001Good morning. Welcome to the December 18, 2025 bond issue notification act public hearing. Before we start the public hearing, I would like to share a few safety points and next meeting announcements. Please note that the primary exit and entrance to the boardroom is the door that you use to enter this morning. If you are leaving the door, if you are leaving the room, please use this door. The restrooms are outside the board room doors to your left. During the hearing, we ask that you keep all aisles and exits clear. If you need any assistance during the hearing, please wave the attention of one of our security officers. Following the hearing, please join us at our regular scheduled board meeting today at 10:30 a.m. The board meeting will be held at 42 West Madison Street Garden
002level boardroom. Once the hearing has concluded, all speakers and observers must clear the boardroom. And should you wish to observe the board meeting, please check in at the main lobby before returning to observe the board meeting. Mark your calendars for the upcoming meeting. The next agenda review committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 14th, 2026 at 10:30 a.m. The meeting will be held at 42 West Madison Street Garden level boardroom. For details on how to register to speak or observe at the meeting and to learn about the speaker lottery process, please visit the Chicago Board of Education website. If you have any questions about registration or public participation, please contact the board office for assistance. Thank you for joining us today. President Harden, we are now ready for you to begin the public hearing. >>
003Try that again. Good morning, everyone. >> Morning. >> I'm President Sean B. Harden. On behalf of my fellow board members, welcome to the Chicago Board of Education public hearing held pursuant to the board issue notification act. This hearing is to receive public comments on the authorization to issue general obligation alternative revenue source bonds in the amount not to exceed $1.8 billion. The board is scheduled to vote on this matter at its regular meeting later today. Today is December 18th, 2025. Thank you for joining us. We're holding today's hearing in the boardroom CPS Loop office, 42 West Madison Street Garden level. I'd like to note that board members and senior staff are present in [clears throat] the boardroom. Registered speakers may join us in person or virtually if they've opted to do so. And registered observers
004are joining us in person. Assistant Secretary, please state for the record the notice procedure for this hearing. >> Thank you, President Harden. Notice of this public hearing was published in the Chicago Sun Times, a newspaper of general circulation in the city of Chicago and posted at principal office 42 West Madison Street lobby on December 11, 2025. Notice was also posted on cpsb.org and cps.edu websites on December 11, 2025. I will I will now read into the record the public notice as published. Board of Education of the City of Chicago Bond issue notification act notice of public hearing. Please take notice that the Chicago Board of Education of the Board of Education of the City of Chicago will hold a public hearing on December 18, 2025 at 9:30 a.m. The hearing will be held in the
005boardroom at Chicago Public Schools Loop Office, 42 West Madison Street, Garden Level in the City of Chicago, Illinois. The purpose of the hearing will be to receive public comment on the proposal to sell general obligation unlimit unlimited tax alternative bonds of the board in one or more series in the amount of not to exceed $1 bill800 million for the purpose of financing one the construction and acquisition of school and administrative buildings and equipment site improvements and other real and personal property in and for the school district. Two, the funding of obligation of the board including but not limited to working capital. Three, the refunding of obligations of the board and four, cost of issuance and other costs and reserves related to foregoing of the foregoing. For this binding hearing, advanced registration to speak will be
006available beginning Tuesday, December 16, 2025 at 9:30 a.m. and will close Wednesday, December 17, 2025 at 9:30 a.m. Anyone interested in speaking can sign up. After the 24-hour registration period, a lottery will randomly select a set number of speakers from those who register. For example, if a 100 people register, the lottery might select 10 of them to speak. This process gives everyone a fair chance to address the board. Advanced registration during this period is available by the following methods: online or by phone. The public participation segment of the public hearing will conclude after the last person who has registered to speak has spoken at 10:00 a.m. or whichever occurs first. Staff members are encouraged to participate to ensure equity of access to address the board. An individual may not speak at back-to-back meetings and more
