The Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday announced multiple proposed shifts to the way it handles business, beginning with a shift toward public briefings on board agenda items before well ahead of scheduled votes beginning in May.
Chicago Board of Education
Miquel A. Lewis, the acting director of Probation Services at the Cook County Juvenile Probation and Court Services Department, will be joining the board where he’ll replace former Vice President Sendhil Revuluri, who left his position late last year.
The Chicago Board of Education on Wednesday unanimously approved the calendar for the 2023-24 school year after receiving more than 2,500 comments from the public and education stakeholders last month.
Deputy Inspector General Amber Nesbitt said her office has seen a rise in the number of district schools, charter schools and vendors that have launched investigations into sexual misconduct allegations without contacting the inspector general or CPS.
CPS on Wednesday published its proposed calendar for the 2023-24 school year, which would see classes resume Aug. 21, 2023, and run until June 6, 2024. Parents and families now have a week to tell the district what they think before the Board of Education approves the new calendar next month.
A final vote on the city subsidy for the high school set to be built at 24th and State streets, once home to the demolished CHA Harold L. Ickes homes, is scheduled for Wednesday’s full City Council meeting.
“Everything I have in my life I owe to public education,” Sendhil Revuluri said during the meeting. “Our city, our students, our educators all need and deserve a board that listens to the community, focuses on student outcomes, sets clear goals to drive our progress and then holds one another and our district accountable for that progress.”
Despite concerns from the public and elected officials, the board at its monthly meeting voted 4-3 in favor of a trio of motions to help Chicago Public Schools acquire land and take additional steps toward building the new school.
The average bus trip districtwide is 39 minutes and over 80% of rides are under an hour, according to CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, but 365 diverse learners currently have rides lasting more than 90 minutes each day.
The teachers say they were encouraging students to participate in the process of free speech by protesting metal scrap company General Iron, which planned to move into their South Side community.
Former board member DwayneTruss called for the inspector general of the Chicago Public Schools to probe the deal that would allow the high school to be built at 24th and State streets, once home to the demolished CHA Harold L. Ickes homes.
The city’s Board of Education on Wednesday will vote on a one-year, $10 million contract renewal with the Chicago Police Department that would allow it to provide school resource officers in several Chicago high schools.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot has tapped former alderperson Michael Scott Jr. as a new member of the Chicago Board of Education, barely a month after the former Committee on Education and Child Development chair stepped down from the City Council.
Board of Education approves new CPS budgets
Plans for a new Near South high school were suddenly put on hold Wednesday after Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez abruptly removed the item before the city’s Board of Education voted to approve the district’s budgets for the upcoming fiscal year.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Wednesday announced Chapman, a former Chicago Public Schools grad and chairwoman of the Far South Community Advisory Council, will fill the seat vacated by former board member Amy Rome last summer.
Chicago Public Schools said it expects to begin publishing student discipline and safety data in the coming weeks, a year after dozens of high schools voted to reduce or eliminate their school resource officer (SRO) programs.
