001e e e president Harden before you begin today's public hearing I would like to read a few announcements good morning welcome to the March 13th 25 amended fy2 amended budget hearing before we start the hearing I would like to share a few safety points and next meeting announcements please note that the primary exit and entrance to the boardroom is the door which you use to enter this morning if you are leaving the room please use this door the restrooms are outside the boardrooms doors to your left during the hearing we ask that you keep all aisles and exits clear if you need any assistance during the hearing please wave the attention of one of our security officers please mark your calendars for the upcoming meeting the next board meeting is scheduled for Thursday March 20th
0022025 at 3:00 p.m. to be held at 42 West Madison Street Garden level boardroom for details on how to register to speak or observe at the meetings and to learn about the speaker Lottery process please visit the Chicago Board of Education website CPS boe.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 morning I'm Sean Bearden on behalf of my fellow board members welcome to the first fy2 amended budget hearing today is March 13 2025 we are holding the first fy2 amended budget amended budget hearing in the boardroom 42 West Madison Street Garden level I would like to note that the board members and Senior leaders ship
003or 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 fy2 amended budget board secretary please state forther 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 March 5th 2025 notice was also posted on cpsb.org and cps.edu websites on March 5th 2025 I will now read into record the public notice as published notice public hearings fy22 fy2 amended budget for the 2024 2025 fiscal year Chicago Board of Education commonly known as Chicago Public Schools to whom
004it may concern public notice is hereby given by the Chicago Board of Education that it has prepared a fy2 amended budget for the 2024 2025 fiscal year in tenative form and that five copies thereof available for public inspection have been filed in now on file in the office of the Board of Education of the city of Chicago commonly known as Chicago Public Schools one North Dearborn sweet 950 Chicago Illinois 60602 and available at cps.edu budget and that said Board of Education will hold two public hearings upon said amended Budget on Thursday March 13 2025 and Friday March 14 2025 hearing time 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Chicago Public Schools Loop office 42 West Madison Street Garden level boardroom Chicago Illinois 60602 registered speakers who wish to present during public participation may have the option to
005participate in person at the location of the public hearing or virtually via an electronic uh platform the public will have access to the meeting via live stream at cpsb.org for these two public hearings Advanced registration to speak will be available beginning Monday March 10th at 10:30 a.m. and will close on Tuesday March 11th at 10:30 a.m. anyone interested in speaking can sign up after the 24-hour registration period a lottery will randomly select a set number of speakers from those who registered for example if 100 people registered the lottery might select 30 of them to speak this process gives every want a fair chance to address the board Advanced registration during this period is available by the following methods online cpsb.org or phone 773-553-1000 to ensure Equity of access to address the board an individual may
006not speak at backtack meetings or more than one meeting per month if you register for back-to-back meetings in more than one meeting per month you will not be included for that meeting lottery in the event an individual register to speak at a consecutive meeting the individual will not be call to address the board Advanced registration to observe will also be available beginning March 10th 20 at 10:30 a.m. and will close on Tuesday March 11th at 5:00 p.m. or until all slots are filled Advanced registration during this period is available by the following methods online at cpsb.org or by phone registration 42 West Madison Street lobby registration opens at 10:15 10:15 a.m. and will remain open for the duration of the fi25 amended budget hearings same day inperson Observer registrations are taken on a first come
007first Ser basis as seats become available the public participation segment of the public hearings will conclude after the last person who has registered to speak has spoken or at 12:00 p.m. on March 13th and March 14th whichever occurs first members of the public May submit written comments related to the fy2 amended budget via the written comments form on the board's website at cpsb.org or mail to 1 North dearburn suet 950 at 5:00 p.m. March 17 2025 dated at Chicago Illinois March 5th 2025 Chicago Board of Education by Shan B Harden president a test Susan J naho secretary thank you I also like to note for the record the members present here today member Thomas member Bole member Wallace member kuster who is joining V virtually via Zoom member Pope member Rosenfeld member Ras member Smith
008member Brown member gutiz member BS member thakura member Blaze me member zachor and member D Barry and president Harden thank you I'd also like to recognize Pedro Martinez chief executive officer ruchie Verma general counsel and Charles Mayfield CH Chief Operating Officer thank you let's begin with today's public comment SE 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 comments note that public participation is time for the board and CPS senior leadership to listen and hear from you rather than a time for dialogue with board members during or after your remarks while we
