Chicago Public 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.
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.
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.
Chicago Public Schools has been at the center of an intense media frenzy over the past week. Tensions continue to rise between Mayor Brandon Johnson and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, 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.
“This announcement is not made lightly,” Acero said in a statement. “It is made with compassion and an unrelenting commitment to the individuals we serve. We hope to welcome as many transitioning scholars as possible to our other network schools and manage this difficult transition with integrity, mindfulness and clarity of mission.”
CPS CEO Pedro Martinez said during an appearance on WTTW News’ “Chicago Tonight” he has repeatedly urged the mayor to use funds from the city’s TIF districts instead of borrowing money or making cuts to classrooms.
“I’m not going to cut, and take away, layoff, fire, privatize so that other people can benefit, and the people of Chicago can lose,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said. “Not under my watch.”
“As someone that represents Chicago, it seemed irresponsible to completely overhaul the makeup of the board just months before the election,” state Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago) told WTTW News.
Board president Jianan Shi, Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland and fellow members Mariela Estrada, Mary Fahey Hughes, Rudy Lozano, Michelle Morales and Tanya Woods plan to step down from their positions this month.
The 6-0 vote by the board overseeing the Chicago Public Schools came two days after CEO Pedro Martinez announced he had refused Mayor Brandon Johnson’s request to resign, an unprecedented show of public defiance by the head of a city agency toward the mayor.
“Borrowing to pay for operating expenses in a business, in a government, etc., is not a great idea unless you know how you’re going to pay for that, because it’s going to come due,” Gov. J.B. Pritzker said, “speaking as a businessperson.”
During the past week, CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has written three times to parents, staff and students, and in each letter, he has promised that he will not close any schools while at the helm of CPS, even as he acknowledged compiling a list of schools that could be closed as part of an effort to compile a five-year strategic plan.
Nearly a week after the Chicago School Board approved a new five-year plan for Chicago Public Schools, tensions among CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union are mounting.
As Chicago grapples with a nearly $1 billion budget gap in the coming year, the city shouldn’t count on the state to help fill it. Gov. J.B. Pritzker said he’s “read things in the newspaper” about relief Chicago may want from the Illinois government, but at this point that’s not something his budget team is thinking about.