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Chicago Public Schools students returned to class Monday — amid an excessive heat warning, ongoing student transportation challenges, and growing friction between district leadership, the teachers union, and the mayor’s office.
Officials touted the district’s momentum in undoing some of the academic fallout from the pandemic and welcoming a larger, more diverse teacher workforce. But the kickoff to the school year was dampened by news that almost 2,000 students with disabilities are still waiting for a transportation route.
Meanwhile, Chicago Teachers Union leaders sharply criticized district CEO Pedro Martinez over what they see as too little progress in negotiations over a new contract for educators, ratcheting up tensions over the bargaining process as the district faces looming budget deficits.
The school year began on the heels of reports that Mayor Brandon Johnson is looking to replace Martinez at the helm amid disagreements over how the district should approach its financial predicament and the costs of a teacher contract. On Monday morning, Johnson and Martinez visited schools on the West Side to greet families together, though the mayor declined to take questions from reporters.
“Getting off to a good start is so critical and this year, we’re going to make sure that our children are seen and valued and that they can experience their purpose with new heights,” Johnson said. “With all the gains that we’ve made as a district, there’s still much work to be done.”
Johnson, a CPS parent himself, joked about the joy parents feel when sending their children back to school in the fall: “To all the parents out there who have been waiting for this moment, you’re welcome. Don’t ever say I ain’t done nothing for you.”
Then, there was the heat: As temperatures climbed above 90 degrees, the district canceled all outdoor sports games Monday and Tuesday, and moved recess and sports practices indoors. The district assured families that all classrooms have air conditioning, but many CPS buildings do not have cooling systems in the hallways and other shared spaces.
Amid tense contract talks, teachers union head criticizes CPS CEO
Last year, Johnson, a former CTU organizer and ally, appeared alongside Martinez and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates on the first day of school to usher in a new era of collaboration. But that was not the case this year.
Davis Gates visited Poe Classical Elementary School Monday morning and said staff there invited her to visit.
Davis Gates told Chalkbeat that she asked the mayor to keep Martinez on during the mayor’s transition period when he first took office – something she said she had not revealed publicly before.
Asked if she thinks Martinez should be replaced now, Davis Gates, who wrote an op-ed Monday in the Chicago Tribune criticizing Martinez, said, “I think that the Chicago Public Schools students deserve to be in an environment that we are in right now at Poe Classical. And if Pedro wants to do that, we should partner and get it done yesterday.”
She said Martinez has not tried hard enough to work with the union to meet its demands — a 700-plus proposal package that ranges from increasing teacher pay and adding more staff to schools to improving facilities, such as adding air conditioning to every school gym, and addressing larger societal issues such as student homelessness.
In negotiations, some of which have been held in public, district officials have pointed to budget constraints, noting that just 52 of those proposals would create a $3 billion budget deficit for the district by next school year. Union officials have pushed the district to find a way to pay for more demands, which Davis Gates said also focus on giving more to students, including librarians at every school, more arts education, and more sports programming.
Davis Gates pointed to Poe’s celebratory atmosphere on Monday that she wished existed at every school. The school continued its annual tradition of having a DJ play energizing music as families and kids walked through the school gates. Some younger students clung to their parents. Older students talked excitedly with their classmates. Staff greeted kids and some hugged. An emcee hyped up the crowd, as “It’s Time For the Percolator” boomed in the background.
“If you wanna know what we’re bargaining for, it is this right here, where the educators and the principals are a team; it is where parents, community, multigenerational [families] feel both welcomed and a critical part of it,” Davis Gates said. “These kids are going back to school — and they are smiling.”
Martinez and the CPS board have rejected a request from the Johnson administration to take out a short-term loan to pay, in part, for the cost of contract negotiations. As of mid-August, City Hall had continued to press CPS to take out a loan, a source close to CPS previously told Chalkbeat.
Both CPS and the union have also pushed the state to provide more funding to CPS, but state leaders have said that more money is not coming this year.
“If Pedro’s only resistance is his checkbook, that’s pathetic,” Davis Gates said.
Back on the West Side, the mayor’s Deputy Mayor of Education, Youth, and Human Services Jen Johnson told Chalkbeat that the mayor’s office will “make sure the district stays at the table and push them to make sure they’re making progress” with the union.
Hundreds of students with disabilities still without bus rides
As of Aug. 21, 15,586 students were eligible for district-provided transportation: 10,695 students with disabilities, 4,882 general education students, and nine students in temporary living situations, according to a district spokesperson.
Chicago had been under state corrective action for the past two years to ensure students with disabilities had bus routes and were not riding for longer than an hour each way. That state oversight ended earlier this year.
A district spokesperson said Friday that 1,913 students with disabilities still did not have an assigned bus route as of Aug. 21. That’s more than 1,300 more than the roughly 600 who were not on routes at the start of last year. CPS officials said that is mainly due to an increase in students with disabilities qualifying for transportation.
The district is offering stipends of up to $500 a month to students with disabilities who are not on bus routes and live at least five miles away from school.
