Vice President VeZ, before you begin today's meeting, I would like to read a few announcements. Good morning. Welcome to the June 25th, 2026 board meeting. Before we start the meeting, I would like to share a few safety points and announcements for the meeting. We are pleased to offer
real-time translation services for this meeting via translative live. Registered speakers and attendees can listen to the meeting in multiple languages. If you are attending in person, please visit the translation table for a headset. If you're joining virtually, simply scan
the QR code displayed in the corner on the live YouTube stream to access your preferred language. This tool significantly increases the number of available languages 200 plus for translation. Please note that the primary exit and entrance to the boardroom is a door
which you use to enter this morning. 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 meetings. The next ARC meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 8th, 2026 at 10:30 a.m. The next board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, July 30th, 2026 at 10:30 a.m. The ARC and
board meetings 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 at cpsb.org. If you have any questions about
registration or public participation, please contact the board office for assistance. Thank you for joining us today. Vice President VeZ, we are now ready for you to begin the meeting. >> Good morning everyone. I think we can do a little better than
that. Good morning everybody. >> Uh welcome to the Chicago Board of Education meeting. Today is June 25th, 2026. We're holding today's board meeting in the boardroom at the CPS loop office, 42 West Madison Street, Garden
Level. I would like to note that the board members and senior leadership are physically present in the boardroom. Registered speakers may join us in person or virtually if they opted to do so. I am vice president Dr. Angel. On
behalf of my fellow board members, thank you for joining us today. The regular meeting of today of meeting of Thursday, June 25th, 2026. I hereby call to order. Board secretary, please call the role.
>> Member Smith, who is joining us virtually via uh Zoom, >> present. >> Member Bole >> here. >> Member Wallace, >> present. >> Member Kuster, >> present. >> Member Pope,
>> here. Member Rosenfeld >> here. >> Member Rivas >> present. >> Member Brown. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Member Bannon, >> present. >> Member Gutierrez, who's joining us virtually via Zoom, >> present. >> Member Thodicura, >> present.
>> Member Blae, >> present. >> Member Zachor, >> here. >> Member Deberry, >> present. >> Vice President BZ, >> present. >> 15 members present. We do have a quorum. I'd also like to recognize Dr. Meline
King, superintendent, chief executive officer. Elizabeth Barton, general counsel, Dr. Kareem Assaf, chief education officer. Charles Mayfield, chief operating officer. Destiny Singleton, our honorary student board member.
>> Uh, let me start by saying that today is board member Singleton's uh, last board meeting as the honorary student board member. And we we have to say uh where does time go? Um you know it feels like we just
welcome you uh as our honorary student board member and yet here we are at your final board meeting. Uh, member Singleton, you have been an inspiring and thoughtful student leader whose warmth and compassion have truly fel left an indelible mark on this board.
You use your voice to help elevate mental health as a priority for students across the district and your leadership helped deepen our discussions during the student voice roundtables. Because of you, our commitment to supporting the
whole child, including their physical, mental, and social, emotional health and well-being is stronger. You will be missed. That's without a question. Uh, but we're also excited for everything that's ahead of you, starting with your next chapter at Stanford University this
fall. On behalf of the board, thank you for your service and contributions and we wish you much success and a bright future. Member Singleton, would you like to share a few words with us?
>> Thank you so much. Oh, and she getting some gift today. >> Thank you so much for that amazing gift and those amazing words. Um, writing this farewell speech was much harder than I had anticipated because
how do you put over 10 months of learning, memories, and growth into a few short remarks. But in an attempt, I thought back to my initial remarks I gave in September of 2025, where I started out with gratitude. So,
I would like to continue that pledge by stating that I'm so beyond grateful for the wealth of knowledge that I've gained throughout this experience. Everybody here has been so incredibly kind and gracious with their time and expertise. And I would like to thank all the board
members here, um, board staff, CEO King, and the sign language interpreters, Adam and Kristen, and everyone here at CPS who have contributed to this magical tenure. In this role, I have been profoundly humble to represent CPS students curious
minds, their innovative and powerful voices, and their great ambitions. I hope that I've worn the title of honorary student board member well, and that I've left a mark here at the board that can spark change for years to come. I'm now moving into my next chapter as a
proud CPS alum who stands firm in the belief that CPS students are some of the most brightest, talented in and incredible people out there. CPS students, please remember that we must continue to fight for what we believe in because we are all stronger
together than separated. So once again, thank you to everyone who has helped me down my path, and I'm so excited to pass the torch on to the next brilliant mind. Thank you. >> Yeah, let's give a a big round of
applause. That spark will definitely continue because of you. The order of meeting will be as follows. We will be honoring excellence, superintendent co remarks, committee
updates, public participation, recess, reconvene from recess, presentation, the FY27 finance update by the budget team. Discussion of public agenda items.
Vote on public agenda items. Close session. Reconvene from close session. vote on the remaining public agenda items and we will adjourn. Chief Assaf and Chief Mayfield, please proceed with honoring excellence.
Thank you, Vice President Dr. This month we are pleased to recognize the Chicago Multilingual Parent Council. They are a powerhouse of advocacy and
community building, supporting education for multilingual families across our district. They serve as a vital bridge between CPS and the diverse mosaic of cultures and
languages that make up Chicago's immigrant and multilingual families. The CNPC is made up of parents from our school bilingual advisory committees along with community members and
passionate bilingual educators. The group has four core missions. The first of which is giving parents a seat at the decision makingaking table. This includes formally advising CPS on
the development, implementation, and evaluation of major programs. They also ensure that the voice of multithnic and multilingual families are woven into school policies.
Second, the CNPC is committed to eliminating communication barriers. In a district where dozens of language, actually 159 different languages are spoken,
communication can easily break down. But the CNPC works to ensure no family is ever left in the dark. They also assist families who may be new to the United States under understand
how bilingual programs work, helping them figure out what resources are available and how to access this. Third, the CMPC gets involved at the grassroots level, turning local schools
into hubs of learning for both children and adults. They organize workshops and training sessions to help families effectively participate in the governance of bilingual education and encourage
parents to join local committees. They also attend school board meetings and events and become leaders in their neighborhoods. Finally, the CNPC works to identify the unique challenges and needs of
multilingual learners, making sure that schools have the cultural and language tools needed for kids to success to succeed academically without losing their cultural heritage.
What makes the CNPC so amazing is that they transform parents from passive observers into active powerful advocates and leaders. They support their children's education,
ensuring that being multilingual is celebrated as the superpower it is. And here to discuss more about the partnership between CPS and the CNPC is Dr. Anna Schuber, our acting chief
officer of our district's office of multilingual multicultural education. >> Good morning everyone. After Thank you so much for that introduction Dr. Assaf. I won't have to add a lot, but I just want to say that um as someone who works
at OM, these these folks really make the work we do a lot better. I am extremely grateful to work with all of them and I feel extremely privileged to be able to learn from them. We want to thank you for this recognition and um I just want
to add that bilingual parent advisory committees have been mandated by by the Illinois State Board of Education for over 50 years now. Sadly, in many school districts, even if they exist, they often only meet the minimum requirements, which include four annual meetings and basic advising on
the EL budget. Through the Chicago Multilingual Parent Council, our parents bring that law to life in CPS. Our parent leadership in bilingual education has a powerful history since the beginning. The CNPC champions our ELELS
and multilingual learners by guiding and empowering parents within their local bilingual advisory councils at every school. OMA and CPS work across multithnic communities to identify student needs, determine priorities, and build strong communication
by hosting vital monthly meetings in addition to the quarterly meetings for the large CMPC. uh we together educate and equip local school members to effectively address all the needs of the English learner population. Here today we have 13 of our
21 members and four will be making remarks and that includes Carmina Tino who's the president of the CNPC, Raina Rodriguez who's the vice president and two additional members Leonor Ariano and Esmerald de Gutierrez. Thank you so
much. Chicago is Chicago. Ilia studenting. foresu. The hardest Multilingual. for
particip much abas. CNP Chicago. We'll have that statement translated. >> Good morning. Good morning, Dr. King, Dr. Asaf, and distinguished members of the board of
education. My name is Carmina Perez Tino, and I have the honor of serving as president of the Chicago Multilingual Parent Council or CMPC. It was my first year in Chicago and the first here at the MCPS. Thank you for the invitation. It is an honor to be
here. Uh since it establishment in 1973, the CNPC has played a fundamental role in representing, engaging, and advocating for the families of multilingual students within Chicago public schools. For more than five decades, hundreds of volunteers, parents, teachers, and community members
have dedicated their time, effort, and talent to strengthening bilingual and multicultural education in our city. We are grateful to each and every one of these individuals. Thanks to their commitment, the council has become a strategic pillar of communications and an essential bridge between schools,
families, and the cultural diversity that defines Chicago. Currently, 388 schools have a bilingual advisory committee, which facilitates direct communication of the office of multilingual and multicultural education or MME. This structure allows us to more
accurately identify the needs, strengths, and challenges of students participating in bilingual and multilingual education programs. In addition, council meetings have brought together more than 600 parents, reflecting a level of participation and commitment that distinguishes our organization within CPS.
We proudly recognize the history, achievement, and impact of the Chicago Multilingual Parent Council. We continue breaking barriers and building bridges of collaboration to advance a shared goal, ensuring a fair, equitable, and highquality education for all multilingual students in Chicago public
schools, including those who also require special education services. The council appreciates the support that education that the board of education provides to our multilingual families and multicultural special education in students. Together, we will continue strengthening opportunities so that every student can reach their fullest
potential. I would now like to turn the floor over to my fellow council members who will share more about their work and commitment within the multilingual parent council. Thank you very much. Um, good morning. Um, I'm familiar with a lot of you guys, but I'm happy to be
here under different circumstances, but good morning to all of you. So, I'm going to go ahead with my thing in Spanish. North side Prep. Chicago. Amomas Chicago. for
transform. forens. much gracias. >> We'll have the statement translated. >> Good morning, Dr. King, Dr. Assaf, and board members. My name is Traa Rodriguez, vice president of CNPC for 20
2025 2026 and mother of Esmeella Santgo students and North Side College Prep High School students. Today I want to share something truly inspiring about the Chicago Multilingual Parent Council or CNPC and the incredible work they do for multilingual
families within Chicago Public Schools. As a member of this vibrant community, I have witnessed firsthand how CNPC serves as a f power powerful advocate and a bridge converting diverse cultures and languages. >> Take over. This is what >> at the heart of their mission is a
commitment to give parents like us a seat at the decision-making table. It's not just about being heard. It's about weaving our voices into the fabric of school policies. Through our direct advising on programs like the transitional bilingual education, CNPC
ensures that our perspectives shape the educational language landscape for our children. Another remarkable aspect is their dedication to breaking down communication barriers. In a city as diverse as Chicago, it's easy for families to feel isolated. CNPC actively
works to facilitate communication among various ethnic groups, helping us navigate the complexities of the school system. This support is invaluable, especially for those of us who might be new to the US education system. The CNPC also fosters a true sense of
community through workshops and training sessions. They empower us as parents, encouraging involvement at the grassroots level. I've seen how these initiatives can transform local schools into hubs of learning, not just for our children, but for us as well.
Lastly, the council champions the needs of English learners. They identify gaps and resources and advocate for equity, ensuring that our children receive the cultural and educational support necessary to thrive without losing their heritage. Ultimately, CNPC transforms us from
passive observers to active advocates. They remind us that being multilingual is not just a challenge, it's a superpower. I'm proud to be part of the community that celebrates this diversity and empowers us all to advocate for our children's education. Thank you.
Gutierrez director Dr. King is Chicago. CNC. CNP. DC. Foreign Multicultural English.
We'll have that statement translated. >> Thank you very much for your kind indication. Director of Education Karim Assaf. My name is Esmeald Gutierrez and I am a mother and a representative of the far far southside community of Chicago.
To me, the CNPC's mission of family advocacy and linguist linguistic equity means breaking down language barriers and ensuring that every student receives the tools to which they are rightfully entitled. In my experience, this has been key to building a supportive
multithnic community where families from diverse backgrounds come together, share resources, and strengthened one another to support our multilingual students. The bilingual special education committee within the CNPC is responsible for informing members about all
legislation and regulations concerning bilingual special education. It is tasked with providing the CNPC with up-to-date information on the latest developments affecting English learners with disabilities and disseminating this information to various audiences
interested in bilingual special education. At present, the data shows that we serve and advocate for a total of 41,766 English learner students with IEP and long-term English learners, representing
54.9% of the total. We encourage parents to strengthen the relationship and active collaboration among the family advisory board or AFB, the Illinois State Board of Education, and the Office for Students with Disabilities.
This synergy is fundamental to ensuring the holistic development of diverse students within the bilingual program. To achieve this, we employ the following strategies. We urge families to gain a throughout understanding of the academic programs and specific supports their children
receive. We create an accessible information platform so parents can effectively locate the necessary supports to boost academic performance. We promote the creation of internal committees at each school. These spaces allow for the sharing of
valuable information amongst parents, teachers, coordinators, and administrators, ensuring excellence in educational services. We additionally inform parents that students with disabilities who are English learners must receive not only
language support services, but also services related to their disabilities to which they are entitled under federal law. We listened to parents needs and sought support from the office of multilingual and multicultural education or OME to
provide presentations throughout the new department of diverse English English learner students. This ensures parents have clear access to information, understand their rights, and feel supported at every stage of their children's educational journey.
Thank you. Sorry, Dr. Chicago. Chicago. Linguistic Chicago. foridentific Multilinguists. Chicago,
a particip Dr. We'll have the statement translated. >> Good morning, Dr. King, Dr. Asaf, Board of Education. My name is Leonor Arianiano Diaz and I'm a parent representative at the Chicago Multilingual Parent Council. It is a
pleasure to share with you relevant information about the Chicago Multilingual Parent Council and our commitment with the educational community. Our mission is centered around the following pillars. One, culture. We foster the acknowledgement and celebration of cultural and
linguistic diversity in our schools. Two, information. We strengthen the community within the Chicago multilingual parent council and school bilingual committees and families in order to guarantee the clear and timely flow of information.
Three, resource protection. Nobody better knows the needs of English learners than their own parents. For these reasons, we focus on identifying gaps. The council actively identifies the unique needs and challenges faced by multilingual
students, establishing clear financing and programming priorities. Additionally, we advocate for equity. We supervise the execution of bilingual resources in order to ensure that schools have the tools required to ensure students academic success while
always preserving their cultural their cultural heritage. Ultimately, the extraordinary value of the Chicago Multilingual Parent Council lies in transforming parents into active advocates for their children's education, guaranteeing that being
multilingual is celebrated as a superpower it truly is. We teach parents and students about the importance of valuing multilingualism, creating activities along with cultural department. For example, we've invited parents to participate in activities and
exhibitions of multiple cultures. We thank Dr. King, Dr. Asaf, and the Chicago Board of Education for their support of multilingual students. We hope to continue working with you. Thank you so much for honoring excellence. There's uh one one quote
that really stuck with me which was being multilingual is not just a challenge, it is a superpower. Let's give them another round of applause. Board members, any any comments or questions? Board member Lopez.
>> Thank you, Vice President. Yeah. So So, gracias briefly, I'll say it in English. I thank you. Thank you for joining us and accepting the invitation. It's always an honor to join you in the meetings and the events and seeing you in action. Uh
when I see you, I see my own mother. I see my community moms. You're always advocating um not just for your own students, but for the entire community and oftentimes, as it was mentioned, is work in collaboration and in team. oftentimes that means having difficult conversations
and I mentioned it in Spanish, you know, las has meaning like pulling our ears when we need to be pulled, right? U making sure that for me is that I get I stay grounded and rooted and these parents do that not just for me but I know for other fellow board members that I've had other conversations. So thank
you and I look forward to continuing um in collaboration. I will end with this uh saying in Spanish board member Rivas. Thank you. Chicago.
Um, is Um, so just quickly in English, uh, just celebrating, um, our moms that are here today. Thank you so much for being here. Congratulations on this honor and I really really um appreciate the opportunity that I had over this last
year to be in in your meetings and learn alongside you about the power that you have in your voice coming here to the board of education. Um and uh something that's really really important to me is that whenever a a mom invites me out, I'm definitely going to be there. So,
thank you much gracias. Uh thank you. uh to our warriors. Thank you so much. All right, >> Vice President VeZ, before you move forward, I do want to note for the record that board member Lopez joined
the meeting at 11:03 a.m. Board member Biggs joined the meeting at 11:15 a.m. and board member Loausano joined the meeting at 11:34 a.m. Thank you. >> Superintendent CEO Dr. King, we're ready for your remarks.
Thank you, Mr. Vice President, and thank you to the members of Chicago Multilingual Parent Council for your ongoing support of Chicago students. After all of this fluent Spanish, I am so nervous to whip out my Spanish I
have been practiced today, but I can only imagine what a student might feel like when you don't have fluency. So, thank you all in advance for your patience with me. Um, contributor
prosp. And >> my lips don't seem to be working. But I am really grateful to the CMPC um and all of their work and we look forward to working with you all throughout this upcoming year. It has
been one year since I rejoined the district. In that time, we have faced immense pressure, but we know turmoil does not fracture a strong system, it forges it. Serving as your leader during this time
has been the professional experience of a lifetime. Witnessing firsthand the strength of our community. Throughout this year, I've seen more than just achievement and growth. I have seen the resilience and the brilliance
of our students. I have been encouraged by the commitment of our parents to work alongside our dedicated staff and continue to trust us with their babies. I am deeply moved by the outpouring of support from across our city, from our
community-based organizations, from our business part business partners and our interfaith communities. This is the one district mandate in action. a city rallying around its most precious resource, our children.
When we align our efforts, we send a powerful message that every student, every neighborhood deserves our very best. We are proving every day what is possible when educators, families, and
partners work in radical interdependence. We have moved from an era of of my department, my silo. We are now operating in alignment as one team with one mission ensuring that our students
daily experience is one of joy, rigor, and safety. Our challenges are real. They are significant, but they are far outweighed by our district's promise. We are a district in mid evolution. more focused
and battle tested for the reality of today. And as we look forward to next school year, I am encouraged by the opportunities before us. We are a district in motion. We are actively shaping a modern system that serves
every child not just for for not just in the reality of the past, but for the future. The momentum we are building today is creating greater opportunities for our students tomorrow. I look forward to everything we will accomplish together, continuing to prove that we
are one team, one district with one mission, and that our best days are undoubtedly ahead of us. I also want to look at uh recognize someone that's joining us in this journey. I am fortunate to be surrounded by many talented and dedicated team
members. And today, I'd like to acknowledge um Dr. Dr. Anise Lewis, CPS's new deputy chief education officer. So, as we continue to work and bring strategy uh alignment and strategy to
the district, Dr. Lewis is uniquely qualified for this role, bringing 24 years of urban education leadership experience, including 16 years of deeply rooted service within CPS as an assistant principal, principal, and
network chief. Most recently, she served as the deputy and acting chief of teaching and learning. Her proven leadership now supports our district's strategic vision with the focus on effective instruction. She seamlessly blends academic rigor with vital social
emotional support, always championing the art of the possible to create student centered environments. I look forward to watching her maximize the potential of our teachers, our leaders, and our students.
Hats off and congratulations to the CPS class of 2026 who celebrated their high school graduation earlier this month. This talented group is moving on to their next chapter, the college and career portion of their education, having
earned record amounts of college credit, career credentials, and college scholarships. We are extremely proud of their accomplishments, and I have no doubt that they will represent our district well. Here is a brief video created by our communications team
celebrating this year's graduates. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Before I move to the planning, uh before I move to the planning that is underway for the
new school year, I want to invite um Chief Mayfield um chief of oper our chief operations officer to provide an update on the work of our district's operations team. >> Thank you, CEO, Superintendent Dr. King. Really appreciate that. And you know, I
really want to acknowledge the work of operations. Um the work of operations is often invisible. uh you don't notice it when it's working uh but you really notice it when it's not. And my commitment to this board, to our students, and to the CPS community
is that you will not notice it because it will be working. As we close out another school year, I want to tell you a story about what it looks like to meet the needs of every student every day. This starts with getting children to school safely.
This year, our student transportation services team successfully routed 14,62 students. That's an increase of 384 children over the last year. The number I want the board to hear most clearly is this. Routing students with
disabilities increased by 5.79%, meaning that 694 more of our most vulnerable learners were safely transported every day. We also supported student mobility across the city through public transit access.
