New Feature: InFocus with Chicago School Board Members

This week, Board Rule is launching a new feature series, InFocus, where we'll talk with board members about their priorities for the 2025-26 school year. First up is Board Member Angel Gutierrez, who represents District 8A on the Southwest Side.

Here are his top priorities for the 2025-26 school year.

1) Build "a true legislative agenda." This could involve seeking an increase in state funding for schools, pushing a separate bill to give schools across the state more money for construction and repairs, and lobbying Springfield to grant Chicago the ability to raise property taxes beyond the current annual cap. Making any of this happen requires building relationships with legislators, especially those beyond Chicago. Likewise, it requires building alliances with school boards across the state.

2) Boost student attendance, with particular attention to finding new ways to engage young people for whom school is boring. "How do we make teaching and learning happy? How do we bring kids back to school? That's everybody's business."

3) Analyze the school district's building capacity in light of current and projected future enrollment. "Sooner or later we have to talk about the 500-pound gorilla in the room that nobody wants to talk about," he said. "Let's study it." Eventually, closing schools could be part of the solution, but not all of it. He suggested reimagining underenrolled schools to serve more than just students. For example, a high school might host strong career and technical programs for students during the school day and for adults in the evening.

4) On school-level issues, find ways to give principals more freedom to serve local families and communities. Explore ways to give principals more autonomy and flexibility in decision making. Consider ways to make enrollment policies flexible enough to help more families keep siblings together at the same school.

5) Pay attention to concerns from within his district and try to get answers to constituents' questions, especially from principals and other school staff. For example, Gutierrez learned that outcomes for older students who left traditional high school for Options programs are counted toward their "home school," or neighborhood high school. Principals he has spoken with question whether that is fair. As he observed, "I can't penalize you for students you don't actually teach in your building, right?" (Note: this is a complex question that I hope to return to in a future newsletter.)

Soundbite: "The real education crisis in Illinois is kids who are not going to school. So we have to figure out, what is it that they don't like about school? Where are we missing the mark?"

Nixing the Networks?

Last Friday, word got out that Interim Superintendent/CEO Macquline King is considering making changes to the school district's system of networks. Currently, there are 18 networks, with four dedicated to high schools and one to Options programs. According to a Chalkbeat Chicago article published late yesterday, the 13 elementary networks in this middle management system could be reorganized into 10 districts corresponding to the 10 school board election districts drawn for last November's election. The proposal also would have all network chiefs and their deputies reapply for their jobs.

Though CPS must find another $50 million in cuts to align with the recently passed budget, board members say the reorganization would save, at most, about $2 million. Multiple sources question how this plan is evolving behind closed doors and what role is being played by Felicia Sanders, who retired from her position as chief schools officer (head of the networks) in January. In August, Sanders resumed work for the district under the title, "Retired Administrator."

It is also unclear why CPS would choose to align supervision of its elementary schools with 10 geographic districts that are about to break into 20 districts for the next school board election.

Board Meeting Preview

It will be interesting to see whether King chooses to discuss the plans for reorganization in her remarks to the board at Thursday's meeting. Here are some other eye-catching items on the board agenda.

Early learning money. Two board members spoke with me about intergovernmental agreements relating to early education. No one plans to vote down the proposed IGAs, but there appears to be interest among board members in better understanding how funding for early learning works across the city and how CPS could serve more children, particularly more 3-year-olds.

Here's a quick-and-dirty version of the current funding process governed by these IGAs. The state gives out a block grant for early childhood education. CPS receives the block grant funds, keeps some for its own preschool programs, then passes the rest of the money to the city's Department of Family and Support Services, to be given to community-based early learning programs for children from birth to age 5. Board members want to understand more about how that pass-through works and what CPS could do to serve more preschool children.

Settlements. The board will vote on a $2 million personal injury settlement with a John Doe, and on a $200,000 settlement with former Lincoln Park High School basketball coach Eric Lezcano, who now coaches at Walter Payton College Prep. Lezcano, who was never found to have engaged in wrongdoing, was the target of an off-the-books investigation by former Title IX coordinator Camie Pratt.

Committee reports. Once again, committee reports are on the agenda, but there will be none. Both the Black Student Achievement Committee and the Special Education Committee are still in formation. Since Joshua Long, who leads the CPS Office of Students with Disabilities, regularly uses the term "rightful presence" when talking about his vision for students with disabilities accessing general education, I'm sharing the transcript of the September 11, 2024 meeting of the board's Special Education Committee, because it includes a discussion of what "rightful presence" means.

Quick Hits

Former state senator Iris Martinez recently joined the Illinois Network of Charter Schools' board of directors.

Former mayor Lori Lightfoot was among the guests at Monday night's fundraiser. She expressed her enthusiasm for Carlos Rivas, who represents her and the other residents of District 3B.

The Chicago Tribune recently dug into superintendent salaries across Illinois, especially in the Chicago metro area. The state's top-earning superintendent of 2024? Recently retired Dolton School District 148 superintendent Kevin Nohelty, who earned more than $500,000 in total compensation that year. The Trib found that superintendent compensation bore no clear relationship with the size or wealth of a school district, nor with its students' academic performance.

High school freebie: The Atlantic is now offering public high schools across the U.S free subscriptions. Details here.