001team, can you please start the recording? President Harden, before you begin today's public hearing, I would like to read a few announcements. Good afternoon. Welcome to the August 19, 2025 FY26 budget hearing. Before we start the hearing, I would like to share a few safety points. The next and next meeting announcements. Please note that the primary exit and entrance to the boardroom is the door which you use to enter this afternoon. If you are leaving the room, please use this door. The restrooms are outside the boardroom doors to your left. During the meeting, we ask that you keep all aisles and exits clear. If you need any assistance during the hearing, please wave the attention to one of our security officers. Please mark your calendars for the upcoming meeting. The next board meeting is scheduled
002for Thursday, August 28, 2025 at 300 p.m. Please note the later start time. The board meeting will be held at 42 West Madison Street Garden level boardroom. For details on how to register to speak or observe at the board meeting and to learn about the speaker lottery process, please visit the Chicago Board of Education website, cpsbboe.org. 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. >> Good afternoon, everyone. >> I'm Sean B. Harden. On behalf of my fellow board members, welcome to the first FY26 budget hearing. Today is August 19th, 2025. We are holding the first FY26 budget hearing in the boardroom, 42 West Madison Street, Garden Level.
003I would like to note that board members and senior leadership are physically present in the boardroom. Registered speakers may join us in person or virtually if they've opted to do so. The purpose of this hearing is to comply with the school code provisions regarding the fiscical year 26 budget. 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 August 13, 2025. Notice was also posted on the cpsb.org. org and cps.edu websites on August 13, 2025. I will now read into the record the public notice as published. Notice public hearing FY26 budget for the 2025
0042026 fiscal year. Chicago Board of Education commonly known as Chicago Public Schools to whom it may concern. Public notice is hereby given by the Chicago Board of Education that it has prepared an FY26 budget for the 2025 2026 fiscal year and TUDT form and that the five copies thereof available for public inspection have been filed and are now on on file in the office of the board of education of the city of Chicago commonly known as Chicago public schools 42 west Madison Street Garden level Chicago Illinois 60602 and available at cps.edu/budget edu/budget. And that said, Board of Education will hold two public hearings upon said budget on Tuesday, August 19, 2025. Tuesday, August 19, 2025. Hearing time, 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Board Room 42 West Madison Street, Garden Level, Chicago, Illinois 60602. Tuesday, August
00519, 2025. Hearing time 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Board Room 42 West Madison Street Garden level Chicago Illinois 6602. Registered speakers who wish to present during the public participation have the option to participate in person at the location of the public hearing or virtually via in electronic format. The public will have access to the meeting via live stream at cpsboo.org. for these two public hearings. Advance for registration to speak will begin on Wednesday, August 13, 2025 at 5 pm and will close Friday, August 15, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. Anyone interested in speaking can sign up after the 40 48 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 15 of them to speak. This process gives
006everyone a fair chance to address the board. Advanced registration during this period is available by the following methods online cpsb.org or by vote. To ensure equity of access to address the board, an individual may not speak to back-to-back meetings more than one meeting per month. If you register for back-to-back meetings or more than one meeting per month, you will not be included for that meeting's lottery. In the event an individual registers to speak on consecutive meetings, the individual will not be called to address the board. A band's registration to observe will also be available beginning Wednesday, August 13, 2025 at 5:00 pm and will close at Friday, August 15, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. or until all slots are filled. Advanced registration during this period is available by the following methods. cpsb.org or by phone. The
007public participation segment of the public hearing will conclude after the last person who has registered to speak has spoken or at 2:30 for the first hearing on August 19th and 6 p.m. for the second hearing on August 19, whichever occurs first. Members of the public may submit written comments related to the FY26 tentative budget via the written comments form on the board's website at cpsb.org or are mailed to 42 West Madison Street Garden level by 5:00 p.m. August 20, 2025. Dated at Chicago, Illinois, August 13, 2025 by Shan B. Hard and President attested by Susan J. Narajos, Secretary. I would like to to note for the record the members present here today. Board member Losano, board member Smith, board member Lopez, board member Bole, board member Pope, board member Rosenfeld, board member Rivas, board member
008Rio Sierra, board member Brown, board member Bannon, board member Gutierrez, board member Biggs, board member Blae, board member Sakor, President Harden, Dr. Meline King, interim superintendent, chief executive officer officer, Elizabeth K. Barton, acting general counsel, and Charles Mayfield, chief operating officer. Right. We're where to begin today's public comment segment. 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 the portion of the board meeting or hearing that grants district stakeholders the opportunity to address the board with their concerns and comments. Note that public participation is the time for the board and CPS senior leadership to listen and hear from you rather than the time for dialogue with board members during or after your remarks. While we can't
009discuss personnel matters, punk 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. The board takes equity of voice seriously. While we may not address your comments directly during poll participation, CPS leadership is always present at our meetings and are always able to address concerns as follow-ups after the meeting. As a district and as a board, we also h 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 invite you to use our website cpsb.org or if you want to meet with the board member during office hours. We encourage you to take advantage of the
010opportunity to meet with our members outside of board member meetings. 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 to speak 5 minutes after the conclusion of public participation. Assistant Secretary, please share the rules of public participation. >> For the record, I would like to state that Vice President Olga Bautista has joined virtually at 1:10 p.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 prefer to attend via an electronic format, they were given information to access this meeting by dialing a number and using their phone. We did this so that speakers with limited or no access to the
011internet 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 hearing via the written comments form on the board's website at cpsboe.org or mailed to 42 Westmadison Street Garden level. Written comments received between the day the public agenda was posted through 5:00 p.m. the day after the board of education hearings will be submitted to the board and published within five business days on our website at cpsboe.org. Speakers, please listen while I provide directions for 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 unmute, please press star six. Once you hear your name, please state your name for the record. I will
012then start the two-minut 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, know that in order to comply with the city 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 union reps who would like to address the board. We will begin with Dr. Diane Castro, CTU financial secretary who is here in person. Good afternoon. My name is Dr. Diane Castro and I am the financial secretary at the CTU. I am here though with a few different lenses. Union leader, yes. also as a parent and an educator
013on leave. For 18 years, I welcomed preschoolers to their classrooms just like many of our colleagues did yesterday and preschool today. In order to make the school year one that I believe students deserved and provided a sense of peace to our parents, I will take my summers to plan, reflect, and purchase items, the resources for my classrooms so that my students were given opportunities that their families traveled miles to provide for them. I was a bilingual preschool teacher, proudly to say. We do this with love. We do this with our own money. Educators know how to do this and they do this with limited funds over the summer. This is all to say that for decades our district has been run with limited monies allocated to our schools. Either based on the financial mismanagement of
014your predecessors or based on the budgetary constraints created by Illinois taking more than it gives back to our students. Regardless, as an alumni, as a parent, as a union official, it is clear as day that we have to send a message to our students and their families that we will take every step to uh avoid potential cuts or furls. That means being prepared, not just being hopeful. For those of us who have been observing the budget process, it has been feared that families and communities agree that there should be no cuts. And I was heartened to hear that this was a position you all took also. Yet at this point, I am grappling with the three versions of the CPS budget that we have been presented with. The budget that was released just last Thursday
015echoes with Pedro Martinez's old playbook. While there were many and multiple assurances that this plan is sound, I did not hear where reality checks this work. Most parents know how to make things work for their families. The working class knows how to stretch their money when they can and to borrow when they cannot. You believe you have a budget plan that does not necessitate borrowing. Most parents do not think that they about having to borrow either. Yet we do. We do that if we absolutely have to. and to refuse to include a backup as part of your plan is to close your eyes to the reality that you just may have to just like our parents do. We also heard a budget where six members of this board co-signed a budget plan that says yes
016to cutting SEC, yes to cutting crossing guards, and yes to eliminating hot lunches for our children. As a parent of children who already struggle with CPS lunches, let me tell you, that's one that I take seriously. I sat a gas as I heard multiple members of this board refuse to have an actual backup plan to guarantee our paraprofessionals their pensions. My mother is a retired paraprofessional. I could not have even been as successful in my work in the classroom without my right hand, my paraprofessional who happily retired just last school year. Our school's very foundation is based on the work and efforts that these members provide. Yet that proposed budget will not account for the reality that this payment must be paid. You heard me speak about members financing their own classrooms. Is the message
017you want to say? Not only do you get to spend money out of your pocket to support your classes, but we also won't invest in you retiring with dignity and the respect that you have earned. And we also heard from 11 members of this board that have said to give our students a fighting chance and a plan that has preparedness built in. We have all heard about the money that CPS is owed. Yes, owed. Our district has never been fully funded and it's time for that to change. Don't fight with each other about how to cut and and especially to cut what our children need most. fight together for the full funding our students deserve. I thank these 11 members for being realistic as we all work to trump this remaining. Please conclude. >> It
018is more evident now than ever that we must continue to do so. The investment is most crucial now. >> Thank you for your comments. The next union rep is Caroline Rutherford, CTU charter division vice chair, who is here in person. Good afternoon, members of the board. My name is Caroline Rutherford and I am the vice chair of the charter division for CTU. It's good to see you all again. I know you had a very busy summer uh working on the CPS budget and we thank you for your hard work. Um and I think we all can agree that our students need more funding. It is not fiscal responsibility to ensure that students pay the price of any future bud budget challenge through devastating mid-year cuts and furls. It is not ethical financial leadership for a
019school district to slam the door on any borrowing that may be needed. And it is not acting like a responsible employer to balance a budget by choosing not to make the required employer pension payments for your lowest paid employees, the classroom assistants, clerks, and others who hold our schools together. It's not enough to say someone else should pay for your employer's retirement and hope for the best, leaving those workers futures in jeopardy. The budget the previous CEO presented refuses to pay par profofessional pensions, cuts hot lunches and custodial services, and banks on uncommitted funds from the city, state, and philanthropy. And this budget is unacceptable and should not even be considered. Do you want to be responsible for eliminating what could be a student's only hot meal for the day? Our schools are already in
020need of more custodial services. Do you want to be responsible for eliminating the jobs that keep our schools safe and clean for students? Pensions are lifelines for our pair of professionals. Do you want to stand on the side of history that says these hardworking essential staff do not deserve retirement benefits? If you answered no to any of those questions, you cannot consider this budget. We need a budget that does not rely on cuts as a backup option. We need a budget that puts students and families first. This board took the responsible approach last year when it came to the Asero school closures by voting yes to the resolution to maintain those schools. You did you did not vote yes because it was the cheapest option. I think we all can agree on that. but because
021it was the best option for the students and the communities that you represent. I was surprised to see board member Rivas attending a press conference for the Asero Santiago School considering you did not join the majority of this board in voting yes to keep our schools open. Instead, you abstained from that vote. It seems now you've changed your mind about the importance of priorit prioritizing students with CPS funds. Please vote today in favor of students and not wait six months again to change your mind. We have to put students first always. So, we're going to need this board to continue to take responsibility and provide our schools with a budget that allows for additional revenue and borrowing when if we need it. A budget that provides the best school day for our students and does
022not involve cuts, midyear, or furls. We are owed money by the state of Illinois. Just because they refuse to pay does not mean we take it out on our students and staff. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for your comments. For the record, board member DB Barry joined the board hearing at 1:20 p.m. in person. Um, up next we have union rep. Tummaine Reeves, SEIU Local 73, director of the CPS division, who is here in person. Good morning, President Harden, board members, and Dr. King. Months ago, this board passed a resolution detailing the qualifications of a CEO for Chicago public schools moving forward. When former CEO Pedro Martinez left the district at the close of the most recent school year, SEIU sent a letter stressing the need for a fair process and
