Candidate Q&A
Why are you running?
In our fight for the elected representative school board, we envisioned a board that would be about the humanity of our students–students as whole people, not just vessels to receive instruction–and would prioritize the needs and interests of our Black and Brown communities that have been disinvested in for decades. We envisioned a board that would not favor corporate interests and privatization, but would be about developing schools throughout the city to be hubs in their communities focused on serving the whole community and developing the whole child. We envisioned a board made up of parents, educators, and education activists. One that is truly dedicated to being accessible to the community, listening to their needs, and committed to achieving education equity. I am running to realize that vision.
Why are you the most qualified candidate?
I am the only candidate in this district who has been a full-time CPS teacher in the last 15 years. The entire landscape of teaching has changed in that interval–due to changes in technology, in thinking about teaching and learning, in beliefs about school discipline and restorative practices, and in the need for mental health supports and trauma informed teaching that have surfaced since the pandemic. I just retired from teaching after 28 years - I know the current issues and challenges at the school level and the needs of students and teachers at the classroom level. Additionally, I am the candidate who has spent decades working towards education equity, including actively working in opposition to privatization and fighting for an elected school board, among other initiatives. Other candidates talk about equity, but I have a record of actively working to build it. Our main task is to improve student outcomes. My classroom experience and history of ensuring equitable distribution of resources makes me the most qualified.
What is the biggest issue facing your specific school board district?
District 4 is fortunate to have a significant number of selective, magnet and exemplary neighborhood schools and no schools rated as “Intensive Support.” Historically, more resources have gone to schools in many of the neighborhoods in District 4, and district residents understandably have concerns about losing resources. Another concern I’ve heard directly from neighbors is about stability, and wanting to be sure there is not a strike or other disruption to school routines. But just as the city is not one community and faces many different concerns and issues, one district is also not one community with monolithic concerns. So I have heard from schools concerned about no gym, or after school programs that cost money they can’t afford, or really busy streets, and a shortage of crossing guards…We as the board are not micromanaging and solving individual school problems, but we do have an obligation to put systems in place to ensure these concerns are being communicated to the board. We have to establish lines of communication if we are to restore public confidence in CPS. Board members must be accessible and responsive to the families, teachers and residents of the district.
How has your district been impacted by the shuttering of CPS schools?
In the 2013 mass closing, two schools that closed were in our district - both in Uptown: Stockton and Stewart. Courtenay was moved into the Stockton building, creating a period of turmoil as the student populations clashed. Stewart families were not treated in a welcoming manner by the then leadership of Brennemann and IEPs were not reviewed over the summer, so special ed needs were not met for a period of time. Despite community input that said to use the Stewart building as a school, or a youth center, or a jobs incubator, or affordable housing…the building was sold to a developer who turned it into luxury rental apartments - a slap in the face to the community. Why only those schools? Uptown is a gentrifying area and in general, we saw school closings were closely tied to gentrification. In most of District 4, schools have been adequately resourced and are able to attract and maintain numbers of students.
How have your district’s schools been impacted by students who are new arrivals to the U.S. and how should CPS best accommodate those students and families?
The school I am most familiar with is Uplift Community High School. Last year Uplift received a significant number of newcomer students, the majority of whom spoke Spanish although a few spoke Portuguese or French. Since Uplift is small, this influx brought major changes to the makeup of the school and we did not already have infrastructure to support these students. We did our best, and it seemed that students felt welcomed, but CPS did not provide support of any kind. Of course, they cannot instantly manufacture bilingual certified teachers, but there seemed to be no plan for how to ensure the students were being served in the absence of being able to offer the legally mandated classes in their native language. No professional development was offered to help teachers with how to conduct a class where half the students speak Spanish and the teacher does not.
While it does make sense to enroll students near where they are staying, even if that’s temporary, it also makes sense to either locate students in a school that is prepared to serve them or to provide specific supports otherwise. So limiting the number of schools that are receiving newcomers and identifying the supports that are needed in each would be important. Also, CPS needs a tracking system of some sort, to work with the shelters on where students are being relocated and identify whether they are going to transfer schools at that time or at the end of the year. I am committed to working closely with the Board and local elected officials and stakeholders in the event we need to respond quickly to an influx of students or need for additional resources. I am prepared to advocate aggressively for resources to do this and maintain strong communication with school stakeholders and district residents in doing so.
How do you believe the school board should handle the looming fiscal crisis at Chicago Public Schools?
Neither the federal government nor the state are paying their fair share. IDEA and Title I are funded at only 13% and Springfield says that by its own evidence based formula, it owes Chicago $1.2B. I think the school board needs to advocate and organize a united Chicago, including the business community, elected officials, unions, and parents to join the education community in Chicago and in the 84% of school districts that are also underfunded around the state to demand that Springfield rethink their priorities. Budgets are moral documents and it is immoral not to adequately fund our children’s future. In addition, the state should pay the legacy pension costs for Chicago the way it does for every other district, which would amount to another $600M.
