001President Harden, before you begin today's meeting, I would like to read a few announcements. Good morning. Welcome to the November 10th, 2025 special board meeting. Before we start the special board meeting, I would like to share a few safety points and next meeting announcements. Please note that the primary exit and entrance to the board room is the door that you use to enter this morning. If you are leaving the room, please use this door. The restrooms are outside the boardroom doors to your left. During the special board meeting, we ask that you keep all aisles and exits clear. If you need any assistance during the special board meeting, please wave the attention of one of our security officers. Mark your calendars for the upcoming meeting. The agenda review committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December
0023rd, 2025 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, cpsb.org. If you have any questions about registration or public participation, please contact the board office for assistance. Thank you for joining us today. >> Good morning everyone. Welcome to the Chicago Board of Education special meeting. Today is November 10th, 2025 and I'm President Shan B. Harden. On behalf of my fellow board members, thank you for joining us today. We are holding today's special meeting in the boardroom at CPS Loop office, 42 West Madison Street, Garden Level. I'd like to note that board members and senior leadership are physically present
003in the boardroom and registered speakers may join us person or virtually if they've opted to do so and registered observers are joining us in person. The special board meeting of Monday, November 10th, 2025 is hereby called to order. Assistant board secretary, please call the role. >> Thank you, President Harden. Member Loausano >> present. >> Member Smith >> present. >> Member Lopez >> present. >> Member Veles >> present. >> Member Bole >> here. >> Member Kuster. Please press star. Come back. Member pope. Okay. Member Rosenfeld. Member Rivas >> here. >> Member Rio Sierra >> present. >> Vice President Bautista >> present. >> Member Gutierrez >> present. >> Member Biggs >> present. >> Member Thora >> present. >> Member Blae >> present. Member Sakor >> present. >> President Harden >> present. >> Board member Brown. >> Yes,
004ma'am. >> Thank you. All right. >> I would like to acknowledge Dr. Mlin King, interim superintendent, chief executive officer. Elizabeth K. Barton, acting general counsel. >> The order of the meeting will be as follows. public participation. We'll go into cold session, reconvene from coal session, and then adjourn. So, we'll now proceed with today's public participation session. Thank you for joining to share your comments with the board. And 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 grants district stakeholders the opportunity to address the board with their concerns and comments. Note that pole participation is a time for the board and CPS senior leadership to listen and hear from you rather than a time for dialogue with board members
005during or after your remarks. And 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 seriously and while we may not address your comments directly during public participation, CPS leadership is always present at our meetings and able to address concerns as follow-ups after the meeting. As a district and as a board, we also have many other spaces for authentic dialogue. For example, each and every one of our board members host board office hours so that we can have a conversation. We encourage you to use the website cpsb.org. or if you want to meet with a board member during office hours, we
006encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to meet with board members outside of a board meeting. And we thank you for your attention. As a reminder, UNI representatives will be allotted 5 minutes to speak before public participation and any elected officials will be allotted five minutes to speak after the conclusion of public participation. Assistant Secretary, Board Secretary, please share the rules of public participation. Thank you, President Harden. For the record, I would like to acknowledge Debbie Pope joined the meeting at 10:35 and board member Kuster joined the meeting at 10:36 a.m. Members of the public who registered to speak were given the option to attend in person or via an electronic format. For those who preferred to attend via an electronic format, they were given information to access this meeting by dialing a number
007and using their phone. We did this so that speakers with limited or no access to 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 special board meeting via the written comments form on the board's website at cpsb.org or mailed at 42 Westmadison Street Garden level. Written comments received between the day the public agenda was posted through 5:00 PM the day after the board of education special board meeting will be submitted to the board and published within five business days on our website at cpsbboe.org. Speakers, please listen while I provide directions for public participation. I will call your name and number when it's your turn to speak. For speakers joining us virtually, as a reminder to
008unmute, please press star six. Once you hear your name, please state your name for the record. I will then start the 2minut timer. When there are 30 seconds remaining, I will inform you so that you can proceed to conclude your remarks to allow the next speaker to begin. For anyone standing with the speaker, note that that that in order to comply with the city's fire code, please stand along the glass partitions on the marked spots to keep aisles clear. Thank you. President Harden, before we begin calling registered speakers from the speakers list, we do have a union rep who would like to address the board. We will begin with Jan Conand, CTU Charter Division Chair, who is joining us virtually. Please press star six to unmute. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes, please proceed.