023our hope for the most qualified person to fill the role of interim CEO for for Chicago public schools. The mayor's office chose who they thought was the best qualified in Dr. Mlin King. Since then, Dr. King dove right in hosting comm community community meetings where parents and labor partners were able to voice their concerns surrounding the budget deficit, layoffs of frontline staff of multiple unions, respective members, and the impact of those decisions that they have on those students. In her proposed budget, Dr. King was thoughtful of all of those factors and presented a budget that does not call for additional cuts to schools or the front-facing staff, nor reimbursing the city for the pension payment, as both of those options would have immediate and long-term devastating outcomes for students and workers. Now, let's talk about
024gambling. There are some that are calling for the district to reject the proposed budget that was presented by the CEO that the mayor felt was again the mayor felt is the most qualified to do this job and have the budget that includes taking out a highinterest loan to balance the district's deficit. So number one, there's no guarantee that the district would even get approved for a loan. And if they did, what would be the plan to balance next year's budget while also having to repay the the loan plus interest? Here's what history has taught us. More staff will be laid off. Those that are not laid off will face salary freezes and furlow days. The city of Chicago has a budget deficit north of $1 billion. There is no way for the city to pass
025their budget without declaring a tiff surplus. Any threat that tiffs will be withheld is an empty threat and untrue. CPS is owed money from both the city and the state and should not take out a loan. For months, SEIU Local 73 has been calling for leadership during this budget crisis. Dr. King, your proposed budget shows us that you care about students and their continuity of learning. You care to listen to parents. You care to listen to workers and labor partners' concerns. The mayor's office deemed you to be the most qualified for this job. Your budget shows that you have the courage to do what's right on this issue. This is the type of leadership that the children, the parents, and workers of Chicago public schools are looking for to run CPS. Any vote against your
026budget is irresponsible and dangerous as it shows a willingness to gamble the quality of education for the students of Chicago. As long as you're doing the right thing, you have a friend in SEIU, Dr. King. Thank you everybody. >> Thank you for your comments. For the record, board member Kuster has joined the hearing at 1:23 p.m. in person. President Harden, we are now ready to call registered speakers from the speakers list. We will start off with Vicky Willis, speaker number one, who's here in person. I'm ready because I'm going to cry it regardless. You can start the timer. I'm going to cry regardless. I'm just going to push straight through it. My name is Vicky Willis and I'm here as a parent of Jaylen Pleasant who attends Buché Elementary in uh Southshore. I'm a retired
027uh CPS teacher. I just retired from the board in 2022. I started in 2003. I worked at Bogan uh high school and then I also worked at Jefferson uh uh alternative school which is located inside of the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. I'm here to represent my son Alri Pleasant who was a Chicago public school student. And when you all start cutting the budgets, I am a witness of what happens to the pipeline to prison for special education students. My son Alariq was failed when those budget cuts went through. He was attending Dodge Elementary and Near North Elementary. And now CPS is facing laying off special education teachers and classroom assistants. And I witnessed I lived through it of what happens when the budget is cut. My son is not with me anymore. and I
028represent the group of people when you cut the >> 30 seconds. Please conclude. >> I'm trying. When you cut the budget, bad things happen to those individuals like my son and my grandson who need those self-contained classrooms and the resources and the teachers that go with it. So I implore you to please think of us who are out here just as we're out pleasant. Amen. Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Katherine Jones who is joining us virtually. Please press star six to unmute yourself. Katherine Jones, please press star six to unmute yourself. Can you hear me? Can you hear me now? >> Yes, we can. >> Good. Good afternoon uh board president Harden and uh distinguished uh other board members and CEO uh Miss King. I am a local school council member
029uh Katherine Jones as Frederick Douglas High School. For over 25 years I have been an advocate advocate LSC PTA member and I am calling in on advocating for our children. Miss King, I can applaud you for what you have stepped in and did. uh community meetings. I applaud you. Um we have to we have to consider our children. I applaud the young lady that came on 3 minutes ago. This is what's hurting all of our schools needs. Some of our schools need more resources which is mine and I've been advocating for Douglas for years and we all been advocating the community and that's why we need more resources for our children from pipeline to prison. It's very serious you all. I'm going to uh say this. I'm going pray that you all board members can
030come together what's best for all schools. I applaud you you all the members that fought and gave the uh sustainable school for Austin. That's my son Lumni school and uh and I applaud that for you all doing that. Now what are you all going to do with Douglas? Are you all going to help us do the same thing to get more children at Douglas? Cuz it's being sabotaged you all. I call in and say that with a heavy heart today. We are being sabotaged not letting students coming in and there need to be an investigation done. I'm not going to let this go because the teachers are doing the best with what >> Thank you. They're doing the best they can with what little that we have. Douglas need more investment and I keep saying
031this, keep saying this and keep saying this and advocating for this school and we will not let it go. So board members, please take heed today. Douglas, Frederick Douglas, 543 North Walla. We need more resources and stop this. Whatever sabotage, whoever is sabotaging, I don't know if it's downtown or what, but somebody is sabotaging this school. >> Thank you all for your comments. >> I'm going to speak. Thank you all. >> Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Lam Monica McKenna, speaker number three, who's here in person. Good afternoon. My name is Lam Monica McKenna and I'm a parent of three CPS students, two at Murray Language Academy and one at Kenwick Academy. I'm the vice chair of the parent advisory council at Murray and I'm also a parent mentor coordinator with the
032parent engagement institute which allows parent mentors to go into the classrooms and administer services and do an internship while successfully allowing the students to succeed during their daily studies. It's a community- based organization. While the parents volunteer inside the classrooms, most of the students that they work with during the day are students that are on a IEP or 504 plan. It is very hard for the students to go about their daily studies and basically function on a a normal basis within the general education setting because there is a lack of seekers and teacher assistance due to budget cuts and funding in the school. While support supporting my parent mentors in the classroom, I observed that the students suffer tremendously by not having the appointed pair of professionals and seekers to help them adapt due to
033the budget cuts. You continue to cut the funding for the CPS students with special needs requiring mandated support from the state of Illinois. This is unacceptable to the parents and students of CPS. Please stop cutting the funding that the students need in order to successfully succeed in life. I'm asking that you pass the 1.6 million budget to ensure that the students receive you have 30 seconds remaining receive all the resources they deserve from the Chicago public schools. Also, the students the students environment is suffering tremendously due to the budget cuts for the custodial positions. Yesterday was the first day of school and there was a rodent on the Murray Language Academy campus in front of the students as they presented to go into the school at the beginning of the day. Please stop cutting the
034funding so that the students can receive the custodial sequel and paraprofessional services that they need. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. The next speaker is Bridget White, speaker number five, who's here in person. >> Good afternoon, board president Harden, board members, and Dr. King. My name is Bridget White and I'm with the parent engagement Chicago coalition peak comprising of 19 Chicago based organizations who partner with 154 CPS schools voicing our strong opinion to any cuts that directly and indirectly impact the quality of education afforded to the elementary school students within CPS. Every day, our parent mentor program serves in schools and classroom and witnesses firsthand the impact budget cuts have done to our children and students. In addition, we are working hard to build ladders of opportunity, the parent mentor to the paraprofessional
035career pipeline, and we demand more respect and job security for our seekers and our paraprofessionals. In the last couple weeks, we've asked our parents what cuts have they been happening at their schools. And what we've heard is school after school in all parts of the city, they tell us four, five, even seven seeks have been cut from their local school budgets. Schools are being forced to reduce the number of classrooms per grade level from three to two resulting in overcrowding classrooms. Significant cuts within um special education staff which makes it completely unrealistic to meet the needs of students with IEPs. Significant cuts within our school security maintenance and lunch um programs. Schools have discontinued their hot lunch programs. school. >> You have 30 seconds remaining. Please conclude. >> Safe passage program workers that have experienced
036significant reduction in hours. Some told that their um con positions, I'm sorry, will be completely eliminated. We have significant concerns about the impact proposed budget of 126 million savings from the classroom and we will have on our students. We demand transparency of the breakdown of that 126 million of savings uh and strongly oppose any cuts that may directly impact the quality of education. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Up next, we have speaker Baltasar Enriquez, speaker number six, who's here in person. Good evening everybody. Um, can you hear me? Okay. Uh, my name is Baltasa Enriquez. I'm the president of the Little Village Community Council. It's a pleasure being here today. Um, Little Village has been in the news a lot lately, especially what's going on in Little Village High School where children
037are being sexually abused, where CPS failed to protect a student at Farragate while she got raped. But we never got no no counselors. We never got anybody to come and speak to the children. And this is something that goes on in Little Village because they're Mexicans. Who cares? So, we've been fighting to get more funding for bilingual teachers. We because we have a lot of newcomers, asylum seekers. We've been asking for our cluster program to get more funding because our children with special needs are the most vulnerable. And we beg to ignore. They told us talk to your representatives. We talked to uh Miss Emma Losano and um we talked to our network, but nothing gets done. Everything, you know, gets shoved under the rug and we're still being ignored and this and then with
038the budget cuts, we're going to get more ignored. So, here we are again begging you guys to do something about it. And this been going on since I was a kid. He's been addressing this this issue since I was a kid and it's still not addressed. So, we're asking you guys to please Little Little Village is one of the neighborhood that produces more taxes than any other neighborhood, but yet we get crumbs. We don't get the services that we deserve. We always get ignored. So, I'm asking, >> you have 30 seconds to please conclude >> to do something about it. Bring us the tools. Bring us the resources so our kids could succeed. Our kids don't even know how to read. That's why we're asking for literacy teachers. Our kids are not at par with
039other neighborhoods. So again, I'm asking you to help us uh solve the problem in Little Village and again, our neighborhood is on fire and all we have is a bucket of water and that's a shame that we have a lot of Latino representative. We have people that have experience. >> Thank you for your comments. Please keep >> people keep ignoring ignoring us. Well, thank you so much for your time. Gracias. >> Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Hal Woods, speaker number seven, who's here in person. >> Good afternoon, uh, board president Harden, VI, Vice President Batista, and members of the board and Dr. King. I'm Hal Woods with Kids for Chicago and the parent of two CPS students. First, thank you, Dr. King. Even after painful cuts to custodians, crossing guards, and
040lunchroom staff, you've put forward a balanced budget that protects classrooms. That is no small feat with a starting gap of nearly threequarters of a billion dollars. What we continue to hear some want CPS to make the MEBF pension payment and to borrow to do it. Whether you are elected or appointed, many of you have said trust with CPS families is broken and must be rebuilt. Your own budget roundt showed that every single table that discussed MEBF oppose making the payment and more than threequarters oppose borrowing. Ignoring those voices does nothing to rebuild trust. It tells families you do not listen or you simply do not care. We've heard threats that if CPS doesn't pay the CPS that the city might withhold tiff surplus. Some of you call that politics. Families call it what it is,
041extortion. Everyone knows the city is going to declare a large tiff surplus to help balance its own budget and state law requires that CPS gets more than half of it. The idea that payment is the price of admission is fiction. We also need to be honest about the borrowing. The real reason the city wants CPS to borrow is to make the MEBF payment. The plan on the table is $200 million in short-term highinterest debt costing more than $300 million once fees and interest are added. That's the equivalent of $1,000 per student >> for 3,000 teachers. This new debt would also be shipped straight out the door to city hall while weakening CPS's financial footing. the risk of credit downgrade, higher borrowing costs on existing debt, and classrooms paying the price for years to come. If
042borrowing were really about contingency planning, you would wait until after Springfield's veto session and city's budget process, reassess, and then decide whether to amend the district's budget. Rushing to borrow right now is about one thing, making the MABF payment. Whether you plan to run for office again or you simply want to look your neighbors in the eye and say you did right by Chicago students, people remember where you stood on this budget. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Juan Rangel, speaker number eight, who's here in person. Good afternoon. I'm Juan Ranel, CEO of the Urban Center. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the proposed budget. Although it is not ideal, this is the most honest and realistic CPS budget since that proposed by former CEO Pedro Martinez. Dr.