009can't discuss Personnel matters po participation is a key component of transparent government and it provides us as board members as well as senior leadership an opportunity to listen to everyone who has signed to speak this board takes Equity of voice seriously while we may not address comments directly during public participation CPS leadership is always present at our meetings and are able to address concerns as follow-ups after the meeting as a district and as a board we also have many other spaces for authentic dialogue for example each and every one of our board members host Board office hours so that we can have a conversation please use our website CPS boe.org if you want to meet with the board member during office hours we encourage you to take advantage of the opport to meet with board
010members outside of a board meeting thank you for your attention and consideration as a reminder Union Representatives will be allowed five minutes to speak before public participation and any elected officials will be allowed five minutes to speak at the conclusion of public participation board secretary please share the rules of public participation thank you president Harden members of the public who register to speak were given the option to attend in person or via an electronic format for those who prefer to attend by 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 who limited to all access to the internet who or who may have weak internet connection can still participate using their phones as a reminder also members of the
011public May submit written comments for the Board of Education meetings via the written comments form on the board's website at cpsb.org or mail to one North dearburn suet 950 written comments received between the day the public agenda was posted through 5:00 p.m. the day after the Board of Education meeting will be submitted to the board and published within 5 business days on our website at cpsb.org speakers please listen while I provide directions for public participation I will call your name and number when it is your turn to speak for speakers joining us virtually as a reminder to unmute please enter star 6 once you hear your name please state your name for the record I will then start the two-minute timer when there are 30 seconds remaining I will inform you so that you can
012proceed to conclude your remarks to allow for the next speaker to begin for anyone standing with a speaker please stand along the glass partitions to keep aisles clear thank you president Harden before we begin uh begin calling speakers from the speakers list we do have Union reps who would like to address the board we'll begin with Jackson Potter CTU vice president who is here in person good morning uh just recently I learned something thing from former Mexican president Andres Lopez orador uh he said you know very clearly that neoliberalism not government services is the epitome of corruption you'll hear buzzwords today from people saying responsible budget they'll say efficiency you should look behind the curtain on those buzzwords to determine what billionaires fund these individuals and organ ganizations is it Doge style rhetoric or is
013it really people who have the interest of our children at heart when the district gave away power to unaccountable Charter operators and pursued Mass closings and runaway privatization without formal parent or Community Voice or sufficient controls to ensure our most vulnerable students were protected those with IEPs uh English language Learners homeless students Etc critical public resources were diverted to semi-private tyrannies Tesla that built pyramid schemes like the Uno Acero Network in the meantime the district has failed to work with the Union parents Community orgs uh some that have been champions of public schools who sit on this board and advocate for the revenue that would fund the services our students desperately need and deserve and if we offload those key functions of government to private entities we undermine the advocacy to defend it so it's
014why Doge nationally can advocate for cutting key functions of government as a way to achieve efficiency cost savings I don't think one parent from Aero would now say that that Network had their interest at heart the things we are calling for in this contract would improve student outcomes and provide the very Investments that you are charged with making smaller class sizes for 4 through eight we have somewhere in the arena of 600 classes that are Beyond 28 students reform of a racist and biased teacher evaluation system where black and bl Brown educators are harmed immensely as are those who teach low-income students and the district has told you oh we are doing better in pipeline recruitment that is true we won't disagree with that but they fail to answer is how this system grinds these
015people down and pushes them out after they are hired and that problem has not yet been solved and we are asking for restitution and a solution maintaining and investing in experienced Educators is critical we know we go from like second in the state to 40th and we live in the city that has the highest cost of living with record inflation so this this is a problem that isn't going away and has to be addressed now so that we don't continue to lose these valuable experienced Educators uh in Staffing Librarians case managers incentives for guest teachers teacher assistance to address those class sizes I described earlier help with instruction Tech codes that's another privatization thing we are solving in this agreement we've come to see eye to eye on the need to depend Less on external