009>> Great. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you board members for including amendments to the board report last week on Epic Academy. All school closings are devastating, but this board being willing to give families and staff more than what CPS proposed in order to at least attempt to keep this community whole and valued means a great deal to Epic families and staff. Much gratitude, board member Brown. However, it is extremely disappointing that CPS sent an email to families almost immediately after the board voted unanimously on the amendment that omits everything you all included. Staff were also not included on this email. Here's what you need to know. The CPS email to parents talks about a windown plan where every student enrolls somewhere else. There is no mention of creating a transition plan. The language you all
010passed says that the transition plan is supposed to maximize stability and continuity for Epic families and qualified staff, including choosing a receiving school. There's no discussion nor even mention of a receiving school or the option of creating a receiving school for Epic. Instead of working with the community to create a transition plan that maximizes stability and continuity, the email says CPS will help families transfer now with no mention of creating a transition plan to keep the community together. The meeting with parents is at 100 p.m. on a Monday, which means that any parent that works during the day will not be able to attend. We spoke directly to the board and CPS about this being a problem as most Epic parents work during the day. It's important to note that the Shy Arts community meeting
011with CPS is at 5:30 p.m. It's in the evening as it should be. Again, this is an example of CPS working hard to meet the needs of the Shyarts community while kicking Epic to the curb. Finally, there's been no communication from CPS to Epic staff about creation of a transition plan. In fact, there's been no communication to Epic staff, period. This is despite Dr. Cremona telling the board and folks at a previous board meeting that CPS would email epic staff last week. The entire email from CPS to families violates the intention of the board's amendments on Tuesday. It's like the board didn't vote for any changes to CPS's plan. This is insulting to the hard work that the board put into stopping and modifying plans uh CPS's plans to scatter everyone to the wind. So,
012here's what I'm asking you to do. demand that CPS apologize to Epic families and staff for not doing a better job communicating. Two, demand CPS develop a transition plan with families and staff and actually commit to that plan. And three, that CPS send a follow-up communication to families with corrections, including saying they need family input on a transition plan, and that CPS send a similar one to staff. The epic community deserves better and your work and your amendments deserve to be honored. Finally, I want to flag that Spira is in still in significant trouble. Their actual financial situation is unclear as they've not laid out their financial financial position clearly to the union or to our members. One day they said they were worried about being able to refinance an important loan. Then days later
013they said they weren't worried about it. What I do know is that Aspira is not hiring daily subs at two of their three schools. So teachers cannot take a personal day when they have an emergency. It sounds like Aspira cannot secure subs because they have not paid the sub company recently. This opens up a lot of questions. How did they end up in this situation? How are they prioritizing their bills? Aspir did reduce the number of people they laid off on Friday, which we are grateful for, but they seem to resend layoffs for three people because the Spir realized that they needed those folks to ensure kids could graduate and receive legally required services. And because we've spoken out, as Spir has made a series of choices to cut costs in the short run that
014have led to long-term problems, including the layoffs that happened on Friday and the new sub policy. Uh for another short-sighted example, a sphere reduced sports and cut student clubs last year, which corresponded with student enrollment dropping significantly, and we warned them that that would likely happen. Our fear is that sim similarly short-sighted decisions are being made now that will have serious consequences. Management's decisions seem to be haphazard and without a comprehensive plan to stabilize our schools. >> You have 30 seconds remaining. I'm calling on this board to tell CPS to provide the support and oversight necessary to stabilize and save our spirals. Thank you, President Harden. We are now ready to call registered speakers from the speakers list. For speakers joining us virtually, as a reminder to unmute, please press star six. We have speaker
015number one, Ed Howard, who will be joining us in person. >> Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to come and speak with you folks today. My name is Ed Howard. I am a parent rep and LSC member at Anahan Elementary on the northwest side. I've been a member of the LLSC for approximately eight years and a co-chair for six of those eight years. My involvement with Anahan and the Anahan community has been over the course of my children's career there. I've had three children to go through Anahean from kindergarten through 8th grade. Currently, my last my son Sean is an eighth grader at Anahean. I've also been involved with the men's club. I've volunteered during our fire that we had back in 2016. I've also participated in the PTO and the friends of Anaheim.