This past school year, approximately 49,660 Ventra cards were issued to CPS students, supporting 5.4 million trips to and from school on the Chicago Transit Authority.
These students represent a critical part of how this district delivers on its promise of access and their safe and reliable commute. is part of our operational responsibility. Transportation is not a logistics function. It is an access and equity
function. And this year, I'm proud to say that CPS delivered. Furthermore, we know that the surge in federal activity last fall required CPS to act to keep students safe traveling to and from school and also while they
were in the building. Our safety team worked with principles and school-based staff to get the right protocols in place at the school level. At the district level, we established a command center as an extension of the student safety center to provide student leaders
or school leaders with immediate real-time guidance, triage, emergency response, and communication support. I'll move now to the critical area of student meals. And uh I'm happy to report that this school year our
nutrition services team served 43.7 million meals to Chicago students. That's 16.6 million breakfastes. That's 227.1 million lunches. And behind each of those numbers uh is a student who
started their school day nourished and ready to learn. What makes this story exceptional is not just the volume, it's how we got there. And our team listened. They really listened to to 13,000 student voices through our school food survey. They
also hosted 39 student tastings and 25 high school popup events featuring made to order stations and culturally responsive food options. They launched 19 breakfast carts at building entrances uh bringing the first meal of the day
directly to students as they walk through the door and they upgraded 10 servicing lines across the district to modernize the student dining experience. This is not a cafeteria manage management issue or that is this is a
service or a student service center a student centered service excuse me and our students are responding. So, thank you for that. I'd also like to highlight the ways in in which the CPS operations team is ensuring every student has access to highquality digital learning
experiences by expanding high-speed connectivity to 379 of 562 of our CPS facilities. That's approximately 67% of of of all of our CPS sites. Our
information technology services team is making significant progress toward ensuring digital equity is a reality in every Chicago neighborhood. We remain on track to complete this work by June 30th of 2027.
We also recently launched our instructional Gen AI playbook and this is a practical resource that gives educators clear, actionable guidance on the safe, responsible and meaningful use of generative AI in the classroom. This work is directly aligned to our
five-year strategic plan as it is in the AI accelerator training program that is also helping our students our students or our workforce drive innovative innovation across the district without increasing the headcount. What I'm
saying here is that we are not waiting for the future to arrive. We are actually building it. Next, I want to briefly share what our team is doing to promote fiscal responsibility while delivering all of these essential services for our students.
So, through disciplined market negotiation, through cost avoidance strategies, through contract rebates, our procurement team generated more than 90 million in savings for the district during this fiscal year of 2026. These efforts help maximize the impact
of every dollar entrusted to CPS. Equally important, of course, is where our spending goes. And so, we are exceeding our minority and womenowned business enterprise goals while ensuring that these district dollars are circulating back into the very
communities our students call home. This is not just sound financial practice. This is equity in action. And our fiscal stewardship also extends to the strategic management of our real estate portfolio
through the sealed bid sale process for vacant properties. CPS has conducted two rounds of bidding over the last two years and is currently conducting a third round of bidding for vacant school sites.
To date, bids have been received for 13 of 21 sites. Sales for two of these properties have successfully closed and an additional five sales have been approved by the CPS board and are now proceeding to closing.
Notably, these recent board approvals include development proposals for 304 new housing units. To maintain this momentum, CPS has released a new bid solicitation encompassing eight vacant school sites
and 21 vacant land sites with these bids due on June 30th of 2026. So, just in a few days here. More details uh for the public can be found on our procurement web page at cps.edu/procurement. Finally, today I want to emphasize that
while the school year has ended, the work of the operations team does not stop. This summer, we are advancing 279 capital projects, capital construction projects to address critical repairs across schools and facilities around the
city, representing an investment of approximately 290 million. We are replacing boiler systems. We are replacing roofs. We are completing ADA accessibility improvements because we
know that every student and every family deserves full access to their school. We are installing and upgrading fire alarm systems because safety is non-negotiable. And we are building new playgrounds, renovating schoolyards, and creating
modern learning spaces at schools from Rogers Park to Riverdale and from Austin to the east side. Our goal is to have all critical summer construction substantially complete by the time this board convenes in August.
The results I've described today reflect a team that is operating with urgency. They're operating with accountability and unwavering focus on our students. Between now and then, my team will continue advancing every operational system in this district with the same
discipline and the same standard that we will continue to provide highquality services for every student in every school in every community every single day. And I'll close by acknowledging the dedicated operations staff who make this
work possible every day. From our nutrition professionals and our capital and facilities workers to our technology teams, our safety team, procurement and transportation, their commitment is the silent engine fueling student success in
this district. I want to thank President Harden. I want to thank Vice President Valz and members of the board for their continued partnership and their commitment to our students. Thank you, CEO King. >> Thank you, Chief Mayfield, for that comprehensive update. As summer
programming is underway, we want to make sure that our students stay safe, productive, and engaged during their break from school. That's why our district is offering many program options this summer, including student internships. I want to shout out Dearian, the Collins Steam Academy
graduate, who is interning with the CEO team, my team, this summer, along with more than 650 additional students who are working across various CPS teams, including our facilities department. Just this year, our district capital team launched a summer internship
program for 90 high school students who are interested in careers in the construction industry. These students are receiving hands-on experience in project management, engineering, architecture, skilled trades, and construction operations.
They are currently working alongside 13 general contractors on renovations and improvements to our buildings, helping to prepare our facilities for the new school year. Beyond our internship program, CPS offers many other opportunities during the summer,
including safe haven sites, transition programs for our incoming preschoolers, kindergarteners, and high school freshmen, career and technical education camps in areas like the culinary arts, engineering, and health science, and out of schooltime programming at more than
200 CPS schools. Families can visit cps.edu/ edu/summerprograms to explore all of the options that are available to students through CPS. This site also includes many opportunities from our partner organizations including
the Chicago Public Library, the Chicago Park District, Chicago Youth Works, MyShy Future, the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, and more. I hope that all of our students and families will take advantage of these fun and engaging
options as they enjoy their summer. I'd now like to wish everyone in our district lgbtq plus community a happy pride month. CPS It's okay to clap. CPS is proud to celebrate all of our
students cultural cultures, backgrounds, and identities. In fact, I firmly believe that our uniqueness is what makes us special, and that is the only way to truly serve our students. The only way to truly serve our students is to embrace and learn from our
differences. This is why CPS remains committed to providing our our LGBTQ plus students and staff members with safe, inclusive, and welcoming school environments. The district will have a presence at
Chicago's Pride Parade this Sunday, June 28th, and I encourage students, families, and educators to join us in uplifting our LGBTQ plus population at this event. I'll also like to um acknowledge the inaug inauguration of our newest LSC
members which will take place virtually on June 30th. This is local governance you all. So please give a round applause for all of those people that step out stepped out for the first time to support LSC's. We are proud to have a record number of
candidates run for seats on our local school councils this year and I look forward to working with all of them to move our district forward. I also want to acknowledge all of the LSC members who will conclude their terms in June 30 on June 30th. We are grateful for all of
their service and expertise that they have brought to C the CPS communities. Our schools are stronger, more vibrant places because of their influence. And I have no doubt that our newest LSC members will build on their success.
I'll close today with a brief update on the district's budget for the coming upcoming school year. Our budget team will go into more detail on this later in the meeting. For now though, I can tell you that all school budgets have been submitted and that we are in the
process of finalizing the district's full operating budget for the 2627 school year. This is a student centered budget that prioritizes the things that our students need to thrive, especially their instructional time. Let me be
clear with our parents and guardians. We will not limit instructional time for students next year based on this budget. We know that parents are looking for accurate information and looking for a way to get involved in the process and CPS is committed to listening to our
communities and incorporating feedback so our budget reflects our values, your values. The first of these that that's why CPS is in the process of hosting five community budget feedback sessions that are open to all CPS stakeholders.
The first of these sessions was held this past Tuesday. And I want to thank everyone that came out to join us and the remaining four are scheduled between Saturday, Saturday, June 27th and Monday, July 13th. Three of these
meetings will be held in person. One will be held virtually to accommodate community members who can't make it to uh one of the in-person sessions, and the session held this Saturday, July 27th, will be conducted entirely in Spanish.
I encourage all CPS stakeholders to take this opportunity to better understand our budget process and to share what investments you feel most benefit your school communities. Complete details on our community budget feedback session, including a link to
RSVP, is available on our website at cps.edu/budget. This is all part of CPS's commitment to openness, transp transparency, and keeping the community informed with accurate information throughout this budgeting process. Mr. Vice President,
this con concludes my very long prepared remarks. Vice President Vez, the remarks will now be translated into Spanish as a condensed statement. If anyone wishes to receive the fully translated statement, please contact the board office for assistance.
for Fore spechch. Dr. Anise Leire Leares. records profession. Charles Mayfield. Fore class. I am
Safe havenricular summer programs. Chicago, Chicago, Youth Works, Fore inclusivoses. Chicago LC. Finch. Fore
speech. budget board members. Um, any questions or comments? Board member Blae. Thank you, Vice President Vez. Um, I just wanted to touch on
the fact that I submitted some language in proper time to discuss um, Shy Arts and what's happening at that school. Um, and despite having submitted it in the proper time frame, I wasn't able to get
it on the agenda. Um, but I just just to briefly go over for folks that don't know, um, Shy Arts fundraising component wasn't able to raise enough money to keep the school solvent. So
this board voted that we bring them in-house um uh under CPS and try and pres and preserve the integrity of the conservatory. Um
so far um so my resolution requested another year of funding CPS funding to just keep the schools solvent till they get their legs under them. Right? they've got to come up and raise more money to um support
their conservatory work. CPS wasn't able to give it to give Shy Arts a fundraising mechanism until a few months later after we brought them in. And at this point with 70 of their art
resident art teachers being laid off, I'm not sure what or arts organization would fund Shy Arts. So, we're kind of creating our own problem here. Um, just an just to back up a few steps,
most major cities have arts free arts conservatories. New York does, LA does, Cleveland does, a free place where kids can um learn the arts. Um, Shy Arts
itself is pre-professional. So once these kids get done at that school, they are prepared. They have a portfolio ready either if they want to go on for additional education or they also have um they have practiced auditioning.
They're they are ready to go into the arts world. Um, so this for me is like a CTE program. Um, because these kids are ready to work right after they're finished with the school. So again, 70
teaching artists have been terminated. Um, CPS announced that they're creating 20 resident artist positions uh that those 70 ex um experienced teaching artists can compete for, but at a lower
salary. So, we know what happens when you offer positions at a lower salary. Those very experienced art teachers are going to go find very experienced and wonderful art to create and our kids are going to probably be left with um people
maybe straight out of college or people who are still building their portfolio. Um because it's more work and and less pay. Um >> keep your comments a little brief. Okay, I'll wrap it up. Um, but I know we've
got budget issues. I know we need money, but this is a CTE program that is super important. Um, there's equity issues. We talk about equity all the time. We have to invest in our kids. Um, and I will be too asking for more CTE programs. I'm
going to want an electrical school on the west side. My folks are asking for building trades and they're going to cost more money than other schools. And we have to do it. We have to prepare our kids. Not everybody's going to college. We have to prepare our kids for the
future and arts. We all know the benefit of arts education. So, thanks. And I would really love for my uh resolution to be on the next agenda. That at least so we can have the conversation internally. That's really
what my main problem is is that I wasn't even allowed to bring this up so that we could have a conversation about it. >> Board member Smith, >> thank you uh Vice President Valz and uh I want to say thank you to
Superintendent King for talking about the uh summer programs that are happening. That's kind of what my question is. uh an item was removed uh from the agenda for the renewal of Safari. Uh and it's my understanding
that the nonrenewal of Safari is going to create critical disruption to student learning. Uh our summer bridge program and even fall classes. Uh I wanted to ask the superintendent is it true that students social uh science and social
science programs rely on Safari and June 30th uh Safari will shut down because we are not renewing it and uh the students will lose access to science and social science uh programming not only for
summer school but for their fall classes as well. And uh you know the suggestion was made that we use Google Drive as an alternative. Uh my second question is does Google Drive put the district at risk for lawsuit due to intellectual
property infringement? And then my third question and last question is what is your suggestion uh Superintendent King uh to the board to get student learning back on track and avoid uh critical learning disruption due to the loss of
if we don't renew uh this Safari contract. Thank you. So the entire skyline platform is um based on the Safari uh software. So it's not a standalone software but for the
technical to explain a little bit more I would rather turn it over to uh the team so that they could give a very clear and concise response to the impact um on without having Safari montage. But it is true that if we do not have it,
students, we are preparing um a a supplemental curriculum because students will not have access to Skylines uh starting um July 1st. Thank you, Chief Deputy. >> Yes. Good morning, board members. Wanting to just reply to that and thank
you for the question, board member Smith. Um wanted to just acknowledge that with this opportunity, we do need the acknowledgement of this uh Safari Montage to be able to continue to support the platform for Skyline because all the materials are located on Safari
Montage. Our summer programming does utilize Skyline resources for all of our STEM and humanities programming. So to continue to be able to you utilize these resources within the skyline within Safari Montage through the transition to
the new platform um is an opportunity for our students to and our teachers to remain with the opportunity to continue the use of the platform with the curriculum resources that they've been experiencing throughout the time that they've had access to Skyline.
>> Yeah. And what about the lawsuit? Are we at a risk of lawsuit for uh infringement uh of intellectual property uh by using Google Drive? >> Uh thank you, board member Smith. Uh as
always, I'm uh not really willing to talk about uh privilege communication publicly. Um but I'm happy to have that conversation with you and and board members offline. >> Thank you. Board member Brown. >> Thank you. Uh, Mr. Vice President, uh,
few things. I I one would like to publicly support, uh, board member Blaise's request to make sure that Shy Arts is on the next meeting's agenda. Secondly, I I want to publicly express um my frustration with um the pace of
getting the Black Student Achievement Committee online. I want to share with the public that our struggle is internal. Um in my opinion, in January, we could have been ready. Um,
and I was expecting to be able to announce the committee members today. So, I'm I'm hoping that um in the next board meeting, we will finally be able to announce the members of the Black Student Achievement Committee. But I I do want to say
that the um delay in getting this committee up and running and what feels like a lack of urgency and moving this process forward is part of the antilackness that we're
talking about. that not recognizing the need to begin to convene um people from around the city who are committed to addressing the inequities that have harmed so many children in
this city who happen to be melanated. Um I'm very frustrated and very concerned. Uh I've been patient. I've bit my lip delay after delay after delay. changing the process after change in the process
after changing the process. I want to say publicly and no disrespect to anybody in the room, I did not join the board to protect the brand. I joined the board to make sure that I was accountable to the public. And so, it's very important that this
committee gets up and running. I'm not really interested in any more conversation about it. We need to be able to announce this committee next month and get to work. Thank you very much, >> board member Pope.
>> Yes. Uh I uh share your frustration, board member Brown, as the uh co-chair of the special ed advisory committee. We were on approximately the same timetable and have selected our members many months ago. And this also keeps getting
delayed for some of our most vulnerable children. And the we selected a great group of people and we're eager to get to work with them. So I very much hope maybe even at the ARC meeting that these committees could be appointed officially and uh set up to start doing their work
because there is plenty of work on both committees to be done. Board member Rosenfeld. >> Yeah. Just a quick question following up from board member Smith. Why was that removed from the agenda? I see that it was, but I never heard anything about it
being removed. It was just gone. Can anybody answer that? U go to him. >> Okay. All right, folks. Well, so what I heard um was that the special ed advisory
needs to happen, right? Uh the black school success plan needs to, you know, get it going and also I hear board member Blaze around the charts resolution and you know that should be uh added to the minutes. >> I have a comment question I'd like to
add. Um I just want to reinforce my concern that we've that this >> uh let me recognize board member Biggs. >> Thank you. Um, I'd like to also express my concern that the Safari Montage renewal was pulled from the agenda. It's deeply concerning to me that students
starting July 1 will not have access to curriculum that they need for the summer. Teachers will not have access to the curriculum that they need in order to teach. That feels deeply disruptive. Um, I think it's very concerning to me that we don't have a clear sense of why
that was taken from the agenda. um if there was a request from a board member or board members, this feels like a dip into management and not at all the role of governance that we should be playing. Um and so I just want to express my concern that we are not able to move
forward with that at this point. >> Thank you, Dr. King. Uh we have no committee updates for this month. Uh so let's now proceed with today's public participation session. Uh, thank you for joining to share your comments with the
board. In compliance with the Illinois Open Meetings Act, public 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 public participation is the time for the board and CPS senior leadership to listen and hear from you rather than a time for dialogue with board members during and after your remarks. While we can discuss personal personnel matters, public participation
is a key component of transparent governance and it provides us as board members as well as seniors leadership an opportunity to listen to everyone who has signed up to speak. This board takes equity of voice seriously. While we may
not address your comments 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 cpsb.org if you want to meet with a 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. As a reminder, union 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, Vice President Vez. Members of the public who registered to speak were given the option to attend in person or via an electronic format. For
those who prefer to attend via an electronic format, they were given information to access this meeting by dialing a number and using their phone. We did this so that speakers with limited or no access to the internet or who may have weak internet connection could still participate using their
phones. Also, members of the public may submit written comments for board of education meetings via the written comments form on the board's website at cpsb.org or mailed to 42 West Madison Street, Garden Level. Written comments received between the day the public agenda was
posted through 5:00 p.m. the day after the board of education meeting will be submitted to the board and published within five business days on our website at cpsb.org. Speakers, please listen while I provide directions for public participation.
I will call your name and number when it is your turn to speak. For speakers joining us virtually, as a reminder to unmute, please enter star six. Once you hear your name, please state your name for the record. I will then start the two-minute timer. When there are 30 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. Vice
President Vez, before we we begin calling speakers from the speakers list, 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. It's a a joy to see your classroom
management skills, Dr. VeZ. Nice job. Today I want to first express solidarity with our union siblings in another local one, unite here. Our colleagues and siblings in the lunchroom uh who work
day in day out are really key and and essential in terms of stable, vibrant and healthy schools. They deserve a living wage in terms of um yeah, I think we can all clap for that hopefully.
I'm uh I picked the right day to um you know rep the three color you know felicides and Mexico and um unfortunately that celebration is cut short when we look at some of the realities in our schools at Cooper Elementary. The current budget calls for
cutting three positions, half a case manager and a bilingual clerk who is 16 years in the building and is known as the anchor for the school community and helping students who are newcomers in these last two tumultuous years adapt
and come integrated into the school. So that school is reeling and it's replicated 500 buildings across the system. We're hearing of librarians being cut, tech coordinators, class sizes ballooning, uh, athletic directors losing positions, 50 at risk that could
really upend sports programs everywhere. So, something needs to be done already. And on top of that, you know, in discussions with the district and the city, we are hearing up to two weeks of the school year could be cancelled in order to meet the budget gap that will
still exist after these cuts have been imposed. two weeks of the school calendar eliminated. That's $170 million. It's about equivalent. You can ask your financial adviserss how that pans out. Or you could cut 1,700
positions. Or if it's midyear, make that over 3,000. Uh that will be unacceptable and make school and students getting their opportunities almost impossible. You have an alternative. I haven't heard it once today. And nobody should be, you
know, running for reelection or election on this board if you can't say this with us. And and co King, uh, really want to invite you to say this with us in unison. And that's you can't have Governor Pritsker demanding a special
legislative session for the Bears and their billionaire family or to give data centers and Amazon subsidies and not simultaneously saying we are going to have a special session to fully fund our schools. If you can't say that, you should not be serving this district. If
you can't say babies over billionaires and people over profits, then you don't belong here because our school communities are already reeling. You know, we've heard it in terms of the Black Student Success Plan, special education. We're seeing cuts to special
education despite the claim that that's being invested in over and above last year's numbers. That's not what we're hearing. So, we really need to ask you for that partnership and we need you to say it loud and proud because the legislature left $3 billion on the table
and they didn't fully fund their own formula and if they can fund the Bears and they damn better well fund this district and all the schools across the state. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The next union rep is Caroline Rutherford, CTU vice chair charter
division. Good morning members of the board and CEO King. Uh thank you for honoring the excellence of the parent advocacy for multilingual education and the work of OME. Today, Raina is standing here with me today as part of that group of excellent parents in support of the
students at Asero. At your last meeting, this board voted to give Asero charter schools where I've taught for 15 years a 5-year charter renewal despite disrupting the lives of thousands of CPS students, families, and educators by closing half of their schools in the
middle of the network's previous contract. Just one week later, after you granted them the five-year renewal, Asera notified CTU they intend to fire all the bilingual resource teachers at all of our schools.
Yep. Aero serves nearly 95% Latina population of English language learners. And according to CPS's evaluation of Aero, six out of the eight schools need improvement in English language learner compliance. So, after receiving a
five-year renewal, Aero's first move is to fire the staff that supports our students in the exact area they need to improve. This is exactly what we tried to warn CPS about. Longer renewals, insufficient oversight, and looking to charter bosses for input instead of families and
educators who are impacted. These decisions empower charter operators to make choices that do not serve the best interests of our students. And we are asking CPS to initiate an immediate inquiry with Aero and demand a plan to support our students bilingual education
needs so they can be successful in moving forward. How will our students in elementary general education receive their legally required supports if they don't have access to bilingual certified teachers? How will our newcomers in high school receive support in their native
language? The answer right now is they will not. Again, it is not a coincidence that Aero waited until after the 5-year renewal, was granted and announced this decision. This was intentional, and it shows Aero's management does not care about what CPS thinks after they receive
their renewal vote. Nor are they prioritizing supporting our students. CPS needs to hold the accountable to serving our student population and demand they reinstate these position at each school. I am also here today with members of the
Shyards community. Thank you board member Bla1 for raising a concern about the resolution. I'm very hopeful that it can be on the next board meeting. As you are aware, CPS has begun to dismantle this remarkable successful arts education institution for CPS students and you may have seen some letters that
are coming in from community organizations across the city. I would like to read a few for you now. From the Goodman Theater, we urge Chicago public schools and the board of education to reaffirm their commitment to Chicago High School for the Arts and to invest in the growth of arts education
throughout our city. Supporting the Shy Arts Conservatory Model is an investment in Chicago's future and the vibrant cultural life that makes this city extraordinary. from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. For our city to continue to be a world-class arts destination, we need bridges like Shy Arts to continue
to exist between young artists and our teaching artists. To underinvest in Shy Arts and dismantle the program at a school that has connected students to the institutions across the city would be a disservice to the young people and the city of Chicago. From the Chicago Gay Men's Chorus, I urge you to continue
supporting Shy Arts and the working artists that inspire students to set their goals high. Although private institutions exist that serve a similar function, not every family has access to those resources. Also, Shy Arts fosters a welcoming and safe environment for the
LGBTQ plus students from all over the city. And from the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, I have seen firsthand how vital arts education is to create Chicago's creative ecosystem. We are asking you to commit to the working artists of the city and the young people of Chicago through the CPS investment of
Shy Arts. And there are more. I brought them here for you today. From the color club, the Black Ensemble Theater, the Artistic Home, the Looking Glass Theater, and Stephen Wolf. All asking CPS for the same thing to invest in Shy Arts and re reinstate the current arts
programming because this school is too valuable to the communities to be dismantled. I brought them here for you today as well as a list of the arts courses Shy Arts offers last several years. So you can see the following. One, the
programming Shy Arts provides to our students cannot be covered just by 20 teaching artists at half the pay and a fraction of the hours of teaching time. Two, the specialization and depth of this array of classes that cannot be consolidated and crammed into a single
umbrella of just generic art class. And three, there were 70 teaching artists because of the range of specialized pre-professional arts education at this school. That is why students and families chose Shy Arts and why Shy Arts will continue to draw the families to CPS. Like these letters state
repeatedly, to dismantle this program, to water it down, to take away its unique programming is to do a disservice to our students and the arts culture in Chicago. We must do the opposite. invest in this school and its programming so we can expand the arts even more across the
rest of the district. There's a packet for each of you. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. >> The next union rep is Aydah Flores, CPAA vice president, who is here in person. Sorry, I'm used to the paper, but I had
to um work with the with the computers or the phones just like you guys. Our students are going to need Safari Montage and Skyline. Um good afternoon, Vice President Veles, members of the board, partners, and colleagues. My name is Aida Flores. I'm proud to serve as an assistant principal in Chicago public
schools and as a member of the Chicago principal and administrator association. Me is Sida Flores. Um I'm here on behalf of my brothers and sisters, the unsung heroes of CPS, the allpurpose leaders, most of us known simply as the assistant
principles. Over the past few weeks, you've heard from my colleagues. You've heard from assistant principal Sai Hendrickson. You received the powerful testimony prepared by Assistant Principal Dr. Alex Deesian, whose words reflected the realities so many of us
face every day. While President Kia Banks is unable to be here today, her advocacy for APS has now paused and she continues to meet with district leadership. I want to talk to you about not just the numbers and policy. I want to talk to you about how the practice actually
lives in schools because the budget in front of you slashed 120 assistant principal positions and one of them belongs to Dr. Alex. You were told that schools with fewer than 250 students will lose their foundational AP position. We don't know
where that research came from or where the number is rooted in. But I can tell you this isn't rooted in the realities of schools like McCutchen which by the way they are dutifully owed a gym. On the 20th day of the school the school district accounted for 246 students and
McCutchen the real number was 317. The difference 71 preschool age children counted differently because they were federally funded category. And so in the eyes of this district simply erase. So I'll ask you to sit with that. What message do we send to a family when we
tell them their three and four year olds don't count? That their child is a budget line in the wrong column because they fall in a different federally funded category. Now, if we're going to talk about numbers, let me give you a few that matter. EMTT Kutchand, Dr. Alice um and
Principal Longmire oversee two nonadjacent building blocks apart. So, when there's an emergency, Dr. Alex becomes a track star, literally running between buildings. She oversees 90 preK students, six pre-K teachers, and seven
SECAS. She supports five cluster programs, the specialized programs that make our most vulnerable children are served right alongside their peers in their neighborhood school, all resulting in the professional development and support of 40 ESPs, 38 teachers, that is
150 evaluations. But Dr. Alice is not only conducting and leading adult development and growth. She is overseeing the daily operations, the mishaps, the injuries, the um the discipline concerns that that translate
into 345 Aspen reports on top of the fact that she has to schedule 485 classes in Aspen. She helps also helps case manage 131 special education plans where she's learned to communicate with
20 nonverbal students using AIC devices, translated over 134 English language learners, and secured food and bedding for 70 STLs students. I could keep reading the list of things that Dr. Alex has done along all of the other
assistant principles in this district, but I don't have enough time. If you don't understand the list that it takes, ask any of the 630 principles that this board just evaluated to sit with this reality. There is a leadership crisis. The work of principles and assistant
principles is symbiotic. Public schools like Mcutchen and schools like mine at Darwin where at least 500 children, over 90 staff members, and 100 parents move within a 20 minute time frame at dismissal and pickup. That doesn't happen in any other space in this city.
So no matter what the relationship the daily work of educating the future of Chicago that is the magic that we bring on the front lines. A sense the principles are not extra. We are not a luxury. We're not part of a we're not part of the leadership capacity that we
are part of the leadership capacity that allows that magic to happen. Every principal deserves a leadership team. So, I implore you to reject this proposal, reinstate and ensure that the district keeps all of our APS as foundational in the budget as they are
in the school. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. The next union rep is Karen Kent, Unite Local One President, who is here in person. As a reminder for those standing with the speaker, please stand along the
glass partition at the marked spots. Good afternoon, members of the board, Vice President VZ, and CEO King. My name is Karen Kent. I'm the president of Unite Here Local One, Chicago's Hospitality Workers Union. Our union
represents CPS lunchroom attendants, cooks, porters, and associate lunchroom managers, some of whom are here with me today. Our members love what they do. They pour
their hearts and souls into feeding hundreds and thousands of Chicago school children every single day. But while they spend their days caring for all of the children, uh these workers struggle
to feed their own families due to inadequate pay. These workers have been sounding the alarm about their struggle for months. Last year, we conducted a survey of CPS lunchroom workers and the results of
that survey were then delivered to this board. The findings of that survey revealed that 47% of the surveyed workers reported having troubled uh paying for housing and 22%
said their families has have visited food banks. Those numbers were appalling last fall and frankly they have not aged well with time.
The results are far more outrageous today given that the board has been aware of the crisis facing lunchroom workers for so long. For nearly 12 months, the board of ed has allowed Chicago's lunch ladies to
languish without a fair contract to rely on food pantries and struggle to make rent on CPS's poverty wages. This is unacceptable. Board of Ed should not approve any budget that fails to bring lunchroom
workers up to the $40,000 per year minimum that other workers inside CPS have attained. It is past time for the board to settle a fair contract that ends the inequality
CPS lunchroom workers have faced for far too long. Uh, direct CPS. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments,
>> Vice President BZ. We are now ready to call speakers from the speakers list. We'll begin with the Whitney Young Magnet High School group. We have three speakers. Andrew Kaplan, speaker number one, Vice President Vez, members of the
board, and Dr. King. Um, I'm Andrew Kaplan, local school council member, parent at Whitney Young M. Young Magnet High School. Speaking on behalf of many of our L LSC members, we urge the CPS and the board of education to restore both teaching and support positions to
current levels at Whitney Young for the upcoming school year. Whitney Young is a proud citywide school community where students from every ward learn together to build something larger than academic success. Our culture is academically serious, but it's also inclusive. It's
unpretentious. It's creative. It's ethical. And it's deeply studentdriven. Our students take demanding courses, but they also lead clubs, compete in academic and athletic programs, create art, journalism, organize service projects, and participate in cultural
celebrations. They learn how to contribute to be a member of the broader community. That balance is what makes Whitney Young special. Students depend on teachers, counselors, staff, coaches, and programs. They're now placed in risk in
this upcoming uh draft uh of a budget. Um for this upcoming year, Whitney Young was granted 97 core positions. That's 7.6 positions uh reduced from this current year primarily as a ra the ratio
that was changed from 21:1 to 22:1. We also compounded another $165,000 in reductions with the lowering of that SRO money. Um, and if you can imagine, we now have one technology coordinator
because we've lost a position to handle the needs of over 2,300 students and staff and faculty. Um, I can't imagine. We also appear to be caught in a budget budgetary blind spot. Under the current draft, Whitney Young is losing the same number of teachers as a high school
nearly twice our size. We think of that as a blunt instrument uh that pushes the consequence new consequences onto Whitney Young students um and their families. Um I realize I'm way over on time, but we're simply asking that you
return to current levels and uh thank you very much. >> Thank you for your comments. The next speaker is Langston Ellis, speaker 27. Good morning board members and community members. Thank you for make thank you for making this session possible and for
listening to our input. I encourage you all to intentionally explore the concerns and issues that have been brought up this far. Um and that will continue be continue to be brought up by the people in this room and the people across CPS. My name is Langston Ellis. I am a rising senior at Whitney M. Young
Magnet High School and one of three LSC student representatives. I'm here to share some views on the budget, more specifically the tools that that the district has been using and how that is affecting the Whitney Young community and the students. Um, one of our concerns uh that our school community
has is um with how the opportunity index evaluates the funding uh that schools receive. There are two uh metrics that are particularly important for our school community. Um that is uh the percent of teachers retained in the diversity index. Um in in effect, our
school community has worked hard to nurture a highly diverse student body um that is supported by consistent and strong teachers. As a result, a significant number of uh funding and dollars have been cut. In essence, because we are a diverse school and have low teacher turnout to many of our
students and speaking on behalf of many of our students, it seems unfair um and feels like we are being punished for uh the incredible community that we have um and that we are blessed and fortunate enough to thrive and grow in. Um but what do these metrics mean for the students? Uh this what does it Yeah.
What does it mean for our community? Um it means that we're expected to maintain a high level of excellence. >> You have 30 seconds. >> Less resources. um what seems to be a paradox as inevitably the quality of our educational experience will decline. I have no doubt that our teachers and administrators will do all they can to
support the students. Um but the harsh reality is that programs are being cut, livelihoods are being affected. Um I personally have had to sit through many difficult LSC meetings with teachers and um students both brought to tears as we cope with having to let treasured teachers um and art programs and
enrichment programs go. Uh we will continue to fight for our teachers and school community and advocate for our students so that they have the resources they need to thrive. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The last speaker from Whitney Young is Carolyn Lewis, speaker 29.
>> Good morning members of the board and thank you to my uh fellow LSC representatives here, Mr. Kaplan and Mr. Ellis. My name is Carolyn Lewis. I'm a parent at the local school council at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. As
our letter of June 3rd states, we urge the board of education to reinstate the teaching and support positions that were cut from the budget for the upcoming school year. Losing 7.6 teaching positions, security and technology
staff, and our writing and math centers will be detrimental to our students. Our math center tutors an average of 500 students quarterly. Our writing center guided 350 students with their college application essays last October. This is
valuable programming and resources our school is losing. Across the board budget cuts that place the burden of implementation on schools is not the right answer to the woes of the district. The district must approach the budget in a long-term thoughtful
strategic and proactive manner. We urge you to evaluate the programs, the facilities, the staffing, the contracts, the funding models to determine the budget that best serves our students. We all have stories of waste and glaring
needs across the district. The millions of dollars spent on unused curriculum, yet our school doesn't have hand soap and paper towels in the restrooms. Did you hear that? No hand soap and paper towels in the restrooms.
Proportionate cuts to schools do not solve these problems. Our school community is a special and meaningful place for our children to learn and grow and become the future leaders of our society. Do not dismantle it. Restore
the staffing. Thank you for your comments. The next two speakers are regarding the Arabic language program. Logan Gaus, speaker number two. Hello, my name is Logan Gaus and I'm speaking on behalf of Care Chicago
regarding the decision to eliminate the Arabic program at Lincoln Park High School. For 36 years, this program has given students access to a language that is both globally important and exceptionally rare in American public education. Across the country, only 161
high schools offer Arabic. Lincoln Park is one of only three CPS high schools that does and the only school in Illinois that offers IB Arabic. I know firsthand how limited access to Arabic can be. My own high school didn't offer it, so I had to seek out a federal state
department funded external program to learn it. Uh, which supports the study of critical need languages like Arabic. Learning Arabic introduced me to a language, culture, and part of the world that had previously felt distant. It allowed me to build relationships across cultural and linguistic barriers and
inspired me to continue studying it in college. Before learning Arabic, much of what I knew about the Middle East came from news articles, textbooks, and social media. Learning the language gave me the opportunity to engage with the people directly and develop a deeper understanding of their lives,
experiences, and perspectives. And this has been the experience for so many more Arabic students like me at Lincoln Park and across the country. But in Chicago, we're taking that away. The federal government has designated Arabic as a critical need language for nearly two
decades because of its importance to diplomacy, global engagement, and increasing role in global trade and business. That designation reflects a simple reality. >> You have 30 seconds. >> Arabic proficiency opens doors. Whether students pursue careers in government,
business, journalism, law, education, or other careers, Arabic is a skill that remains both valuable and rare. And that is why this decision is significant. For many students, a public school language program is the only realistic opportunity they will ever have to study
Arabic. I was lucky to be one of the few to find an external program that would support my studies, but most students are limited to the opportunities their schools provide. Uh on behalf of Care Chicago, I urge the board to support the reversal of this decision and to invest in students, including the Lincoln Park
High School Arabic program in the next meeting's agenda as well. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The last speaker on the Arabic program is Feder Rico Luca Masias. Speaker number seven.
>> Uh Dr. Kim, Dr. ASF, members of the board. I am Dr. Federrico Luca Matias, IB Arabic and Spanish teacher at Lincoln Park High School and area A vice president of Chicago teachers union. I am a sphartic Jew from Seville, Spain, home of the foundation of the three
cultures where Muslims, Jews, and Christians coexisted for over seven centuries. In a time of rising anti-semitism and Islamophobia, my profile as an Arabic educator and this program are exactly the bridge Chicago needs. Instead, both are being cut. I am
the only CPS teacher certified in Arabic, Spanish, English, ESL, and bilingual education. I speak five languages. The former CEDO called my profile unique and irreplaceable. Principal Boris um now network 15 chief
promised to sponsor my green card when when he first hired me. That promise restructured my family's life. Now CPS had let my visa expire. My my principal refused a $2760 extension and is forcing me out of the
country in six days. That's not a budget decision. That is betrayal. I initiated Senate joint resolution 50 passed unanimously unanimously by the Illinois uh Senate Education Committee on May 5th declaring Arabic a a state
priority language. Lincoln PR program was cited in the testimony. Walter Pum got a plan to save Latin a dead language. Arabic a federally critical critical living language gets nothing. The enrollment decline was engineered. >> Grant funds redirected. Three school
visits denied thresholds applied selectively. Nearly 2,000 people the size of link compar student body have signed a petition. 16 IB students need to two more years to finish what they started. I'm asking the board for four things. A transparent audit of enrollment practices in 2020 with a
rigorous and unvarnished interpretation of the data. An emergency immigration remedy before June 30th. a funded accountable plan to reintroduce the Arabic program and accountability for the an anti-semitic attack against my family. CPS cannot champion equity while
eliminating the programs that prove it. Acting against its own five-year strategic plan. Add this to the next B agenda. I am calling on the CTU, the city, the state, the US Department of State, and President Sanchez of Spain. My president, this situation has international
repercussions. The board must act to provide a plan. Protect this program. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The next two speakers are from Educators for Excellence, Tatiana Lamin, speaker number three, who's joining us
virtually. Please enter star six to unmute. Hello, good morning. My name is Tatiana Lamin. I'm the proud educator. Uh, I am a proud CPS school graduate turned educator and I currently serve as a special education teacher at McNair
Elementary. I am here to ask a simple question but an important question. Why isn't mental health a priority? Why do we continue to talk about academic achievement, attendance, test scores, and student outcomes without giving some level of attention to the mental health
of the people responsible for achieving those outcomes? Every day, educators across Chicago public schools are expected to do more with less. We are maintaining staffing shortages, increasing workloads, behavioral challenges, um mounting paperwork,
mounting mountains of paperwork, and consistent changes and expectations. We are expected to show up every day with a smile, ready to pour into students while many of us are running on empty. The reality is that stress, burnout, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion have
become normalized in education. Instead of asking why so many educators are struggling, we have accepted these conditions as simply normal part of the job. But they shouldn't be. Students are impacted by what educators carry. They see it, they feel it, and they respond
to it. When teachers are overwhelmed, exhausted, and unsupported, it affects the classroom environment. It infects it affects instruction. It affects relationships. It affects students behavior and student achievement. I know this because I've lived it.
>> As a special education teacher, I've experienced it firsthand that the outcomes of staffing shortages, schedule changes, increasing responsibilities, and the expectation to continually do more without support. There are times when I felt overwhelmed, emotionally
drained. In those moments, I've noticed the impact in my students. They are more anxious, less engaged, and struggle to regulate their own emotions. Yet, when I have had support, the outcome was different. That experience taught me something important. Educators mental
health is not separate from student success. It is directly connected. I ask again, why is mental health why isn't mental health a priority? Why do we wait until educators are burnt out before offering support? Why do we continue
losing talented teachers while discussing teacher teacher shortages? Why do we do expect students to thrive in environment? >> While we do expect students to thrive in environments, the adults supporting them are struggling to survive.
Mental health cannot be a separate thought. It cannot be a slogan. It cannot be something we acknowledge only during awareness campaigns and then ignore the rest of the year. >> Your remarks. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you for your comments. The last speaker from Educators for Excellence is Karina Dema, speaker 26. Um, so I wrote good morning here. I think that was wishful thinking on my part. Um, hello, my name is Karina Dema.
