four funds. What happens beginning in April? Can you share with us what steps have been taken to stabilize these schools?
This information will be crucial for the community to have today as they attend this town hall. Parents, students, and staff deserve transparency in order to have a productive meeting with management. We appreciate all of your diligent work in selecting the right CEO for our school district and our city, and we urge you to consider candidates who are mindful of the current charter landscape. The charter industry is facing instability, and more operators will likely come to CPS demanding additional funding. Candidates for CPS CEO must be willing to increase the financial oversight of these charter
companies in order to predict and prevent future charter school instability. We thank you for your continued commitment to protect students and staff at all of our schools. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comments. The next union rep is Tremaine Reeves, SEIU local seventy three director of CPS division, who is joining us. I'm sorry. He's in person. Thank you. Good afternoon, president Harden, board members, and doctor King. I'm here to speak on the former private custodians. So they transitioned and became full board custodians back in 09/30/2025, so a few months
ago. And since then, SEIU Local seventy three and CPS Facilities Management has been able to kinda work through various, cleanliness concerns throughout the district, such as workload and staffing issues, which was caused due to the, custodial deficit. But one pressing issue is the step two adjustment. Many of them have received it. However, there's, quite a few that still have not received it. And the step two adjustment, just for context, it places them where at the hourly
rate of pay that they had before they transition from private to board custodian. So it's about $2 an hour difference. For them, that could be a lot. It could result to close to $200 per pay period or $400 per month to basically clean the same schools that they've been cleaning for four or more years, if not decades. Many of these workers still have their proof of cleaning CPS schools, which we've shared. And so, you know, anything dealing with financial personally, I try to treat it as
if it was my own money, and I don't wanna miss out on any money, especially if it's the same work that I've been doing for years. So we ask for support and urgency in resolving this issue. We want these workers to be made whole and to be able to comfortably provide for their families, since they get up on cold days like this and every other day to ensure that our students and staff have clean learning environments. Thank you all. Thank you for your comments. President Harden, this concludes public participation. Thank you. We'll now move into executive session.
Board member Pope, do you have a motion m o one? Session. I move for the passage of motion number twenty six zero one two zero dash m o one and the commencement of a closed session to consider matters permitted under section two c of the Open Meetings Act subsection one as specified in the motion. Is there a second? Thank you. You're faster than I am. I'll proceed with a roll call. Member Lozano? Yes. Member Lopez? Aye. Member Velez? Yes. Member Boyle? Yes. Member Wallace?
Aye. Member Custer? Aye. Member Pope? Yes. Member Rosenfeld? Yes. Member Rivas? Yes. Member Rio Sierra? Aye. Member Bannon? Aye. Vice president Bautista? Yes. Member Biggs? Yes. Member Thodakurra? Yes. Member Blaze? Aye. Member Zachar? Yes. Member De Berry? Yes. 17 ayes, zero nays. This motion is adopted by the board. Oh, no. The meeting will go to co session. Present. Sorry. Present. Okay. Special board meeting of the Board of Education is reconvened. Board secretary, please proceed.
President Hart, and I would like to note for the record that there are no items to vote on from the executive session. Thank you. Is there a motion to adjourn? Motion to adjourn. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. So I'll adjourn. Thank you, everyone. Okay.