043King should be commended for presenting a responsible budget without a damaging payday loan. Though we hope Dr. King won't suffer the same fate as Pedro. This hybrid board made up of members elected by the people and those handpicked by Mayor Brandon Johnson has an opportunity to stop punishing taxpayers and stop saddling future generations of students with crippling debt. This is especially important to me and my community as the plurality of CPS students are Latino. Let's be clear, any such Brandon bailout would be paid for by future cuts to Latino student classrooms. That's unacceptable. You could be the board that finally takes respons direct responsibility for representing the interests of families and kids as promised by the law that created this body and not have to worry about city hall politics. Now, CTU President Stacy Davis
044Gates likes to say that this budget is not a math problem, but rather a reflection of our values and a choice. It's actually all of the above. We can choose to ignore f working families who say their taxes are already too high and just continue to tax them to pet fund pet projects like the patronage rich sustainable schools program. Or we can choose to do the responsible thing, make tough decisions, live within our means, and show real progress. Perhaps then taxpayers would be willing to do more for CPS. Please have an honest conversation about your budget priorities, but don't cower to any bullying from special interests like CTU, who put themselves before children and the people of Chicago. Communities have had enough of what feels like a continual shakeddown of parents and taxpayers instead of
045demonstration of our long-term hopes for our kids. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker, Emily Ayala, speaker number nine, who's here in person. Hello, my name is Emily Agala. I'm a CPS parent and CPS alum. I have been here a few times already and I'm here again to ask to keep all of our options on the table, including the municipal fund, including the loan in order to close this $734 million gap. Um, if without these we'd be resorting to budget cuts. If anyone here is against these options, I want to hear your proposed solutions. A simple no without any alternatives is just a yes to the disastrous cuts. A no without alternatives or solutions is just wasting time arguing on with no clear path forward. Time is money and we're losing
046out on both. I want to use the remainder of my time to sit in silence in grief of what our children are going through. We just had a mom crying up here over a loss. Every second we can see is another 10 million lost to our inaction and our incessant arguing. You have 30 seconds remaining. Please conclude. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Nelson Guru, speaker number 11, who is here in person. President Harden, Vice President Bautista, and board members. My name is Nelson Jaru, chief public affairs officer at the Chicago Public Education Fund. The FY26 proposed budget takes a balanced, pragmatic approach to closing the district's deficit while protecting students in classrooms now and in the future. CPS trimmed more than 250 million from department budgets, which comes
047at a cost to schools and principles who already note operational challenges. But this budget avoids reopening the school budgets principles and local school councils built months ago. Reopening those budgets now or in the future would be severely disruptive. Critically, this budget also avoids new operational borrowing. Approving a budget that closes operational deficits with anticipated borrowing is extremely risky. This kind of borrowing is not guaranteed to be successful. And if it is not, mid-year cuts become the only option left. Moreover, the cost of borrowing is three-fold. First, the direct interest cost itself is equivalent to over 60 teacher positions a year. Second, the risk of a downgrade limits future refinancing opportunities, including those already assumed in this budget. Third, this would crowd out future needed capital investments, of which CPS has a backlog of more than
04814 billion. As such, it is no surprise that borrowing is hugely unpopular. >> You have 30 seconds remains parents, fewer than 10% of whom support it. This budget includes no revenue from unidentified sources or unreasonable assumptions. It protects stability for students, families, and educators. It does not jeopardize the district's long-term finances. Opportunities will arise for collaboration to secure the resources CPS needs. That collaboration starts with approving this budget, which ensures a strong and stable start for this year. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Our next speaker is Warren Wagner, speaker number 13, who's here in person. Can you guys hear me? Good afternoon. My name is Warren and I'm a teacher's assistant. In addition to my normal duties, giving support to students who need extra help in reading, keeping students safe at lunch
049and recess, covering classes, and more, at last year, I had the honor of advising our school's first ever GSA. Our GSA was a space where LGBTQ students and allies could support each other and just be themselves. We created art, did anti-bullying work, and started critical conversations in our school. For some of those students who don't have many safe spaces in their life, I was their trusted adult who they could rely on. So last month, when I was told I'd been laid off, my first thought was for my students. The trust, community, and safe spaces we had built were taken from them. Yesterday, those students who are trying to find their place in this world that's so often hostile to them started school without a crucial link in their support network. We can talk a big
050game about equity, but it's meaningless if we don't fund those commitments. Every summer, we nickel and dime our schools because districts with mainly black and brown students like CPS have never been given the resources needed to thrive. And today we face cuts to our seekas and our custodial staff, cuts to hot meals, and the possibility of midyear layoffs. The state of Illinois admits that to provide even an adequate education, they owe CPS almost $2 billion. Meanwhile, the Trump administration handed out over a hundred billion in tax cuts to billionaires just like that. But the Illinois legislature acts like there's nothing it can do to raise funding for the services we need. I ask the board today to reject that. Break the cycle of austerity. Stand up for our young people. In this political moment, we
051need to be bold. That means including the pension payment for support staff, keeping borrowing on the table, and fighting hard for funding. >> Our students and families are counting on it. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Our next and last speaker from the public participation list is Monica Kisel who's joining us virtually. Ple please press star six to unmute yourself. Press star six to unmute yourself. Monica, Monica Quisel, speaker number 15, please press star six to unmute yourself. Thank you. You can begin. >> Just a moment. Just a moment here. I'm stepping out of this. >> You can begin, please. >> Okay, there we go. Hello everyone. Um, my name is Monica Kosio. Can you all hear me? I just want to make sure. >> Yes, please proceed. >> Okay, wonderful. Okay. Um,
052going to bring this up. Um, so I am pro I proudly serve as a teacher in Chicago public schools. I've been teaching um for the last five plus years and I'm here today because I was laid off in June of uh 2024 with the explanation that it was for budgetary reasons. And while I understand that budgets are challenging, I want to make clear that I had seniority over other staff who were retained. Additionally, just a few days after my layoff, I would have reached a tenure status. Um, this raises serious concerns about whether CPS policies and contractual obligations regarding seniority and tenure were followed. And these budgetary restrictions cannot be used to sidestep the rights of educators who have committed their careers to CPS students. When decisions are made in this way that disregards seniority,
053it erodess fairness, undermines teacher morale, and most importantly disrupts um continuity for students. I respectively request that my case be reviewed, including whether proper proper seniority protections were applied and that an equitable remedy be considered. Um whether reinstatement um back pay another fair um resolution. Um, more broadly, I urge conclude. >> Yes. I I urge the district to ensure that budgetary layoffs are handled transparently and consistent consistently with state law and union agreements. I remain deeply committed to CPS students, families, and communities, and I hope to continue serving them as they have for years. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you for your comments, President Harden. We also have several elected officials who would like to address the board. Our first elected official is state rep. Anne Williams from the 11th district
054who's joining us virtually. Representative Williams, please um press star six to unmute. >> State Rep. Anna Williams, you can begin. >> Hi there. >> Great. Um, my name is Anne Williams and I am a state representative on Chicago's north side. I am here not as a representative of the Illinois General Assembly or the state of Illinois, but as a representative of my community who believes deeply in public education and has advocated for years for our neighborhood schools. During my tenure as state representative, I have fought along with many of the stakeholders in this room for education funding and we've made some important strides forward. However, I think we all know there's a long way to go and significant ongoing challenges remain. As I've said before, there are no easy answers, no quick fixes. I'm certainly
055not an expert on CPS finances. However, I followed the annual CPS budget discussions for many years, and I know cuts are never easy, but sometimes there is no choice. I know budgeting for CPS and otherwise is often a series of difficult decisions. I've had to make them over the years. I listened last week to the entirety of the budget presentation along with all your questions and insightful comments. And I want to commend Dr. King for proposing an equitable budget which I do believe prioritizes students and rejects what I feel is a risky borrowing strategy in favor of long-term stability and investment. I just haven't heard another responsible and viable option. It's clear though the CPS budget team worked diligently to turn over every seat cushion, find every penny to avoid classroom impacts, and importantly to
056maintain commitments to labor partners. That is not significant and it I'm sure was not easy. But this approach is not sustainable over time. That's why I've said to many of you directly and otherwise that the collaborative work must begin to increase education funding across the board. And we must begin to address and at least talk about the structural inequities which have negatively impacted CPS for decades. These are difficult and complicated conversations which will need to take place in partnership with leaders statewide whose expertise on school funding far exceeds mine. Ultimately, you, the elected and appointed members of the Chicago school board, are the ones making the hard calls and difficult choices here. I am all for fierce advocacy and standing strong for what you believe in. But playing the blame game via media talking points
057and tweets is not going to move us forward. and it's not going to get us where we need to go. However, adopting a stable, responsible, and cohesive funding plan is a key first step toward having the critical larger conversations we really need to have regarding the future of public education in Illinois. It's beyond time. I want to thank all of you for your commitment to the successes and the sustainability of Chicago public schools. Thanks for having me today. Thank you for your comments. The next elected official is Alderwoman Nicole Lee from the 11th ward who's joining us virtually. Please enter star six to unmute yourself. >> Good afternoon. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Thank you. Uh good afternoon, President Harden, CEO King, and esteemed members of the Chicago Board of Education. Uh, I'm
058Alderman Lee from the 11th Ward. Um, I'm here today because I wanted to be recorded as supporting the CPS proposed budget, which while not perfect, is a responsible approach. And importantly, the CEO and her team have avoided cuts that would directly impact our students and classrooms. I also believe strongly that CPS must avoid new operational borrowing, including to cover the cost of the map payment. While I understand that this will require the city of Chicago to identify revenue to cover the cost related to the non-teer pensions, I believe that is the appropriate choice. Finally, I urge CPS to ensure that SEIU janitors who were laid off uh be given the opportunity to be rehired at the same rate of pay that they were already making. It's really just not fair to fire our workers and