016The reason for my visit today is to bring to the attention of the board the timeline of our outdoor athletic and recreation field project that was started approximately 10 years ago from the previous LSC board. During that time, we have gone back and forth with all of our representatives and CPS CEO Martinez and his office, Capital Projects, and the folks that are in charge of creating the outdoor athletic field preparation and architecture and review process. We reached the 100% status there. And we do have a letter dated back of fall of 2022 that our project would be completed in the 2023 budget cycle. Unfortunately, that did not get before you at the board of education level back in fall of 2022. >> 30 seconds remaining. >> I would like to bring this to your attention
017and I would encourage you to ask more questions and we would be available to answer any questions at your convenience. I do have a signed letter from the CEO's office to the 41st ward alderman Anthony Npalitano stating that this would take place. There are current injuries that are happening due to the unsafe natures of this field and we feel it is very important for the onhand community staff and 650 students. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is speaker number three, Marak Ugarte, who is joining us virtually. Please press star six to unmute. Dr. is American. Juan Carlo. Director Juan Carlos. is essential. We do have the translation. in English. >> Good morning, President Harden, Dr. King, and board members. My name is Maria Luis Algarte, a CPS
018parent. I am here today to thank you for addressing the crisis our student and families are facing every day due to the presence of federal agents in our city. Unfortunately, your efforts to help families understand that schools are the safest place for students are being ignored at Interamerican Magnet School. I ask that the labor department help clarify for you and the LSC how this can be allowed. Principal Juan Rossayas has not even given the sanctuary team an opportunity to meet with him. Not one meeting. The network chief can attest to this as he was present at last week's LSC meeting and confirmed that the district has provided communications to be shared with families and that he has advised the principal accordingly. However, no communication has been sent out. a total disregard for students and families.
019Are you surprised that he ignored you? Are you surprised that he ignores the network chief? We are not. And here's why. For almost two years, we have come before you with extensive evidence asking for principal Juan Juan Carlos Sai's removal. We have urged you to remove him so that students are not subjected to continued pure poor leadership. But still this continues, ignoring you, ignoring us, ignoring the needs of the community. Any other administrator would have at least respected district district directives, especially in the time of crisis when clear and timely communication is essential. Yet again, we are we see a failure to act in the best interest of families. Do his actions reflect the care and urgency that the district has shown throughout its protocols? Clearly, they do not. We need to be united. Parents,
020administrators, and the and the district working together to protect our students. Please protect our students. Principles have unions to defend them. Students only have us, their parents, and we only have you. Dr. King, it is time. Families deserve the support the district is trying to provide in these difficult times. Enough is enough. Please make the recommendation to remove Juan Carlos SAS. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is speaker number four, Julie Wexler, who's joining us virtually. Please press star six to unmute. Julie Wexler, please press star six to unmute. Good morning. Can you hear me? >> Yes, please continue. >> Okay, my apologies. Thank you. Good morning. My name is Dr. Julie Wexler. I'm the chair of the Interamerican Magnet School, LSC. I'm a parent, a breast cancer surgeon, and
021the daughter of immigrants who left their home country as refugees. I believe in the public education system. My thanks to those board members who have expressed sympathy, but we need more from you now. Our LSC approved charges to remove principal Juan Carlos Zaias over a year ago. In spring of 2024, Principal Zas implemented his own budget rather than the one voted upon by the LSC. This directly violated his contract in Illinois state law. We've had numerous safety concerns at our school. Many parents have spoken publicly at LSE meetings, board meetings, or reached out to me directly because they received no reply from the principal about safety matters. They've spoken publicly about mandated reporting events not being reported to DCFS and the lack of incident reports. The network chief for his deputy has been present at
022nearly every LSC meeting since last fall. This isn't normal. The increased oversight has failed. You're hearing many of the same voices because we're the only ones in less vulnerable v vulnerable positions that allow us to speak. The retaliation is real. For example, the principal reassigned six teachers on the last two days of the school year last year without their desire or nor any clear rationale. One was a year away from retirement and subsequently retired. Another was an LSD member who had spoken up at meetings. I've never heard the principal express remorse nor has he taken responsibility for any of his actions. Now, as our school community is feeling the impact of ICE, having a comp later is more important than ever. I consider myself to be a reasonable person. Yet, I find myself in an
023unreasonable situation with no help and no updates. Our AP has left recently. Principal Z cannot be trusted to hire a new AP, nor should he be allowed to do so. I'm all for due process, but I'm also for protecting our kids. Please place principal ZAS on leave and please update parents and staff who to this day have received no formal notice from CPS that principal ZAS has been under formal investigation and that the final outcome is pending. >> Please conclude your remarks. >> Please prioritize the children. >> Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is speaker number five, Himma Fabara, who is joining us virtually. Please press star six to unmute. Hello, my name is Jalit Labara. I'm a parent to two students, one at a CPS school and another at a charter school.