007than one meeting per month. If you register to register for back-to-back meetings and more than one meeting per month, you will not be included for that meeting. In an event an individual registers to speak at a consecutive meeting, the individual will not be called to address the board. However, less less than the allotted number of speakers and for a meeting, the limitation on speaking at consecutive meetings and or more than once within a month will not apply. And those previously ineligible to speak will be reinstated in the lottery and may be eligible to speak. Members of the public may submit written comments related to the hearing via the written comments form on the board's website or by mail to 42 West Madison Street Garden level. Written comments received between the day the public agenda is
008posted through 5:00 p.m. the day after the public of of education hearing will be submitted and to the board and posted within five days to our website. I would like to note for the record the members present here today. Board member Losano, board member Lopez, board member Veles, board member Bole, board member Wallace, board member Rosenfeld, board member Rivas, board member Rio Sierra, board member Biggs, board member Dodora, board member Sakor, board member D Barry, and President Harden. I would like to also acknowledge Elizabeth K. Pardon, acting general counsel. >> We'll now proceed with today's public participation session. Thank you for joining to share your comments with the board in compliance with the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Public participation, sometimes referred to as public comment, is a portion of the board meeting or hearing that
009grants district stakeholders the opportunity to address the board with their concerns and comments. Note that public participation is a time for board and CPS senior leadership to listen and hear from you rather than a time for dialogue with board members during or after your remarks. [clears throat] While we can't discuss personnel matters, public participation is a key component of transparent governance and it provides us as board members as well as senior leadership an opportunity to listen to everyone who has signed to speak. This board takes equity of voice very seriously. And while we may not address your comments directly during poll participation, CPS leadership is always present at our meetings and are able to address concerns as follow-ups after the meeting. As a district and as a board, we're also have many other spaces for
010authentic dialogue. For example, each and every one of our board members hosts board office hours so that we can have a conversation. Please use our website cpsbboe.org if you want to meet with the board member during office hours. We encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to meet with board members outside of a board meeting. And thank you for your attention and consideration. And as a reminder, union representatives will be allotted 5 minutes to speak before public participation and any elected officials will be allotted 5 minutes to speak after the conclusion of public participation. Assistant board secretary, please share the rules of public participation. >> Members of the public who registered to speak were given the option to attend in person or via an electronic format. For those who prefer to attend via an
011electronic format, they were given information to access the meeting via dialing a number and using their phone. We did this so that speakers with limited or no access to the internet or who may have a weak internet connection could still participate using their phones. Also, members of the public may submit written comments for the board of education public hearing via the written comments form on board on the board's website at cpsb.org or mail to42 westmadison street garden level. Comments received between the day the public agenda was posted through 5:00 PM the day after the board of education hearing meeting will be submitted to the board and published within five business days at our website. Speakers, please listen while I provide directions for public participation. I will call your name and number when it's your turn
012to speak. For speakers joining us virtually, as a reminder to unmute, please press star six. Once you hear your name, please state your name or name for the record. I will then start the two-minute timer. When there are 30 seconds remaining, I will inform you so that you can proceed to conclude your remarks to allow for the next speaker to begin. For anyone standing with a speaker, note that in order to comply with the city fire code, please stand along the glass partitions on the marked spots to keep the aisles clear. Thank you, President Harden. We are ready to begin. We will begin with speaker number five, Henova Isgera, who is joining us virtually. Please, please press star six to unmute. >> Good morning. My name is Henova and good morning members of the board.
