The Chicago Board of Elections has hired 8,100 election judges to help things go smoothly, spokesman Max Bever said. Many of those judges are students. 

Amid ongoing turmoil, Chicago’s Board of Education on Friday pushed ahead with its first meeting in more than five weeks — one day after president Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson became the eighth person to resign from the seven-member board in the last calendar month.

Chicago Board of Education President Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson resigned under pressure Thursday after a series of antisemitic, misogynistic and conspiratorial social media posts generated a wave of outrage that stretched from the Chicago City Council to Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

Early intervention, or EI, comprises an array of developmental and social-emotional services like speech and language, occupational and physical therapies and social work that are designed to improve the long-term outcomes of a child and family’s life.

The seven new board members, appointed by Johnson earlier this month, were sworn in during Thursday’s agenda review committee meeting. CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who was also present at Thursday’s meeting, has seen questions swirl about his continued employment with the school district.

Rafael Yáñez, who ran unsuccessfully to represent the 15th Ward on the Chicago City Council in 2015 and 2019, is set to join the board.

To faculty, new protest rules threaten freedom of speech — and the freedom to think, both central to university life. This semester, some of the most visible demonstrations have involved professors speaking up for the right to protest itself.

Last week, the Acero charter network announced it would close seven campuses by the end of the school year — impacting more than 2,000 students and 270 teachers. The charter school network cites declining enrollment, rising personnel and facility costs, and a $40 million deficit. But parents and teachers are fighting back, calling for Chicago Public Schools to absorb the closing schools. 

The milestone comes over one year since an Illinois law went into effect requiring public schools to provide a plant-based lunch for students who have, or whose parents have, requested a plant-based lunch option in advance. The plant-based school lunches meet the same federal nutrition standards as non-plant based lunch options.

The board’s monthly meeting, which had been scheduled for Oct. 24, is no longer set to be held and a makeup date has not yet been announced.

Northeastern Illinois University has certainly seen its fair share of turmoil in recent years, including a narrowly averted strike and the departure of the former university president following a vote of no-confidence by faculty. Now, Katrina Bell-Jordan is officially taking the reins of leadership at NEIU .

No current or former members of the Chicago Board of Education attended Wednesday's marathon session of the City Council’s Education Committee, even after some City Council members threatened to hit them with subpoenas to require them to appear.

The school district on Wednesday released its 20th-day enrollment figures — which serve as the office CPS tally for the academic year — showing there are currently 325,305 students enrolled.

Stateville had robust higher educational programs, partnering with five Chicago-area universities. After the transfers, some students have been split from their classmates and are now hundreds of miles away from each other. Those divisions and distances now make it difficult for educators to reach students.

The class, based out of the school’s Evanston campus, traveled to meet with students incarcerated at Stateville Correctional Center in Crest Hill, where the two groups were tasked with collaborating on a documentary.

The board’s monthly agenda review committee meeting, which had been scheduled for Wednesday morning, will not be held as planned, Chicago Public Schools announced over the weekend.