016private vendors that rip us off and create these positions inh house so this is part of rebuilding what has been destroyed and and lastly I would say an elementary day that allows Educators to be more deliberate planful prepared and engaged for our students and gives our students more opportunities to engage in art music play restorative practices social emotional learning it's not just drill and kill that makes School worth going to you can also defend the the district's vital Investments and the need for revenue and so when Co Martinez refuses to sta vacant positions to save money or uses money for a Skyline system that's external and dependent on vendors when we have teacher creative materials that are better you should ask questions the district's own Google Drive has answers uh even these words that I
017described earlier efficiency Etc when used for good can fortify Public Schools instead of undermining them and allow your budget to be the moral document our students deserve 30 seconding thank you for your comments our next union rep is Jen conand CTU Charter division chair good morning members of the board I'm Jen conent chair of ctu's Charter Division and a longtime charter school teacher I want to start by a knowledging all of the work and challenging decisions you have had before you in the last two months as board members we are grateful for your historic decision to keep five asero schools open and transition them to the district and we hope you ensure that CPS continues to help and serve the students and staff at the two closing asero schools Cruz and P we are here
018today for Budget hearings you have more weighty decisions before you today the piece I'm here to talk to you about is the charter renewal system and its flaws there are three main issues with Charter oversight there are no protections for families students and staff uh from school closures General oversight and enforcement is weak and Charter contracts with CPS need to be overhauled so first the renewal process does not seem to catch potential problems that could lead an operator to close a school just one year before Acero decided to close half its schools they were renewed for three years they reported being financially healthy and the board of education co-signed on that assessment a couple years ago hope Learning Academy was renewed for four years just four months before deciding to close the special education specialty
019school they literally announced that educating Chicago students was not profitable enough and abandoned a few hundred primarily black families to search for new schools and services a renewal and oversight process that can't help predict close ures is a problem so it seems like CPS needs to re-evaluate what information they need from Charter operators and what consequences should be in place when these oper operators misrepresent themselves or choose to walk away from their commitments to handing out renewals easily and allowing periods with little oversight is not helping schools or families the long-term renewals that the charter operators and Industry lobbyists want are especially problematic during the seven-year period that aspiro was given at its last renewal enrollment dropped at Aspira Hogan consistently every year for seven years and the oversight process either didn't catch that problem
020or had no tools to help remedy it imagine the reaction if teachers even the most highly rated or celebrated expected to go seven or 10 years without any evaluation or accountability aspir now plans to close that school on your watch but what changes been been made to the renewal process that could keep this from happening again finally the contracts the district has with Charter operators need to be overhauled the district's current contracts allow for Charter operators to close schools on short notice with no consequences that's a problem as it leaves families and staff thrown to the wind with their school community ripped apart and the contracts don't require the operator to use or return their cash reserves reserves which were built by public funds from CPS um for the school or schools that the operator
021is closing they get to hold on to the massive real estate Investments and property holding they've purchased with CPS funding right now the district plans to provide extra funds to keep the five asero schools open we're grateful for that but Aero is not even though Aero has the reserves to do so unfortunately cps's contract with Aero does not require Aero to use its reserves while closing schools or transitioning from or to the district and that needs to be changed the district also needs to incorporate into contracts how schools are reabsorbed into the district so that there are clear procedures and families don't have to come to board members for months asking for CPS to help given all of the problems with the renewal process and its potential impact on cps's budget the issues with oversight
022provided by the district and the problematic contracts the district has with Charter operators I encourage you to really think about what this board can do to improve things help CPS with directives that will protect Charter families and staff when Charter operators make awful decisions like Aero do not let another Acero happen pull us once shame on Aero pull us twice shame on you I'm sure you will all feel pressure to move quickly on Charter renewals being told this is how it's always done or hearing from Charter operators have 30 seconds remaining it is urgent so they can enroll students for next year that's just not the case enrollment has already begun with Charter operators setting lotteries and parents can access schools through gocps when they are up for Renewal um Charters know that non-renewal has