024I currently work at Aspida Charter School. And I found myself working at this school, which I've come to love because last year Aero closed two schools. One which I was a part of. A large group of staff were laid off and others are traveling distances to work at other aletto schools. But um our students and the remaining staff they needed to find a new school which brought a lot of heartache to us and um a lot of tears were shed unfortunately. Um, this year I unfortunately am finding myself in a similar situation where there have already been some layoffs and there's talk of more layoffs coming and I'm asking myself why does this keep happening? Why is this happening again um to yet another charter school? Um, so I know that it's easy for us
025to start laying blame on each other, but I've already been there and that's not why I'm here today. Um, I'm here because I along with others that make up our Aspita community are looking for solutions and we need help. We need to join with other groups whose priority is the education of all of our students. We need the layoffs to stop, the school closings to stop. Um, I'm personally tired of the heartache and constantly seeing the futures of our kids put in jeopardy. We need the proper funding to keep our schools, our students, and our communities alive. And if the future of our kids really matters, then we need to show that with actions, not with words, um not with, you know, emails. Um we need to show our kids that they matter. Thank you.
026>> Thank you for your comments. And for our records, board member Bannon has joined us this meeting at 10:55 a.m. Our next speaker is speaker number six, Zoe Lee, who is joining us in person. Good morning. My name is Zoe Lee, founder of Chicago Flips Red, a movement focused on truth, accountability, and protecting our communities from the political corruption that has destroyed Chicago from the inside out. Starting next year, Chicago Flips Red will focus on Chicago public schools because what's happened inside CPS is unacceptable. Our children are are not political experiments, not sexual objects, and their schools should never be playgrounds for corruption, ideology, or financial abuse. We've watched test scores collapse while leadership hides behind buzzwords and billion-dollar budgets. We've watched the Chicago Teachers Union, including Stacy Davis Gates and Jackson Potter, use our
027kids as bargaining chips for political power instead of education. They've turned our children into obstacles to their own success. Now, even CTO CTU's own members are suing their leadership for refusing to release years of missing financial audits. audits that could show how millions in dues are being spent when union members have to sue for transparency. That tells you everything. They stole the original vision of black student success from our community, watered it down, exploited it, and turned it into a slogan instead of a real plan for our kids. I'm glad CPS is being sued because that idea should have never left our community in the first place. Next year, I'll be calling for the Department of Justice to investigate CPS, CTU, and their affiliates for corruption, misuse of public funds, and violations of students rights.