Um, I'm a senior organizer with Educators for Excellence. Um, also a former CPS student, a former CPS teacher, and a current CPS mom. Right. And um I'm standing here with these
individuals, these educators who deserve a voice and deserve to speak more than I do. Right now, we're all united. We're frustrated and we're baffled at the board's lack of
leadership. There was a resolution on this agenda on mental around educator mental health introduced by Carlos Rivas. Thank you, Carlos, for doing that. And it called for a district-wide strategy on educator mental health. It had nothing to do with
teacher contracts or carry any cost on the city's budget. It simply required CPS to have a plan on educator mental health to ensure supports are accessible and for the district to update the board
on progress. It was maybe the most slam dunk issue for this board to take on. But unfortunately, that resolution sounds like not the only one was removed from the agenda on Tuesday. It was removed
after educators and advocates have testified at previous meetings, hosted roundt events, you have 30 seconds on the importance of educator mental health, and we handd delivered to you almost 500 petition signatures.
calling for this resolution. This action has sent a loud and insulting message to every educator in the city of Chicago and many of you have not gone on record explaining why. So today I asked this board to provide the public and the
teachers standing with me one good reason, one good reason why after a year of talking about this issue, why has this board chosen to remove the resolution from the agenda and do nothing? Because we're not going
away until this resolution passes. We're not. even if it means waiting until January when we have a fully elected school board that is ready to govern. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The next three speakers are from Hancock
um High School, Claudia Guerrero Yep. Speaker number four. Hello hello every Hello. Hello everyone. My name is Claudia Guerrero Yep, former 2024-25 LSE parent representative at Hancock College
Prep. I am a recently elected LSC community representative and I'm hoping to take my seat on July 1st. I say hoping to take my seat because for the last seven months I have found myself in legal litigation with the principal of Hancock College Prep. Litigation that was brought on by the principal via a
petition filed against me for a stalking no contact order which if granted would proit prohibit me from taking my newly elected seat on the local school council. On a Saturday afternoon in November, the Chicago the Cook County Sheriff's Office officers arrived at my
doorstep to serve me with a set with said petition. Before I even read the documents, I knew exactly what the principal's angle was. It is a scare tactic to keep me from serving on the local school council at Hancock by whatever means necessary. It is not because I pose a physical threat. It is
because I am her loudest critic. While on the LSC, I questioned her spending habits, her hiring practices, and I held her accountable for her actions or lack thereof. This action is not the only resistance or disrespectful action I have experienced by this administrator. Since her tenure began, I have been
openly accused of being a racist for simply questioning her decisions. I've been accused of bringing gossip to the LSC meeting when in fact I was bringing genuine parent concerns to what was occurring in schools. If what I mentioned is not enough, she had the audacity to challenge my LSD candidate
application trying to prevent me from running in a free election back in March, an election which I might add resulted in me having the highest number of votes 30 seconds >> wide LSC election which total 213 votes for a single candidate. Her actions continued to be nothing more than re
retaliatory tactics similar to those used against teachers, staff, and students. Members of this board, while I understand that none of you played a direct role for what I'm about to say, know that your actions moving forward will scream volumes about your true dedication to our students, staff, families as a whole. I stand before you
today questioning how is possible that back in 2016, despite CPS having received a recommendation from the Office of Inspector General for this administrator to not only be terminated, but also be given a permanent do not hire classification, how CPS did just the opposite and continue to employ her.
I can't help but wonder, had CPS followed the OIG's recommendation, would I be standing before you sharing my story? Definitely not. The rest of the statement will be emailed to every single one of you. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. The next speaker is Andrew Martinick,
speaker number six, who's joining us virtually. Please enter star six to unmute. Uh thank you uh members of the board. Uh it's uh been a pleasure to recognize uh over the course of this year that one
thing uh all members of this board seem to be unified around is a commitment to good governance and empower democratic school communities. Um, you know, I recently uh attended a uh budget uh feedback session uh and uh while I
appreciated that opportunity to uh use my voice and and and have uh some say in this process, um as a local school council member, uh I feel like that I should I and all the other local school
council members across the city should have had a more integral uh voice within that process. Um we kind of got to the budget very late.
Uh we didn't really see what the school uh budget was going to look like and had so many questions. Uh but we really didn't see it until we were at the table in a position where we had to approve the budget uh with a general narrative
that if we don't approve it, well CPS is just going to put the money online anyway. So, uh, and I'm I'm wondering if that is in the spirit of the Illinois school code that gives LSC's and PLC's, uh, influence and and, uh, advice
>> on all matters of the educational program, including but not limited to the budget, school improvement, and curriculum. Um, so I would propose that next year we have a uh we have a
timeline that whereby we get a draft budget by March 30th. We have an April meeting where we can uh set guidelines and and priorities for that final d school-based budget. We can look at that in May, make suggestions, send it back
to the drawing board and work in collaboration with the principal so that by June we can finalize a budget that we are actually confident about and not be like shoved a document in our faces where we have to cut the heads off of members of our family and send them uh
out on the street looking for work. That is what we need. So, uh, if you could please work on that timeline improvement for next year. Uh, and, uh, there have been so many shenanigans around L. >> Uh, I'll be emailing you all, uh, some
suggestions that we can, uh, implement to fix those situations moving forward. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The last speaker from Hancock is Alexander Angel, speaker number 10. Good afternoon, members of the board. I
am here today as a proud 2026 alumni and former LSC student representative of Jan John Hanok College Prep. Over the past year, I have had a front row seat to how decisions are made within my school. And unfortunately, what I witnessed often contradicted the values of transparency, representation, and democracy that
Hancock proudly claims to uphold. I watch vacancies on the LSC remained unresolved for months while representation suffered. I watch concerns regarding election fairness and equal treatment raised by students only to be brushed aside by the administration of the school. I watch student candidates struggle to participate in election forums and
efforts to find reasonable accom accommodations discouraged rather than supported by the administration of the school. I watch criticisms treated as a uh as a problem instead of addressing the concerns being raised by the administration of the school. And throughout it all, I learned a difficult
lesson. Student voice is often celebrated when it's convenient, but challenged when it becomes uncomfortable. As a student representative, I was elected to advocate for students. Yet, there was moments when advocating for students was treated as though it was somehow outside the scope of my role. Students were
encouraged to participate, but only so so long as their part participation did not challenge those in position of authority. That is meaningful engagement. That is not democracy. And that brings uh me to our school nurse uh Yolanda Moreno. Before any controversy,
before any complaints, before any accusations, nurse Moreno was simply the person student trusted. She was a person students went to when they were struggling. She was a person who listened when others would not. There were difficult moments in my own life when nurse Moreno provided support, guidance that helped me get through
challenges I was facing as a student. That is who she is, which is why her peers overwhelmingly elected her to serve on the LSC as a non-staff representative. The voters spoke clearly. Yet today, many students, parents, alumni, and community members believe they are watching efforts unfold that could ultimately remove her from the very position she was elected to
hold. Whether intentional or not, the p perception is devastating because democracy only works when people trust that their votes matter. When an elected representative appears to be pushed out of out after winning an election, that trust is damaged. I'm asking this board to look carefully at what at what has
happened at Hancock. I'm currently running on three hours of sleep after a combined 20- hour shift at my two jobs with only a combined 2 and a half hour lunch break. And I'm only 18. Yet, I'm still here today upon the board because issues like these worry me. They make me worry sick about a school that gave me opportunities and a home. So, I ask to
look at concerns students have raised. Look at concerns parents have raised. Look at the concerns community members have raised. And please do everything within your authority to protect the integrity of the democratic process and support Nurse Moreno's ability to serve the community that elected her. For years, Norse Mareno stood by Hanok. Today Hancock is trying to stand by her
by her. I hope this board too will too. Thank you. >> Thank you for your remarks. >> The next speaker is Victoria Parker, speaker number five, who's joining us virtually. Please enter star six to unmute. >> Good afternoon. My name is Vicki Parker
and I'm a parent in Aberture Elementary School and a current LSC member. I'm speaking today because we are concerned that many schools continue to identify significant differences between their allocated special education staff and the actual services federally regul
required by students IEPs. We seek greater transparency regarding the formulas used to determine special education staffing allocations and clarification of the current appeal process to ensure that schools have the resources necessary to meet students
legal mandated IEP services from the first day of school. At Ebinger, our PIN principal shared last year that for the four last four years in a row, our school has funded 12 special education teachers, thoroughly justified by CPS's
own mathematical formula. This year, that number has been reduced to 10 without any explanation, despite the fact that the population of special education students at Ebinger grew 15% from fall of 2025 to spring of 2026.
Historically, schools could review allocations and appeal these errors, but there appears to be no appeal process at this time, leaving us with the decision to potentially lay teachers off that we know we need just to go through the hiring process again, potentially with
an entirely new staff. This is disruptive to the students. It's unfair to the teachers and it leaves us unable to meet the IEP minutes legally. If services are not delivered, families may pursue complaints, due process services, or outside placements. I respectfully
ask the board to provide greater transparency regarding how these special education staffing allocations are calculated, what appeal process exists when the schools believe allocations do not reflect student needs, and what steps CPS is taking to ensure that schools are appropriately staffed to
deliver legally mandated services from the first day of school. Thank you for your time and commitment to Chicago students. >> Thank you for your comments. The next speaker is Jaylen Teague, speaker number eight, who is joining us virtually.
Please enter star six to unmute. >> Okay. Hi, my name is Jaylen Teague and I am a former student of Styman College Prep. I am here because I am concerned about efforts to remove a ethnic studies class from my old school.
As a former student, I saw firsthand how this class encouraged critical thinking, meaningful discussions, and respect for others. It gave me a space to learn about experiences that are often left out of traditional curriculum, and it
helped me and many other students feel seen and respected in their education. This class is not a problem. Is an opportunity to better understand diverse communities that they live in and interact with every day.
Removing this class from the school will be a mistake. When educational opportunities help students grow, connect with their communities and become more informed citizens. We should be expanding them, not eliminating them. I I respectfully ask the board to um
reject this decision and listen to the voices of the students and former former students who have benefited from this course. Decisions about education should be made based on what helps students learn and succeed. And this class I feel
has did exactly that. I'm asking you today to protect this program and ensure that future sty students have access to the same educational opportunities. >> Thank you for your comments. The next three speakers are from Chicago High School for the Arts, Alexander Cookman,
speaker number nine. Hello, my name is Alex Cookman. I'm a social science teacher at Shy Arts High School. I want to start by acknowledging the restoration of four academic teaching positions at our school. These lynchpin roles will help move us towards a more functional academic schedule.
Thank you. I am still here because our work is not yet done. As the district struggles against financial headwinds, the board is faced with difficult choices and so is our whole school community. What I'm asking you all to consider is that the fiscally responsible choice is to pay the upfront
cost of maintaining our school with the conservatory intact rather than allowing it to fall apart in the hopes of rebuilding it down the road. What are we asking families to choose at this moment? Students left school on the last day without a schedule in their hands
and no clear idea of how the course offerings next year will compare to what they've known except to say that they will be diminished. We know students want to attend Shy Arts, but have we maintained the bridge that will allow them to cross over? What are we asking
donors to support in this moment? There is certainly no shortage of people who would like to share the expense of operating Shy Arts with the district. The school has raised over $40 million since its inception and maintains a robust alumni network. Those donors did not just disappear when the Shy Arts
board dissolved itself. But have we maintained the bridge that will encourage them to follow us? You've heard this week from a small sampling of our Chicago area arts partners like Color Club, the Goodman Theater, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. >> 30 seconds remaining. >> These connections have been cultivated
through our unique model. A study just released today by the Arts Alliance Illinois showed that the creative sector is Chicago's third largest industry. Our teaching artists are the bridge between Chicago public schools and a world of professional opportunities for our
students. Will we let that structure collapse in the hopes that someday we'll be better able to afford another one? I appreciate the voice concerned about ensuring Shyart's long-term sustainability, but the body that made Shy Arts unsustainable announced its own
dissolution last October. What sustains and connects our wide-ranging school community of students, parents, teachers, artists, philanthropists, art, and community organizations is the conservatory program. And I want to thank member Blae for her resolution and
encourage you all to support it. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The next speaker is Gast Gustavo Cortina, speaker number 15, who is joining us virtually. Please enter star six to unmute. Gustavo Cortinez,
please enter star six to unmute. Hello. >> Please proceed. >> Thank you. >> Greetings board members. My name is Gustavo Cortinz. I'm an internationally acclaimed drummer, composer, producer,
and educator. I have had the privilege of teaching at Chart since 22 22. As I mentioned last time, I was deeply honored to be named the Chicago one of the year in jazz for 2025 by the Chicago Tribune. I want to begin by thanking you for demonstrating some commitment to SH
arts, its conservatory, and the pre-professional arts education model by offering 20 positions for teaching artists to continue to share their knowledge, passion, and expertise with the youth of our city. Unfortunately, this is not enough for us to preserve what makes Shy Arts exceptional. The
last time I spoke before this board, I focused on the big picture. Today, I want to talk about the details that create the big picture. In reference to safe shy arts, I worry that we are beginning to blur together programs that were intentionally designed to be specialized. If we lose those
specialized programs, then the larger vision of SI art ceases to exist in the form that has made it so successful. Take the music conservatory as an example. We currently have 14 teaching artists. Some of our instructors teach only one class a week, three hours of
training total. Why is that necessary? Because we offer specialized art education. We do not desire to be a jack of all trades, master of none. Our students and parents seek us for this specialization because it offers a pre-professional level in a tuitionfree
setting that is not typically replicated in public education. Our students learn from master practitioners, >> pianists, string players, brass players, woodwin specialists, percussion instruments and artists, jazz vocalists, opera singers, musical theater professionals, jazz artists, and
classical musicians. Each bring years of professional experience and deep expertise in a specific discipline. Every one of our conservatories is constructed in this same way. We have teachers that are specialist in culture, stage combat, journalism, ballet, and more. I urge you to help preserve this
model. Specialized pre professional arts education delivered by practicing experts is not an accessorient. It is its identity. It is the reason students come here. It is the reason families choose the school and it is the reason shy arts has become such an important part of Chicago's cultural
community. Shy arts cannot remain shy arts if the specialized programs that sustain it are gradually diminished. Please help us preserve it. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. The last speaker from the Chicago High School for the Arts group is Megan Pet, speaker 25.
>> Good afternoon. My name is Megan Pet. I'm an English teacher at Shy Arts and the Union Council Chair. As July 1st approaches and our school turns over to district management, it is important that all stakeholders value community voice and institutional knowledge in
decision-making. As a teacher leader in the building for the last several years, I have been a part of choosing many new leaders, helping build policies and procedures, and creating plans for transitions and supports between rotating new leaders in our building.
Many of my co-workers come with even more experience than me, and their wealth of knowledge in curriculum, systems, and operations is the reason that our school is so enticing to students, parents, and staff across the city. In my role as council chair, I
collaborate with many kinds of school leaders in our building and at the bargaining table. From my perspective, the best kinds of school leaders know and understand teachers and staff are their best source of data. Teachers spend the most amount of time with the
people that we all hope to impact the most positively, students. When we can't get to students, teachers can help us see what we need to see. When teachers are celebrating something, we should all celebrate. And when teachers are sounding the alarm, we should listen. It
really is that simple. Shy arts staff, students, and community members continue to come to this space because we are concerned that CPS leaders are not listening enough to our community about this transition. >> You have 30. do not believe the plans being made for our students in regards
to our staffing, scheduling and overall model um not only does not serve our students according to the mission and vision they signed up for, but we also do not believe it will offer enough options for students when it is scheduled into our student system. This is not something I say lightly and it is
not something that I take pleasure in saying. It is something that we need to collaborate on together and our staff wants to help but we feel that CPS leaders are not interested in our input as a school community. This fundamentally disrupts support for our students and our school. Please
collaborate with us so that we can help. We want to. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. >> The next speaker is Wendy Wearten, speaker number 12, who is joining us virtually. Please enter star six to unmute.
>> Good afternoon. My name is Wendy Weingarten and I'm the proud athletic director at Disney 2 High School. I'm here to talk about the reality of being a CPS athletic director and the unsustainable crisis we are currently facing. Right now, there is a fundamental disconnect between what the
office of sports administration expects and what it actually takes to run a program. OSA is implementing changes to the structure of the athletic director role that will prevent more than 50 high school ads from continuing to serve as ADs. Half the high schools in CPS will
lose their AD. Unfortunately, our positions have been handled with mismanagement and disrespect by CPSOSA. OSA has baselessly withheld, delayed, and denied payment for our work and unilaterally changed long-standing
practices essential to the smooth operation of sports. When we ask for clarity, we're met with radio silence or severely delayed responses. This disorganization has caused an unprecedented exodus. Excellent ads,
elementary liaison, and coaches are leaving the district or stepping away from athletics entirely. Now OSA has told principles at roughly 75% of our high schools that they may no longer use a stipened in AD. Instead, OSA directed
these schools that they must hire full-time ADs. And while negotiations are still ongoing, OSA is continuing to pay full-time ads at a salary rate that is on average roughly 35% lower than a teacher's salary. So any teacher serving
as a staff was told they can stay in their position if they're willing to take a pay cut of 35% or more. OSA needs to understand that an AB's job does not start when teachers return in August. We must be on a 228day contract. Those 20
additional days in the summer are when the real groundwork is laid before a single whistle blows for a fall sport. We as ads are meticulously checking physicals and grades for every single student athlete. We're ensuring coaches credentials are fully up to-date and we're mapping out complex practice
schedules. OSA seems to think you can't be both an AD and a coach. But there is a long-standing past practice of this taking place. 85% of us do both. Neither the teams we coach nor the athletic departments we oversee have suffered. And our school administrators will
gladly attest to this. OSA is refusing to pay ads who coach for entire seasons with their principal approval. Now, those of us who will have to leave these roles will be the ones to ask to help the new hires. And of course, we will. Why? Because we built these programs. And we refuse to let our student
athletes suffer. They need athletics. We know that. But our dedication should not be taken advantage of. It's time for our athletic directors to be treated like the leaders we are. >> We are We deserve consistency. We deserve clear communication. And above all, we deserve to be respected and
fairly compensated for the vital work we do. Thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you for your comments. The next speaker is Dennis Dennis Belafer, speaker number 13. >> Hello Dr. King and board members. Um, I
am a retired teacher and administrator with Chicago public schools, which provided me an amazing life, an amazing opportunity to serve students and the community. I love CPS. I can't tell you how much. And I turned 80 in October.
So, Dr. King, I ask you to adopt me as a spiritual or as a CPS grandpa, will you? because I what I'm going to share with you may not be may be hard for you to handle a little bit. Okay? And it has to do what I watched to you on TV um and
you were being asked about uh pro providing information to fifth grade students about beta blockers. No, I'm excuse me that's I'm think I'm thinking about me. I I I take beta blockers. I'm thinking about hormone blockers. And I
thought about the best the greatest com um uh compliment that I ever received as an educator was from Earl, a little boy in 1995 when I was teaching at Einstein School in the ID Welsh housing projects. And he said, "Mr. Beler, if you ever
die, I hope I I I never want another teacher." Well, when I listened to you and what you said about your hand about about that CPS implemented implements the idea about educating fifth graders
about hormone blockers. I wonder do she really believe that or are her hands tied by the stage? >> 30 seconds remaining. >> Imagine she has a grandpa now. So then I thought of a scripture and this is not easy for me to say this. Jesus was talking about children and he said
stumbling blocks will come but woe to those who are stumbling blocks who hurt kids. And think about I think the correlation fifth graders being taught about hormone blockers and what it means to be a
stumbling block. Please take that into consideration. I know you care for kids and I'm telling you this as a grandpa. I've have more than 50 years in education and like I said, I turned 80 in August. So, I speak to you from a
grandpa heart and please adopt me as a grandpa, a CPS grandpa. Thank you. And think about what you're doing with providing fifth graders with what it meaners.
I'm sorry. It just really hurts me. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The next two speakers are from Walter Payton College Preparatory High School. Suzanne Bish 14. Speaker number 14. Members of the board, um first of all, thank you for hiring Dr. King.
>> If you can please speak into the microphone. I can. Yep. >> Members of the board, thank you for hiring Dr. King. I have been impressed when she took over a very during a very uncertain time with grace and thoughtfulness and a lot of transparency which I think was lacking. Um I attended
the board budget meetings. I have attended uh the focus group meetings and the community sessions that Dr. King put on and sat with parents and students and teachers from across the city. It was a wonderful opportunity. We all care about the same things. Um, there was clear
agreement, as this board notes, from those community focus groups, keep cuts out of our classrooms. Um, last year, this board passed a budget from Dr. King that did just that. Thank you. Um, this year's proposed budget does not honor that commitment to keep cuts out of our
classrooms. To the contrary, this year's budget by increasing the teacher funding ratio to 22 um, has led to devastating teacher cuts in every school across CPS. um to illustrate the impact in my school. My kids are blessed to attend,
Walter Payton. Um a terrific school, the number one school in in the state, one of the top 10 in the country. Um but also has a CTE program, um which also has a cluster program. Um which also has a 40% of students with unstable housing and who need food assistance. Um Payton,
contrary to uh popular opinion, receives less funding discretionary per student than other schools, most other schools. Um but this budget eliminates funding for two core teachers um and three special ed teachers. >> As a result, uh Payton is losing a
science teacher in a school that has the best science program in the state. Uh we're losing important, insightful, engaging arts programs, language programs. um the Asian program, African-American lit, uh queer lit, uh
uh Latino studies are all at risk. Things that teach our kids, um the real American history as well as keep them engaged and seen. Um upper level math and science courses are at risk in a school that puts kids in the best
schools uh in the country. The undeniable success of Payton students is a powerful counter uh to the baseless national attacks on this city, on our schools and other schools are also increasing with the funding that we've been given and the support that you all have given the last few remarks.