023only even been considered in the most extreme cases and generally not even then and families have seen that you all are not trying to close schools that you are trying to save them operators are just afraid of accountability and finally having a board of education that acts like it is in charge of Chicago Public Schools instead of handing them a keys so don't to approve a rubber stamp renals if you do you will be responsible for future situations like we've had with AO thank you thank you for your comments before we move on to the next rep I do want to not note for the record that board member Bannon join the hearing at approximately 10:43 a.m. the next rep is Don vow uh secretary treasurer of the Chicago Federation of Labor good morning I'm
024Don V Secretary treasur of the Chicago Federation of Labor you know first of all I want to thank all of the board members you know thank you for you know calling for answering that call of service to our city and thanks for all the hard work and hard tough decisions that you have to to to make and the challenges that you're tackling each and every day um again I'm the secretary Treasure of the CFL CFL is made up of 300 local unions and half a million union members among them are the unions and the workers at CPS in Chicago Public Schools our union members they're they're families with children at CPS and and they're part of the fabric of our city and we like to say in the labor movement that we're all connected by
025work the work that you do that we all do it connects us and that's why what happens here and and the heavy decisions that you make it affects us all in one form or another and that's that's that's a heavy heavy burden and but it's also important to address these things because you know it impacts families and impacts neighborhoods and impacts so many people and uh I know it's not lost Lo on everyone here the challenges that are we're facing today I mean our our news feeds and our headlines our news alerts every day there's something going on out there there's something there's there's some pressing urgency and you know we we have so many difficulties and you know we we know we can't heal heal every ill or solve every problem in the world
026but you know at this moment you all CPS you have an opportunity to solve one of the city's most pressing challenges right it's a it's a pressing challenge right now and and it's important to to to the union members at CPS our teachers you know give teachers your workers you know that contract that contract that values and respects them and also you know lifts up our communities I have you know nieces and nephews who go to public schools and and I see uh you know the the challenges and and the disparity that they that they experience and I wonder it's like you know we could do better we can all do better so by doing so by by listening to to to what our teachers and and what the staff what the workers at CPS
027are telling you we can we can transform our Public Schools so Chicago's children and every student my nieces and nephews they could receive that that quality education that they so richly deserve and it'll lift up all communities and all the workers across Chicago members of our unions can benefit so and then I ask again thank you and thank you for the the work that you're doing and thank you for for stepping in there and and transforming and being part of for the change that our city needs and addressing you know the challenges that you're all facing fa in the day and that we're all facing the day thank you thank you for your comments we'll now start um calling speakers from the speakers list we'll start with syvia Pitman speaker number one good morning pronounce
028Celia Pitman thank you for the opportunity for standing and speaking with with you today as a grandmother of two students in CPS and a black educator that teaches in the Austin Community which is one of the most traumatized and disinvested communities in the city many of our students and families suffer from traumatic experiences on a daily basis which means we are experiencing and facing situations we've never encountered before causing us to look for resources and services to meet the needs of our students and families the needs of our students are growing rapidly therefore our elementary school teachers students need their teachers to have adequate time to prepare lessons that will engage the students more by allowing the Educators to collaborate and plan together as well as discuss the academic behavior and social emotional needs of
029each individual child as Educators we desire to service the whole child and this can be done by giving Educators more prep time which was taken from us two Mayors ago but while teachers are preparing students students would be learning team building socialization and collaborating in dance drama music band art and gym Educators would be able to share best and so I'm asking the board to help us settle this contract that allows teachers to implement best practices so that our schools students parents and communities that you have been elected to serve will know that you understand the importance of investing in our schools thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker is Adriana cantes speaker number two good morning my name is Adana Santas and I am a field representative of the Chicago Teachers
