Campaign Season's Heating Up

If you thought campaign season for the school board elections wouldn't go into full swing until after Labor Day, you might want to think again. While parents and kids are adjusting to summer schedules (or lack of schedules), and grassroots organizations are still planning their strategies to educate and mobilize voters, organized power and organized money are already making moves. Here's how:

Getting the word out. Hilario Dominguez, the Chicago Teachers Union's candidate for board president, is hosting his first official fundraiser on Thursday night.

Meanwhile, the Common Ground Collective has begun flyering at community events like last weekend's Fiesta del Niño at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen. Candidate Jesus Ayala, Jr. told Board Rule that he encountered CGC while he was greeting fiesta attendees and "hung around their tent" to introduce himself to folks who stopped by with questions about the school board.

Endorsement season. Although the CTU has officially endorsed Hilario Dominguez, its political director, for school board president, the teachers union will not complete its school board endorsements in district races until the end of June. SEIU of Illinois has launched its questionnaire for Chicago school board candidates, which asks, among other things, whether they support the board's Whole School Safety Plan and how they intend to ensure students who need special education services receive them.

Petition challenges. Tomorrow morning, 28 school board candidates facing petition challenges—or their lawyers—will attend initial hearings about their cases. These initial hearings are mostly to set dates for the real hearings, which will likely be held in July. Yesterday, the Chicago Board of Elections approved the use of subpoenas to compel witnesses to testify, which was previously used "successfully," according to Adam Lasker, the board's general counsel. The ballot will not be finalized until late August.

Should all the challenges be upheld, more than half the candidate field would be knocked off the ballot. In 2024, about a third of the candidates who filed to run did not survive petition challenges, including parents and others without political experience or access to big donors. Chalkbeat Chicago took a first pass at the story this year last Friday. Watch for more soon on this hot topic.

Agenda Review Meeting Preview

Topping today's agenda: the postponed votes to renew six charters. Expect the votes to go through smoothly. The board will also vote on its long-awaited legislative agenda, which "may be pursued in multiple legislative sessions."

Then the board will discuss three resolutions to be voted on at the end of the month: two related to mental health and a resolution specifying that board members running for election or re-election not accept campaign contributions from current Chicago Public Schools vendors, outside legal counsel serving the board, or applicants to become CPS vendors.

Public participation will be held until after these votes are taken and the discussion of the resolutions for the June board meeting has ended. The board agenda suggests this would start public participation around noon.

InFocus: Ed Bannon

As a boy at St. Philomena’s, a Catholic school in Chicago’s Hermosa neighborhood, Ed Bannon mostly liked having his dad for the principal. He remembers his dad showing students how to use students the hot new computer: an Apple IIe. 

But he did get sent to the office once, he said, “because my cousin got into a fight and I didn’t stop it. I didn’t even fight!”

After he became a father himself,  Bannon spent a decade serving on the Local School Council at his children’s school, Dever Elementary in Dunning. In 2016 he chaired Dever’s principal selection committee. Now, as a member of the Chicago Board of Education, he has made a point of attending LSC meetings at schools in his district. That’s not something most mayoral-appointed school board members routinely did in the past. 

“When I first started going, people were surprised and happy to see me,” he said.”I think board members going to LSC meetings, going to schools, doing more to understand what’s going on in CPS, is something we should be proud of.”

Wins. Bannon counts the hiring of Dr. Macquline King as a win, even if “some people might say it was a little too rocky.” He notes it was the first time the board hired a superintendent with community input and with greater independence from the mayor’s office. He also pointed to new accountability provisions on charters.

Challenges. The politics, of course. “They’re as unfortunate as they are unavoidable,” he said. “You gotta work past that and try to get things accomplished.”

The tough part is dealing with people who question the enterprise of public education, he noted. “I’m fine with people who disagree on policy or level of regulation of charters or what languages should be taught. Those are good faith disagreements,” Bannon said. “But I think we have people out there who don’t want to fund education, and then are just going to say it’s failing. That’s not right.”

Priorities. “Fiscal sustainability has to be number one,” he said. “We can’t be going year to year wondering how we’re going to balance the budget. It makes us unable to focus on bigger priorities: academic improvements and creating a better ecosystem for students.”

A former 38th ward aldermanic candidate, Bannon recognizes that money for CPS can’t come from increasing property taxes. "We need to find a way to convince the state to increase the funding," he said. “It has increased, but not enough.”

Soundbite: “I’ve really gotten more emotionally invested in CPS than I expected. I was on an LSC for 10 years, just trying to improve my school. Being on the board has shown me a whole community of people working to improve CPS. It’s inspiring.”

Upcoming Community Budget Feedback Sessions

Once again, CPS faces a massive budget deficit and a delay in receiving property taxes. Currently the district expects it must fill a $732 million deficit for 2027. Schools were expected to approve their budgets, which included cuts, yesterday. CPS is still preparing its central budget, which includes both the central office and spending through its networks.

For the second year in a row, CPS will host a series of community conversations to elicit input as it prepares the central office budget for a vote by August 29. Here is the schedule of meetings:

• Tuesday, June 23, in-person at Westinghouse College Prep High School (3223 W. Franklin Blvd.) from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
• Spanish Language Session: Saturday, June 27, in-person at Back of the Yards College Prep High School (2111 W. 47th St.) from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.
• Tuesday, June 30, in-person at Dyett High School (555 E. 51st St.) from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
• Virtual Session: Wednesday, July 1, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. (attendance link will be sent once RSVP is received)
• Tuesday, July 7, in-person at Roosevelt High School (3436 W Wilson Ave.) from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

If you are interested in attending one of these meetings, RSVP here.