059make them reapply for the same job at a lower pay. I appreciate the comments of State Representative Anne Williams as well. Um, and look forward to working together with all lawmakers and board members to ensure that as we move forward, we have fair and equitable funding for education for all of the excuse me, for all of the city of Chicago as well as the state of Illinois. Um, and we as we work towards disentangling the finances of the city uh with the Chicago Board of Education as such uh as your elected board members when you're fully elected should have the ability to raise revenue on your own. Thank you very much for your time today. >> Thank you for your comments. The next elected official is Alderman Nick Spas from the 38th Ward who's joining
060us virtually. Please enter star six to unmute yourself. >> Okay, I believe I'm unmuted. Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. Please proceed. >> Okay. Well, thank you very much. Uh, first of all, thank you, uh, President Harden, CEO, uh, Dr. King and board members for giving me this opportunity to speak. Um, I didn't prepare any specific speech or anything such as that, but I just wanted to make a few comments. Um, and just let you know a little bit about myself. Once again, I'm Alderman Nicholas Spado, alderman of the 38th Ward. That's on the far northwest side. I'm a former public school student and also a parent and a six-year LSC member. Uh, four as a parent and two as a community rep. Uh, been an alderman for 14 years now. So, I
061wanted to just say thank you all for what I feel you're doing the right thing right now. Uh, I know there's no easy answer here. Uh, there's uh there's only a wrong answer and that wrong answer, I believe, is taking out a highinterest loan. Um, so right now, uh, we're keeping the schools open. Unfortunately, we all have to feel a little bit of pain. Uh, but we need to keep the schools open, keep our kids in school. Um, so, uh, just wanted to say I commend you guys for coming up with a with a budget for now to hold us over hopefully for the rest of the year rather than a couple months. And, uh, Dr. King, I just want to say to you personally, I had you all wrong. um I was 100% wrong
062about you and you've been a a pleasant surprise to me. So, uh keep doing what you're doing. Uh God bless you. God bless everybody on that board and hopefully uh we find a bunch of money and resolve all this stuff. But thank you very much everybody. >> Thank you for your comments, President Harden. This concludes public participation. >> Board members, are there questions or comments related to public participation? I do want to recognize Chief Mayfield uh just so they can offer some clarity on some of the comments that have been made. >> Thank you, board president. Um this is mainly for the families and some of the comments that I heard earlier about the hot lunches and I just want to clarify um I've actually been, you know, at a few schools for the first
063two days. Again, we're on day two of back to school. So happy to see all the the young faces and the kids returning to school. also had the opportunity to to touch base with our food service workers who work extremely hard every single day to make sure that nutritious meals are provided. And let me provide a point of clarification. Hot nutritious meals. So hot nutritious meals aren't going away. We still have hot lunches. And as a matter of fact, on day two, we have served hot lunches again. Now, we had a handful of schools that had equipment issues based upon recent flooding. uh and we address those with cold lunches, but the team is ready to go and happy to serve hot lunches every single day. So, I just want to reiterate that to parents
064and give them some reassurance that those hot meals are are still uh on our plate. So, thank you so much. Thank you, board president. >> Thank you, Chief Mayfield. Uh there's one other point of clarification I want to make that has come up just several times. I think it's important just for both the board and the community to understand, you know, our perspective as we look at these very weighty decisions. It's been stated, you know, over and over again that the city intends to balance its budget based on tiff surplus. And so I too had this assumption and was hopeful that our projections could rely on that based on the city's $1 billion projected budget deficit. Upon investigation though u it is my understanding that the city has moved away from using tiff surplus as
065a means of balancing his budget. It engaged Ernest Young uh early this year to identify efficiencies and come up with strategies that allow them to be more efficient and move towards a means of not relying on short-term strategies such as tiff surplus to balance the budget. So, I just think it's important to articulate what our understanding is or at least what my understanding is and talking directly with the city as we make these assumptions. They have to be based on credible information. And so, I thought it important that I reach out to the city directly to either confirm or have that premise rejected. Uh, and it turns out that that is not a strong basis for making the assumptions uh that were that were put forward. So, I just wanted to use this moment to
066provide that that clarity as it's uh come directly from uh the city of Chicago. Board member Rivas. Uh thank you, President Harden. Uh I just wanted to also provide a clarification um related to comments um about our Santiago uh school uh which is not in my district, but it is in the Humble Park community, which is near and dear to my heart. Um and uh obviously we had lots and lots of um uh back and forth and uh so many of our families here and uh I'm really proud uh to have voted to ensure that we kept uh those schools open. Uh I abstained from a vote related to the viability language. Um but the following vote related to that change I voted yes and as a board we stand by our decisions. uh no
067matter the result uh we have to stand by uh the choices we have made as a collective. Um so I'm very proud to stand with the acetto families with our Santiago families and I hope we have a resolution uh very soon to ensure that uh we can either purchase that building or ensure that we have that building accessible to them for years to come because we do not want those families to have to deal with another school year of uncertainty. Thank you. member Blaze. >> Um, so I just want to acknowledge Vicky Willis who was here and talked about her son and the challenges that he experienced due to cuts and we we have to be conscious of this. We are we feel the cuts just like um I feel the cuts tremendously when we're
068saying we're not making cuts to classrooms and we're patting ourselves on the back. It's not true. We are missing seekas. We are missing safe passage workers. Um things are changing and they're getting worse. We had more money during COVID and now it's gone. And here we are circling the drain again. instead of understanding that when we had more money, kids were better off, the the grades were going up, people were safer, the first thing to go is a restorative justice coach who teaches kids how to deescalate and to think through their problems. So, no matter where this budget goes, I'm I'm not going to feel great about it. I also want to just underscore I keep hearing payday loan, payday loan, pay does anybody know what a payday loan is? They're at 20 30% interest.
069From the budget department themselves, they said the range is from 5 to 7%. It's not a payday loan and nobody wants to take it. Trust and believe. If we thought that this board could get to the twothirds vote and take a loan in order to stop midyear cuts, we wouldn't have to put it in the budget right now. This board has been very clear that we can't get to that number in order to stop the cascade in the classrooms. So that's why we have to put it in right now. But anyway, um, thank you so much and we are taking all of this in and we I appreciate everybody for coming out to make comments. Thank you, >> member Paul. >> Good afternoon everybody. Thank you so much for uh your public comments. I want
070to try to reframe this issue in a certain way and that is talking a little about what is responsibility. Uh I am not a rich woman. I raised my family. I was the main bread winner as a CPS teacher. I was able to purchase a house. I was able to do a large amount to help my children go through college etc. And I didn't do it by being irresponsible. I am not an advocate of irresponsibility. However, I do think that it is irresponsible fundamentally to make assumptions about future income, about money that we will or will not get in record number quantities. I think we're talking about responsibility and people keep talking about it in terms of borrowing, but I think we have to look at what I think are kind of shaky underpinnings to
071this budget based on the assumption of how much tiff money we will or will not get. And that's what really concerns me because if we have this assumption for a record tip surplus and it doesn't come through, who is going to suffer? Our children in the schools are going to suffer. Our families are going to suffer. Our educators, our paraprofessionals, those are the people who are going to suffer. So I think we have to look at responsibility and say there isn't one simple definition of responsibility. And I would ask that the uh CEO and the budget team keep these considerations in mind. >> Member Zachor. Um, I also want to thank everyone for coming out to speak today and especially the parents. Um, what I'm hearing from you so strongly is do not cut our
072schools. You are already cutting them too much. Um, that's the same thing that I'm hearing from parents that I'm talking to in my community. Honestly, I've been asking them point blank, if we have to choose between taking out a loan and making cuts in our school, what do you think we should do? And every single parent I talk to says, "Take out the loan because they don't want our schools to be cut." Um, I was a classroom teacher for many years and um, a couple of times I had the absolute privilege of teaching uh, electives to cluster students and I know that I could not have done that without the SEC in my classroom. So parents who are addressing the needs of our special needs students um know that we really hear you and and
073understand how important that is. Um I also want to just take a moment to address what's a kind of an ongoing u misrepresentation of what was stated in the community meetings about the MEABF payments. So um the information that was pre presented to us actually said that of the 25% of tables who spoke about the MEABF payment somebody at each table was opposed not the entire table. So let's not misrepresent how many people out there are honestly even thinking about it because no one that I've been talking to has that on their mind. They mainly want to see us keep cuts away from the schools and they do want to see us support our lowest paid mostly black and brown female workers. Thank you, >> Member Brown. Thank you, President Harden. Um, I want to
074just what I'm interested in is is um since we inherited this crisis from this, you know, this moment forth, I would like us to be solutionbearing. Um, so I I have a question. And it's rhetorical, but uh thank you, President Harden, first for for kind of dispelling that notion that there's some type of guarantee that there's going to be this huge tiff surplus and that um the city of Chicago is going to balance this budget based on that. Our commitment before I get to my question is to no more cuts in the classroom because when cuts generally happen they hit the south and the west sides first and historically in this institution that you know we call them tough decisions but mo usually the people making those tough decisions aren't the ones who are impacted
075with those tough decisions. We have to inherit those tough decisions. And my question is, what happens if city council members spend most of their tiffs dramatically reducing the tiff surplus? And I think any assumption that that will not happen is is politically naive. I also want to say for though because we do not want to take out a loan but we want the option to do it if state funds don't come through. Now I say that as someone who is actively working to build state support. So I want to report to the public that we've we have another meeting this Thursday with school board members across the state of Illinois. Currently on board is Proviso, Highland Park, Berwin 100, Berwin 98, Oak Park, Skoi District 59, East St. Louis, and there's more. Because my question
076is, well, if what are you doing about it instead of just sound bites and taking shots at teachers and taking shots at the mayor when those who have institutional memory remember when the Illinois Network of Charter Schools were actively going in black communities advocating for school closings? Where was all the outrage then? Remember school operators who had to drop their their organization because of the scandals? Remember when there was an organization called the Renaissance Fund and his job was going around advocating to black parents while their schools were closed. The brother's name was Philip Hampton. I was one of the people that was in a group and we chased him from meeting to meeting until they went underground and reemerged as kids first. You need to beware the messenger because in Chicago everything is political.
