Chicago Public Schools has been at the center of an intense media frenzy over the past week.
All seven members of the Chicago Board of Education last Friday said they intended to resign. Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday announced six new board appointees. Tensions continue to rise between the mayor and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez — whom Johnson reportedly wants ousted — and the district’s financial crisis is at a standstill while the CEO, mayor and Chicago Teachers Union all publicly voiced different methods to solve it.
Johnson’s chief of staff, Cristina Pacione-Zayas, joined “Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices” to dive into the city’s plans and the future of public schooling.
WTTW News: We had Mayor Brandon Johnson on Tuesday’s show, where he maintained that those who oppose his vision also oppose progress. When you were a state senator, you pushed for more state funds for education. Why hasn’t the mayor’s office been able to convince state lawmakers and the governor to help Chicago bridge the gap?
Cristina Pacione-Zayas: Well, I would actually have to say that we’ve been working closely with the governor’s office. Our financial team, as well as the governor’s office financial team, are in close communication and coordination, looking at not just a situation where we’re bailing out CPS or we’re bailing out Chicago. We have some structural issues that we have to address. COVID dollars are expiring, we have diminishing returns on revenues such as the personal property replacement tax, and that’s because (former President Donald) Trump had lifted the caps, and corporations are able to write off more and not put money into the revenue stream, which is basically now creating the deficit that we have for 2024 and some of the forecasts of 2025. These two teams are working on strategies that will assist all municipalities across the city to deal with both of these issues.
In an appearance on “Chicago Tonight” on Wednesday, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez detailed some of the private conversations between himself and the mayor, and said he did not think the district should take out a loan. Is it possible for the city to use more than $300 million in funds now earmarked to fight blight to fill CPS’ budget deficit?
Pacione-Zayas: So the mayor and the CEO did have a conversation about TIF (tax increment financing) surplus. There was always a commitment to meet that obligation per statute. With the TIF surplus, though, what we also have to understand is that those dollars also go back into other taxing bodies, such as the parks, such as the libraries, City Colleges. In this whole budget cycle, we are working out the analysis to figure out how much actually can go into the school budget. But I think what’s important to note is that the budget that was passed back in July did not include all of the expenses that CPS actually has to account for. That is inclusive of settling the contract with teachers and settling the contract with principals. This is the first year that principals are actually collectively bargaining. I actually participated in the process of establishing that particular bill. They also didn’t include a pension payment for the employees that are non-teachers. So what was presented in July was not even a full picture. Yet, in past budgets, we have been able to get CPS to make a commitment towards their pension payments, which they should because as they move into an independent school district, they have to independently cover the costs of their expenses. No other sister agency expects the city to pay for their pensions, and yet, in this particular case, CPS does.
If Martinez is pushed out as CEO, what’s the likelihood you’ll be considered for the job?
Pacione-Zayas: No, I’m the chief of staff to the mayor. I’m not going anywhere.
What would you do differently in that role if you were considered for that job?
Pacione-Zayas: The advice I would give any CEO is to adopt and to effectuate the vision that the mayor has laid out. I think that the mayor coming from Chicago Public Schools as an educator, both in middle school and high school, as a parent who has children in those schools, as an organizer who constantly fought for full funding for schools — who better to be articulating the vision and enforcing that it needs to actually manifest? I think he knows the visceral reaction when you go into a school and you are asked to literally make lemonade out of lemons. I think he knows when he drops his children off at school and how he has to take his kids all the way to the South Side to get the types of resources that he wishes they could afford on the West Side, but they’re not available. And so, those types of things are not radical. All we want to make sure is that young people and children are wrapped around and able to live up to their fullest potential, and the adults around them have what they need to do that.
Parents who are following this week’s news are seeing a public rift with CPS. What do you want to tell parents who are trying to understand?
Pacione-Zayas: I think the vision of the mayor is simple, right? We want to transform the Chicago Public Schools system. For too long, we have been living in chaos. For too long, we have accepted subpar standards. For too long, we have adopted the status quo, which is closing 50 schools. We have allowed previous appointed boards to do a no-bid contract for a former employer of the CEO. We have allowed the books to be cooked in terms of graduation rates. We have privatized services and paid more money but received less quality. All of that is disruption and chaos. I can tell you, I have two children in Chicago Public Schools — one in a neighborhood school and one in a magnet school. I walked my son to school every day this week, there was no chaos. There was no disruption. Teachers were teaching. Support staff were wrapping around. My principal assured us that he was there as the instructional leader. Our local school councils are making sure that our schools are following their school improvement plans. This is really about transformation, and we’re at a turning point, and the mayor is not afraid to make those decisions.
How would you say to those parents: How is this turmoil going to affect their school or their child?
Pacione-Zayas: Day-to-day operations have not been affected. I actually served on the state Board of Education, and when you are a board member, you are making policy decisions at a 30,000-foot level. And what I can tell you is that day-to-day operations are functioning, and the site-based management teams, your local school councils, really have the deepest impact on how those schools are run, plus the principals. And as I said, principals are showing up every day. Teachers are showing up every day. Children are learning. Let us work out these details, because this is really the brink of educational transformation.