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The Chicago Board of Education passed a budget Thursday for the coming school year, following weeks of tension and opposition that reached as high up as the mayor’s office.
That budget, however, will likely be amended after the district finishes negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union and the district’s new principals union. It does not currently account for increases to teacher salaries.
The $9.9 billion budget boosts overall funding for schools, but it also includes cuts to central staff and administrative costs to help close a roughly half-billion-dollar deficit, including for central staff and administrative costs. It also includes a $611 million capital budget, which largely funds repairs and updates to school facilities.
While the district will freeze about 200 positions and cut 45 other roles, it will also add another 800 school-based staff positions, with just over 60% of those for teachers. Roughly half of those positions are for serving students with disabilities, said Mike Sitkowski, CPS’s budget director.
Sitkowski said the deficit is expected to be at least $500 million by next fiscal year, which starts July 1, 2025 – and that’s without accounting for the cost of bargaining agreements with unions.
One by one, board members praised the budget plan but also raised concerns about the need for more funding down the road and acknowledged the pushback they’ve heard, including that losing staff can feel disruptive for schools.
“Is this budget perfect? No, but in my time here, it is the budget that has most equitably distributed the funds that we do have,” said Vice President Elizabeth Todd Breland, who was also on the Board of Education under former Mayor Lori Lightfoot.
School communities received their campus staff allocations roughly a month ago, and some have been bracing for the impact of tighter budgets this fall. The budget includes a new way of funding schools by giving more weight to student needs than enrollment numbers. The new formula has resulted in fewer overall positions at at least 150 schools, while many others saw more positions, according to a Chalkbeat analysis.
The district’s budget drew rare opposition from Mayor Brandon Johnson, who said he supported efforts to fill the deficit but did not support cuts to staff. At one point, Johnson’s office pushed the Board of Education to borrow up to $300 million to cover costs of union agreements and pension costs that the city shifted to the district a few years ago. CPS balked at that suggestion, arguing that such a move would result in a high-interest, short-term loan that could further damage the district’s bond rating.
The Chicago Teachers Union has protested the budget for weeks during multiple rallies, including before Thursday’s meeting, to push back against staff layoffs and to call on the state and federal governments to send more money to Chicago Public Schools. CPS has promised to find laid-off teachers new jobs or cover their salaries for the upcoming year.
The state increased funding for CPS this year, but the district is still $1 billion short of what the state’s formula considers adequate funding.
One of those teachers is fourth grade teacher Michelle Ludwig, who taught at Christopher Elementary School before losing her job last month, costing her students “a teacher who genuinely cares about them and with whom they’ve built trusting relationships,” Ludwig told the board Thursday. She said she has not yet found a new position.
“There should be vacancies based upon retirement and personal choice, but not because the district decided to devalue teachers,” Ludwig said.
Dozens of people in red CTU T-shirts gathered outside Jones College Prep in the South Loop, where Thursday’s meeting was being held, with multiple signs, such as “Equitable Funding,” “$1 billion short,” and multiple signs criticizing CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who the union says has been shortsighted in crafting the budget proposal.
CTU Vice President Jackson Potter told school board members that this is a ripe time to pressure the state for more money, given that Gov. J.B. Pritzker is being considered as a running mate for presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, who has called for more teacher pay. And, he noted, the Democratic National Convention will be in Chicago.
“I think we can be heroes if we can get the decision-makers to the table to agree that this is a priority,” Potter said.
Kids First Chicago, an parent advocacy group, has suggested different ways to raise revenue and save money, including by advocating for more state funding, raising property taxes, and gradually consolidating the Chicago teacher pension system, which is funded by CPS, with the state’s pension fund for teachers, which is funded through the state budget, not local districts.
Those recommendations were endorsed by the Civic Federation, a nonpartisan government watchdog group, which warned that the district does not have a long-term solution for its deficit. The deficit next fiscal year is projected to increase to $933 million if the district provides a 4% raise for teachers and principals and picks up a $175 million payment to cover the pensions of non-teaching staff.
Sitkowski acknowledged those long-term challenges, noting that the deficit for next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2025, is projected to grow to at least $500 million. He said the district will need more funding going forward to close those gaps.
District leaders have argued that the city should step in to cover the pension cost of non-teaching staff as it has in the past. The budget approved by the board Thursday included the pension expense, but also assumes there will be revenue from City Hall to cover the cost. It’s not clear if Johnson’s office will take it on when the city puts together its budget later this year.
Separately, after months of development, the board passed a new safety policy for schools that removes police officers staffed by the Chicago Police Department from campuses. The plan, known as Whole School Safety, pushes schools staff to implement alternatives to discipline, such as restorative justice practices.
The presentation to the board was almost celebratory. Students and advocates who worked with CPS to create the plan were asked to stand up as board members praised their advocacy over the past few years to revamp how the district approached school safety.
A recent study found that schools that had already removed officers saw a slight drop in high-level disciplinary violations.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