077People say we want to make it about children. Well, I went to the I when I was in kindergarten and first grade, I went to school in Willis Wagons. It's always political. Everything is political. So I we want to make sure that there will be no cuts because the same people that are feing outrage right now, I didn't see you when schools were being closed in Austin, when Douglas was being gutted from 600 students down to 34. I didn't see you on the southides when schools were being shut down left and right. Cuz as long as I remember, hey, excuse my slang, a man teacher closed the school. And while you're heralding the person who just left this office, he left us with a $734 million budget deficit that he was never honest about and
078no state strategy to address it. >> Member Brown, can you >> Yes, sir. Give me a second. So if I understand things correctly, we want the option to ensure there are no cuts. I agree with with board members the core, but people I talked to say no cuts. They're not even thinking about MEABF payment. They're not even thinking about it. They say no cuts cuz that's what people feel. And so excuse my intensity, brother. I'm I'mma clo I'm I'm going close my statement but I what I'm sharing is that I have institutional memory cuz I was a person often locked out of these meetings. The parents I rolled with were locked out of these meetings. It's not it's not an intellectual piece. What is your solution if you are not in favor of it? Offer
079it. Present it. Then that's all I got. >> Thank you member Kuster. Yeah, I I you know, I appreciate so many of the board members using this opportunity as their their platform when we're supposed to be commenting on our speakers, but you know, one of the issues that I'm having is that we talk about solutions and we have a budget that is presented to us that is balanced. We have a budget that is presented to us that doesn't have more cuts in it. And what is irresponsible and what is not solutionoriented is the idea that their your solution is to balance the budget, rework the budget on the backs of our students to help the city. We are a governing body of our own entity. We are responsible only for us. We are not responsible
080for what the city budget is. It's unfortunate that they're in this position, too. Lots of places across the country are in this position where we're having to find money and make cuts and do different things. But this is our job right here. And balancing the budget on the backs of our children so that we can help out our mayor. That's not responsibility. It's not solutionoriented. We have a budget that has been presented to us that is balanced, that is for children, and that protects the classroom from further cuts. Member Wazano. >> Thank you, President Harden. I believe that none of us on this board really want to make any cuts in the classroom or to the students. I really believe in all of the board members. Their hearts are there. But, you know, I know
081that this budget has a deficit, but I also know that we have a responsibility to our children. We have a responsibility to the city because also the city is also balancing their budget and we're and it's not separate because we're talking about you know balancing a budget of health care. We're talking about balance all of this affects our children as well and it affects the parents of the children and our families. So we have to take this all into consideration. I am just concerned too that you know special ed students or you know bilingual students that are already suffering and have never really gotten their fair share will be the ones that will uh that at the end of the day will uh be the brunt of the of this cuts if they are made.
082So again, I'm there was a time where I was a single mom and it was difficult to balance the budget and there was a time that you know I had to refinance the house but I did that because I had children and I had a responsibility. So to think that borrowing is a sin it's not. We borrowing is so that you can pay later and they're re painting the interest rate like if it's going to be so much and for the future generations but we're responsible for the kids that are in school right now. So we have to make sure that they have what they need and then we know that we can pay off a loan over a long time maybe 15 years. and we are fighting for state funding and and we're not
083going to stop fighting for it. And I have confidence we're going to get it and once we get it, we can pay back the loan and then we don't have a loan. So the fact that it's either one or the other, it's not a serious conversation. So I want everybody to remember when you have to take out a loan, all of us have done it and we've paid it off. And sometimes there's higher interest and less interest, but we figure it out. And this is an intelligent board that we can figure it out. So, thank you. >> Member Rosenfield. >> Dr. King, if I could, I would award you with the profile and courage award because I know this isn't easy and I really, really appreciate your values. Budgets reflect values and we must prove
084we operate in the best interest of our families. This taking out a loan and paying the MEABA payment helps the mayor politically and it harms our students now and in the future. CTU historically at one time called the payments quote a shameful scheme to balance the budget of the city on the backs of CPS students. So that happened historically as well. Um we have a budget here that protects our schools. It's a responsible budget. It is not mortgaging mortgaging our future because although we have to take care of who's in the classroom right now, we also it is our fiduciary responsibility to take care of this district into the future. And perhaps most importantly, there is a city tiff policy. This isn't a personal decision. There is a city tiff policy that requires a certain
085amount of tiff to come to the board. It is not at the mayor's whim. It's not if we don't do that, then this happens. There's a tiff act under state law. Any withholding of any tiff funds would be in violation of state law. So that's a ridiculous notion that because we did this, we're not going to get this. It doesn't work like that. We all are in this for the 325,000 kids. Um, somebody I think it was Hal that said, "The idea the payment is the price of admission is ridiculous." >> Member Lopez. >> Thank you, board president. Um, I also do want to thank all the families uh especially those that sometimes need, you know, unfortunately have to take time off from work to be here um to make sure that their voices are
086heard and I appreciate you. CEO. I also want to share that we are in crossroads. Um when we look at history and we look back will be are they going to remember us as protecting public education or as paving the way for those that seek to dismantle it? Budgets are moral documents. They reveal who we believe is worthy of investment now and in the future. And right now, too many families are worried. I've spent the last couple of weeks actively meeting with different groups in my district, also with principles, with educators. They're worried. And I also know that public education is crucial for our city, for our state, for our country. I know this because I lived it as a first generation daughter of immigrants. I saw teachers and community leaders lift me up when
087resources were scarce. When I tell my story at schools and children say with pride just like me, that connection is the promise of public education. An inheritance pass down not in wealth but in opportunity. For many of us, our parents coming to this country was a ticket to opportunity. The education that we received, the public education receive is the inheritance we receive from our families. So we need to make sure we're protecting that. So every morning, especially yesterday, as I saw parents dropping off their little ones at school, giving them the blessing laion, you know, placing the trust in us in the school system. And that trust is important. We cannot betray that trust, especially in my community when there's been individuals that have already broken that trust by mismanagement or funds and using Latino
088communities for their own advantage. We can no longer do that. So, we got to continue building that trust. So, we're not here by accident. Our communities put their faith in us. Our vote later this month, it's more than just balancing numbers. It's about affirming whether every child, regardless of zip code or status, deserves great education. So, let's choose to invest in our children, in our schools, and in the future of public education. Thank you. >> This concludes our public participation segment. We now proceed with the fiscical year 26 budget presentation. Mr. Sakowski, the floor is yours. Good afternoon. Thank you, President Harden, and good afternoon to the members of the board. My presentation will be about the FY26 CPS budget. Want to start with highlighting that this is a budget that protects our schools. Despite
089the challenges posed by our persistent revenue shortfalls, many of which have been mentioned here today, our growing costs, and a deficit of $734 million, we have outlined a balanced $10.25 billion FY26 budget that will protect the progress made by our students. This budget fully protects the level of school funding from the previous year. It funds all of our contractual commitments to our labor partners. It delivers on the promise to stabilize school budgets, eliminating the risk of cuts to classrooms both now and later into the school year. It also includes only borrowing that provides current or future year savings to the district and is required for necessary capital investments. And this budget also allows for CPS to reimburse the city of Chicago for MEABF with new state or local revenues, unlike the FY2025 budget that did
090not allow for this possibility. We felt a lot of urgency here today and I still feel that in this room and I want to talk a bit about meeting the urgency of the moment. First, we must protect our schools. This budget reflects many difficult decisions that were made in order to protect school funding now and into the future. Our schools are already underfunded. Putting schools at risk for cuts now or into the future sets us back even further and jeopardizes the over1 billion dollars in funding gains that we've made for our schools since 2019. We also need to provide families with certainty. Recent budgets have bolstered the confidence in the district and our financial future. We must maintain the confidence of our communities to build this progress. Last, we must refuse to go back. We've
091lived through years of forced austerity, and this budget takes necessary steps to protect our schools from reliving this past. Our budget proposal is also based on realistic expectations. First, on state funding, state lawmakers have expressed interest in partnering with CPS on long-term reform to address the underfunding issues, especially as we have presented a serious serious balanced FY26 budget proposal. We heard from Representative Anne Williams earlier in this meeting, echoing those sentiments. However, state lawmakers have not committed to additional funding this year, and we cannot budget on unrealistic expectations. We've made this mistake in the past, and it's caused mid-year cuts, mass layoffs, furlow days, and billions in crisis borrowing that burden CPS today. On city funding, our expectation of additional TIFF funding is reasonable. TIFF surpluses have increased steadily in recent years, and TIF balances
092remain one of the few viable revenue options for a city facing a billion dollar deficit. Withholding this funding from CPS would contradict established city policy. It violates state law and would hurt CPS students. Lastly, we cannot risk our future. Taking out debt when it is not absolutely necessary will send the district into a downward spiral that will have a real impact on our schools. Borrowing money today at the expense of tomorrow has always been shortsighted. We did this a decade ago and when the state was actively working on funding solutions for when the state was actively working on funding solutions for CPS and it still resulted in downgrades, cuts, furlows and borrowing. No such proposals are under consideration today. Our $9 billion debt burden is already a drain on limited district resources. Taking on more
093debt when it is not needed compounds the financial pressures of the future and steals resources from our classrooms. Lastly, more borrowing may not even be possible. Banking on a risky strategies subjects our schools to the possibility of mid-year cuts. want to come back to where we entered this conversation a few months back and talk about how we closed our 734 million deficit. Over the spring, we identified $165 million in deficit reducing actions primarily related to departmental budget reductions. Once we completed these actions, we still needed to identify $569 million of additional strategies to balance this year's budget. The $165 million included the following. First, $146 million in department budget reductions, including a $ 48 million or 15% cut to central office spending and a $96 million or 6% cut to overall citywide spending. It also
094included $34 million in school-based grant strategies and programming adjustments, $12 million in savings from a from a more targeted process for fall enrollment adjustments implemented in fiscal year 2025, and $23 million in projected savings from the district's $40 million fund to stay within contractual class size limits. Because we preserved our teacher staffing levels, we project that the full $40 million will not be needed for schools with unique situations leading to oversized classrooms. During this phase of budget adjustments, we also identified two new liabilities adding to the district's deficit. first $30 million that we have set aside in a reserve for new special education positions as new student needs are identified throughout the year and $20 million required in a reserve for district-wide IT projects, some of which will save the district substantial money over time.
095At this point, we moved to the community engagement process. And in July, under the leadership of our interim CEO, Superintendent Dr. King, we spearheaded an extensive community engagement campaign to ensure that budget decisions were being driven by those who are most impacted by them. During the summer, we hosted information briefings, inerson and virtual feedback sessions, and an online survey where parents, students, educators, labor leaders, and community partners could grow their understanding of the district's financial situation and offer solutions on how best to reduce the deficit. Several themes emerged from these community conversations. By and large, CPS stakeholders said they wanted to district the district to do a few things. First, keep cuts as far away from classrooms as possible and avoid cuts that would diminish the overall student experience. Second, work collaboratively with state and
096local partners to identify new streams of revenue to support schools. Third, ensure more equitable distribution of resources across schools. Fourth, resist any further borrowing that would drive up the district's existing debt. Fifth, forego the city the reimbursement to the city of Chicago for non-teer pensions. And six, continue to engage the community around budget decisions. Where we landed in our budgetary solutions to protect our schools. Following these solutions and faced with the remaining deficit of $569 million, we've reviewed every line of our budget to develop a plan that protects our schools and our students. Strategies we're proposing to balance this budget include $126 million in additional savings away from the classroom, $149 million in additional available revenues, $29 million through accelerating debt refunding savings, $90 million in one-time funding sources, and 175 million from defining that
097the reimbursement to the city for MEABF is contingent upon additional state revenue, additional TIFF surplus revenue, or other local resources above budget assumptions. First, on the additional cuts away from the classroom, in addition to the $146 million that was already cut from centrally managed spending in the initial round of budget adjustments, we identified $126 million in further savings in late July and early August as outlined here. first $50 million in savings from additional reductions to central office personnel, streamlining business operations, data teams, and professional development cost, and transferring some functions from the central office level to the network level to provide more direct support to schools. $29 million in savings from repurposing existing state and federal grant dollars to cover existing costs. $10 million in savings from a hiring freeze for central office staff with
098the district only filling vacancies that are missionritical or revenue related. $10 million less for incubation costs for trans transitioning five Acero campuses to become CPS managed schools as recent estimates have reduced this liability from $30 million to $20 million. $7 million in savings from delaying some centrally funded IT projects. $6 million in administrative reductions to departments and central programs that were substantially expanded during the CO 19 pandemic. $5 million in savings from eliminating food and travel budgets for central staff. 4 million in savings from a negotiated increase in employee healthcare contributions for staff making over $90,000. 3 million in savings from reducing our marketing budget. And lastly, $2 million in savings from reducing the budget for non-union employee raises. Our next action was on additional available revenues. And after receiving favorable information from the state
099and reviewing reviewing all of our possible revenue options, we've identified $149 million in additional revenue to support gap closing. First, we're applying the $45 million from evidence-based funding above our initial projections. On August 1st, the state released their data for FY26 for all districts, which showed that we returned to tier 1, the tier of schools furthest from funding adequacy in the state's formula. This gave us an additional $76 million in new funding for FY26, which represents an increase of $45 million above our previous projections. Second, we applied $25 million in projected grant carryover, and we project to have this remaining federal grant carryover available from FY25 to apply to FY26 expenses. Lastly, we increased our FY26 TIFF revenue assumption by $79 million. We had initially assumed that the city would once again supply $300 million
100in TIFF surplus revenue. At this point, we have increased our assumption by an additional $79 million to match the amount that the district received in FY 2025. Next, we are uh identifying $29 million through accelerating debt refunding savings. We are planning to issue $1.8 billion in new debt in fiscal year 26 to refund our existing debt and provide future savings for the district. This is a process that we do annually to take advantage of any opportunities for savings in the debt market. And the opportunity this year is higher as many of the bonds that we issued at high interest rates in the mid2010s are now callable and available to be refinanced at lower rates. The initial deficit of 734 million included the assumption of 100 million in savings with additional savings targeted for future years.
101Based on our current deficit, we'll be accelerating $29 million of this savings initially targeted for FY27 to help close this year's budget gap. We've also identified $90 million in one-time funding sources, and we are leveraging these sources to avoid cuts, to avoid furlow days, and to protect our school funding. First, we're repurposing $65 million from our debt service stabilization fund. This is a short-term strategy to help avoid cuts to schools or borrowing and will use up to 65 million in onetime resources from the account balance of this fund to close this year's budget gap. This fund was established as a reserve to assist with interim fiscal year debt service expenses and temporary liquidity issues. It has previously been fully depleted and used to assist with operating expenses and due to recent investment returns, it has
102grown enough to allow us for this single use. Second, we'll be leveraging $25 million in existing philanthropic funding and continuing our approach to examine every dollar spent and received to determine options to keep cuts away from our schools. We're leveraging a major philanthropic donation that the district received in 2023. 25 million will help close the FY26 budget deficit. Lastly, this budget defines that the MEABF pen pension contribution will reimbursement will be contingent on adequate funding. The FY26 budget defines that us reimbursing the city of Chicago for the MEABF expense is contingent upon us receiving additional FY2026 state revenue, additional FY26 TIFF surplus revenue from the city or other local resources beyond budgeted assumptions. This budget does allow us to make this payment, but it does require us to find the resources to do so. Without
103a dedicated revenue source for this cost, and given the financial challenges facing the district, we cannot make this reimbursement absent additional revenue without a short or long-term impact to our schools. I want to talk about how this budget fulfills our labor commitments as well and the strategies taken to balance the FY26 budget ensure that CPS is able to meet all of our commitments to wages, staffing, and programming included in the district's labor contracts. On top of negotiated wage increases for our teachers, support staff, and administrators, this budget proudly commits to funding for new sustainable community schools, new dual language and world language programs, athletic programs, and additional librarians, tech coordinators, case managers, bilingual coordinators, and other important investments. I'm sorry. The deck is um has to be updated. The incorrect deck was being shared. We
104are switching that out now. Thank you. I believe we're on slide 17. Thank you. Um, so want to just note that there's nothing materially um different in terms of the numbers or the approach in in this deck. I believe there were just some minor updates made last minute. Um, some language here. Uh, so fulfilling our labor commitments. I want to highlight that this budget also avoids furlow days as a saving strategy. reserving staff wage gains and protecting the important work happening across the district. I want to discuss how this budget counts on counts on realistic revenues in the form of tiff surplus funds. CPS has limited options to raise revenue and relies on a few key consistent revenue sources to continue our progress towards financial health and continued investment in our schools. While property taxes
105and state funding continue to grow and remain reliable sources of revenue for CPS, so does the amount of revenue diverted to TIFFs TIFF accounts that can be surplused. TIFF revenues have grown by 266% since 2014 and balances now exceed $3 billion. There are two charts on this slide. The first shows the annual amount of property taxes collected in TIFF accounts. We notice in 2024 based on recently published data that we've seen a record high $1.25 billion that would otherwise be available to taxing bodies be collected by TIFF accounts. And on the right we see the fund balances that have grown to almost $3.2 billion um in our most recent 2024 data. I also want to highlight that there is a city tiff policy and in addition to the rapid growth of tiff collections and tiff
106surplus distributions. The distributions are governed both by state law under the tiff act and by city policy through a 2013 executive order and an OBM policy adopted in 2019 and revised in 2025. What this policy requires is the city to regularly surplus unallocated amounts from TIF districts that meet the following qualifications. Districts that are set to expire at the end of the following fiscal year. Downtown or financial district tiffs which represent a majority of the collections of TIFF funding. Districts containing industrial corridors. Districts that are not created for a specific project or otherwise categorized as a neighborhood tiff. These unallocated funds in these tiff districts are surplused according to the following formula. All funds in expiring tiffs after the closeout day date. The full balance of downtown tiffs. And then for all other tiffs, the
107city uses a tiered structure that surpluses 100% of available funds over $2.5 million, 75% of available funds between 1.5 and 2.5 million, 25% of available funds between 750,000 and 1.5 million. and none of the available funds under 750,000. There is also a state law regarding uh tiffs called the tiff act. And beyond the city policy, the tiff act under state law requires that monies not required, pledged, earmarked, or otherwise designated for payment shall be calculated annually and deemed to be be surplus funds. Once a surplus is declared, the law guarantees that the funds be distributed in proportion to the percentage of property taxes collected by taxing agencies with about 52% going to CPS and about 23% going to the city. This means that if the city uses TIFF surplus to close its billion dollar budget
108gap, CPS will automatically receive more than double that amount. I want to spend a minute talking about MEABF as well. The MEABF was established in 1921 to provide retirement benefits to qualified employees of the city of Chicago and non-eing CPS employees. Illinois law obligates the city, not CPS, to cover MEABF funding obligations. Historically, Illinois statute required the city to contribute amounts that were substantially less than the actuarial determined amounts that would have kept the funding funded ratio in the fund from declining. And for nearly 100 years, the city did not request funding from CPS and CPS CPS did not pay the city for their obligation. Beginning in 2020, the city requested that CPS reimburse the city for a portion of their cost with the commitment of additional TIFF surplus funding to help cover these costs.