013I am a CPS alumni and parents from Whittier Elementary. I am here to ask for your reflection and action on several urgent needs that affect the well-being, dignity, and educational stability of our students and families. First, I want to acknowledge that nearly 30% of the students who transfer out of Whittier do so because they lack reliable transportation to and from school. Without accessible bus options, academic success is put at risk before a student even enters the classroom. Basic bus access is not a convenience. It is essential for the certainty that every child can arrive at school ready to learn. The policies in place need to be amended to reflect this. I also asked the board to reflect on how we address bios or headlice. I had to cut my dear Emma and my sweet Lucian's
014hair when lice came back into our household for the third time this school year. We need resources to be allocated to safely treat lice at school along with district provided treatment kits. I urge CPS to amend its lice policies so that they center on discrete eradication of lice while maintaining a student's self-worth. We are here for an education, not an infestation. Finally, Whittier is not handicap accessible. We need an elevator and appropriate infrastructure so that students, elders, and community members with mobility challenges can fully participate in school life, including assemblies and events. Accessibility is a matter of equity and inclusion, not optional design. In closing, these are necessities rooted in inclusion, safety, and respect. >> Seconds, please. >> Thank you for listening and holding space. Happy holidays, and I hope you have a blessed new
015year. >> Thank you for your comments. For the record, board member Kuster joined the hearing at 9:42 a.m. We will continue with speaker number nine, Rea Jackson. Good morning, distinguished board and attendees. My name is Raineia Jackson and I'm an organizer with Good Kids Mad City and I'm also a CPS graduate who attended Kieri High School. I am here today because as a youth organizer who provides direct services to current CPS students with restorative justice programs and peace circles, it is imperative that all of CPS has peer-led RJS, meaning restorative justice. As a young person who provides direct resources and services, I know firsthand how effective it is at a building trust, strong relationships, and creating a school culture that pushes peace and prevents violence. Good Kids Mass City is asking the board to help
016create a budget with us and other youth organizers so that we can train and hire CPS students in high schools to become peacekeepers and circleke keepers at their very own schools. Whether it's funding that you all are reviewing today or in a different budget, we would like recommendations from you on how we can co-create these jobs to make our schools and communities safer. We have written up proposals that we can email you all and we can set up a separate meeting. Please let us know what are the next steps and are so that we can make a real for so we can make this real for youth all throughout Chicago. Here are some key points I want to share with you today. I want to start briefly by grounding what this policy is. GKMC would
017like to bring forward a youth peacekeeping pipeline policy for board consideration, a district framework that centers students as trained leaders in restorative practices across CPS schools. The policy establishes 30 seconds remaining. >> A youthled pathway from fifth grade through high school where students develop responsibility and leadership over that time. In fifth grade, students build foundation skills, emotional literacy, foundational shared language, and understanding how community circles work. In middle school, students step into appearances roles with guide practices. In high school, students serve as trained peacekeepers and eventually as mentors, trainers for young students. Thank you for your comments. Please conclude. >> Thank you for your comments. For the record, board member Pope joined the hearing at 9:43 a.m. We will continue with our next speaker. Hi, Miss Sanchez, who's here in person. >> Miss Jackson, you
018can provide the balance of your comments to the board. So, good morning, uh, President Harden, CEO, Dr. King, and members of the board of education. Uh, we are here today, the proud members of the North River School community here to once again ask for our continued support for North River Elementary to expand to incorporate our third floor. We acknowledge and agree with the December 1st decision from the office of portfolio manage management as well as EO King's recommendation that the collocation with North River and Hogan Elementary will not move forward. We remain eager to continue advancing our successful expansion by expanding the educational opportunities available to North River families and strengthen strengthening access for families throughout the Albany Park community. We want to express our gratitudes to board members for CPS leadership and the community
019representatives who have visited North River Elementary and toured our school. Their visit provided an opportunity to see firsthand the many positive developments within our school community as well as the potential for continued growth and expansion. As a school community, we are excited and eager to continue our successful expansion and our inclusive programming at North River Elementary to better serve families throughout the Albany Park community. Currently, and due to the limitations of our current agreement, we can only operate with one classroom per grade from kindergarten through 8 and we are at full capacity. Below are some of the uh here are some of the key reasons for our request. Number one, >> you have 30 seconds remaining. Please. >> Our English language learner program is significantly reduced and needs to expand. We want to offer greater