030Union and I represent over 50 schools in the district I also was a teacher for 13 years at hubard high school and have experienced uh the teacher evaluation process firsthand I understand today's hearing is about amending uh cps's budget and I'm here to talk to you about the teacher evaluation process process which is one of the outstanding issues at the table and this issue it costs the the district no money we've proposed for CPS to align with Illinois Law which allows school districts to evaluate highly rated 10year teachers on a three-year cycle um this is different than the current 2-year cycle which is very timec consuming for evaluators and teachers last year there were approximately 16 6,700 teachers who had incomplete evaluations we need an evaluation system that provides opportunity for the instructional leaders to
031facilitate authentic instructional supports for their teachers the current plan does not provide time for administrators to properly support probationary teachers or lower rated tenure teachers who actually needed we need an evaluation system that provides an opportunity for instructional leaders to facilitate authentic oh I said that already I'm sorry I'm nervous cps's current system actually harm schools you have 30 seconds remaining that need most the most support it's biased against teachers who work in high poverty in predominantly minority schools it's slow it's time consuming taking resources away from actual learning however it could do what it's supposed to do which is to provide feedback to Educators and improve their educational supports it could do this by switching to the state allowed threeyear cycle again our proposals for Teacher evaluation are no cost to the district and
032our members and CPS families are requesting that you push CPS to address these in inequalities in the system thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker is Nora Flanigan speaker number three good morning I'm Nora Flanigan CPS high school English teacher for 25 years now a project organizer at the Chicago Teachers Union but my most important job today and every day is Mom to two beautiful sons one just graduated from Mather High School the other is a current freshman and when I say he's a freshman he is freshman a lot he has struggled and he has needed extra support and Ma wants my son to have what he needs to feel supported and loved and capable of his his best I want the same for ma high school students at Ma represent 140
033countries and speak 62 languages 80% lowincome 43% English Learners 177% receive special education services over 100 students and their families lack stable housing the staff at my son's school is amazing but let's not say they're miracle workers they are brilliant dedicated workers and they don't have what they need they need the additional resources already bargained into our contract more special education staff with tenable workloads more English learner support centrally funded interpretation Services smaller class sizes more counselors and social workers Fair compensation for the sports coaches who keep a kid like mine motivated and build his confidence thank you coach Sullivan and Dr Weiss added resources for Career and Technical education so Mr Hees can keep his engineering classes designing and imagining and building and sometimes breaking things and Mather just applied to become a sustainable
034Community School let's go Chicago needs you to pass a budget amendment that makes all this possible because Ma and every other school in Chicago will not have these resources for the next school year if CPS doesn't agree to the contract that provides them now as schools start building their schedules and planning for the fall class sizes will not come down staff positions will not be added we will stay Frozen with the needs and shortfalls we see now because CPS wants to fight over 20 20 minutes of prep time and a broken evaluation system as a parent and an educator I want our schools and students to have what they need thank you thank you for your remarks before we uh move on to the next speaker I do want to note for the record that
035vice president Bautista join the hearing at 11:02 a.m. uh before the next speaker we do have another union rep that has joined staa Scott Kennedy from SEIU Local 73 Executive Vice President good morning my name is staa Scott Kennedy and I'm the Executive Vice President for seiu73 we represent over 12,000 support staff in Chicago Public Schools the budget amendment begs more questions than we have answers for we don't know how if you take on the pension payment you plan to make ends mean if it means for going teachers raises and principal's contract implementation then we don't think this board should take it on if it means Mass Cuts Furlow days and balancing the budget on low wage working class support staff and CPS then we don't think this District should take it on board president
036president Harden you have taken on the fourth largest school district in America at a time of incredible Financial uncertainty political maneuvering and we commend that you spent money to do the third party audit to try and get clarity on how to move forward with the district's finances sunlight is the best disinfectant the public should see what's in that audit so that we know what we're all facing collectively because I believe we believe that everybody here every stakeholder every board member wants what's best for Chicago's children but in order for the public and for stakeholders to know how we move forward we need to see what's actually going on with the district's finances so we're hopeful that when that audit is complete it is released to the public so again these financial decisions please do not
