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On Monday, Mayor Lightfoot officially appointed the new CPS Board of Education: Miguel del Valle (president), Sendhil Revuluri (vice president), Luisiana Melendez, Amy Rome, Lucino Sotelo, Elizabeth Todd-Breland, and Dwayne Truss.

We are pleased by the appointment of Dwayne Truss, former vice president of the RYH board. He played an instrumental role in shaping our organization and is a phenomenal human and advocate for public schools. Read this from Austin Talks to learn more about Dwayne: Austin Resident Dwayne Truss appointed to the Chicago Board of Education.

It was a huge relief to hear CPS Board of Education president Frank Clark announce at Wednesday’s meeting that it was his and the entire Rahm appointed board’s last meeting. There will be a whole new unelected CPS BOE seated at the June meeting!

Chalkbeat Chicago: ‘It’s our last meeting’: New mayor Lori Lightfoot moves to disband Chicago’s school board, setting up major shift

Sun-Times: All 7 members of the Chicago Board of Education step down

And, in case you are wondering about the CEO position...

Chalkbeat Chicago: Lori Lightfoot makes it official: She’s keeping Janice Jackson as Chicago schools chief

As you know, Jennie Biggs, our Communications and Outreach Director, participated in the three meetings of Mayor-elect Lightfoot’s Education Transition Committee. There were about 50 people in the Committee. We shared information about this Transition Committee and a link to the RYH Memo to the Mayor here. We were skeptical and wary of the process and we still are. We are dedicated to our parent powered and informed advocacy in Chicago and Illinois and we will continue to hold elected officials and decision makers accountable.  

In a historic election, Lori Lightfoot was elected mayor on April 2. For now, the mayor still controls the school system. On September 5, 2018, we released this statement: Rahm’s not running- What does that mean for the public schools? In it, we reflect on our time with Rahm and we list the ed policies we have deep concerns about. We stand by this list and look forward to Mayor Lightfoot using it as she works with all stakeholders - students, parents, educators, and community members -- to reimagine Chicago Public Schools. More on what parents want from our new mayor, here.

Chalkbeat Chicago: Lori Lightfoot is Chicago’s next mayor — which means big changes are coming to schools and check this out: Letters to Lori Lightfoot: Tell Chicago’s mayor-elect about your school

Earlier in 2019 we shared the exciting news about staffing transitions in RYH and RYHA as both organizations grow. Earlier this week Raise Your Hand began the search for our next Executive Director. Now we need your help.

As we go through our exciting new RYH changes, we plan to send an email newsletter every other week. Please sign up to receive these newsletters here. You can read the one sent Friday, February 8, 2019, below. 

#cpsuccess! We are still retweeting away at @CPSuccessChi. Please tag us in your #cpsuccess tweets and use that hashtag! (Note the clever spelling.) Some recent & amazing #cpsuccess stories chosen randomly from our Twitter feed:

Why support RYH at our annual fundraiser on Tuesday, Oct 2, 5:30-8:30pm? A note from a CPS parent & member of our fundraiser committee:

Hello fellow public education supporter,

I have a photo from six years ago almost to the day: it's my family holding picket signs in the playground behind Ray School from when teachers went on strike over a longer school day and labor conditions. It reminds me of the school closing hearings, state budget fights, and assorted other CPS zaniness over the years. I believe Raise Your Hand keeps the people inside the Board of Ed building from going totally off the rails, which is one reason we helped plan a fundraiser to honor special education parents’ epic fight this past year and raise funds to support continued organizing on this issue and so many other issues on Tuesday, Oct. 2.

We would be honored if you would join us and Raise a Glass for RYH on Tuesday, October 2, 5:30-8:30 in the “basement” of Lagunitas Brewery, 2607 W. 17th St.

Buy tickets here. Buy an ad in the program book here. You can still join the host committee here.

Our Facebook event page is here: please share on your Facebook page and invite your friends! We’ll see you there!