We attended and spoke at the April 24, 2019 monthly meeting of the unelected CPS Board of Education meeting- the last one under Rahm. Our prepared statements are below with links to videos of our speakers. You can find our live tweets from the meeting here.

RYH Communications and Outreach Director, Jennie Biggs, is serving on mayor-elect Lori Lightfoot’s Education Transition Committee. She attended the first meeting on Thursday, April 11. There are two more scheduled meetings of this Transition Committee: Wednesday, April 24, and Friday, May 3. 

RYH submitted a "Memo to the Mayor" as part of the Education Transition Committee process. You can find our Memo here. The writing of this Memo was a collaborative effort by several parents and RYHers who have been active over the years. Our intent was to reflect what RYH has been advocating for since 2010. We also tried to incorporate the many things we've learned over the years, especially while working with so many community based organizations in various coalitions. Feel free to share your thoughts or feedback with us: info@ilraiseyourhand.org

UPDATED May 9, 2019: You can find a public, shared Google Drive folder which will serve as a record of the Education Transition Committee's work here. In the folder, you can find meeting materials, survey results, feedback from committee members, education memos, and other documents referenced and used through the transition process. After the Education Transition Report is released, there will be a copy in this folder as well. All Transition Reports will be presented to Mayor-elect Lightfoot on Friday, May 17. 

UPDATED May 23, 2019: You can find the full Transition Report in English here and in Spanish here. It was published on May 17. There is an opportunity to provide feedback on the Transition Report. If you would like to do that, please contact Jennie via email (jennie@ilraiseyourhand.org.) Note: All final feedback will be included on the public, shared Google Drive folder. All feedback is due by May 31, 2019. 

It’s almost CPS Spring Break! We have a bunch of stuff to share with you before CPS students are out of school for a week. Happy reading...

At this press conference before the monthly meeting of the unelected CPS Board of Ed, parent leaders from across Chicago spoke about their vision for Chicago and CPS. Participating organizations included Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, Chicagoans United for Equity, Enlace, Generation All, Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, Journey 4 Justice, Parents 4 Teachers, and Raise Your Hand. Action Now, Logan Square Neighborhood Association, and Northside Action for Justice also support this vision.

You can watch video of the entire press conference here.

Statements from the press conference are below.

As everyone knows, a groundbreaking and brutal report from the Chicago Tribune exposed that protections have not been in place at CPS to minimize sexual abuse and harassment of students while at school. The Trib has reported on both adult-student incidents as well as student-student incidents- over 400 in the past 7 years- all in CPS school buildings.

Welcome to the Summer! Even as the school year wound down, there was so much CPS and public education news. We will try to keep our comments brief below and we have included many press links for you to read more. Thanks for reading & being engaged!

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Please note: This email blast went out before the Barbara Byrd-Bennett sentencing and the loss of the CPS vs. the state of IL lawsuit.