020opportunity to expand our special education program for our students. Based on our continual demand from the Albony Park community for early childhood, we'd like to offer additional spots for families. Lastly, uh North River has been part of the Albany Park community for over 20 years. We want to continue in that partnership. Like I said, in September 2025, we submitted our formal proposal. We would like for you to review it. >> Thank you for your comments. Please conclude uh the approval for it. On behalf of North River, thank you very much for your time and attention. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you for your comments. For the record, board member Blae join the hearing at 9:47 a.m. President Harden, this concludes public participation. >> Thank you, Mr. Stock. We're ready for your presentation. >> Thank you,
021everybody. Appreciate everybody's attendance this morning on this matter. If I can just ground us back into the purpose of the hearing hereation should be up on the screen. So, uh the purpose of today's hearing is to as we heard to discuss uh a request to authorize up to $1.8 8 billion in general obligation alternate revenue source bonds since 1988. The Illinois state statute prescribes the process for issuing alternate revenue source bonds um for all school districts. This is uh the majority of the bonds that we have outstanding are alternate revenue source bonds. And there are currently three steps to the process. So I think it's important to recognize that today and today we're only taking the first two steps. And so there's a third step that we will we will not be taking today. The
022first uh step is what we're doing right now. We're having this bond issue notification act hearing to explain the purpose for issuing the bonds and to receive any public comments on the issuance of bonds. The second step which you will be taking later in today's meeting is the approval of a bond uh authorization for the alternate bonds and it will be published in a newspaper of general circulation. We use the Sun Times and there will be a 30-day period uh by which uh the authorization sort of um becomes permanent if you will. Um and during that time, if a petition is pulled by uh constituents of the district and seven and a half% of the registered voters say that we should not issue bonds, um then that could uh stop the process. Um to the
023um the background on and doing this this is this has never happened. I've been doing this with the district for over 12 years. The third step and I think this is this is um really where more of the dis discussion would take place on the bonds is the act of actually um approving a bond resolution. So if we think about that in May the board approved two bond resolutions those bond resolutions were authorized from 2022 the same process kind of that we're taking today. So this authorization is only good for 3 years 2022 to 25 that is expired and that's the purpose of why we're coming back today. So um at the point that we would want to sell any bonds we will be back to the board to discuss that. I don't anticipate that
024that would be for uh several more months um potentially um in the fall. Uh that was my first page there. I'm sorry the presentation I got a little bit behind here. I would also add here that uh like I said in October, November is probably when the next bond issue would take place and typically what we are doing with these bonds is financing capital improvements. So uh you know the next bond would be a series 2026. When you think about um our capital projects, they take several years to sort of come into play. You have to plan for them and then depending on the size of the project, it it may take time to complete that project. So in 2026, um probably would be financing projects that were from earlier years, much the same that
025the bonds that we just financed in 2025 were doing the same thing. they really didn't um they really didn't necessarily um finance any 2026 projects. It was really 25 and 24 and 23. So there's a pipeline of projects and we're trying to basically issue bonds every year and about $600 million to cash flow and to work through that pipeline of those projects. So that's what we're trying to lay out here on this uh this slide here is an idea that over the next three years we would be selling three series of bonds and that would add up to the cumulative amount of the $1.8 billion. And then to just ground us in sort of the capital projects again and and kind of what uh we typically finance here. Uh we rely heavily of course on
026the the capital team and the facilities team to determine what the the physical investments in our district will be. Uh a lot of these projects um tend to be critical needs. There's repairs, renovations, and existing schools. other major projects. Um, you know, a majority 90, you know, I'll make make a number like 99% of everything that we approve in a capital budget is financed by bonds. There's very little outside funding. Sometimes we do get tiff funding. Sometimes we do get state of Illinois money, but the lion share of what you're always asked to approve in a capital budget is financed by these bonds. So, that's why we're coming back to you so that we can keep the pipeline of these these projects going. Um, you know, besides the critical prioritization of bonds, there's also other
027things that we've done over the years that we're kind of scaling back on a little bit because of the critical needs that are there. But state-of-the-art, you know, high school education labs, uh, high-speed internet, um, potentially, uh, replacement devices, um, Chromebooks, things like that can be financed with our bonds to a limited extent. expansion of full day prek. You know, that's been a topic and we've continued to do investments in that that's been financed with our bonds. All accessibility improvements, elevators, um ease of parking, different things like that, playground improvements. Um so, um really all the critical work that we do across the district is financed with bonds and um you know, we use an equity index. uh the the facilities team applies that to determine where the projects are being placed and being done
028and then the finance team basically is reimbursing those projects to make sure that we maintain liquidity. So, that would conclude my uh presentation unless there's any questions. Again, I appreciate your attention on this important matter. And um >> President Harden, for the record, board member Bannon joined the hearing at 9:52 a.m. >> We have any comments or questions? >> There appear to be none. >> Thank you, sir. >> Appreciate it. This concludes our being hearing. Thank you.