Becky Vevea

Becky Vevea

Bureau Chief, Chalkbeat Chicago

Becky Vevea is the Bureau Chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Before coming to Chalkbeat, she spent a decade at WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR News Station, reporting on city politics and schools, as well as filling in as anchor and host. Becky is an award-winning journalist whose work has also appeared in The New York Times, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and USA Today. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Journalism & Mass Communication and a native of rural central Wisconsin. She currently lives in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood with her husband and two young sons.

The union filed a grievance with the school district over potential paycheck errors for members. It is also asking the newly-seated school board to use its power to help settle protracted contract talks.

The mayor defended staying on ‘union leave’ from CPS while overseeing the nation’s fourth-largest school district amid CTU contract negotiations.

Chicago Public Schools watchdog is urging the district to be vigilant against improper political activity as the city is now electing school board members.

Eight months of increasingly contentious negotiations have produced some notable agreement — and little progress on other issues.

The mayor’s announcement came on the last day of a state-imposed deadline for his choices for the new 21-person board, which will include 10 elected members.

The deadline for applying to magnet, selective, charter, and other schools outside a student’s neighborhood is being extended to Dec. 15.

In the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s win for a second term in office, the Chicago Board of Education passed a resolution committing to protecting students of all identities, including varying immigration statuses.

Chicago voters delivered a mixed message in the city’s historic first school board elections. A mix of union-backed candidates, independents, and school choice backers won seats.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s newly-appointed school board president Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson is stepping down after past anti semitic and misogynistic comments surfaced online.