A moratorium on closing CPS schools is set to expire in January. Should CPS consolidate more schools?
The current board has now voted to extend the moratorium to 2027, although the new board could overturn that. No, CPS should not close schools. When they closed 50 schools back in 2013, that did not yield the money savings they claimed it would, students were not relocated to academically better schools as had been promised, and no one calculated the harm done to children, their families, and the communities that had their neighborhood school ripped away from them, some of which are still shuttered to this day. A better solution is to move toward Sustainable Community Schools, in which the school is the hub of the community and in addition to excellent academics and restorative culture, has extensive wrap-around services and programs that appeal to the whole community as well as a voice for all stakeholders so they feel ownership of the school. Dyett High School had dropped to 15 students and was set to close. After the hunger strike, the board invested in the school and it became a Sustainable Community School in 2018. Today they have 500 students and a thriving arts program. Two years ago, Uplift had 100 students. But it is a Sustainable Community School with an early college STEAM program and has grown to 275 students in just two years.
What is your position on closing selective enrollment schools?
I support the move to prioritize neighborhood schools, particularly those that have been historically underinvested. I don’t believe that means closing selective schools. They have a place–there will always be students who want that extra challenge and thrive under a greater level of demand. However, it is disturbing to read that less than 1% of the students in the top selective enrollment schools are low-income students from Black and Brown neighborhoods. We need to examine this disparity and take steps to eliminate it.
What is your position on charter schools?
Charter schools gained so much traction in Chicago because the mayor and CPS decided that rather than provide adequate resources for underinvested neighborhood schools, they would allow charter schools to come into those neighborhoods. It was a conscious move to privatize public education and rely on a system that is not accountable to the public and is not in fact obligated to educate all children. Charters became adept at figuring out ways to encourage students who were more challenging to educate or who might interfere with their statistics to leave. Public schools are a public resource and their funds should never be used to support schools whose purpose is to enrich a corporate entity. However, I do not support closing any schools. Charter schools, just like others, are a home to the families currently attending and we do not want to create that trauma. I would advocate that charter schools be unionized and have fully empowered LSCs so there is a process to improve working conditions and some accountability to the public.
Is your campaign being supported by the Chicago Teachers Union?
Yes
The Chicago Teachers Union wants the district to focus on retrofitting schools with equipment that will battle the effects of climate change. Is spending money that way right now a good idea with the massive deficit the district faces?
Buildings are the largest contributors to greenhouse gasses in Chicago and older buildings, like many CPS schools, are among the worst offenders. There is actually a rating system and when my physics class investigated, we found some pretty stark differences in how schools were doing and how much effort they were putting into sustainability practices. Despite having an Office of Energy and Sustainability in name, the previous director has been gone for about 3 years and no one who can interact with schools interested in addressing sustainability has occupied the office since then. So CPS is not even doing the minimum to promote energy efficiency and sustainability and it’s good for CTU to call that out.
They also called out the fact that CPS had done very little to go after the federal grants that are available for school districts to address climate change beyond partnering with CTU on the grant for 50 electric buses. Clearly, we are not retrofitting all the schools in CPS right now. Some schools are in dire need of immediate work and as that work is done, it should include the retrofitting which should make it more economical than coming back to redo later. It is incontrovertible that climate change has the potential to generate huge expenses and life threatening situations and we should not think Chicago is immune. As an environmental science teacher, I have stayed informed about the threats to Chicago’s infrastructure as warming increases. Continuing to put things off just makes the problem worse or harder to fix down the road.
What is your biggest priority and what do you hope to accomplish on the Chicago Board of Education?
My biggest priority is to ensure we are adequately and equitably funding schools so that schools that have been historically under-resourced in disinvested neighborhoods get what they need for their students to thrive in the same way as students in well-resourced schools. What we heard from parents as we worked on the elected school board and what I hear from parents as I knock on doors now is that they want well-resourced high quality schools in their neighborhood that their children can walk to–and we have to want that for all children.
Obviously this is not an overnight fix, but I hope to see us implement concrete, visible steps to move in the direction of more equity, steps such as more Sustainable Community Schools. Besides pushing for true equity, I hope to use my experience in schools and in restorative practices to be a voice in guiding implementation and monitoring of the Whole School Safety Plan that has the potential to build caring and safe communities where students feel they have a real say in school policies and a deeper connection to their schools. I hope to set a standard for what it looks like to do regular outreach and input gathering from the community, including all stakeholders.