Posts tagged Chicago Board of Education
Chicago school board OKs $139M to fund new teacher contract, launches equity initiatives
April 27, 2025 // “We’re doing everything we can to shield as much as we can, as we plan for the upcoming budget season,” said Ben Felton, the district’s chief talent officer, in a presentation touting the CPS teacher recruitment process to board members. “But maintaining staffing levels will require additional revenue, and there’s no disillusionment around that.” To address disparities that persist between Black students and other student groups in terms of discipline, academic achievement and access to rigorous academic courses and extracurricular activities, the school board passed a resolution codifying its Black Student Achievement Committee, chaired by board member Jitu Brown, of District 6, on the city’s West Side.
Chicago Teachers Union secures clean energy wins in new contract
April 22, 2025 // If approved, the contract will result in new programs that prepare students for clean energy jobs, developed in collaboration with local labor unions. It mandates that district officials work with the teachers union to seek funding for clean energy investments and update a climate action plan by 2026. And it calls for installing heat pumps and outfitting 30 schools with solar panels — if funding can be secured. The Southeast Environmental Task Force led the successful fight to ban new petcoke storage in Chicago, and the group’s co-executive director Olga Bautista is also vice president of the 21-member school board. People for Community Recovery was founded by Hazel Johnson, who is often known as “the mother of the environmental justice movement.” And ONE Northside emphasizes the link between clean energy and affordable housing.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says there is no reason for a teachers’ strike to happen
March 20, 2025 // Local News Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says there is no reason for a teachers' strike to happen chicago By Adam Harrington, Sabrina Franza, Jacob Sarracino Updated on: March 19, 2025 / 10:49 PM CDT / CBS Chicago Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson met with officials from the Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Teachers Union Wednesday, and afterward called for finding a compromise and avoiding a teachers' strike. The mayor met Wednesday with CPS Chief Executive Officer Pedro Martinez, Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates, and Ald. Jason Ervin (28th), head of the City Council Budget Committee.
Commentary: Brandon Johnson Makes Sure the Fix Is In for the Chicago Teachers Union
October 10, 2024 // Among the terms the CTU is demanding — and which Mayor Brandon Johnson is supporting — is that the city, already wildly overburdened with unmeetable pension obligations, assume $175 million more of the responsibility for the pensions of non-teachers in the CPS system. How to pay for it? The idea was to force Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez to take out a high-interest $300 million loan to fund it for a year and then just pray for Governor J. B. Pritzker to toss the city some money next time around because “now they have to.”
Entire Chicago school board to resign over teachers union dispute with Dem mayor Brandon Johnson
October 7, 2024 // “With the shift to a hybrid elected and appointed Board forthcoming, current Board members and Mayor Johnson understand that laying a strong foundation for the shift is necessary to serve the best interests of students and families in Chicago Public Schools,” the statement added. The powerful Chicago Teachers Union said in its own statement that the resignations are the “latest instability caused by the CEO in our district.
CHICAGO: Mayor Brandon Johnson Asks CPS CEO Pedro Martinez To Resign. Martinez Says No, Sources Say
September 26, 2024 // ohnson’s desire to replace Martinez comes after he pushed school district leaders to take out a short-term loan to cover a pension payment for non-teaching staff and new costs related to the yet-to-be-settled Chicago Teachers Union contract. It also comes as school district leaders are in tense contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union. The mayor is also struggling to address looming deficits to the city budget he now oversees. Those deficits are driven, in part, by the CPS administration and school board’s refusal to take out the short-term loan.
Chicago Teachers Union Ready to Strike at Instituto Schools
January 25, 2024 //
Lightfoot Campaign Asks CPS Teachers to Encourage Students to Help Her Win Reelection in Return for Credit
January 12, 2023 // Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates told WTTW News the campaign’s action was “unethical” and that she was concerned teachers who decline to volunteer for the mayor’s campaign, or encourage their students to do so, could face retaliation. The teachers’ union has endorsed Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson in the race for mayor. Johnson is a paid staff member of the union. Megan Crane, externship program, class credit, Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates,