“Based on the information we have at our disposal, we believe we can guarantee the budgets,” she said. The school district also is compelled by the Chicago Teachers Union contract, agreed upon after a lengthy strike last fall, to increase funding in some areas, including providing a 3% raise for staff. The extent to which that progress could be disrupted is not yet clear. Because the city’s budget year and the school district’s budget year don’t line up exactly, some tax surplus funds from the city’s 2021 budget will spill over into school budget for next year. $100 million to develop new preschool classrooms throughout the city, moving us closer to our goal of providing universal Pre-K for all 4-year-olds. To ensure schools and students have the resources and supports they need during this challenging times, we are investing $75 million to purchase additional computing devices for children who still need them, provide free meals for CPS families in need, and purchase face masks, cleaning supplies, and additional materials that schools will need if it is deemed safe for in-person learning to begin this year. CPS is increasing its investment in Equity Grants to $44 million, meaning that 255 of our highest-need schools will receive additional funding to help ensure they can offer their students the same world-class education as their peers across the city. Who Voted Against The Graduated Income Tax? 14,500 fewer students than the year prior. In the midst of a global pandemic, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) continues to focus on what matters most to our families—providing a high-quality education for our students. This has been a particularly big problem in recent years as the school district’s population has been shrinking. Hundreds of schoolchildren in the southern Philippines have fallen sick after eating durian-flavoured sweets, the provincial governor said Saturday. The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund was 47.4% funded on an actuarial basis as of June 30, 2019, compared to 67.1% funded ten years prior. Chicago Public Schools, for example, will incur only half of the crossing guard costs this school year, due to the timing of the shift, and none of the additional pension costs will hit until the 2021-22 school budget, the district said. This is on top of the City’s commitment to connect 100,000 students to high-speed internet at no cost through the Chicago Connected initiative and our efforts to distribute 128,000 devices to students this past spring. Last summer, the city pushed to schools the $33 million cost of staffing and overseeing the police program on more than 70 campuses. Salaries are increasing significantly because of the addition of positions for teachers, school support staff and citywide support including nurses and social workers; The FY2021 proposed capital budget of $758.0 million will be financed with $653.0 million in long-term debt, $47.3 million in State funding and $47.5 million in local funding and $10.1 million in federal capital funding sources; Property tax revenue is projected to increase by 4.2%, or $130.5 million, from $3.1 billion in the FY2020 budget to $3.3 billion in FY2021. Several civic group leaders said Wednesday that they supported the plan, saying it was a fiscally sound response to a crisis. But they also said they are changing the way they are allocating money to schools for special education — a prospect that immediately raised questions and suspicions. Spending Away from Schools. Download PDF.

We are also providing the largest-ever one-year increase in special education funding to ensure our diverse learners have the supports and resources they need to reach their full potential. Updated at 10:22 a.m. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and CPS CEO Janice Jackson heralded the new mayor's first proposed budget for the school district earlier this month with great fanfare.

The budgets for each school next fall included increases across the board to special education and funds devoted to teacher pay raises negotiated during the teachers strike. The proposed FY2021 budget balances the unique needs of today’s learners with the future we see for our students after the era of COVID-19. In a 2021 city budget plan detailed Wednesday, which includes a property tax hike and job cuts, the mayor proposed shifting about $55 million in costs onto schools. Historically, some expenses, such as the cost of school police, have been transferred back and forth. In exchange, City Hall is asking its public school district to pick up $40 million in pension contributions to the city’s municipal employees fund for some teaching assistants and other support staff. The overall sum of school budgets has increased by $125 million over last year, the district said. This is on top of the City’s commitment to connect 100,000 students to high-speed internet at no cost through the Chicago Connected initiative and our efforts to distribute 128,000 devices to students this past spring. Follow her on Twitter @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter. The way the district allocates dollars to its 514 schools has long been under the microscope as a potential source of deepening inequity at CPS. Chicago also just reported 14,500 fewer students than the year prior, a 4% drop that leaders said was driven in part by declines in pre-kindergarten students. The Federation also commends CPS for being forthcoming about revenue challenges in FY2021 in the budget book narrative. newsletter, Sign up for the To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. None of the recommendations released Tuesday by that 20-member working group included a concrete revamping of the formula. Home; About Us; Training Products; Consultancy; Facilitators CPS Remote Learning Begins Monday. At a state school board budget hearing Wednesday, Alex Parker, a fourth-grade teacher at Cossitt Avenue Elementary School in suburban LaGrange, told the story of a new teacher getting thrown into virtual learning this fall without proper training after her prep program was cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. Budget Hearing Hearing time: 4:00PM – 6:00PM, Capital Plan HearingHearing time: 12:00PM – 2:00PM. “We are also cognizant of the reality that we live in with COVID-19 and are monitoring that. the part that comes from central office — will be released this summer. Office hours: Monday - Friday 8am - 4pm. As part of a multi-year commitment from Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot and CPS leadership to give families and school communities platforms for providing feedback on improving equity within schools, the FY2021 budget was shaped by an extensive public engagement process that included a series of both school funding and capital investment meetings.

And to ensure we are meeting the academic, social, and emotional needs of every child, CPS will bring the number of nurses, social workers, and special education case managers in our schools to an all-time high. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. Those dollars are surplus property tax funds the city uses to spur development and pay for public works projects in high-need neighborhoods. Budget. In fact, there are 4,000 newly licensed teachers in the state facing similar challenges.”. The appellate court noted its opinion "may not be cited as precedent" except in limited circumstances, but veteran lawyer says "this decision is binding on all circuit courts in Illinois.". A Brooklyn student tested positive for COVID. Illinois will hold two more virtual budget hearings on Oct. 14 at 1 p.m. and Oct. 16 at 1 p.m. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to providing the information families and educators need, but this kind of work isn't possible without your help. Students in the top 20 funded school districts are two times more likely to meet state standards of math and one-and-a-half times more likely to meet state standards in reading than students in the bottom 20 of the adequately funded districts,” Cox said. Public Act 100-0456, passed in August 2017, instituted the new Evidence-Based Funding formula for statewide P-12 education funding, as well as additional funding for the Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund normal cost and an increase to the CPS property tax levy dedicated to teachers’ pension funding. There is an extreme shortage of special education teachers and as of March 31, CPS had 309 vacant special education teacher positions.

The following investments ensure our commitment to equity in the long term while providing our students with the resources they need to begin the school year learning at home: Our proposed budget for FY2021 gives school communities the resources they need to continue their incredible academic progress, even during these unprecedented times. newsletter, $33 million cost of staffing and overseeing the police program, helped pressure the school district to release a public accounting of that program. Exam Strees; New Chicago school budget relies on state pension and Quoter The remaining $128.8 million will come out of CPS’ operating budget; and. Recently, the district had entered a period of greater financial stability and seen some improvement in its ratings from investment agencies, though it carries more than $8 billion in debt. ", Sign up for the

But later in the day, the city’s powerful teachers union urged the council to reject the proposal, saying additional fines and fees would disproportionately impact the city’s working poor. “If we’re having a discussion about how we slice the pie and the pie isn’t big enough for everybody, we’re going to continue to have those debates.”.

For this school year, the …