>> There's strong gains that are at risk. Um we can't risk a setback. We don't have any more to give. Um our parents are we can't volunteer anymore. We can't give anymore in this inflation. Our teachers are are burning the candle at both ends. Um, I know the city gave a $500 million in TIFF revenue. Let's not
pay any pension back. I implore you to restore student uh per teacher ratio and to have a budget that fully funds and protects our classroom and our st students. I know the budget guru and Dr. King and this board can do it. Thank you so much.
>> Thank you for your comments. The last speaker from Walter Payton College Preparatory High School is Kev Basics. U speaker 21. Hello Chicago Board of Education members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you all today. My name is Kev Basic and I've come as
representative of Walter Payton's Latin community to address the impending impacts of the CPS budget cuts. As a result of said budget cuts and the diminished esser funds, Peyton will no longer offer Latin one, four, and AP next year. In the coming school years, Peyton will only offer Latin one and
two, cutting our teachers position to halfime and effectively eliminating the program. At a competitive school where the majority of students will take a language for four years due to the academic benefits that come with it. Latin has become an integral part of
Walter Payton Prep, helping students find a passion in an unusual place and build lifelong connections and allowing them to pursue Latin later on in their careers. While this issue extends beyond just the Latin classes at Payton, the destruction of such a unique and exclusive four-year program, usually
only offered at elite private schools, is a testament to what the future of CPS will look like if this budget crisis continues. Bleak and characterized by an inability to thoroughly provide for their students. The dismantling of such a program not only affects the students of the class, but the numerous
extracurriculars that are tied to it, such as a Rome trip that gives students a usually exclusive experience. The National Latin Honor Society and Cretammen, a Latin competition that Payton historically performs extremely well in. In addition, schools all across Chicago face similar situations where
they have to sacrifice programs that give students life-changing opportunities just so their schools can survive. Currently, we Payton Latin students face numerous obstacles in our 30 seconds Latin program, including challenges with fundraising and administrative efforts. We have no way to fund raise for the position properly
due to the conflicting information and lack of a clear path. I come here to request that the board try their best to offer solution to this predicament, which includes giving us necessary information to fund raise and to help us figure out a method to restore this program, paving the way for other schools and programs to do the same. We
have submitted handouts electronically that give more information on the situation. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. >> Thank you for your comments. >> The next two speakers are from Noble Schools. Lorna Ortiz, speaker number 16,
who's joining us virtually. Please enter star 6 to unmute. Lorna Ortiz, speaker number 16, please enter star six to unmute. BPS board members and superintendent King. My name is Lauren Ortiz. I'm a
parent of advisory council at ITW of Spear Academy. I'm also a PAL CPS employee for the past eight years. I have worked as a special education classroom assistant. Most importantly, I'm a parent. I currently have a rising senior at Spear
who is a student athlete and thriving. Today, I'm asking the board to commit to a process that includes chartered school parents, staff students, and community members as you consider voting on your legislative agenda. My voice should be included, too. My family's journey with
charter schools began because of choice. Both of my children have attended charter schools, but we started as CPS schools that we loved. It only served students through sixth grade. So when it was time for the next step, I had to look elsewhere to find school that met
my family's needs. That search led us to CICs Bucktown and later to Noble's ITW Spear Academy. For us, it came down to having options and access to quality education. My children are hardworking students, but they're not great
standardized test takers. There are so many seats avail there are only so many seats available in selective enrollment schools and students who do not pass into those programs should not be denied access to strong schools. I know you're voting on your legislative agenda but the resolution about charter schools
that is guiding one of the pieces of this agenda was not created with charter school parents. >> You have 30 seconds remaining >> facts and all the sides of the conversation. This is what democracy is. Everyone has an experience that we
deserve to share. You cannot create something that impacts our kids without hearing from all sides. So again, when you're thinking about a CPS legislative agenda, I ask that you create a process to work with and hear directly from my charter school community. We are partners. Partners are supposed to work
together. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The last speaker from Noble Schools is speaker um Ellen Moini, speaker 24. Good morning board uh and Superintendent
King. Excuse me. My name is Ella Moyani, Nobles director. Oh my good. Sorry. without water for a while. Yes, please. Rethink that policy. Thanks for pausing. Appreciate it. My
name is Ala Moyani, Noble's Director of Government Affairs. It's good to see all of you today despite my voice. And I'm joined by Noble's new uh director of family engagement, Dr. Cortez M McCoy. We're excited to have him. And for those who
I've had the pleasure of meeting with, I hope to meet with you all. Um, you also know I'm a former educator, an educational advocate with over 17 years of experience. 12 of those years have been here in Chicago. In all of my roles
that I've partnered, I partnered closely with families. And without this partnership, I wouldn't be the educator or advocate I've grown to be. That is why I'm here today to discuss the board's proposed legislative agenda. When reviewing the legislative agenda, we noticed that the only specific policy
priority listed was charter school regulations. The agenda states that in response to the board's May 2025 resolution, CPS will continue pursuing legislation regarding charter school contracts and charter school closings. If CPS is
asking Springfield to enact laws that will reshape how charter schools operate, then all our charter communities should have a seat at the table before those proposals move forward. >> Families, educators, and students deserve the opportunity to share their experiences, raise concerns, and help
shape policies that affect their all of them. This resolution underscored this board's desire to pursue policy changes that could negatively impact us, like I said, and they may affect our ability to have results for our families. Just yesterday, we released a blog post
with the result achievements of the class of 2026, 2756 seniors that got 744 million in scholarship dollars and 17,7,700 college acceptances. That's hard work
from families, teachers, students. So, I respectfully ask this board to commit to a formal engagement process that includes all charter school parents, staff, students, and community members when considering any type of policy,
resolution, or state legislation, and Noble is ready to be a partner. Thank you so much. >> Thank you for your comments. >> Thank you for this, too. >> The next speaker is Ryan Kelly, speaker 17. Uh, good afternoon. My name is Ryan
Kelly. I'm a CPS parent of two students, an educator and an ALSC member at Chicago Academy High School. First and foremost, we call on you to intensify your leadership in the fight for full funding to our district. I implore you
to lead CEO King, CTU, and CPS families in advocating in Springfield and at all levels of government for an adequate education for our children. The state of Illinois itself suggests that an additional 1.6 billion is needed for
next school year. Please publicly rally parents, educators, students, and community members to join the chorus of voices demanding fully funded schools. Public schools deserve full public funding. On a local level, some schools are disproportionately feeling the
impact of these budget cuts. Chicago Academy High School is a medium-sized school, facing the elimination of six positions. If this budget isn't corrected, the majority of seniors, including all seniors with learning disabilities, will no longer have access to science. The formula penalizes
schools with teacher retention. We're losing a science teacher of six years. Hundreds of students signed a petition to retain this teacher. With the cuts of these six educators from the classroom, we're also losing the varsity baseball coach, the chess coach, the Palms coach,
the black student union sponsor. Six is too many, one is too many. In addition, the athletic director is no longer to be a classroom teacher, further separating the athlete from the student. The impact to school and the school experience will
be profound. Finally, private fundraising efforts to fill budget gaps exacerbates inequities across schools. Public school families should not have to fund raise to support essentials. As a CPS parent with students in both scenarios, I have witnessed the
firsthand disparities in private fundraising and how funds are allocated unevenly to predominantly white schools and affluent communities compared to my other child's school in a predominantly Latino and lower income community. The issues we will face will only be
fixed through the funding our school uh through fully funding our schools. We call on your leadership as a body and as individuals to fight for the schools your students deserve. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. >> The next speaker is Peter Collins,
speaker 23. Good morning. My name is Peter Collins and I teach 9th grade English at a Sarasota High School. With this board facing a $732 million deficit, let me tell you what charter operators do with your money and my money since I'm a Chicago homeowner. Almost 99 cents of
every dollar they spend is public money. Money this district gave them to educate children. Here's what Asero did with it. At the very board meeting where they announced they were closing seven schools mid-contract, Asero also voted to buy a plot of land with that public money because that's their pattern. They take public tax dollars and turn it into
private assets that they control. This is not money going to kids in classroom. It's in the stock market. And now, two weeks after you renew their charter for five more years, Asero says it will cut every single B bilingual resource teacher in the district. I teach freshmen and next year's incoming uh
freshman class, we have 98 English language learner students out of a total of 145. 15 of those require level one services. These are students from Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela, Guatemala, and other places. Uh, these will be the youngest students in the building and they will have no one to teach them the
basic remedial English skills that the state and federal government requires CPS schools to offer. $53 million in the bank. That's what Aero has, but not one penny for teachers. You are paying you are paying off a
charter's real estate debt and padding their stock portfolio, letting them sit on piles of cash while you cut resources from your own schools. This is not fiscal common sense. It's the opposite. Board member Rosenfeld, board member Kuster, board member Bole, last year you
talked about how spending money to save schools was a bad use of taxpayer dollars. Is $53 million sitting in the stock market a good use of taxpayer dollars? You have a financial imperative, not just a moral one, to insist that public tax dollars, our
dollars are used to educate children, not to inflate the real estate and stock portfolio of our charter operators. The fact that you are allowing them to do this 2 weeks after signals how seriously they take your orders of compliance.
Please act before it's too late and don't require all of our ESL students to receive no services the entire year. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. The next three speakers are from Corless High School, Kenneth Johnson, speaker 19
Good afternoon all CEO superintendent Dr. King the board and uh congrats to honorary board member Singleton. Uh my name is Kenneth Johnson native Chicago and athletic director at Corless High School. My life has been defined by service. That's why I'm here this afternoon. Between my family and my
professions, I've experienced nearly every educational model our city has to offer. I didn't come here to defend one system over another. I came here to defend our children. At Corless, we've refused to make excuses. Despite shrinking resources, consistent budget cuts, and limited general support, our
students succeed. We've we have a bunch of different athletic accolades. We send our students off to state play. We've won STEM uh STEM competitions, expanded early college opportunities, that's trans translated to four college graduates while in high school during school year 26, two during school year
25, one during school year 24 that recently graduated from U of I and many others with collegiate credits. And we will continue to choose our children over excuses. Like most schools in CPS, Corus isn't asking for special treatment. We're asking for stewardship. Whether the stakeholders across the city
agree with the the charters and colllocated campuses like ours is no longer the question. We're here. The question is whether we're going to steward them responsibly. If we're going to share one public building, your policies on shared facilities, safety, transparency, procurement, and accountability must exist in practice,
not just on paper. From where I stand currently, our building roommate has an approximately $86,000 construction project moving forward inside one of our shared spaces in our CPS facility without a competitive vendor bidding process being performed by non CPS
vendors, hiring out ofstate third-party non- vendor contractors on CPS property, and without the coordination of our engineer staff. I watched a community space serving students, RTC families, and community events nearly become the office for only one of our roommates
administrators and take and took Coralus investing $20,000 to preserve it for students in the community. Those are only two examples of the myriad of egregious acts of disregard, misconduct, or lack of oversight within our building that is known by those paygrades of far beyond those in our building. We're
often told we don't control them, and those aren't CPS dollars because they're charter dollars. But every dollar add allocated to a charter school is still a public investment made on behalf of Chicago's children. CPS authorizes these schools. CPS allocates those public funds to those schools. CPS charges an
oversight fee from from the very money allocated to them from CPS budget. My question is simple. What oversight are our children receiving in return? Oversight isn't bureaucracy. Oversight isn't how we protect ch Oversight is how we protect children, public dollars, and public trust. This isn't simply a
charter issue. It isn't simply a neighborhood school issue. It's a stewardship issue. It's a leadership issue. These aren't isolated issues. These are symptoms of a larger question. Are we making decisions based on what's easiest for for the adults or what's best for the children? In education, I I
hear the same phrase over and over again. These kids, every time I hear it, I ask myself, when did the adults in the room stop looking in the mirror and start blaming the people they serve? It's not the kids, it's us. It's the parents, the coaches, the mentors, the educators, the administrators, the executives, the boards, the politicians.
It's us. These children didn't build the system. They're inheriting it. While granted, this board and the CEO inherited these problems and didn't build this system, this is the opportunity to change to be change agents. I'll close out with this. Let's ask ourselves two questions. Do these
budget decisions provide necessary rigor, make life safer, fairer, and healthier for our children? and doesn't move our our society forward by nurturing and sending elite Chicagoans out to positively change the world. Because the children didn't inherit the future we promised them, they inherit
the future we build for them. Let's build one we can all be proud of. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The next speaker is Marshan Donigan, speaker 20. Good afternoon board. I speak to you today to address the colllocation of Corless Early College STEM High School
and Butler Charter School. To be frank, this arrangement was practically engineered to create inequality. Let's look at the facts. We are not playing by the same rules. Butler Charter gets a selected student body while Corass opens its doors to every single child within
our attendance boundaries. So Butler can push students out from misbehavior, but Coralus has to embrace them and work to build them up. This is an uneven playing field titled heavily to favor charter schools in the areas that matter most funding, resources, and space. Yet
against all odds, Corus remains to be a force to be reckoned with. Our early college program is thriving, sending graduates into the world with associate degrees and college credits. Our athletic teams just brought home the city conference championships and four
different sports this year. And we did it all with one gym while other schools have two. Alongside the charter school next door, essentially we are doing more with less. Less funding, less space, and fewer resources. Now our renters want the
public to believe that Corus is underutilized. Yet we use every single classroom on our side of the building. And think about that for a minute. A school that has stood proudly in our community for over 50 years with a legacy of prestigious alumni and has
degenerated to a mere side. This decision was made by CPS without a shred of community feedback. Enough is enough. This lopsided arrangement cannot continue. Butler is now requesting more
space operating under the assumption that Corers should just put our visions aside to accommodate them enrolling more students than what they can afford to keep into their own space. So CPS needs to step in now to ensure that future
memorandums of understanding protect community schools. We're asking them to end these future agreements to include strict enrollment caps on renters, a what you see is what you get space policy, mandatory community sports, and explicit restoration clauses. Or high
school is not a landlord, and we are certainly not an afterthought. We are the bedrock of our community. And for over a half a century, we have anchored the neighborhood and we refuse to shrink so that uh so that a charter school can
grow. It is time for CPS to stop prioritizing private interests over public promises. Our space, respect our legacy, and give Corus the room to breathe, grow, and continue to win because at Corus, our
students are elite. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The last speaker from Corus High School is Tyrone Law, speaker 30. Good afternoon, esteemed members of the board of education. I am Dr. Tyron Laws, de facto chair of the corus LSC. It is
the desire of many corus stakeholders to dismantle our shared facility agreement with board with Butler College Prep. We know the board has a responsibility to optimize building space, but our colllocated charter school now outpaces our enrollment at a 2:1 ratio.
Consequently, our community feels that this is a marketdriven metric being used to justify a slow displacement of Corass High School. Corass has gladly welcomed Butler into its share spaces from our athletic teams to our auditorium. However, as Butler's footprint expands
into the hallways and dance studios and building modifications occur without our principal knowledge, the collaborative balance has dissolved. This oversaturation proves that Butler has outgrown a shared model. For both student bodies to succeed, the solution
is not the gradual displacement of Corass, but securing an independent facility that fully accommodate accommodates Butler's size. If enrollment numbers are the justification for this displacement, please understand that this is a major equity failure. Corus is restricted to a local
neighborhood boundary while Butler can draw from across the entire city. Using their cross country cross boundary numbers to strip a localized STEM school of autonomy over its primary facilities is inherently unjust. Corass provides a disproportionate share of student
services while achieving immense success. We are the only STEM school in the area. We host a drone program 30 seconds. Uh our teams are league champions in four sports. Four of our students recently made the news for earning their associates degree. If we cannot
dismantle this agreement, it must be audited, restructured to prioritize equity and not just economic efficiency. Future plans must ensure that renting tenants contribute equity to overhead and support staff. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you for your comments. The next
speaker is David Bryant, speaker 28. And I'm sorry, this is the last speaker from the speakers list. Good afternoon to CEO Dr. King and to this prestigious board and to all present at this most important meeting.
I am Dr. David Bryan Jr., pastor of Alan Metropolitan Christian Methodist Episcopal Church located in the Rosland community on the far south side of the city. I also serve as founder and executive director of Rosland
neighborhood community organization. I stand to speak on behalf of our children and in support of the CPS premier safe haven faith-based program which is without a doubt one of the solutions to the overwhelming problems
our school district is presently facing. The safe haven program provides a mirage of services in our that are essential to the well-being of our children and families. In December 2010, our safe haven program was birthed partnering
with principal Sandra Berright and Dun still steel academy which is located in the backyard of our church for over 16 years. Our safe haven program has provided safe passage for the children escorting them from the school cafeteria
to the church fellowship hall. Students from single parents homes are now in college as a testimony of the success of of the program. The program provides a numerous essential wraparound services addressing needs such as food and
security, tutorial services. You >> have 30 seconds remaining. >> Music instruction, computer technology, chess, cultural enrichment, etc. The program also taps into the wealth of human resources, wisdom, academic knowledge, and experience that are
inherent within the faith-based community. And finally, this program, finally, this program addresses the high incarceration rate of our community because there's a direct direct correlation between poor education and
incarceration. And therefore, we must put the bulk of our resources, financial and human resources on the front end. Frederick Douglas stated, "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." Therefore, I urge this
board and pray that you will look at the budget. You will increase and sustain funding for the CPS faith-based safe haven program for sustainability and so that we can leave no child ever behind.
God bless and thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Vice President Vez, we also have an elected official who would like to address the board, assistant majority leader and chair of the House Executive Committee, Ann Williams of the 11th
District who is joining us virtually. Please enter star six to unmute. >> Hi there. Good afternoon everyone. Uh this is Ann Williams, state representative from the north side of Chicago. And I just wanted now that session is adjourned, we adjourned on
May 31st, just to make a couple points um that I wanted to share with you all. First of all, um a big thank you to all the individual board members that came to Springfield to uh meet with me and other members of the Chicago delegation
and others to urge support for some of the legislative priorities of CPS. It was really refreshing to see everyone down there and I think a real uh indicator of um you know the great things that are happening at the board level. I also wanted to just take a
moment to um thanks uh give my thanks to Superintendent King and um her whole legislative team for their very um visible and engaging presence in Springfield this year. Certainly we face
state, city level, county um and beyond um significant budgetary challenges, but I always felt that the team and Dr. King herself were accessible, engaged, and available with information, resources, etc. And that is something that we don't
always see um from the school board and and now we've really seen that change in the last few years. So, I'm really grateful for that collaborative approach and just wanted to again commit uh to a continued partnership with all of you as we work to make sure the Chicago public
schools are the best they can be. And again, thank you for your time and your service. Thank you for your comments, Vice President VeZ. This concludes public participation. >> This concludes public participation. We will now move into a short recess. Board
member Deberry, do you have motion? >> I move that the board take a 30 minute recess. >> I second the motion. >> Thank you. I'll proceed with a roll call. Member Lozano. Yes, >> member Smith. >> Yes,
>> member Lopez. >> I >> member Bole. >> Yes, >> member Wallace. >> I >> member Kuster. >> I. >> Member Pope. >> Yes. >> Member Rosenfeld. >> Yes. >> Member Rivas. >> Yes. >> Member Brown. >> Yes, ma'am.
>> Member Bannon. >> I. >> Member Gutierrez. Member Gutierrez, >> member Bigs, >> yes. >> Member Thodicura, >> yes. >> Member Blae, >> yes. >> Member Zachor, >> yes. >> Member Deberry,
>> I. >> 16 eyes, zero nays. This motion is adopted by the board. This meeting will now go into a 30 minute recess. team. Can you remove the in recess slide? The meeting of the board is reconvened.
We will now proceed with the business portion of the meeting. Superintendent CEO Dr. King, we're ready for your presentation. Sure thing. >> See, I I'm getting there. That's Emma.
Thank you for your patience, board members. We will now have the FY27 finance update provided by Emily Zulko, our acting chief budget officer. Hi everybody. Good afternoon. I made the mistake of thinking I had time to run to the washroom, so I'll
know better next time. I'm sorry that everybody was waiting. Um, my name is Emmy Lazoko, acting chief budget officer for the district. I'm joined here by uh Wally Stock, our acting chief financial officer, and we are here today with an update on the
FY27 budget process, as well as an update on our immediate term uh cash position. I'd like to start with an overview of where we are in the FY27 budget process. School budgets were released in May um
back on May 12th and school leaders then worked with central office and their local school councils to develop budgets aligning resources to their student needs and their CIWPs. Budgets were approved by LSC's and submitted to the district by June 9th.
Throughout the school budgeting process, um we engaged with LSC's regarding school budgets. We reached out to labor partners, elected officials. Um, and really all of that engagement happened before May, but it really kicked in um during that process to make sure that we
were supporting um principles and school communities in developing their local level budgets. So, we are currently working on developing our department budgets um and working to bring the full budget into balance. So we are most of the way there. Um but we are continuing to
refine the numbers and put the budget together. Also during June and July we are doing the community budget roundts which we'll talk a little bit more about and which Dr. K mentioned in her opening remarks. Then in July, we plan to um finalize the
proposed budget um and submit it to the board of education prior to the July 30th um meeting. As part of that process, um we will also be doing the statutoily required public hearings. So, as Dr. King mentioned in her uh
opening remarks, we are again doing community budget roundts um in order to ensure transparency about our current financial situation and hear directly from the CPS community. Um and we are really trying to um
have this process build on the sessions from last year and going forward to not just have them once a year but really make them an ongoing deliberate deliberate part of the way that we that we plan throughout the year. Um and so there are six dates. Uh we had a great
session earlier this week at Westinghouse with 98 attendees. Um this year in direct response to feedback that we've heard, we actually added a six session on Monday, July 13th at Brooks College
Prep. We also hosted a budget, we will also be hosting a budget focus group on July 2nd with students from Mikvah Challenge. We also had a significant um student presence in the Westinghouse round table. Um and again, that was something that was explicitly called out
last year was the the need to really have more student voice. So, um, we're happy to be, uh, making some ground there and bringing more students into the process. And so, the way the roundts are set up, um, it's it's really intended to
prioritize discussions among community table among among community members um, at small group tables. So participants share feedback, priorities and ideas on what's most important to them um from their perspective as a as a part of the CPS community.
Uh we start with the short presentation and then CPS staff at each round table capture real time input um which we will then compile to understand the key themes and the key takeaways. And then at the end of each round table um we asked someone from each table to
stand up and share out what they talked about um and share and share with the room. And the goals of these roundts are really twofold. So first to provide context on the current state of CPS finances and our funding strategies and
our approach to addressing our financial challenges. We also really want to hear participants um share their experiences as students, parents, teachers, principles, community members. Um community input is essential to what we do and it will continue to be
important as we um look to the next fiscal year and the next school year. Um, similar to similar to the last couple of years, um, we are continuing to face significant funding challenges and our projected FY27 budget deficit is
upwards of $700 million. So, under, um, these circumstances, that input is more important than ever. So, we started each of the sessions, we plan to start each of the sessions with the discussion of um our budget overview to make sure that everybody um has a
shared understanding of how our budget is built and where the funding goes. Um and so what you see here on this uh slide is the budget overview for the current fiscal year showing where our revenues come from. So the majority of our revenue 61% um come from local
funding which is essentially property tax revenue. Um another 29% comes from the state mostly in the form of evidence-based funding um or EBF also in the uh form of grants and different reimbursements for different specific um
activities. About 10% of our revenue comes from the federal government in terms of grants for that are targeted to specific student populations and then a small percentage comes from other types of grants and private funding.
The vast majority of this revenue goes um directly to schools. um 61 cents on every dollar um goes directly to our district and charter and contract schools. Another 34 cents on the dollar goes to
citywide supports um which are those supports that don't um live in school budgets. They're not managed directly by schools. Um but these are supports that are managed uh centrally but serve multiple schools. So when you factor that in um again most of our budget is
directed um towards schools either directly or through these um on behalf of services only 5 cents on every dollar is dedicated to uh central administration. So this is central office as well as our network offices.
And so uh as I mentioned a couple of slides ago, we are facing a deficit in FY27 similar to the past couple of years. Um we've really faced major budget deficits each year since FY25, which was the last year that the district used um the last of our
remaining COVID era federal relief funding, um also known as ESSER. Um and so in FY26, we faced an initial budget deficit of 55 million. In FY26, that deficit grew to 734 million. And in
FY27, we're facing a deficit again of over $700 million. Um, and each one of these years we were able to close the deficit in FY25 and FY26 with a combination of increased revenue, including um,
historic levels of TIFF surplus as well as expenditure reductions. And while the expenditure reductions um, largely spared core school budgets, they have impacted things like custodial services, um, citywide supports and central administrative operations.
Um and these are not trends or um challenges that are unique to CPS. Um postcoid the pressures that are impacting districts nationwide including increasing costs, declining enrollment, stagnant revenue um are really put into
plain view. And so here you can see a little more clearly I think how the FY26 budget um fits in when you look at um our budgets over time over the past about eight years. Um so you can see that the FY26
budget is $10.2 billion. That is a $2.6 billion increase from FY19. Um and throughout the period of FY19 to FY26 about $3 billion of COVID funding um was pushed into the system which
allowed us to add our staff um and increase our staffing by close to 10,000 positions. Again, all mostly working in schools um in order to support our students in their pandemic recovery. Um but over the same period of time, our
enrollment has declined by 45,000 students. And so these are um some of the the pressures that we're seeing now compared to previous years. And now that we don't have access anymore to that federal infusion of funding.
And so when we step back and ask, you know, what is driving these recurring deficits? There's really two sides of the coin. So the revenue and then the expenditure picture. Um and so a large part of our fiscal challenges are due in part to our long-standing resource constraints. Um which limits the funding
that we have in available to meet our our needs. Um and also the fact that we are limited in raising the revenue ourselves that we need. So there's really three main pieces to this um to this part of it. And the first um and the largest is really around state
funding. And so state funding falls significantly short of the need. Illinois had a goal um to reach 90% funding adequacy through EBF by 2027. Um and they are not on track to meet that goal.
In addition, the state reimbures districts for only a portion of the cost of legally required services. So things like transportation, um special education, transportation, bilingual education, um and they only reimburse for a portion of the cost. Um forcing
districts, not just CPS, but districts across the state to um to make up the difference. The second piece is federal pandemic aid, which we just talked about, has expired. Um but other key federal funding streams remain under threat um
with levels declining or stagnant over time and we'll talk about this in some detail in a couple of slides. And finally, CPS's ability to generate local revenue is really limited under state law. We are capped at how much we can raise um the tax levy um giving us
minimal capacity to combat state and federal funding challenges. And if we look at the expenditure side of the equation, um we are facing significant growth in the cost of our obligations to our schools, our students, and our staff.
First, we are facing higher costs in several key areas, including maintenance for our aging facilities, labor contracts, and employee pensions. Second, CPS must continue to direct operating funds away from classrooms and
to help pay off our existing debt burden. This is something that our CFO will go into a little bit more detail on towards the end of the presentation. And finally, the costs associated with educating our highest need student populations continue to grow.
What you see here is um the prime example of what we mean when we say that revenue streams are not keeping up with the needs of our students. Um and the prime example is around special education. And there are others um but
this one is just the most stark. And I'd like to be very clear though when we're talking about the cost of special education that the issue is the lack of sufficient funding. It's not our students or the supports that they um that they need and deserve. It's our
responsibility to provide all of our students with the academic and other supports that they need. Um in fact, this is one of our core guiding principles. And we take this responsibility and this commitment very seriously. And so what we're trying to highlight here is how while student needs have
grown year-over-year, the level of state and federal funding for special education has remained relatively flat. So looking at the chart, the red lines, the red bars at the bottom represent federal revenue between FY19 and FY26. So you can see that that has stayed
pretty much flat. And the main driver there is um the IDEA funding that um stems from the federal government. The blue bar, the middle one, that is state funding in the form of reimbursements and the EBF revenue that
we receive that's driven by um our special education population. You can see that that too has stayed relatively flat over time. The purple bars then represent the CPS portion of the budget um that make up the difference between those funding sources and what the need
is. Um, and you can see that that cost has almost doubled since FY19. So, in FY19, state and federal funding covered about 50% of the cost. By FY26, state and federal funding is um covering
just under 30% of the cost. So, now that we've set the stage, um I'd like to talk through our approach to closing the FY27 budget gap. And again, there's really two options. Um first, we have to identify either budget reductions and other cost-saving
measures or additional revenue um additional revenue streams. And so starting with the um expenditure side of this, we have reduced been reducing non-school-based expenses significantly since FY25 as part of our
deficit reduction strategies. We have really dug through our central and our citywide department budgets to identify reductions and efficiencies. And these have included things like redirecting grant funding, reducing custodians, reducing programs that were expanded
significantly during the pandemic using federal relief dollars. You'll see here that the FY26 budget included about $272 million in reductions and then that the FY27 budget includes at least another $105 million
in reductions. And this dip reflects the fact that it's getting harder and harder to make reductions that a don't impact our core administrative abilities um to run an organization of our size or to impact direct student programming and
student supports. In an effort to prioritize school-based resources, um we've asked our department leaders to determine what reductions can be made with the least impact on students. And the picture that you see here, um is a really great representation of how we've been
thinking about prioritizing resources and supports um which is by the degree of separation from the student and their direct um daily school experience. And it's not that the things in the outer rings are not important. Um the example
that I always use for the first degree of of separation is teacher professional development. We all know how critical that is. The outer ring encompasses things like um payroll, our legal teams, um all kinds of of um important
functions that are that are removed from the daily student experience but still really critical to running to running our district. Um so it's not to say that the things in the outer rings are not important. Um but in a in a situation in which we are forced to prioritize, this
gives us a framework um for making decisions that's aligned with our guiding principles of putting students and their needs and their direct daily student experience first. And that was really one of the major things that we heard in the feedback
sessions from last summer. Um that our financial situation should have the least impact on students as possible. And in line with this throughout the FY27 budget process, our priority remains sustaining investments that are critical to student success. Um
and I just would like to highlight here some of the key ones um that we are preserving in the way that we are addressing them in the FY27 budget even as we're asking our teams to identify reductions. First is around student safety. So budget reductions will not
impact programs like safe passage and safe haven crossing guards. Um, in fact, CPS plans to invest in things like mobile security units so that our security team can be more responsive um to things as they're happening across the city.
Second is around student supports. Uh, the district will continue working with partner organizations that provide proven mentoring and other supports. So, things like BAM, WOW, and Cityear. And finally, direct academic
instruction. The FY27 school budgets maintained the needs-based funding model, providing a minimum set of foundational positions and funding to each school regardless of the size of enrollment and then layering in additional resources based on enrollment
and need. I think you can also see um the priorities as well as some of the trade-offs that we were faced with in our approach to other school-based supports. Um, so first, as I mentioned, we maintain the core teaching and discretionary funding levels at our
smallest schools. The district did change the threshold for assistant principles. Although schools were still able to use discretionary funds for assistant principles, all but above 40 schools were able to use their discretionary funds um to support AP positions.
Um, we've also added more special education teachers, classroom assistants, related service providers, and plan to open 60 new cluster classrooms and increase transportation supports for students with disabilities. We are continuing to allocate academic
intervention and professional development supports at schools and targeting those with the greatest needs by adjusting formulas throughout the system. And finally, um we've maintained levels of needs-based discretionary funding and increased levels of title one
school-based funding to eligible schools um based on the the um change in formula in some of the other positions that were that have been that have been funded in those grants um over the last year or two. And so on the other side of the coin, um
FY27 re revenue strategies, um the team has really been working hard to strengthen relationships with state, city, and other key partners in order to develop funding solutions and address other structural issues. We are reviewing our contractual services to identify opportunities for rebates um
and other cost-saving and and um income generating measures. there. We are redoubling our efforts to seek grants and other government funding opportunities and we continue to refine our revenue projections now that the most recent
state legislative session has closed and also as our federal grant allocations are released by federal agencies. Um and finally, we're looking at ways to be creative with um growing existing revenue streams. Uh one of those is
around Medicaid. And so our teams are working on identifying process improvements to increase the revenue there. And now I'd like to turn it over to CFO Stock to discuss the impact um of our debt and cash flow priorities on the upcoming budget.
>> Thanks Emila. Hi everybody. Um just walk us through the next couple of slides here. I have a pointer here. Okay. Um, so currently, you've heard us talk about this before, we have more than9 billion
dollars of existing long-term debt. And debt is has been accumulated going back over 30 years. Primarily, we issue debt to pay for capital improvements throughout the footprint of our district. So, when you think about it,
each year has we approve a a capital improvement plan. and we have a variety of things that are critical. Um, and then we have a lot of wish list things that we'd like. The bottom line is everything has to be financed. Uh, I I
shouldn't say everything, but 97% probably of every of of everything has to be financed through long-term debt. So, the $9 billion, our oldest issue goes back to 1998. But, um, we we sell debt every year. So
we pay off probably somewhere between 250 million to $300 million a year in debt and we probably add somewhere between$500 to $600 million in debt. And in some years where we've passed capital plans that have been eight or $900
million that exceeded the amount of debt that we paid off. So the debt is what it is at this point. It's kind of a mortgage if you will on our our footprint. And each year we have to pay a little bit of that back. We're always
looking at creative ways to restructure the debt to bring savings. We issue bonds. They're fixed rates, so they're dependent on market factors. Right now, while market factors may not be the worst, um, our credit rating is the
worst. So each time we borrow, it costs us additional to do that. It's all a function of kind of what we're here talking about with the budget and trying to get a solid structurally balanced budget. But, uh, years prior to this board being seated, we've had some some
other hurdles that we've had to go through and they haven't resulted in in the best outcomes for us. We've had significant losses. We've had depletion of our cash and it's resulted in numerous downgrades. I think 34 downgrades to our credit rating if I
recall. and we've done a long way to fight back on that, but we we've only I think had something like 14 upgrades. So, we're still at below investment grade and a little bit more push to go before we can start enjoying a little
bit lower borrowing costs. So, not to wax on about this, but in the FY27 budget, there's $900 million that must be paid for that existing $9 billion outstanding. Most of those payments because of how we
borrow money come from unrestricted revenue sources in the general operating fund. So the state aid, we use a portion of the state aid and we use a portion of what's called personally personal property replacement tax which is a share of corporate income tax at the
state level that we receive. So nearly $700 million of the $900 million is money that frankly if we didn't have the footprint, if we didn't have the debt, we could be using that in the classroom. So, we're very conscientious about how much we're borrowing, the timing on when
we borrow, and adding additional debt because each year, if we add on 500 to $600 million in debt, that could take 30 $40 million out of the classroom. So, we've kind of been in a pattern of trying to moderate how much debt that we're borrowing, but still keep pace
with what it is that we have to do with fixing the equivalent of, I think it's 16 Sears towers that sit in our footprint. Um so then in addition to the woes of the long-term debt, we also have short-term debt.
That's primarily uh a result of ending the the fiscal year with not enough cash in the bank. If you think about um maybe a few days before you get your paycheck, how much money you have in the bank? Uh and if you didn't get your paycheck on
time, how would that work out? Well, CPS really when we end our fiscal year and before we get our next paycheck of property taxes, we really have no money in the bank. And so, we're making that work with short-term debt. And the short-term debt has been we've we've had
a period of where we had no short-term debt outstanding at the end of the year. That was when we had COVID money and we were able to pull in the 700 $800 million a year. So, we ended the fiscal year. We started we started chipping away at that and putting some cash in the bank. But with the COVID money
drying up, we've had to sort of use uh more of the resources that we're getting on an annual basis to make ends meet. So, it's about uh at the legal limit of what it is that we can borrow. We we are we're borrowing against our property taxes, right? So these come in twice a
year and in between those twice a year payments every month we have to make payroll. So if uh 50% of our revenues or more which is the property taxes that Emila showed on the prior slides there isn't coming in until two times a year you have to bridge that gap with the
short-term debt. So that's what we continue to do and we do it to the extent of what we can legally do. So that's about a $1.2 2 billion uh borrowing at the end of the fiscal year when we're owed our second installment of property taxes, but in the first installment, we can sort of leverage a
little bit more and we tend to borrow the money, pay it down, borrow it again, pay it down. So really, you know, in this last year, um some of this wasn't our fault. It was uh the delays in the property taxes from Cook County. We've
we've borrowed $3 billion in short-term money to sustain operations. So, in in a in a perfect world, we would have a little bit more money in the bank. I don't think there were very many uh governmental entities in Cook County that sustained the delays that occurred
without doing short-term borrowing, but ours was really exasperated and driven a little bit larger by our financial position at year end. Um, this is also identified by in fiscal year 26, we basically paid every single one of our
payroll at the same time that we had short-term debt outstanding. So, uh, and in in, um, we're also projected to end the year with a negative 38 days cash on hand. So, that's that's like if you if you just take out the short term, we're
we're obviously going to have positive cash at the end of the year, but that's because we're borrowing money to do it. But if you took that out, we'd have negative 38 days. So, you know, how do I I think we're trying to end on this to sort of drive home a point here and trying to be
proactive about what we're doing here with the budget. We know this is all very difficult. Um we're trying to obviously reduce our expenses in order to bring things back in line with the limited resources that we have and the controllability of getting new revenues.
Um but um we're looking at this timeline right now. We've talked about uh some of the community roundts. We've done a number of different 5x5s on a on a kind of a preliminary basis leading up to today's
meeting, but we've we've had a number of different engagements as you know. So we'll continue to do that with some more details about what's being laid out in the budget. Um the goal is uh July 15th. So, you know, each year we publish a full budget book. We put our budget online. We we have to do a number of
different public things, but you could go back and you could look at our website and there's 10 plus years of our budgets there in the budget book. So, you know, the budget uh crafted with the different departments, the narratives. It's not going to be terribly different. What's going to be different is kind of the size of the budget and kind of what we're able to put on the table in order
to balance the budget. You know, we uh by law we have to balance pass a balanced budget. So we have to do to the best of our ability understand what the revenues are available what the what the what the expenses will be and try to bring that to a zero focus. We don't have the liberty or you know the the
luxury uh some communities pass a budget and they budget for a surplus. We're not at that point. We've never been at that point. The city of Chicago all the governmental entities uh around here don't really do that. Um but um we need to at least break even and that's really what the goal is. And then you run
through the course of the year and um you you'll see kind of what happens to that on the on the next slide here. But um what we're trying to do then is get through the publish publication again on the 15th, have a number of different hearings um through the 20th through the
24th is required by law and then bring the full budget to the board for a vote on July 30th. Now, here's here's kind of something that is not entirely different from prior years, but it has a different sense of urgency for me as I stand here
before you. We want to bring and we we typically do this. We want to bring at the same time we bring the budget, we want to bring the tax levy for the upcoming year and we want to bring a new authorization for short-term borrowing for the TANS that I talked about for FY27.
Why do we want to do all that in July? Why do we want to do that all at the same time? Like I said, we typically do that at the same time, but by law, we have up until August 30th to do that. So, we're trying to do it on on July 30th. And let me just say that the board
has passed budgets on July 30th before. If you go and you think about the state of Illinois and the thousand school districts, many school districts are able to pass their budget on June 30th. They might not be dealing with the same financial constraints as us. So, I don't know that that's in our cards, but I
think a July 30th is a reasonable date, and it's also something that we've done before. So, I don't want you to think that we're overreaching here by any means by the July 30th date, but it is ahead of the the August 30th date. And why it's so important is because, as you
know, that I stood here before you and talked about the delays in the property taxes. And I'll have a slide on that next slide here. But um we're experiencing another delay of property taxes. So property taxes should have been due uh August 1st. They're not
going to be due until sometime October 1st. And because we have this limitation of how much money we can borrow on the $1.2 billion, we have another delay of property taxes. We don't have any federal revenue. We had most of our
reserves being used up in the prior financial years. We need to get a new TANS program in place and we need some time to be able to do that. You can't um you know some of us maybe all of us have mortgages. We know how long it's how painful it is to get a home mortgage. Uh
borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars is you know in some sense it's maybe not exact replicate but it's it has its pain points. It has its due diligence. It has its things. So, we want to make sure that we have enough time for the runway. Uh, those are the legal things that are required in order
to get the short-term borrowing. You have to have your budget approved. You have to have the tax levy and you have to have the TANS authorization. So, 3 to four weeks is a is a is a fair amount of time to get that done. And we could put the TANS in place by September 1st, which is what's outlined on the slide here.
