A Cook County judge has ruled in favor of Urban Prep Academies, which had sued to maintain control of two charter campuses after Chicago Public Schools planned to take them over, amid allegations of sexual and financial misconduct by UPA leadership.

At the first meeting of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s new Board of Education, members announced a host of sweeping changes aimed at improving transparency, community engagement and elevating issues important to stakeholders.

While the board won’t officially vote on that contract until next week, some members questioned whether the X-rays actually improve safety for students at schools.

“I think this might be the first time in CPS history … that you have a board that’s made up of almost every one of us has some experience with CPS — either we’re parents, we’ve served on (Local School Councils), we were students or we were educators,” new board appointee Mariela Morales said

Brandon Johnson announced that Jianan Shi, the executive director of Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education since 2019, will serve as the board’s president after former president Miguel del Valle stepped down after his term expired last week.

The district’s budget for the 2024 fiscal year will contain $4.8 billion in school-level funding, which officials said is an increase of more than $240 million over last year.

Miguel del Valle, who has led Chicago’s Board of Education since 2019, announced he will be leaving his post at the end of this week.

Austin High School will remove one of its two school resource officers, while Marshall High School has voted to remove both of its SROs. Even so, the contract total will actually increase slightly due to increased salaries for the CPD officers assigned to schools.

“This is an important moment for our district, not only because of the change in mayoral leadership; but because, with the election of ten board members in November 2024, the Chicago Board of Education will begin its transition from fully appointed to fully elected,” the advocates wrote in the June 14 letter.

After allegations of sexual and financial misconduct, the Chicago Board of Education voted to revoke Urban Prep’s charter. The state school board denied an appeal, and a CPS takeover looks imminent.

Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez did not get into specifics while speaking before the Chicago Board of Education Wednesday, but reiterated that principal Abdul Muhammad “had to be pulled” from the school “for multiple reasons.”

Chicago Public Schools on Friday informed parents and students at Lindblom Math & Science Academy that it had removed Abdul Muhammad from his principal duties, citing “an investigation that substantiated findings” against him.

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.

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.