Budget Convos: The West Side Is the Best Side...So Far

This week, Chicago Public Schools is holding a series of "community feedback" sessions about next year's budget, which must be finalized by August 28. The format for these sessions is heavily scripted: CPS provides information, small groups at tables take part in facilitated conversations, answering questions the district created, and the tables report back.

The Dyett forum, held Monday night, stuck to this script perfectly. Budget director Mike Sitkowski presented slides, Chicago Teachers Union members at tables pushed their preferred solution--more state money--and a few parents squeezed in a word edgewise. The table conversations became an interesting exercise in deliberative discussion among differing viewpoints, but nothing happened to challenge the framework of the session.

Not so at Westinghouse College Prep last night. From the beginning, the crowd pushed back against the script, calling for a direct Q & A with Sitkowski. After some hesitation, he agreed, but insisted that the small group discussions and table reports happen first. The table reports ran down the clock, so the Q&A did not happen.

No Loans, No SECA Cuts, No-Interest Loan?

West Siders also took the table conversations deep into hard topics that were mostly sidelined at Dyett. To the surprise of an appointed board member, parents in a table discussion opposed borrowing to cover day-to-day operations. Community members argued in favor of thoughtful and equitable school consolidations. Veteran LSC members asked why special education classroom assistants (SECAs) have been cut while assistant principals in small schools and network staff still have jobs.

At the table discussion I attended, we talked about the reality that hard-to-staff schools have been operating for years without essential teachers, from music and gym teachers whose courses are fun for kids and give classroom teachers needed prep time, to special educators and teachers for math and science. Our table wanted to see filling long-term teacher vacancies in high-need schools made a priority, no matter what else happens to the budget.

SECAs should be untouchable, and CPS should hold school-by-school conversations with communities to determine cuts, said Cata Truss, who is married to former school board member Dwayne Truss. "The people in those school communities deserve the right to have a say in what those cuts look like."

"If you borrow for operating expenses, it will cost you more money and take more money out of the classroom," warned former school board member Dwayne Truss, who challenged the CTU messaging around pushing for new taxes on the state's wealthiest, sparking an argument with some in the crowd.

Dwayne Truss proposed asking the state for a $600 million interest-free loan from its reserves and lobbying the General Assembly to give CPS the same power every other district in the state has: ask the voters to increase their property taxes to fund schools. "Property tax, honestly, is the only sustainable revenue out there," he observed. "The state don't have any money. They don't give us any money because they broke themselves."

While he was speaking, a woman in the crowd came up and heatedly accused Truss of disrespecting her. A security officer moved in next to her and spoke to her quietly, but did not touch her and did not stop her from finishing her remarks. She made her statement and left, accompanied by the security guard.

'I Know There's a History'

After she left, Interim CEO Maccquline King took the mike to address the underlying tension in the room. Of about 75 people present, roughly 20 were West Side residents, some for multiple generations. Their frustration with decades of endless meetings that have not led to material improvement for their children's schools was evident throughout the session.

"I know there's a history. I know there are some things that haven't been done," King said. "I will come to any other forum if you all want to talk to me about other things in the history. But for tonight, can you honor giving us insight? . . . Can we all honor the meeting format?" The crowd agreed, and the meeting proceeded.

"One of the first things I did walking into this meeting, and it's the same as it's been for the last 40 years I've been walking in, so I immediately became a little angry about that," Cata Truss acknowledged. "Because no matter what administration comes in, the only thing that changes is the color of the paper and the amount of the deficit."

"Dollars, dollars, dollars. Numbers, numbers, numbers. Numbers not gonna matter when these kids aren't gonna get no type of future," said East Garfield Park parent Marquis Griffin, whose older son is autistic, to applause. "If we keep taking SECAs out of these schools...These kids are mostly attached to these people. If they don't have people to come to in these schools who they're attached to, it's dangerous."

Griffin noted that the youngest students in CPS now were babies during COVID and spent their early years in isolation. "They need more resources for programs that tell us what they're interested in. Simple as that."

To close the meeting, King said, "Now, it is our responsibility to make sure that you see that your feedback will truly be taken and used for the next step in this process."

Board President Sean Harden and members Michilla Blaise, Jitu Brown, Jennifer Custer, and Carlos Rivas attended the Westinghouse discussion. Harden and Brown also attended Monday night's conversation at Dyett, along with Jessica Biggs, Therese Boyle, and Che "Rhymefest" Smith.