So, if you think again about the budget, everything that Emily has been saying, um, and you just back up like 10,000 feet, and you think about you have a balanced budget, but how does it work throughout the course of the year, right? And that's kind of what's I I,
you know, trying to say is depicted on this slide. This is where the rubber hits the road and this is the cash flow position. I've shared this slide with you before. Uh, the gold is is really the the cash flow position. The green is is a zero line where you hope to have
positive cash and the blue is where we have short-term borrowing in place. So, um this goes back from 25 to 26. And the delays that started in the second installment of of 25 really drove that cash position to be the lowest that I'
I've seen it in uh maybe I have to check my notes here, but I think this is about the lowest that I've ever seen the cash position in 10 years. It was nearly$2 billion dollars negative. So, we had short-term borrowing, of course, outstanding at that point in time to cover us through that, but really an
epic amount of short-term borrowing and currently we're at negative 582 million and it's it's declining worse each day as we don't get those property tax revenues. So, the fivemonth uh second installment property tax delay, talked
about this before, it cost us $30 million in interest expense. So that's money that we paid for short-term borrowing instead of putting it in the classroom. We budget each year for short-term borrowing. You you know there's no way to predict like what's been going on with the county. So we we're overbudget on that. We're trying
to budget again this year for a more reasonable number. But we have no, you know, we have no alternative but to borrow and do it legally to what we can in order to sustain operations. So that's what we continue to do. This current year uh with what's going on, it
has uh cost us $10 million to date. So we had the first installment that should have been due March 1st. It was due April 1st. That's a very critical point in time for our cash flow. We have to make a debt service deposit. We have charter payments. So that was costing us at a peak of what we had borrowed
$165,000 a day. That's $10 million to date. this is this this tally is growing as the delay of the property tax continues that you know we should have got the money on August 1 and now we're going to get it in October so be to be
continued on how much that will cost us um but that is that is what is occurring so that's what we're trying to to navigate here I think we have ample ability to navigate that over the next you know uh few months but as we get past Labor Day that's that's what the
concern is and that's why it's it's just of paramount importance that um you know we stay ahead of this. Again um this final slide of the presentation here is just talking about the revenue versus expense mismatch and the timing. You know if you think about
again a budget and you might say hey in a perfect world it's 12-month budget. One 12th of your expenses and one 12th of your revenues come in each month and you zero out. That's not that's not the case. We talk about the property taxes only coming in twice a year. So you have this huge huge mismatch as it is. You
don't have the resources and then you have this delay of the property taxes by Cook County because of what they have going on. So here's our TANS programs that we've had in place kind of in a picture. Uh the combined peak issuance. So on the other slide I said negative2 billion. So this is kind of the the
juxiposition of that upside down here with a you know some shading here. So, we had a FY25 program outstanding. Um, and then on top of that, we had a FY26 program outstanding. That's still outstanding. We have that outstanding until we get
paid those property taxes. Again, the problem is that it's all used up. So, we don't have any more capacity. So, then we need to get into the FY27 problem and create a scenario like we had um in those months in uh you know, October, November, December where we had the two
programs outstanding. And so, that's the purple over to the left. That's the new program. We don't need to put the whole program in place, but we need to we need to get the authorization for the whole program and we need to start putting some of that program in place so that we have uh you know cash flow as we get back into the beginning of the school
year and our payroll starts picking up, the vendor payments, everything else starts happening. So, I've already been having a number of conversations with the lenders. There's only a small universe of people that lend a billion dollars, a half a billion dollars, but I think those conversations are going
well. I think they're also kind of, you know, contingent upon how we solve the budget and what this looks like. So, I appreciate your cooperation. I know this is a very serious matter and that's why we're kind of bringing it to you um and framing it like this. It's not anything
that we're trying to do intentional. It's just these are the facts. this that this property tax is out of our control and we want to make sure that we stay ahead of this and that we get the budget, you know, put together and put to rest in a reasonable amount of time so that we can continue to do the good things that we do for the city of
Chicago. Thank you. >> Uh thank you so much for your robust presentation. I know this is hard work, right? Um I would like to uh see if any board members have any concerns or
comments or questions. board member Toro. >> Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. Um I know that there's a a long road ahead of us between where we are now and before we can um pass a budget. Uh I would just ask you know for myself my own learning needs are that as
we get this information these slides are very small on our screens. If we could please get any slide this is actually in general whether it's related to budget or something else. It is very helpful for board members to have the information beforehand so that we can come prepared with questions and we can
follow along um because you know as you move from slide to slide we may have questions or or want to review. So I would ask that for moving forward the rest of at least this budget season if we can get materials ahead of time that would be very helpful for at least me personally. Um a question that I have
specifically is about this timeline for um I got to zoom in on my picture here. uh timeline as it relates to having something passed by July 30th. I see that 5x5 briefings will begin next week.
I remember receiving some kind of notice about 5x5s on budget that were supposed to happen I think a couple months ago and then they were abruptly cancelled and schools were already they received information about their own school budgets. So, I'm wondering if more can
be shared about the timeline um and especially the points at which board members have information that is shared with us for our input and um for us to know because I think a lot of us have been in a position to field questions and a lot of concerns from our schools,
from parents, from students um about the impacts of the budget which we don't have full insight and awareness into because of our briefing starting later. So, if we could get some information about decisions about timeline and um what information we can expect in these
briefings next week and down the line. Um thank you for that. So, in the last round of briefings that we did, we um outlined the existing deficit and some of the measures that we've taken so far
to uh bring that to shrink that deficit down. So the plan for the briefing starting next week is really to share the refined numbers now that the school budgets are in, now that like I mentioned um we have a better picture of our federal revenue, our state revenue now that the session is closed. So the
plan really for next week's briefings is to bring um that more refined picture of where we're at um and provide some of those additional details around, for example, the $ 105 million target around the central office and citywide
reductions. Um, and if there's anything else that would be helpful in particular, I'm happy to to be ready for that for next week. But that was the plan. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. Those initial 5x5s we had around like different scenarios and deficits, that
is helpful at like a macro level to know like what options a district is considering. I don't know that that information would not have been able to be presented earlier in the in the year like even February, March, as it relates to a number that we knew was coming like
above $700 million. Um but I think for right now what would be helpful for me potentially others is district level information which many of us have gotten directly from stakeholders within our district about you know what are the what are the school level impacts that are going to happen and in different
scenarios where that we're considering what is going to be the school level and district level impact. >> Um yes and it is and I think you know we will we will share that information. It's not that we've not necessarily wanted to share it. It's that it's a
huge amount of data. Um, schools completed their budgets not that long ago and it takes time to go through. It takes time to make sure that um decisions are final, that um talent goes through their processes. There's there's a number of technical processes that go through and so we can call those final.
Um, and so the plan is to release those as soon as they um as soon as they're ready. Thank you >> board member Gutierrez. >> Um thank you guys for your presentation. I have three questions. So So Wally, you
mentioned dollars relative to um the additional dollar. what what what are we what what is our borrowing interest rate currently uh that you would predict um given the current situation we're in
from our lenders? I think the short-term borrowing is the most uh relevant to to what we're talking about here. And we borrow at a variable rate and it's based off of an index that we don't control. So when we
talk we hear about the federal government cutting the federal reserve rate that can lead into lower borrowing costs indirectly for us. So I think it's you know 85% of what it is that we pay is that base rate and then we pay a
credit spread on top of that based on how the banks indicate our or believe our creditworthiness will be. And so we've done um done a lot of work to push them to um get them to compete against each other for our business. And
overall, like right now, again, you know, 85% of that rate is is the index. We're we're borrowing at about 4%. Is what it is. The the the other question is at the rate that we're going right if the county doesn't get their act
together um would it be possible not to add some additional work but for us to have maybe a to add a little bit to uh board members to the chorus question is to maybe have a tw 12 to 18month cash
flow projection relative to all these potential things that may may come up our way because I think um I think that would be helpful because I think at some point we may run out of options.
>> Right. >> Right. Which is I think kind of why you're asking us to do this a month earlier. So that because we're kind of almost there, >> right? No, that that's fair. And let me just say that obviously we do do cash flow projections. We wouldn't be able to
survive if we didn't do them. um they're very they're very granular. >> Um and they update on a daily basis. So, and there's just like with forecasting and analyzation, there's all different types of scenarios that probably if I
started talking to each of the 21 board members, you'd all have different ideas on how to approach that. So, we use our best judgment to um use empirical evidence to say, "Hey, this is what happened last year. This is what should happen. this is how the timing of different expenses hit us. Um, and and I
think at a high level, I'd be glad to share with you, we we have a 12-month projection, right? And that's usually what we share with the banks. That's usually what we share with investors, and we update that a couple times a year. So, um, when we get the budget done, uh, it takes a few weeks for us to
load the whole budget into our cash flow model and then get the projections out for the whole upcoming year and then we update them on an ongoing basis. So >> yeah, I think that would be really helpful. And my last question is uh how many uh appeals um were awarded relative
to budgets from schools um in this cycle? >> I don't have that off the top of my head, but it's we have those records and I'm happy to share them. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Board member Biggs. >> Yeah. Uh Chief So I have a related
question. Do we have a sense of the number of schools that lost foundational AP positions? How many were then able to purchase them back using discretionary funds? >> Yes. So, um 138, I believe, uh schools actually are under
that 250 threshold. Um some of those schools received a foundational AP. um either because they are I know our specialty schools were able to retain an AP um and then some schools receive them back on appeal. So one of the things
that we did based on um feedback from the field when the when the allocations went out was go back and look at schools that were on the cusp of 250. This is an example of why a school might have gotten an appeal for this. So, we went back and looked at the schools that were on the cusp of the 250 enrollment, but
that we knew were slated to get new cluster classrooms in the year. And so, we said, "All right, they we're going to count the cluster classrooms that we already know were confirmed." And so, that pushes them over the 250, so we're going to grant the AP. So once you take those into account, I think it was 121
schools that didn't get allocated the AP and all but 40 um were able to to purchase one back using their discretionary funding. Um and I have the specific numbers there written up and I'm happy to to share them um via the
board office if that's helpful. >> Thank you. Um second question in your uh model that showed us the number of cents within each dollar committed to direct supports to students etc. Do you have a similar model that shows us the
proportion of each dollar that's spent on debt service? >> I do. It's in Yeah. Um it's in the round tables deck. It's not in um it didn't I didn't include it in this one, but it's
about um 10% of the overall budget. >> Okay. So maybe 10 So 10 cents of every dollar is a >> Yeah. I mean, if you just think about it, uh that the budget is close to 10 billion and this year we're paying 900 million. That's close to 10%. And that
and it varies each year, but that's where it's at and it it it um probably hangs around there for quite a while. >> Thank you. Board member Rivas. >> Thank you. Um my question will will be quick hopefully, but I from all the many
briefings we've had over the last few months related to the budget, I remember the uh the debt number for this year being 626 million for some reason and then uh the last few weeks it's popped up to 900 million. So, I'm wondering if
if maybe I'm just misremembering, but I thought we were paying less in long-term uh less toward the long-term debt. Now, >> we we think that the the 626 is is closer to the the 700 number that we talked about coming from operating.
>> We talked about 900. So there's 900 I don't want to get in the weeds, but the half half of the debt gets paid beyond the fiscal year, but we have to put the money in the bank in in the current fiscal year. So there's 900 and there's a little bit of a mismatch. So some of it's appropriations that get spent and some of it is cash that gets put it
parked and it's it's close to 700 uh that has to get parked out of the operating fund. >> Okay. But it's safe to say that as we're as we're talking to constituents, you know, we're spending $900 million on our long-term debt. >> I think the other thing that gets lost
sometimes is that our full budget is actually three separate budgets. So, it's the operating budget, the debt budget, and then the capital budget. And so, part of the debt service, um, 900 is the overall amount that we have to pay this year. Um, but part of it gets paid
out of the capital budget, part of it gets paid out of the debt service budget. And so then when you look at how much comes out of the operating budget, that's a number that's closer to 700 that is flexible and could be used for any number of other purposes if we had that ability. >> Okay. Thank you.
>> Member Lopez. >> Thank you. Uh three questions and one of them it's uh just a followup regarding in particular school leaders. Can you give us a quick overview of the timeline when principles when they had to submit their appeals and then how long did it
take them for them to be notified um and also along those I believe this was already asked how many appeals were received and how many were approved. >> Um I'll provide through the board office the number of appeals that were submitted and then how many were appealed. We have a a tracker and can
pull that. Um I believe that via the board office that we shared the uh the principal budget deck the the rollout deck that was shared at principles when we released budgets and so the details on the appeals and the processes are all included towards the end of that deck.
Um I don't have off the top of my head the the exact windows but we provided at that point the windows by which schools needed to via their chiefs um either submit for a liquidation request or an appeal request. And so there was a window in the middle of the budget in
the middle of that month window when um those requests were being considered by chiefs and the turnaround um on those was about 48 hours. So once a chief said once a chief submitted and then the team said we're approving um within 48 hours
the school saw that um additional saw the funding or saw the position in in their plan in the budget planning tool. Um, and so all of those were resolved several days before budgets were due. So it was within that month window and I
can share the exact dates. Um, like I said, through the board office, but it's all listed in the in the principal deck that we uh that we shared on May 12th. >> I believe it might have been June 9th. I recall the date around there. Right. >> Um, budget due on June 9th. That's right.
Um and the reason you know even up to most recently even yesterday had a meeting with parents from you know the school's being impacted and uh they also had need a more clarification. Um the other question is once the school year
starts and the 20th day comes around and if there's a significant change in numbers, how has the you know the planning for that potentially will that impact of an AP potentially getting higher back or a school losing an AP position towards the beginning of the
school year? So the way we typically um over the past few years have done 20th day adjustments is at 20th day for schools that have seen an increase in enrollment. We've adjusted core um allocations up only. So
the we rerun the core teacher formula, we rerun the discretionary formula and those are the allocations that are adjusted up. Um many moons ago we used to adjust both up and down and haven't done that in quite some time. Um and so we haven't if if we go based on past
practice that's that's how we would um handle it is by rerunning those core formulas only. >> Thank you. And my last question is and please forgive me if this was already um I might have missed it during the presentation. It was mentioned that when we're getting the additional funding
from the federal government because of co you know it helped us in many regards. I'm just wondering if during that time were there additional payments done towards the debt that we have or any were there any reasons why that strategy was not put in place?
>> Yeah, so that was um the ESRE funding was incredibly flexible funding, but one of the things you could explicitly not do with the funding was pay off um existing existing debt. So we didn't that was against the federal regulations. That's not what the funding
was for. Um but if if we could have used our flex our internal other money revenue be used cleared up for paying that debt and then re you know the u federal new federal co
funds for only what was within the law um and again this is it doesn't matter anymore we're past that and we cannot go back and make any changes >> yeah um I don't know if you want to yeah >> I mean one one thing I would just say again history we can't we can't go back
and hindsight's always 2020, right? But we were facing a structural deficit when we entered the COVID years and CO helped us to avoid making those corrections to do that. So, um there was reductions
that arguably could have needed to be taken place in order to bring things back structurally solid and and they were not done and then each year that compounded a little bit more. um and it hasn't kept our our revenue as we know like on the on the state level on the
federal level and it just hasn't kept up with inflation. So um we were as creative as we could have been with CO money but yeah we could not use that to pay debt service and we could not use that for capital projects either that was also restricted so a lot of it went you know towards what it was intended
towards the PPE towards a safe environment towards um you know learning loss wraparound services all those types of things. Thank you, >> board member Bannon. >> Um, so the budget book is scheduled to
be released on July 15th or is that just the and the the date um farthest out it'll be released? >> Can you repeat that? I'm sorry. >> The July 15th date for the budget book, is that the farthest out it's going to be released or is that the date that
you're shooting for right now? So, working back from the July 30th board meeting, that's the latest that we could publish the budget book. So, we will aim for um to not be on the very last day to to beat that by a couple of days. Um but we will need, you know, just about the next 3 weeks to pull the
budget book together. >> I know the schedule is not your choice and it's not ideal. I'm just wondering is there to release it on July 15th and then have the public and the board members review it, you know, and vote on it within two weeks. uh also not ideal and doesn't feel transparent. Is there
any way to release, you know, are there parts of the book that will be ready earlier that could be released uh earlier so that you can review that that stuff? >> Yeah, that's a good point. I think um one of the reasons why, you know, we're doing the roundts and why we've, you
know, tried to do briefings over the last couple months is to share pieces of the budget um bit by bit as as they're ready. Um so that's definitely the goal. It's not um it's not about not wanting to be transparent. We strive to I'm not saying that at all.
>> Yeah. No. And I don't mean to imply that you are. I just mean to say that it's there's also a real um like technical and operational lift in putting the budget together because of the size of the budget and how many individual units there are. The budget
book on its own involves you know my team, department teams, comms, like it's it's a hefty effort. Um, and so I think that's something though that we can definitely go back and and take back and hopefully in the um,
you know, in the briefings for next week when we provide some additional information and some more detailed information around how we're looking to close the gap building on the last round of 5x5s. Hopefully that will help with having some additional details in that way. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah, but I hear the concern and
appreciate it for sure. board member Bole. >> Yeah. So, I understand you guys would like us to be able to review and approve the budget in July because especially um
with the delay in the county giving us our tax money, which then necessitates us having to go out and try to borrow. Um I heard mention of salaries. Is there a very real concern that if this timeline
doesn't go through like the July approval so that we can go borrow some money that we would not be able to make salary in September. Is that a concern? >> Let me just say that I wouldn't be bringing this before you if I didn't
think it was a concern and I was not trying to get ahead of it. Right. So if if we there there's always like a little bit of flexibility, but um there's not much and and and you can tell by my chart with the negative2 billion and yada yada.
>> It's it's very serious. So we're trying to stay ahead of it. So we're just again really appreciate >> Thank you. >> Um your your help and cooperation, >> Board Member Sacker. >> Um thank you. Uh my question is kind of related to uh board member Boils. Um, so
I'm understanding that we need to approve the the TANS appropriation um authorization, whatever you call it. Um, am I correct in understanding there's basically three different things we're voting on the budget, the TANS authorization, and the levy?
>> Yes, that's correct. >> So, I guess I'm not really understanding why uh they have to all be together. Why can't we vote on the one that we have to vote on so we can pay those salaries and whatever and uh put off the others until
um the August vote? I'm not really understanding the logic of oh, they have to be together if it's really only one of them that is that urgent >> because it's a non-starter for the banks. It's a non-starter for the banks. We won't get the loan.
Board member Pope, >> one of my questions was just answered, but I do have another question. Uh, I understand that we have been severely impacted both last year and we expect to be severely impacted again by the
failure of the county to get the tax bills out on time. And while I understand that at this point we don't have legal recourse to go after the county or potentially do we have recourse I mean I'm not saying would we
want to sue the county but do we have recourse in some way to do something about it and if not now is this something that we could be putting into our legislative agenda as something that maybe Springfield would pass giving us
the right to get interest from them on payments that were their fault basically. >> Yeah, I think those are fair questions. I don't want to get into the the the legal uh the suit and things like that.
I think we could have um general counsel consult. >> I know smart enough to do that as well. Um but um we we're glad to to talk to you about some of that. Um I I would just say that um also in terms of the legislative agenda, I think that's a
great idea. Um I don't want to uh delay the legislative agenda, I know it's been um you know, different ideas about it, but I I think that there could potentially be some some different um hooks in there um to have more transparency and and more accountability
on behalf of the county because as it is right now, I didn't really get into this, but I've told you before, I mean, they still owe us money from the first installment. We just had a conversation with them earlier today. I've been having conversations all week. So, we we did get some money um yesterday and um
we we're potentially going to get some money, but we're still not made whole. We're at 83% tax collection, so we should be at 98%. And I don't know whether that money sits in a bank account that the county is earning interest on and not passing passing it to us or what's happening.