On Monday, Martinez said the district is trying to get those students routed “as soon as possible.”
“The good news is we’re up about more than 25% in drivers, almost 900 drivers, up from 700 last year, so we’re gonna get everybody routed as soon as possible,” Martinez said.
The district is still not offering busing to general education students, largely those who need rides to selective enrollment or magnet schools.
At Poe Classical – a selective enrollment school where children must take a test to gain admission – mother Brittany Livingston said she and her son took a bus for about 20 minutes to and from their home in Chatham to get to the school last year. The bus wasn’t always timely, especially in the winter. But taking Ubers “means I would have to work more doubles and work more shifts at work to be able to afford [that],” said Livingston, who works as a certified nursing assistant.
Livingston cut the commute in half this year after buying a used car. The “little put-put,” as Livingston calls her car, sometimes requires costly maintenance, which means she’s sometimes taking on extra shifts at work.
“It’s hard, but I’m trying to make it work so that we can at least be able to go back and forth here,” she said.
Martinez painted a more hopeful picture about transportation on Monday, saying it’s probably the best I’ve felt about transportation in the last three years.” He said he hopes to see some busing for general education students by the end of this semester.
Last year, CPS canceled busing for around 8,000 general education students, most of whom attend selective enrollment or magnet schools. This year, officials said they couldn’t guarantee transportation, but would pilot new strategies, including a “hub stop” model that will be phased in later this school year. General education students eligible for transportation can get free Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Ventra cards valued at $35 per month and a companion pass for one parent or guardian
Johnson and Martinez continue plea for more state funding
Even as school celebrated the return to class, questions continued to swirl over whether Johnson might oust Martinez, who, in addition to pushing back on City Hall demands to take out a loan, also pushed back on demands to take on a short-term, high-interest loan and a disputed a staff pension payment. But the mayor and the district’s top leader stood side by side at both schools.
And at Chalmers Elementary in North Lawndale, Johnson asked parents and staff gathered by the playground at the school day’s start to give Martinez a round of applause. Johnson served as a Chicago Teachers Union organizer assigned to the school and said he pushed back on plans to close it in that role.
Johnson also used the occasion to make a plug for an issue he and Martinez agree on: a request for more dollars for schools from the state of Illinois. The state has markedly increased funding for CPS in recent years, but by its own calculation, it’s more than $1 billion shy of what would make adequate funding for the district.
“We need our partners in Springfield,” Johnson said on Chalmers’ playground. “Do we deserve our $1.1 billion?” Parents and staff cheered.
Johnson got the loudest applause when he brought up the prospect of the country electing its first female Black president. He got a less enthusiastic response when he argued that the first day of school is the best day of the year, “only second to Christmas Eve.”
“Listen, if it gets hard, always ask for help,” Johnson told first grader De’Andria Lofton, dressed in the school’s uniform of a green polo shirt and khaki skirt, personalized with a sparkly purple backpack.
She nodded and smiled shyly before she paused for a photo with the mayor and her parents.
“She loves school,” said Cathy Lofton, De’Andria’s mom, who also has a fourth grader at the school. “She always wants to come on the weekends.”
She hopes De’Andria will learn her multiplication table, and that both of her children will feel engaged — and, first and foremost, safe at school and in the neighborhood.
CPS touts filling more vacant teaching jobs
District officials said they have continued to make headway on reining in start-of-school-year vacancies. Roughly 4.3% of the district’s teaching positions are vacant, slightly down from the start of last school year, said Ben Felton, the district’s chief talent officer. That marks a return to pre-pandemic vacancy levels, he said, but at a time when the district employs about 2,500 more teachers compared to when COVID first hit.
“We have more licensed educators in front of kids than at any point during recent history,” Felton said.
He said the district has 125 additional bilingual teachers and 70 more art teachers than last fall. Overall, CPS has staffed 600 more teachers and 700 more paraprofessionals.
Felton also touted a more diverse corps of newly hired educators: About 31% of roughly 2,000 new teachers are Latino, 18% are Black, and 9% are Asian American.
The district was not able Monday to provide its vacancy rate for all employees or the demographics of teachers overall this fall.
Teaira Myles, whose 6-year-old son Brandon started first grade at Poe on Monday, said she felt a mix of excitement and pride for her son. She said she hopes Brandon learns more Spanish at Poe this year, as well as more about music.
Brandon showed up dressed in yellow Nike sneakers and a T-shirt with a character from his favorite anime show, “One Piece.” His circular backpack was emblazoned with a skull and crossbones, with black and red straps — also merchandise related to “One Piece.”
Brandon, who spent the summer playing football, said he was “a lot happy and a little nervous” for the start of the school year and was excited about his teachers, friends, and the classroom. He remembered the DJ party at Poe when he started kindergarten last year and thought the tradition was “kinda cool.”
Asked if he wanted to say anything else, he added, “My favorite color is red.”
Samantha Smylie contributed.
Becky Vevea is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Chicago. Contact Becky at bvevea@chalkbeat.org.
Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org .
