The Weekly Ed Update- 4.28.17

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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.

CPS funding lawsuit and Byrd-Bennett rulings happening today

Today we’ll find out if CPS will win their funding lawsuit against the state. Even if they do, and we hope they do, CPS/the city will still have to come up with a plan to avoid cuts/closing school early because that money won’t be available right away.

Down the street in federal court, BBB will be sentenced for defrauding the system. Note, no matter what her sentence is, CPS will still have an unelected board that didn’t and still doesn’t do their due diligence and lacks accountability and transparency. RYH testified at numerous board meetings and budget hearings against the SUPES contract.

WBEZ: Former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett To Be Sentenced

Tribune: SUPES co-owner gets 18 months in prison for CPS scandal that felled Byrd-Bennett

Board meeting recap

RYH attended the Finance and Audit committee meeting before the Board meeting this week hoping to learn something new about the finances of the district and how they might plan to keep school open if the state doesn’t come through with funding via the lawsuit. Unfortunately, no new information was given at this meeting nor at the actual Board meeting on Wednesday.

WTTW: Parents, Advocates Want Details On CPS Plan For End of School Year

Sun-Times: Rahm likely will have to rescue CPS, no matter how judge rules

WBEZ: Court Ruling May Not Immediately Answer Whether Chicago Public Schools Will Close Early

CPS approves  a new single application process for high school at the BOE meeting

What we learned about the single app at the BOE meeting:

• All students applying to high school must use single app process
• Selective Enrollment HSs are NOT included in single app, and charters may opt-in
• CPS does not yet know how many charters will participate
• Students will get one offer for high school admission (i.e. from non-SE schools)
• Neighborhood HS will still be “default” option
• An algorithm will be used to match students based on their top picks and available seats

RYH Board member Joy Clendenning asked CPS to put off the vote for a month as the district has not done enough community engagement and stakeholders have no idea how this will work, but the BOE, not surprisingly, didn’t listen.

Read Generation All’s issue brief on the single application: Will a Single Application for High Schools Help Expand Equity in Chicago Public Schools?

Sun-Times: CPS families one step closer to simpler high school applications

CPS Board approves 2017-2018 Calendar

You can see the calendar here.

Citywide LSC Letter #4 in support of an elected representative school board for CPS

LSC members from across the city have come together to write Citywide LSC Letter #4 which supports an elected representative school board for CPS. Any LSC member is welcome to sign on and more signers are needed! (You can read about previous letters here, here and here.)

A bill HB1744 establishing an elected school board is currently under consideration in the IL General Assembly; it has 57 co-sponsors. Last month the bill was heard in a House Education Committee. At the hearing, former unelected Board of Ed member Jesse Ruiz testified against bill, claiming without evidence that it would threaten the power that LSCs have. This LSC letter refutes Ruiz’s claim. The ERSB bill did pass out of committee and is expected move to the Senate in May.

Sun-Times: Elected school board bill passes committee despite CPS opposition

If you are a LSC member, please consider signing and sharing this information with your entire LSC. If you are NOT a LSC member, please share this information with your entire LSC.

LSC members can sign on by filling out the form here: Sign-up Form, and you can read the full letter in English, here: LSC ESRB Letter. Spanish, here: LSC ERSB Letter in Spanish.

The deadline to add your signature is next Friday, May 5, by 12:00pm. Thanks!

In other news

Tribune: Conservative Michigan college backs pitch for Chicago charter school

DNAinfo: New South Loop School Getting $50 Million In TIF Money — A Fivefold Jump

WBEZ: Few College Counselors At CPS Add Uncertainty To Post-Grad Push

Washington Post: Nation’s only federally funded voucher program finds negative impact on student achievement

DNAinfo: Willkommen: German School Pays $5.3M For Courtenay Building in Ravenswood. Note: CPS also announced sale of three other closed buildings, two from the 2013 mass school closings, Armstrong and Ward, and Montefiore, a therapeutic day school closed in January 2016. There are still 26 buildings left unsold from the mass closings.

Events

⟹ Tuesday, May 2

DePaul University College Of Education’s Spring Education Issues Forum:
Advancing Democracy and Justice in Public Education in the Trump/DeVos Era
Keynote Speaker: Kevin Kumashiro, former Dean, University of San Francisco, School of Education

5:30 to 8:30 PM
DePaul University Student Center Room 314
2250 North Sheffield Ave
Chicago, IL 60614

Please register online here

⟹ Saturday, May 6

Canvass for an Elected School Board in Chicago

10am - 3pm
Resurrection Lutheran Church
3309 N Seminary Ave
Chicago, IL 60657

RSVP on the Facebook event page here

Meet at the church, where we'll head out to talk to our neighbors in Sen. Cullerton's district to ask them to help support an elected school board for all of Chicago!