Mayor Lightfoot and CPS announced yesterday that they will “...begin a community process to identify potential opportunities to further strengthen school funding.” They created a School Funding Working Group and will be convening public meetings in January and February 2020 so you can offer your thoughts and ideas on the way CPS funds its schools. Check out these articles from Chalkbeat Chicago to learn more:

Announcement, Working Group members, and public meeting schedule: Here’s who will be leading Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s charge to reexamine Chicago school budgeting

Background piece on the issue: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot promised to spend more money on students in need. Could change be imminent? 

And definitely related to Student Based Budgeting… class size: As Chicago’s class size crackdown begins, schools that are ‘overenrolled by choice’ could face admissions changes

Below is RYH's prepared statement. You can find our live tweets here. CPS now live streams monthly Board of Education meetings on their YouTube channel. You can find video of the fill meeting here, RYH speaks at 57:40. We've posted video of our statement on our YouTube channel here. Press coverage of the meeting is below.

Below is the spoken statement and the supplemental handout materials provided to the CPS Board of Education on November 20, 2019, by Marguerite Baran, elected parent representative of the Hitch Elementary LSC as well as the elected representative for the Northwest Region for the Local School Council Advisory Board, or LSCAB.

CPS announced the five proposed make up days for the 11 day CTU/SEIU strikes: Wed, Nov 27; Th, Jan 2; Fri, Jan 3; Wed, June 17; and Th, June 18. 

Please note that these are proposed make up days. The CPS Board of Education (CPS BOE) must vote to approve these days. You have two opportunities to express your opinion before the CPS BOE vote: 

1️⃣ There will be a hearing on the revised calendar and budget on Tues, Nov 12, 2019: 4-6pm (in person sign up to speak: 3-4pm); 6:30-8:30pm (in person sign up to speak: 5:30-6:30pm) ; CPS, 42 W. Madison. Here are the details on these hearings. Speakers have 2 min to speak.

2️⃣ The calendar and budget revisions require approval from the mayor appointed CPS BOE. The next CPS BOE meeting is Wed, Nov 20, at 10:30am. Online sign up to speak or attend this meeting begins on Mon, Nov 18, at www.cpsboe.org, 10:30am sharp.

The Advocate Group is holding a series of Special Education Workshops to help parents determine if their child may be eligible for extra special education services. Please join us!

It’s just a start. We parents know that the reality on the ground, in our schools, ultimately doesn’t reflect the promises made by a mayor- we heard too many promises made at press conferences by Rahm.

Blocks Together and RYH hosted Schools As Anchors: Communities Planning for Their Schools last weekend. We learned about best practices in planning for school facilities and programming from local experts and from national expert Mary Filardo, Executive Director of the 21st Century School Fund. You can find all of the resources from the event- and more!- here.

Check out Chalkbeat Chicago’s coverage: Are there alternatives to closing schools? Chicago parents consider options.

We are grateful to Crossroads Fund who supported this event! We also want to thank Alexios Rosario-Moore for all his work organizing the agenda, materials, and workshops!

Blocks Together and RYH hosted a 1 1/2 day event on Friday, July 12, and Saturday, July 13. We learned more about best practices in planning for school facilities and programming from local experts and from national expert Mary Filardo, Executive Director of the 21st Century School Fund. Below are the resources shared during the event and many more. 

We are grateful to Crossroads Fund who supported this event! We also want to thank Alexios Rosario-Moore for all his work organizing the agenda, materials, and workshops!

We attended and spoke at the May 22, 2019 monthly meeting of the unelected CPS Board of Education meeting- the official last one of the Rahm appointed BOE as President Frank Clark announced at the end of the meeting. Our prepared statements are below with links to a video of one of our speakers. You can find our live tweets from the meeting here.

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.