028Enough is enough. Chicago deserves schools that teach not our children, and failure. I'm not here to attack good teachers. I'm here to expose a system that's failed them and failed our kids. Chicago Flips Red will work with parents, educators, and community leaders to restore oversight, audits, and accountability to CPS. Protesting and political games are not a job, especially in schools. They are labor abuse and constitutional violations at the expense of our kids' future. Y'all gonna have to get it together, man. Y'all gonna have to get it together. our kids will not continue to be used. >> Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is speaker number seven, Dwayne Truss, who is here in person. Good morning, Dr. King. Good morning all. I stand here with the backing of the following organizations. West Size Ministers
029Coalition, the Austin CAC, the North Londale CAC, the Inglewood CAC, the West Humble Park CAC, all in support of Dr. King and to stand up and say, "President Harden, we know each other somewhat, but please don't say the word transparent because I might start laughing for the rest of my time on the microphone because this process with electing CEO has been nothing but good old Chicago politics and backroom dealing. Nowhere in this process that it was announced publicly that the board will be narrowing down candidates." And unfortunately some of us in our community and those who say they want to be transparent and and interactive and what have you hypocrites because we haven't had no public meeting west side district 5A and 5B about this process and who would people like to see it as
030a CEO and again go call those organizations up and they will verify who they would like to support but those who would say they represent us have not come to us or talked to us. Sometimes you got to come off the mountain top and come down and speak to the people and make this process much more transparent. Again, you're in a situation now one candidate drops out and then you got another candidate whose background is kind of sketchy. Our recommendation would be to go ahead and extend Dr. King until the next fully elected school board is selected instead of keep playing these games. And right now we don't know what's going on because now we have a special meeting. another two meeting was called then they cancelled. We don't know anything cuz you know why
031transparency is not a word that should be used in this process. >> I'm Carl Brson, president of the Westside branch NWCP and with support of his CEO King and with public trans you are unable to due to the guidelines you're unable to speak. >> Speaking because this meeting has been out of order. The the actions you've been taking lately has been out of order. That's why we let you know this been out of order. We don't like the order that it's been by >> our guidelines. You can ask your time to someone else. I apologize. Excuse me. Your your point has been made. We appreciate your comment. We appreciate your comment. Thank you. This is not the way to do it, Mr. Trust. >> So, motion to call for a recess. >> Second. >> Please
032take a roll. Roll call for a recess. >> Motion to call for recess. Do we do that? >> Can we have a second? >> Second. It's been a second. >> Second. >> Okay. Member Lozano. >> Yes. >> Member Smith. >> Yes. >> Member Lopez. >> Yes. >> Member VeZ. >> Yes. >> Member Bole. >> Yes. >> Member Rosenfeld. >> Yes. >> Member Rivas. >> Yes. >> Member Brown. >> Member Rio Sierra. >> I. >> Member Bannon. >> I. >> Vice President Bautista. >> She's not there. Uh, member Gutierrez. >> I. >> Member Biggs. >> Yes. Yes. >> Member Thorakura. >> Yes. >> Member Blae. >> Yes. >> Member Zachor. >> Yes. >> Member Kuster. >> Yes. >> Member Pope. >> Yes. >> Motion adopted. 10-minute recess. >> Reconvene. Assistant board secretary. Please proceed. >> Thank
033you, President Harden. I would also like to acknowledge for the record Dr. Alonso Carmona, acting chief education officer, is here in person. President Harden, this concludes public participation. Board members, are any questions or comments related to public participation? There being none, we'll now move to executive session. Board member Bole, do you have motion? I move for the passage of motion number 25-11-1 and the commencement of a close session to consider matters permitted under section 2C of the open meetings act subsection one as specified in the motion. >> Is there a second? >> I second the motion. >> I will proceed with roll call. Board member Loausano. >> Yes. >> Board member Smith. >> I. >> Board member Lopez. I >> board member. >> Yes. >> Board member Bole. >> Yes. >> Board member Rosenfeld. >>
034Yes. >> Board member Rivas. >> Yes. >> Board member Brown. >> Yes. >> Board member Rio Sierra. >> Hi. >> Board member Bannon. >> Hi. >> Vice President Bautista. >> Yes. >> Board member Gutierrez. >> Hi. >> Board member Biggs. >> Yes. >> Board member Thorakura. >> Yes. >> Board member Blae. >> Hi. >> Board member Zachor. >> Yes. >> This mo. Board member Kuster. >> I. >> Board member Pope. >> Yes. >> This motion's adopted by the board. >> This mean will now go into close session. Thank you. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> We are journ. Thank you.