109This additional funding did not always cover the cost, but during these times, CPS had available federal relief funding and made made payments to the city totaling $60 million in fiscal year 2020, followed by $100 million in 2021, 175 in each of 22 and 23. CPS did not reimburse the city in 2024. State law is clear that the obligation for MEABF resides with the city and that the obligation to the fund must be met by the city. The city hasn't authorized property tax levy to raise funds to make this payment to the MEBF pension fund. And despite budgetary pressures and requests for increased funding from CPS since 2020, city has not increased this levy to help cover costs and CPS does not have the same authority to raise funding for this. Hence the need for cuts
110or additional resources to be able to make this payment. In the spirit of partnership with the city, CPS would support a change in state law as long as CPS was given the authorities similar to the city to raise revenues for this obligation. With that, I want to turn it over to our CFO Mira um to handle this portion of the presentation. >> Thank you so much, Mike. And good afternoon, board members. As C as Mike mentioned, CPS had thought, including adding to the district 9 billion debt burden as a strategy to close the fiscal year 26 g. A market for additional debt for budgetary relief may not exist as the district is already issuing 2.4 billion in new long-term debt this year, including 1.8 8 million to refinance prior debt and um provide savings of
111about 129 million to reduce the district overall debt service costs and 600 million in new debt for capital projects and to reimburse the district for capital expenditures already incurred. If CPS planned to borrow for budgetary relief but could not execute on the transaction, schools could be forced to make mid-year cost. Most importantly, borrowing for operation expenses would send the district into downward spiral of credit downgrades, higher interest rates, and steeper costs to staff program and services in the future. When CPS engaged in this type of borrowing between 2016 and 2018, the district received 40 34 credit rating downgrades between Moody's S&P and fish from a double A rating to junk. CPS is now paying nearly nearly 200 million per year for this crisis debt. If CPSF has access to this funding today, we could hire
112at least 2,000 additional teachers. So this graph uh a little busy, but g give you a sense on for what happened started in 2016 and how our credit rating is starting going down. And we have done a lot of progress. We received 34 downgrades. We only have gotten back 14 downgrades. And even though in 2015 we uh we were investment grade and you can see the dot dotted lines in the graph, we're still below investment grade. So borrowing for operation expenses likely to trigger a rating downgrade. Why? According to standard and poor report on April 17, 2025, quote, we would we could consider a negative rating action within the one-year outlook period if the board fails to implement sufficient structural budget balancing measures in its fiscal year 2026 budget and pushes out significant budget imbalancing
113to out years resulting in recurrence of sizable operating deficits and materially ally weakened reserve and liquidity positions that are not longer com commensurate with the current rate. Also this week um five days ago the um uh S&P spoke to Bloomber and issu and Bloomberg issue an article called Chicago school seeks one billion of short-term debt scash gone and our credit analyst was interviewed quote CPS structural stability appears to be on a downward trajectory as such any additional one-time solutions such as short-term loans with would be viewed as temporary fixes that are unlikely to support long-term credit quality. So cost cost of the downgrade. Based upon conversation with CPS's advisors and underwriting firms familiar with CPS's debt portfolio, we expect such a downgrade would result in an increase in borrowing cost of at least 25 basis
114points per year on every dollar borrowed in 2025 and into the future. CPS is below investment grade and the impact could drive our rating even lower. This will impact the 1.8 billion refinancing transaction necessary to produce 129 million in savings that is already included in the 2026 budget. The 650 million transaction plan for this fall for capital funds. the potential b uh borrowing related to the MEAVF payment and all future general obligation transactions. Refinancing savings declines an estimated 1.2 million for every.1% increase on CPS cost borrowing. Assuming a 25.25% increase in borrowing cost, the impact will be we will lose the 30 million in uh we will have $30 million lower in the refinancing savings adding to our 2026 deficit. We will lose 13 million in fewer dollars available for capital in 2026. the need
115to borrow these amounts in addition to the MEAVA contribution to overcome the 2026 deficit and additional amounts borrow for capital capitalized interest to avoid future additions to the 2026 deficit resulting from a larger borrowing to co to cover operating costs. So this chart gives you kind of a visual of what we're looking for. If we have to do a 200 million borrowing for about 15 years, it will generate annual um interest increases by 12 to 46 million. And in 15 years, the total cost of the 200 million will be 325 24 million. That's about 1,240 teachers over um a 15-year period because we will lose now we have 30 million that the that the financing have open in the deficit. We'll have to refinance about 43 additional millions to get back into being in balance
116and to make sure that we recover the 13 million that we lost um in the capital um funds will generate in about in a in an average 11.5 years about $6 million in in annual interest and then the total cost of that loan will be 70 million at the end of the term. So that means that for a 243 million we will be looking at the end of these loans at about 394 million. So why do we expect that the risk the risk can be even much higher? C CPS's market penalty for not being triple AAA which is the highest rating issuer in recent month have been approximately 145 points to 160 basis point and meas as measured by evaluating the price investor paid to buy to sell from each other. CPS saw market penalties
117in 2015 and 2018 that were two to three times this amount. CBS is now paying nearly 200 million per year for this crisis debt. Even with a half decade of every strong financial performance, CPS struggle with market credibility keeping the legacy of financing for operating expenses a decade ago. The penalty charged by investor could be much higher. So CPS is already facing large deficits in 2027 and beyond. And what we're looking into doing is the scoop and toss effectively borrow money today instead of making the December 2025 interest payment shifting repayments obligation off to the future with the paying of additional high cost interest due to those uh due in those years. As I mentioned, the total impact of the proposed 200 million in financing today creates 400 million million of additional budget gap to
118overcome in future years. CPS on an annual basis borrow between six and 600 uh $50 million for capital. So that will be creating a compounding impact to avoid a loss of purchasing power. Future capital borrow will suffer at 25% basic points increase in borrowing cost increasing interest cost by an estimated 37 million for each new financing. This increment accumulates with each year CPS issues new capital bonds. Mike, I'm going to turn it over to you. Thank you. So, this proposed FY26 budget makes pro long-term progress on our deficit. At the start of our budget process this year, we projected deficits reaching nearly 1 billion in 2027 and exceeding that in future years. After closing this projected 26 budget deficit in a responsible manner that protects schools and protects our labor commitments, our long-term budget outlook
119is improved by $468 million in FY27 and by similar levels in future years. Actions we've taken to balance this budget reflect a net $263 million of structural deficit relief, primarily from structural cuts to district spending away from the classroom and increased structural funding from the state. Because this budget defines that reimbursement to the city for MEABF is contingent on additional TIFF surplus revenue or additional state revenue above budget assumptions. Future year deficits are reduced by another 175 million. Lastly, our jump to back into tier one of the state's evidence-based funding formula earlier than expected adds another $30 million to projected revenue increases in FY27 and beyond. Here we are showing what our previous 5-year forecast was prior to us issuing the proposed FY2026 budget. You see the $734 million deficit in fiscal year 26 that
120grows to north of $ 1.3 billion by fiscal year 2030. Based on the actions that we've taken in this budget, we have closed the FY26 budget gap and reduced our FY2027 deficit to 520 million, almost cutting it in half from what it previously was. To recap, over the last few months, we've worked hard to close a $734 million budget gap and propose a budget that protects our schools both today and into the future. This budget fully protects the level of funding for schools from the previous year. It funds all of our contractual commitments to our labor partners. It delivers on the promise to stabilize school budgets, eliminating the risk of cuts to classrooms both now and later into the school year. It includes only borrowing that provides current or future savings to the district and
121is required for necessary capital investments. Lastly, it allows for CPS to reimburse the city for MEABF with new state or local revenues, unlike the FY2025 budget that did not allow for this possibility. Following these hearings, we will be presenting the balanced FY26 budget at the Chicago Board of Education meeting for approval on August 28th, 2025. With that, happy to take questions. Member Blaze. >> Hi Mike. Thank you for your presentation. Once again, we've got a budget presentation here that doesn't spends a lot of time on what the city tiff funds and on other things, but we don't really dive into what cuts are happening. So, 126 million in central office. I'd love a slide that actually breaks that down. Is it not new hires? Um, are we firing people? What people are we firing? What
122do all what do the cuts that you're you are creating actually look like? This feels I don't want a budget presentation with a bunch of paragraphs and words. If we could get some real data that would be very very helpful for me. Um and I think someone told me that we CPS is the biggest purveyor of junk bonds. Was that I in the in the country, right? >> Yes, we are. Yes. So, we're um protecting So, we're at junk bond status. Now, if our credit goes down, what what's under junk bond status? Well, we we can continue to go down and continue to be junk bonds, but what it changes is we're going to be paying more more and more and more. No different than your credit score. You have a very good credit score.
123you pay less. If you go your your credit score goes back back past a midpoint to get to towards the end of the line, you will be paying more and you will have more restrictions because >> I worked for a BCD mortgage lender. Um, and so and like a credit b I worked um for a lender that lent money um with to people with really bad credit. And you get to a certain point >> and either you don't get any money or uh you get this bad credit rating. So, um, so there's that. So, if we're the biggest purveyor of junk bonds, we're and we're protecting our credit rating, I I'm um that seems again disingenuous to me. Um, so anyway, if we could get some budget numbers that actually break down these little bullet
124points that say we're going to take 125 from here and 125 from there and actually give us the meat and potatoes of what those those cuts mean because people in central office are wondering what's happening. They're wondering what's going on with their jobs. There are um I know um we made 10% cuts to all of our contracts, but that came on the backs of all the school bus drivers that we barely got back um after COVID and we still don't have bus service for a number of students. So, if if we if I can get a few more specifics from your next presentation, that would be super helpful. >> Yes, thank you. So, a few things here. the $126 million we do have spelled out on the slides that I presented today. Some of those
125items are self-explanatory like a central office hiring freeze or like the elimination of our food and travel budgets. Um there's some items that are still in development as well. Regarding transportation, we did add about $80 million back to this year's budget to make sure that we're able to fund transportation for every student for whom it is required. Uh, we've also posted our budget available on our website and I know we've been here for over two hours already. So, we tried to distill the presentation down to some of the important facts, but all of our budget is fully available on our website and has been since last Wednesday, including the data behind every one of our departments and every every element of our $10.2 billion. >> And this is the public presentation and we want to
126make sure that the public has all the information. Thank you >> member Lopez. >> Thank you board president. Hi Mike. Speaking of document about 270 pages so still trying to get through it. So I do have several questions regarding different items in this budget. Um I will start first on regarding uh the multilingual multicultural education more than just clarification that I'm understanding information and the public since available to the public um that they are also understanding the information provided there. uh and as um most individuals or if you don't know of uh interesting data is that we have roughly about uh a little bit over 88,000 of our students are considered English learners roughly a little bit more than one uh fourth um had a question in regards to uh the funding one I definitely
127great to see that there's going to be more investment in the funding at least what is being proposed uh there's an increase uh I noticed that there are three positions that are being cut from last year which were 56 to 53 and these are under the local funds. Are those in administrative positions? >> So I can get back to you with that information. I don't have that in front of me right now but I am taking a note now. >> Okay, perfect. And then also I noticed in the budget at schools there was an increase of positions from 429 to 511. Um and just a little more information. It's my understanding with having uh spoken with many individuals across the seven district as I do have several also dual language schools that families you know
128love to send their kids to. It's um there were some positions shifts uh I believe the dual language coordinators that those positions might have been removed or renamed into um different positions now that to allow for the budget. Can you just clarify that because I was a little bit confused as and there seems to be confusion with also some of those schools. >> Yeah. So the dual language coordinators and the English language program teachers are two roles that serve largely the same function. And so as we have expanded greatly into our English language program teachers, some of those roles that were previously defined as dual language coordinators are now defined as English language program teachers to reflect the expansion of of this type of position. >> Okay. And for the second position that is based