It's just not very transparent. So, I think there could be some legislative agenda. I don't think that's been looked at in a long time. The county had some issues back in the the 80s and the 90s with delays in tax payments and that's resulted in some changes in the law, but I don't think the law has been changed in a long time and I think that's a great suggestion. I' I'd welcome an
opportunity to collaborate with you on that. >> Board member Blae. >> Oops. Um, so my question is about the AP appeals. Does everyone who file an appeal typically get one? >> Um, no. So, a principal that So, the the
guidance is that um principles work within the budget that they receive and if they can't make it work, if they um are missing a key resource, if they can't make class sizes, then they go to their network chief. And if the network chief agrees that they can't make it work and additional resources are needed, then
they submit an appeal. um to to ONS leadership for review. So again, I don't have the numbers in front of me on like the approval denial rates, but um but it's not it's not like a it's not that every everyone that submits a request gets gets approved.
No. Mhm. So, just to backtrack a little bit, when you when you're building the budget, um, and you know, you have to make cuts, the list of items that are possible to be cut, who comes up with that list? Like,
how did where did APS come from? Just the idea, right? Or because in the past it's been special ed and we know that that's a problem now. So we're were shifting or it the the the the narrative was that special ed was getting cut or
whatever. I'm I'm just curious how you come up with the menu of what what are the possibilities. >> Um I see that as one of the responsibilities of you know me and my team is to present that to other senior leaders. That's what we are doing not
just at budget season but um you know throughout the year and and this started many months ago. Um and it's really been a a collaborative effort where we are taking the list of options we are taking updates on our situation how to approach it um to the to the senior leadership
team. Um and so we've really taken the approach with this given where we're at in the um budget situation that everything has to be on the table. And so it was considered um along with you know a number of other options.
>> Got it. Um and so can we get a list of the actual schools that are going to lose an AP or do we have one already? I think it's part of the list of school-based um
like the school-based uh I'm sorry, the question came up a couple of questions ago where I think it was from board member at Thodakora for a a a list of kind of school budgets year-over-year and how they shook out after budgets closed. Um so that
information would be available in that sheet um when we're when we're ready to share it out which I think is soon. >> Okay. Um, and my other just little concern is INI department is really small and has
lots and lots and lots of work to do. I'm wondering if there are any cuts projected for their office. >> Um, again, I think we're taking a a similar collaborative approach, >> okay, >> to the department budgets as well. Um,
and that's really been a big effort this year is to make sure that we're not making any one decision um, in a silo. And so all of our teams and all of our cabinets have been at the table as we've been talking about the school budgets and the department budgets. Um, and
that's part of the reason why our approach has not been a, you know, x amount of percent cut across the board. um acknowledging that there are some areas where we need to invest and some teams where we have to invest and some teams where they can't do where they can't do more. Um and so that you know
that's all part of the consideration and again we'll be sharing more details on the department budgets and the reductions um that we're proposing in the next round of briefings. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Thank you all board members. We will now open up the
floor for questions or comments on items on the public agenda. I would like to note that the following public agenda item, the unfinished business item from the June 10th, 2026 agenda review committee meeting 26-0610-X1 approve the Chicago public schools
legislative agenda will be a separate vote taken after MO3. So you can provide your questions and comments for that item before we proceed with a separate vote. Board members, are there any questions or comments on any other items
on the public agenda or are there any reports that you wish to move from the consent agenda as a separate vote? Being none, we will now proceed with the vote on public agenda items. Board Secretary, please proceed. Thank you, Vice President Veles. I'll
proceed with the items on the public agenda read the board report numbers and the brief titles. I believe member Wallace has motion MO2 regarding the record of proceedings. I move that the record of proceedings of the agenda review committee meeting of May 13, 2026, the special board meeting of May
19th, 2026, and board meeting of May 28th, 2026 prepared by the board secretary be approved, and that such records of proceedings be posted on the Chicago Board of Education website in accordance with section 2.B 2.6B of the
Open Meetings Act. >> Is there a second? >> I second. I'll proceed with a roll call. Member Lozano, >> yes. >> Member Smith, >> I. >> Member Lopez, >> I. >> Member Bole, >> yes.
>> Member Wallace, >> I. >> Member Kuster, >> I. >> Member Poe, >> yes. >> Member Rosenfeld, >> yes. >> Member Rivas, >> yes. >> Member Bannon, >> I. >> Member Gutierrez. >> Hi.
>> Member Biggs. >> Yes. Member Thodicura. >> Yes. >> Member Blae. >> I. >> Member Zachor. >> Yes. >> Member Deberry. >> I. >> 16 I zero Naz. This motion is adopted by the board.
Vice President VeZ. I'll continue with a resolution that does not require a vote. RS1 resolution. Ray Destiny Singleton, honorary student board member, Chicago Board of Education, June 26, 2025 to June 25th, 2026. Vice President VeZ,
this item just needs to be accepted by the board. >> Please mark receive on file. >> Vice President Vez, I'll continue with items that do require a vote. RS2, resolution authorize appointment of members to the ESSA Title One parent
board of governors. RS3 resolution authorized appointment of members to local school councils for the new terms of office. RS4 resolution authorizing expenditures at beginning of fiscal year 2027. PO1 amend comprehensive non-discrimination harassment and
retaliation policy. Vice President VeZ, this amendment is necessary to ensure educational access regardless of citizenship or immigration status and updates um to sexual assault definitions to match federal standards. I'll
continue with MS1 authorize the renaming designation of schools. EX1 transfer of funds. PR1 authorize the second final renewal agreement with international balorate organization. PR2 authorize the first
renewal with ACT education corps ACT education corps. PR3 authorize the first final renewal agreement with college board. PR4 authorize the second final renewal agreement with various vendors for safe haven sites and services. Vice President Veles. For the record, I would
like to note an extension for board member Lopez on PR4 for the following vendor. Catholic bishop of Chicago DBA St. Sabina Church number six. I'll continue with PR5, amend agreement with various vendors for the purchase of custodial equipment. Vice President VeZ,
this amendment is necessary to increase the not to exceed amount. I'll continue with PR6, report on the award of construction contracts and changes to construction contracts for the capital improvement program. PR7, amend the first, second, and final renewal agreements with Active Office Solution
LLC and Rico USA, Inc. Vice President VeZ's amendment is necessary to extend the contract term. I'll continue with PR8. Amend authorize amend the first and final renewal agreement with Sentinel Technologies,
Inc. Vice President BZ amendment is necessary to extend the contract term. I'll continue with PR9. Amend the extension of the agreement with Omocron Technology Solutions LLC. Vice President Ble, this amendment is necessary to extend the contract term and increase
the not to exceed amount. I'll continue with PR10. Amend the extension of the agreement with UK G Inc. DBA UKG Kronos Systems LLC. Vice President BZ's amendment is necessary to extend the contract term and increase the not to
exceed amount. I'll continue with PR1. Amend the first and final new agreement with Kerasoft Technology Corporation. Vice President BZ's amendment is necessary to extend the contract term and increase the not to exceed amount. I'll continue with PR12, authorize a new
agreement with AT&T Mobility National Accounts LLC, DBA AT&T. PR13, authorize a new agreement with Class Link, Inc. PR14, authorizes second final renewal agreement with various vendors for the purchase and or lease of network
services servers and hypercon convergence. PR5 authorize the first renewal agreement with various vendors for districtwide marketing services. Vice President Bles, for the record, I'd like to note an extension by board member Gutierrez on PR15 for the
following vendor. Vera Creative Inc. number four. These items do require a vote. >> Is there a motion? >> So move. >> Is there a second? >> I second. >> I'll proceed with a roll call.
Member Loausano. >> Yes. >> Member Smith. >> Yes. >> Member Lopez. >> I with a noted >> with a noted I'm sorry. With a noted abstension on PR4.
>> I. >> Thank you. Member Bole. >> Yes. >> Member Wallace. >> I. >> Member Kuster. >> I. >> Member Pope. >> Yes. >> Member Rosenfeld. >> Yes. >> Member Rivas. Yes, >> member Bannon.
>> I >> member Gutieros with the noted abstension on PR15. >> I >> member Biggs. >> Yes. >> Member Thodicura. >> Yes. >> Member Blae. >> I.
>> Member Zachor. >> Yes. >> Member Deberry. >> I. >> 16 eyes, zero nazs. These matters are adopted by the board. Vice President Vez, I'll continue with additional items on the public agenda
that do not require a vote. PR16, Chief Procurement Officer, delegation of authority report for April 2026 and Chief Financial Officer Report for April 2026. PR7, Chief Procurement Officer Quarterly Report on the pre-qualified vendor expenditures. EX2 report on
principal contracts new. EX3 principal report on principal contracts renewals. AR1 report on the board report reisions. Vice President Vez, these items just need to be accepted by the board. >> Please mark receive on file. >> Vice President Vez, I believe board
member Pope has motion MO3. >> Yes, I do. I move that the board adopt the minutes of the closed session meetings of May 13, 2026, May 19th, 2026, and May 28th, 2026. Pursuant to section 2.06 06 of the Open Meetings
Act. Board members reviewed these minutes and determined that the need for confidentiality exists. Therefore, the minutes of the closed session meeting helings held on May 13, 2026, May 19th, 2026, and May 28th, 2026 shall be
maintained as confidential and not available for public inspection. >> Is there a second? >> I second the motion. I'll proceed with a roll call. Member Lozano. >> Yes. >> Member Smith. >> I. >> Member Lopez.
>> I. >> Member Bole. >> Yes. >> Member Wallace. >> Hi. >> Member Kuster. >> Hi. >> Member Pope. >> Yes. >> Member Rosenfeld. >> Yes. >> Member Rivas. >> Yes. >> Member Bannon. >> Hi. >> Member Gutierrez. >> Hi.
>> Member Biggs. >> Yes. >> Member Thorakura. >> Yes. >> Member Blae. >> I. >> Member Zachor. Yes. >> Member Deberry. >> I >> 16 I zero naz. This motion is adopted by the board. >> Vice President VeZ will now proceed with
an unfinished business item from the June 10th, 2026 meeting. I'll read the board report number and a brief title. This item does require a vote. 260610 EX1. Approve the Chicago Public Schools legislative agenda. Vice President
Veles, for the record. 260610 EX1 was drafted on agenda and has been updated. The final report will be included in the agenda of action. This item does require a vote. >> Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Is there a second?
We will now open this matter for discussion. Board members, do we have to vote? Actually, >> uh you open it up for discussion. Any comments before proceeding with the roll call vote? >> I'll see you. >> All right.
>> Uh, board member Smith. >> Board member Smith. >> Yeah. Thank you so much. Uh, I I'd like to begin uh with a message to our uh CTU labor partner and vice president that yes uh I am committed and do believe in
babies over billionaires and people over profits. And that's why uh I do a monthly event uh where I invite parents, students, and uh staff of CPS to come. I've invited the leaders of uh CTU to
come and I've yet to hear back from them. I would love if they would come participate in community uh with us uh when we uh discuss budgets. Um that's also why in the last meeting uh even
though I did not think member thought Dr. Kora's uh resolution went far enough and asking for the county and the city to be accountable to our schools. Uh I still voted for that resolution even though I didn't think it went far
enough. One of the things that we heard was we'll have time to talk about TIFF. We'll have time to talk about uh the county and their responsibility. Uh we have a $100 million assessment uh for TIFF funding this year, which puts us
down. It's, you know, last year's $530 million TIFF surplus that the schools got was not a one-time you did your job thing. It's an annual thing that we need that $500 million. And so, uh, in this legislative agenda, I was disappointed
that still we're not focusing on the county. Still, we're not focusing. And I was happy to hear board member Pope talk about the county's responsibility for those tax assessments and and the burden that it's causing us. Still, we have a $100 million tiff assessment. And none
of us in any of these resolutions I try to put an amendment forward uh are asking is asking the city to bear its responsibility uh for more tiff funding for our schools. My oath and my commitment is to babies over billionaires and people over
profit. And I was disappointed even in this legislative agenda not to see any accountability for our city, any accountability for our county. My oath is to our schools. And guess what? I'm still going to vote for it cuz I believe the state owes too. And it would be
helpful if we stopped, our partners would stop calling each other name a board members names so that we can move forward together. Thank you. >> Board member Bannon. >> Um like board member Smith, I'm going to
vote for this. Um I think it it still needs to be refined. I think it's a a living document that we can revisit as legislative sessions come and go. Um I look forward to continuing to work with uh the CPS staff and the IG office to
refine this legislative agenda. >> Board member Rosenfeld. >> Yeah, I do appreciate the the colleagues that are seriously thinking about these issues. You know, it's a great start. Um the timing is a little questionable why we're passing a legislative agenda once
session is over, but I guess it's better than nothing. Um we just haven't seen a road map on the execution of this. You know, no strategy on coalition building. It just feels like we're doing it to check the box, but I'm not sure how genuinely helpful this is going to be as
we try to rightsize and make this district financially stable. Um yeah. Board member Pope. >> Yes. Uh I uh too support the legislative agenda and I do definitely think we have
to make it a living document. If it is just a piece of paper that's going to sit there and say, "Okay, we did this," then it doesn't mean very much. But if we take that document, we go to Springfield with as many of our partners as possible. We call for a special
session if possible. We do all of those things. Then we are going to learn things that we will then have to modify and change and that we can do. I, for example, would like to see something about legislation that might enable us
to recoup uh the extra debt that's being caused by the county's delays added to our legislative agenda. But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to vote for it now. It means that I'm going to continue to press for it. Also, I know we're in
the process of uh hiring an IGA chief at some point in the not too distant future, and I would assume that whoever uh Dr. King suggests for that job uh and who we uh vote on as a group uh will have ideas of his or her own that they
will want to contribute to our legislative agenda and to how we go about it and what kind of proposals we make. So yes, I think we should adopt it and we should adopt it as a first step to what we're doing. When you go on I
remember when I was a kid, we would go on road trips and my mother would get these things called tripickics from the p from the uh AAA club and the whole map wasn't on one page, but as you went through it and you got places, the rest of the map unfolded. And I think that's
the kind of approach we have to take here. There's no more comments. >> Vice President FileZ, um, board member Gutierrez has his hand up. >> Board member Gutierrez.
>> He may have turned his uh, video off. >> Yeah. Can you hear me? >> Yes, please proceed. Um yeah, I I am going to vote on this legislative agenda but with my uh stink nose to it because
it still fails to be very inclusive. Doesn't have a federal uh portion to it. Doesn't have a local um strategy neither. Um, and I echo uh board member Smith's
um comments, you know, that there's local dollars that we should be asking for and um and we need to develop really a federal strategy as well with making an ask of all our congressional
delegation sooner rather than later. There's no more comments. Oh, actually, uh, board member Lopez. >> Thank you, board of vice president. I I also want to echo I definitely in support of this legislative agenda. Uh,
and I feel it's a step forward in the right direction. There's a lot of different things that could be added, right? I agree that we need need to have also strategy for every level of government. Um at the city, at the county, at the federal, as board member Guutier pointed out, at the federal, we
have an incoming new uh potentially or incoming new senator, right? And then we're going to have an large number of new House representatives in the other chamber. So how are we going to be positioning ourselves to you know have those conversations once they get
elected and sworn in so they can be fighting with us with us and for us at the federal level when it comes to for example to special education. We saw that it's been a flat rate. So there's a lot of area opportunity um and also thinking about short-term and long term.
what are our goals that in the short term right now whether it be with the city and long term for example progressive revenue uh to looking forward to working with the district and our legislators in Springfield and also locally so we can continue supporting
our students here in the city of Chicago >> I think that was the end >> oh sorry member Zacher a disease hidden. >> Yeah. >> Um yeah, I I um and a number of other
board members were at the hearing uh at Westinghouse and one of the most often repeated comments was um that we should be uniting with districts around the state and pushing for that special session. Um, so I think that sounds
great and I'm just really eager to hear what the plan is for that because obviously uh time is of the essence. Um, so hopefully we can we can hear something about that in the very immediate future. >> I think that's it. >> I'll proceed with the roll call vote on
the unfinished business item 260610 EX1. approve the Chicago public schools legislative agenda which was motioned by board member Bannon and seconded by board member Lozano. Member Lozano. >> Yes. >> Member Smith.
>> I. >> Member Lopez. >> I. >> Member Bole. >> Yes. >> Member Wallace. >> I. >> Member Kuster. >> I. >> Member Pope. >> Yes. >> Member Rosenfeld. >> Yes. >> Member Rivas. >> Yes. >> Member Bannon. >> Hi.
>> Member Gutierrez. I >> member Biggs. >> Yes. >> Member Thorakura. >> Yes. >> Member Blae. >> I >> member Zachor. >> Yes. >> Member Deberry. >> I. >> 16 eyes, zero nazs. This item is this
matter is adopted by the board. Vice President BZ, this concludes the first part of the public agenda items. >> We will now move into executive session. Board member Rivas, do you have motion MO4? I move for the passage of motion number
26-0625-4 and the commencement of a closed session to consider matters permitted under section 2C of the opens meetings act subsections 1 and 11 as specified in the motion. Is there a second? >> I second the motion.
>> Thank you. I'll proceed with a roll call. Member Lozano. >> Yes. >> Member Smith. I >> member Lopez. >> I >> member Bole. >> Yes. >> Member Wallace. >> I >> member Kuster. >> I >> member Pope. >> Yes. >> Member Rosenfeld. >> Yes.
>> Member Rivas. >> Yes. >> Member Bannon. >> I. >> Member Gutierrez. >> I. >> Member Biggs. >> Yes. >> Member Thodicura. >> Yes. >> Member Blae. >> I. >> Member Zachar. >> Yes. >> Member Deberry.
>> I. >> 16 eyes. Zero naz. This motion is adopted by the board. >> This meeting will now go into close session. The the the board meeting of the board of education is reconvene.
Board secretary, please proceed. >> Vice President Vez, I'll continue with items from the general counsel that do require a vote. AR2, appoint assistant general counsel, Naomi Forbes. AR3, appoint assistant general counsel,
Joshua Weiner. AR4 amend workers compensation payment for lumpsum settlement for Willie Thomas. Vice President Blesz, this amendment is necessary to change the settlement amount. I'll continue with AR5, workers compensation payment for lumpsum
settlement for Kimberly Jacam Melen. AR6 workers compensation payment for lumpsum settlement for Francine Kubic. AR7 approved payment of proposed settlement regarding claims brought by Hagen King, Muhammad Bowen, and Haywood. Is there a motion?
>> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. We'll now open this matter for discussion. Board members, any comments before proceeding with the roll call vote? See none. I'll proceed with a roll call. >> Member Lozano.
>> Yes. >> Member Smith. >> I. >> Member Lopez. >> I. Member Bole. >> Yes. >> Member Wallace. >> I. >> Member Kuster. >> I. >> Member Pope. >> Yes. >> Member Rosenfeld. >> Yes. >> Member Rivas. >> Yes.
>> Member Bannon. >> Hi. >> Member Gutierrez. >> I. >> Member Biggs. >> Yes. >> Member Blae. >> I. >> Member Zachor. >> Yes. >> Member Deberry. >> I.
>> 15 eyes, zero nazs. These matters are adopted by the board. Vice President Veles, I'll continue with items from the board that require a vote. RS6, resolution approving Superintendent Chief Executive Officer's recommendation to dismiss educational personnel. RS6, resolution approving
Superintendent Chief Executive Officer's recommendation to dismiss probationary appointed teacher. Vice President BZ, these items do require a vote. >> Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. I'll proceed with a roll call
vote. Member Loausano. >> Yes. >> Member Smith. >> I. >> Member Lopez. >> I. >> Member Bole. >> Yes. >> Member Wallace. >> I. >> Member Kuster. >> I. >> Member Pope. >> Yes. >> Member Rosenfeld. >> Yes. >> Member Rivas. >> Yes.
>> Member Bannon. >> Hi. >> Member Gutierrez. >> I. >> Member Biggs. >> Yes. >> Member Blae. >> I. >> Member Zachor. >> Yes. >> Member Deberry. >> I. 15 eyes, zero nazs. These matters are
adopted by the board. Vice President Veles, there are no further items on the agenda. >> Thank you. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> So moved. >> All in favor? >> I. >> I survive and we adjourn. Thank you.
Thank you guys.