Thank you for your #GivingTuesday support and closing out a strong 2019 with us! Thank you for considering Raise Your Hand in your end of year giving if you have not yet donated. We are looking to bring on more staff in early 2020 to address significant LSC parent rep shortages. If we can raise $2,000 more by the end of the year, we would be able to start right in January. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! 😍

Teachers voted to ratify the contract last week which officially ended the strike. The CPS Board of Ed approved the strike make up days and the CTU and SEIU contracts yesterday at their monthly meeting. 

Some more press coverage on the strike & contracts below: 

WBEZ: Teachers Strike Remakes 25 Years Of Bargaining in Chicago

Chalkbeat Chicago: Budgets, school ratings, charter schools: Side agreements to Chicago teachers contract reach for big changes

Revised CPS calendar is here. 

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.

In good news, SEIU Local 73 has a tentative agreement! In not so good news, there's no agreement between CPS and CTU but negotiations continue. Emotions are high right now- and for good reason. Be good to yourself and others. We will get through this. Social media tip: Sometimes you just have to keep scrolling or get off social media for a while. At the end of this contract negotiation, we are still all parts of school communities which are part of a larger community, the Chicago Public Schools. Our children need all of us working together. 

Our new(ish) Executive Director, Jianan Shi, is celebrating his birthday! Wish him a happy, relaxing birthday weekend by BUYING YOUR Raise a Glass for RYH TICKETS TODAY! 🥳

Strike Update: 

Last night CTU’s House of Delegates set Thursday, October 17 as the possible start of a teachers’ strike. This is the same day that SEIU Local 73 (school district staff) and Chicago Park District workers could start strikes.

WBEZ: Chicago Teachers And Two Other Unions Set Strike Date

Sun-Times: 35,000 Chicago teachers, school support staff and park district workers set joint strike date

As we noted in our email blast sent last week: This does not mean there will definitely be a strike. We urge both sides to take every measure possible to avoid a strike.

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!

On Wednesday, September 11, we joined our fellow plaintiff, Grassroots Collaborative, and our lawyers, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and national Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, and 60 supporters at the Circuit Court, Daley Center. The City filed a motion to dismiss our TIF litigation case which was filed in April. We heard the oral arguments from both sides. We expect a written ruling from the judge in a few weeks.

Marca Bristo, a dynamic and inspiring Chicago-based disability rights activist, died this past Sunday and leaves behind an incredible legacy where she transformed the landscape for people with disabilities in this country. The Founder of Access Living, she was tenacious, gregarious, strategic and had a vision of a world where people with disabilities would live in a world of inclusion, independence and empowerment.  As she took a leading role in the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, she changed the conversation about accessibility for people with disabilities from one where public and private institutions had no obligation to provide access to one where access for all is a Civil Right.

In April, we and Grassroots Collaborative filed a lawsuit against the city over their administration of TIFs, specifically the Lincoln Yards MegaTIF. Here's an article from the day of the filing. Our lawsuit is a piece to the TIF reform puzzle. Of course, the city has filed a motion to dismiss our case. Our lawyers (Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law and national Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights) will be arguing against the dismissal on Wednesday, September 11, at 9am, downtown, Circuit Court at Daley Plaza, 50 W Washington. We would love to pack the courtroom that morning! If you can join us, please fill out this Google form. Facebook event page here. So many of you have joined us in TIF reform advocacy and actions throughout the years- you won't want to miss this one!