129on the number of students, right, that English learners are per school. >> Correct. >> And is it about like every 300 students or so? >> I believe it's less than that, but I can get you those exact ratios. >> Okay. Um, with individuals that had to be switched from one position to another within their school, are they also expected to still maintain the responsibilities of the coordinate coordinator plus the responsibilities of the new position at the same page? >> I believe those functions are largely the same now for both the dual language coordinator and the English language program teacher. So, >> okay. Okay. just want to make sure you know that it's a again a program that and having the language support our English learners is important but that we have um you know the
130resources to support those teachers educators and the families so it's successful uh the other item is regarding on page 158 and this is uh this is special education so I noticed that on page 158 um overall While for the general funds there was an increase but for the budget at schools there was an increase from last year. Do you know what might have led to that? >> Yeah. So we see an increase substantially from the start of the year to the end of the year and special education funding provided to schools >> and that's as new students arrive or new IEPs get written with additional minutes. We are constantly reviewing and allocating additional both teachers and paraprofessional staff to make sure we're meeting the required minutes as those evolved. One thing that we've talked about
131over over the last few months is that we see an increase in required minutes over the course of the year. So what we see over the course of the year is also a commensurate increase in budget. >> Okay. Just wanted to make sure that you know and my understand this is budget at the schools as we move through the school year and that there might be more needed support um that we keep in mind since the numbers lower than previous uh than the previous year. >> Yeah. And I I'll add that there's an additional $30 million budgeted for these increases this year. And if our student needs happen to exceed that, we will make sure to meet those needs. Um, we've already added over 100 positions since the budget was finalized as student needs have
132evolved and we're seeing students show up and even as soon as this week. So, >> perfect. And then um regarding safety and security uh looking at this budget in particular our previous conversation about safe passage does the numbers included in this uh proposed budget does it is it assuming that we're going to get the money from the city this year? So no, this this does not assume that we will get the money from this city this year. >> Okay, thank you. And it's something I know that I also uh had requested more information as to the reason why we haven't received that those funds previously. Um and then I did notice also that in this in again page 168 for the general fund in overall grand total there was a large decrease on based on
1332025 ending budget to the proposed budget. Um and I'm referring to we're looking at 71 million what was 2025 ending budget but in 2026 proposed budget we are asking for close to 56 >> and this is for which which department? >> Uh safety and security. >> Okay. Um I will have to take a look at that and get and get back to you on that. >> Okay. Perfect. And then final category is regarding the font. Um it was you know you've mentioned 65 million that we are planning on utilizing as you know and I agree with you. a one pretty much a one-time short strategy while we need to focus on the long strategy. Uh but it was in the presentation in the slides slide 26 it mentioned about our um what is it our
134rating and the impact that it can have when taking into consider consideration using shortterm fixes. If we take out the if we reuse the 65 million will that have an impact on our rating? >> No board members. So this fund was created ex especially after the the crisis in 2015 161 17 and one will say 18. There was a a resolution from the board to make sure that the district created this reserve and in in order to make sure that we have enough liquidity to pay for debt service in those years that that liquidity was very very low. Currently when when we use that when the when the fund which is the debt service fund produce interest especially in the last two years that interest are been very high we return those funds back to
135the general fund to pay for debt service. So the funds are always used to pay for debt service and it help with the current liquidity issues that we have. So we used the fund and we were left off with 65 million and the policy allow us to use this as a one-time fund to help the budget. So now we depleted the fund. We put the last 65 million in the budget and now we have to wait until the the debt service generate more funds and then it get used into the debt service or we will use it in the future because it takes time to build again if we need it for the budget. But this is allowed within the policy that was created um in the in the in the early 20s to protect
136that to protect payments of debt service. >> Roughly how long would it take us to get it back to the money that we're using? >> Well, interest rates are going down. So in the last two years that we have interest rate that they were very very high, we were able to create about $80 million in in in the fund because remember we have to deposit our debt service a year ahead of time. So it's about 800 million that we deposit in a fund. So we have about you know average of seven month that we can generate income. Now the interest rate is going down again. So, we're not going to be generating revenue as fast as we did in the past. >> Thank you so much. Uh, that concludes my my questions. Thank you, >>
137member Zachor. >> Um, okay. I have uh two questions uh unrelated to each other. Uh, and sorry I don't I didn't write down any slide numbers. Um but in one of the slides maybe about halfway through um you were talking about how um we are already going to be borrowing $2.4 billion and there was kind of no discussion about that but a whole lot of discussion about borrowing an additional 200 million which is like 8% of that. So can you just maybe explain why that that 8% additional is so dramatic compared to the 2.4 4 billion. That's my first question. >> Sure. So, the $2.4 billion in borrowing that was authorized by the board in May of this year has two components to it. The first is $1.8 billion to re to find refunding savings.
138So, this is us refunding debt that was issued at high interest rates about 10 years ago to provide savings both this year and into the future for the district. The other 600 million of that is for capital expenses, which is our routine borrowing to make sure we're investing in our buildings and combating that $14 billion backlog of deferred maintenance that we have. The difference between additional borrowing beyond that that would be for deficit relief is as our CFO mentioned earlier, this would represent a scoop and toss where we're borrowing for current year expenses and pushing those obligations out into the future and increasing future year deficits. Um, Chief Krug, I don't know if you have anything you want to add there. >> Yeah, I guess I don't equate the 1.8 million in refinancing as borrowing,
139but thank you for clarifying that. Um, my other question just uh relates to something board member Lopez asked about. Uh, because my understanding is actually that ELPs and dual language coordinators are not anything similar. Um, every school with a a certain population of English language learners has an ELP and their job is to, you know, make sure students are in the correct classroom. They provide professional development to all the teachers in the school who are, you know, providing services to um, EL students. They, you know, step into classrooms to make sure that's happening. They do access testing, all those kinds of things. um dual language programs are are total immersion that affect every single student in the school and it's really quite different. So I guess I'm not understanding how those two things have now
140become the same. >> Thank you. So we'll make sure to get clarity on that. I don't believe our our um chief of OM is here. So we'll get clarity on that. >> Okay. I'll close this out with my comments and s questions. Uh again, as the city has moved away from using tiff surplus to balance its budget, I think the principle, first off, this is an ideal budget. It's fantastic on its face. It checks all the box. I think the concern that board members have raised is what happens if the tiff assumptions that are in the budget aren't met. Uh considering that the budget is moving away from using tiff surplus as a means of balancing a budget, it appears that the premise that undergurs this projection has some um some flaw to it. Um
141and so, you know, part of the first question is what happens in the event the tiff assumptions that we're basing this budget on aren't met? What's our contingency? So, we believe that this is a reasonable assumption based on the fact that our tiffs have continued to collect more money each year. We've seen the 1.25 billion that was collected in 2024 that was a record high also is a record high and $3.2 billion in claimed tiff balances. So, property taxes that have already been paid. Um, there's also the governance policies around city and state city policy and state law. I don't mean to interrupt, Mike, but >> all those things were stated in the presentation and I tracked >> and I'm with you. That's an ideal scenario. What I'm asking specifically is if that is not
142hit, what is the what is the district's contingency plan specifically? >> So contingency. >> Thank you. Yeah, every budget is based on assumptions. We we have information now that gets better over the course of the year. Most of the time those assumptions hold firm. There's times where those deviate. We saw in 2025 that the district overproted PPRT funding by about $90 million. We reccalibrated midyear. We did not make cuts to schools. We made adjustments to some department budgets and some spending that was not entirely necessary. A lot of which is reflected in some of the cuts that we made this year as well. So if the assumption does not materialize, that's something we'll keep a close eye on and be ready to take appropriate actions that that are required there. are those actions cont what
143the what we're interested in though is a contingency does not impact classrooms and so it's I think what we're driving and I'm just going to say it plainly is there can't be a scenario by which we get to a point and there has to be cuts to the classroom and so you know I think just through all of what has been shared again this is an ideal budget the even the talk of debt restructuring which is different from a loan. The talk of such is break glass in case of emergency. It is not a first um first strategy that the board is pursuing or members of the board are pursuing. So I just want to clarify that what we are seeking and I think it's across the board is confidence that we don't arrive at
144a scenario for which we don't have a contingency. So you don't have to address it now but that is what is surfacing. If it is not short-term uh debt restructuring then what is it? What assurance will we have that we won't be at this spot? And then just the other point is you're offering confidence that this is realistic, but the commentary we continue to get from the city is that our tiff assumptions are not committed. And so if the city is saying that we're not committing to that level of tiff despite what our projections may suggest, that creates a space of ambiguity that is concerning right now. We want the city to come through with record levels of tiff. We want tiffs to be expired and we experience the windfall that we need in order
145to adequately self u fund everything. The reality is based on timing or other issues it may not come through. So I'm just going to impour upon UCO and budget to think through what is our case, what is our scenario, what is our position if tiff assumptions don't come through because we've already said the state from a timing perspective is not going to meet our obligations. So what happens if the city for whatever reason does not meet our obligations? The district has to be in a position to protect its own assets >> its children. >> Yeah. And I think this is where we're encouraged by the mayor's commitment to allow tiffs to wind down and continue to surplus some of the record funding that's come into these tiffs. Um this also creates a space for advocacy
146as well to make sure that we're able to um deliver on the budget that we've balanced with the $734 million deficit. >> I appreciate the response. We need to see something hard and fast in the budget that offers that protection. Thank you for your presentation, Mike. Uh >> President Harden, can I add a comment? Certainly >> um thank you president Harden. I think also we would need to see what is that plan that the city is saying that they will do and they will not use Tiff because under the current conditions the city already have certain amount of teeth in their budget. So if they saying we're not going to do enough that means that they're going to be taking certain amount of teeth out of their budget plus the deficit that they have ahead
147of them. If they're going to do that, then we also need to do know what is the strategy the city is going to do in order to really be able to lift off that T from their budget and our budget and C county and park district and city colleges and everybody else that is part of the taxing but received this from all of the taxing bodies. So that will be good to know because then we collectively can have a plan because just the city saying I'm not going to give you this teeth when everybody knows how the teeth works and what are the mechanism of the teeth is not good enough because >> it will come >> and it have come the larger years that we have. >> Let me let me correct that statement
148because that's that's not accurate. Certainly not what I'm suggesting that the city is not providing any tiff. So, I don't want that to be the case. What I'm saying to you very plainly is the board, the district needs to have its own means if those things don't come through. That's simply all I'm saying. And yes, you're right. There needs to be more direct discussion with the city to understand their strategies and what it is that they're planning to do, which quite frankly underscores the reason why I'm expressing some concern because there's still a lot of room for more discussion to ensure that we have a solid commitment for that tiff allocation. And so for me, it's just not enough. I'm not speaking on behalf of the board, speaking as as Sean Harden. It's not enough
149to bake this in as our means of balancing the budget without having an IGA or at least some form of commitment from the city. I think that is what is fiscally responsible. So, we could continue this discussion. I appreciate your comments. Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments from the board? If not, this concludes the first section of the budget hearing. Thank you all very much.