InFocus: Talking Budgets with Norma Rios-Sierra

"I am an artist who understands numbers and financial data," says Chicago school board member Norma Rios-Sierra, who worked in banking for a few years after graduating from Columbia College Chicago with an art history degree. She's also no stranger to the rough-and-tumble of city and state politics. As an immigration advocate with Palenque LSNA, she worked to pass the Illinois TRUST Act, which strictly limits state and local police participation in federal immigration enforcement.

She's applying those skills as the City of Chicago budget negotiations are going down to the wire. Mayor Brandon Johnson's budget includes a record-setting TIF surplus of over $1 billion. By law, 52% of any TIF surplus must go to the Chicago Public Schools. During the City Council meeting on November 18, Rios-Sierra spoke during public comment, urging the council to pass the mayor's budget and ensure CPS receives the promised TIF surplus needed to balance its budget. (You can see her speaking here, 45 minutes in.)

Beyond the city budget battle, CPS and many other school districts across Illinois are still waiting for the state to fulfill its promise to boost education funding to the most impoverished schools. Efforts last spring to obtain more state money for schools fell flat.

"What I'm seeing as an organizer is that there's a real lack of connection with Springfield and with City Council," said Rios-Sierra. "CPS will say that they've communicated in Springfield. The people in Springfield will say that they haven't heard from CPS in months."

In August, Rios-Sierra was among the board members who supported borrowing to plug the school district's budget hole. (Ultimately, board members voted for a budget that did not include borrowing and made paying toward a city pension contingent on receiving a large TIF surplus.) In October, most alders--mayoral friends and foes alike--opposed such a large surplus. They feared losing funds to support neighborhood housing and economic development as well as improvements to neighborhood schools, parks, and libraries.

Rios-Sierra said she would have preferred CPS exercise its own borrowing authority rather than get caught in the middle of a tug-of-war between Mayor Brandon Johnson and the City Council. "I understand this City Council," she said. "They will do anything to go against the mayor. One day they'll sign this letter (supporting TIF surplus) to go against the mayor, and the next day they'll vote against the budget to go against the mayor."

Priority. "I just really hope that we can build some community support around equitable funding for CPS," she said.

Soundbite. Rios-Sierra is one of two board members who quit full-time jobs to make time for board duties. (She continues to work as an artist and art instructor.) She estimates she's putting in 30 hours a week as an unpaid board member. "If we're looking at this realistically, for the long term, how are you going to have community doing this work?"

She's not sure yet whether she will run for her seat next year. "One day I'm like, 'I have to stay,' and the next day I'm like, 'I'm crazy. Why would I ever do this?'" she said. "But I do genuinely love doing this, and I do hope that I can continue on."

Today's Agenda Review Committee Meeting

The board meets today to review agenda items for the full board meeting on December 18. Here are some items of interest from today's agenda.

Early Childhood. CPS is preparing to distribute its share of state Early Childhood Block Grant money. One-half of the funds ($49.7 million) will be split among five agencies serving families with children from birth through age 5: Start Early, Easter Seals of Metropolitan Chicago, Chicago Commons, Carole Robertson Center for Learning, and Henry Booth House. All of these agencies have long received federal Head Start funds, but the government shutdown has delayed renewal letters to some of them.

The other half ($49.1 million) will be transferred to the City of Chicago's Department of Family and Support Services, also a Head Start grant recipient waiting for news of renewal, for distribution to 55 more community-based agencies that provide early care and learning for families with young children. In a third item, CPS will use $2.5 million in Early Childhood Block Grant funds to support the Workforce Development Scholarship, which pays tuition at City Colleges for current or aspiring early learning educators to gain or strengthen their credentials.

Repurposing Closed Schools. In late May, CPS received bids from developers wishing to buy and repurpose closed schools. Today, the board will hear presentations about three of those buildings:

Bontemps, 1241 W. 58th Street. Former WNBA player turned affordable housing developer Devereaux Peters has offered to purchase the Bontemps building and site for $75,000. Her proposal would demolish the school and build two affordable multi-unit apartment buildings on the site: a 72-unit building for families and a 60-unit building for seniors. Peters plans to partner with Rainbow Housing Assisance Corporation to provide on-site supportive services. In 2017, Heartland Housing offered $50,000 for the property, but went bankrupt before completing the sale.

Henson, 1326 S. Avers Avenue. West side housing developer Melvin Bailey has offered $25,000 for the property. "I'm in a community meeting right now, talking about what to do with Henson," he told me by phone late Monday afternoon.

Shedd, 200 E. 99th Street. The Peace for Preston Foundation has offered $25,000 to purchase the property and turn it into a community center that meets neighborhood requirements for the sale.

News Bites

School Actions: December 1 was the deadline for CPS to post school actions it wished to propose for 2026: school closings, consolidations, co-locations, or changes to school boundaries. No such actions have been posted to the webpage. This suggests the proposal to co-locate Acero Cisneros and Shields Elementary has not been recommended for action by Superintendent/CEO Macquline King.

CPS College Enrollment. The CPS graduating class of 2024 outpaced the nation in its share of students enrolling in college right away. That's according to a new report on college-going, persistence, and graduation from the UChicago Consortium on School Research. (Board Rule will dig in on the report's findings next week.) Board members can expect to hear more today during public comment and receive copies of the report.

Hails and Farewells. Longtime reproductive rights activist Gaylon Alcaraz has joined Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education as its interim executive director. In October, former CPS budget director Mike Sitkowski joined the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago as its chief financial officer.