037disrespect the staff of CPS and make them on the backs of working people they gave back their raises twice to bail out this district and they still showed up to work every single day caring for Chicago's children during those times and those are from bad debt deals that Came Crashing Down years later so if refinancing or a loan those chickens come home to Roose years from now take that all into consideration because it is the workers and the children who suffer from these decisions so thank you all very much thank you for your comments we now resume from uh speakers from the speakers list the next speaker is Hell Woods speaker number five good morning uh president Harden and member of the board members of the board thank you for the opportunity to speak my
038name is Hal Woods I'm both a parent of two CPS students and the chief of policy of kids first Chicago if you truly prioritize the students families and communities of CPS you simply cannot vote to reimburse the city for the mebf repayment making this payment is detrimental to our District's budget jeopardizes critical classroom resources and does nothing to fix the structural deficits that have long plagued CPS supporting this payment may help the mayor politically but it will directly harm CPS students either now or in the future it will mean fewer teachers increased class sizes fewer counselors and reduced after school programs as a parent I worry every day about how these budget decisions will affect my children's education and their future opportunities and in my role at Kids First Chicago I hear from countless families
039who are deeply worried that the board might make potentially devastating decision based on political convenience without genuinely listening to the families who would feel its impact the most historically ignoring cps's Financial realities has led to disaster many of you remember that crisis period of 2015 to 2017 when CPS relied on short-term borrowing and scoop and toss strategies the result 34 credit downgrades and hundreds of millions more spent servicing debt instead of supporting students today CPS is the largest junk rated issuer of debt in our country still paying a premium on every dollar borrowed money that could go and should go directly to the classrooms recently 30 seconds kids for Chicago convened more than 120 parents Educators and community members to discuss this very decision 95% felt that c that the CPS board should reject the
040city's request they clearly told us and they're telling you now that CPS students deserve better as the first ever elected School Board this decision will begin to Define your legacy will you stand firm putting students first and sending a clear message that the board operates independently and only in the interest of kids and families will you set a disturbing precedent by diverting classroom resources to help fix the city's finances I urge you to vote no on this reimbursement request our students deserve your leadership and your courage thank you for your time and for carefully considering the voices of the families that you serve thank you for your comments our next speaker is Lauren biani speaker number six good morning board members my name is Lauren bian I'm a high school social studies teacher on leave
041and an organizer at the Chicago Teachers Union as you prepare to amend the budget to make sure that CPS can invest in the schools our students deserve serve I'm here to advocate for the importance of creating Equity our elementary teachers must have adequate prep time even as a high school teacher with protected blocks of prep time every day I spent hours of my personal time after school and on weekends planning new lessons translating materials and providing detailed feedback on my students work I truly can't imagine how our elementary Educators managed to prepare to teach multiple subjects and grade levels daily and set up their classrooms without sufficient planning time during the school day teachers aim to provide Hands-On engaging and culturally relevant lessons to our students but highquality lessons and learning experiences take more time
042to plan and and require collaboration with our colleagues and PLC teams to perfect respectfully when does CPS expect teachers to plan board members CPS Educators and families are counting on you to pass a budget amendment that invests in our schools a budget amendment that doesn't allow for cuts and layoffs that would cause Mass disruption and interrupt the gains our students are making along with this you have the power to provide a better elementary school day for all of our youngest students 30 seconds remaining by expanding prep time for their teachers this proposal costs 0 and will have an immediate positive impact on student learning and reduced teacher burnout let's put this proposal in writing along with ctu's four other Common Sense mus haves and get this contract done now thank you thank you for your
043comments our next speaker is Caroline Rutherford speaker number seven good morning members of the board my name is Caroline Rutherford I'm an art te Cher at of Sarah Marquez and the CTU chair of the Council of Aero schools again I want to express my gratitude to the board members for your vote to keep five of Theo schools open thank you yesterday I attended a meeting at Aero PA one of the two schools still slated for closure this year with families and Educators conducted by CPS and asero this was the first time since asero announced her plan to close schools that the school communities were provided the opportunity to speak with Theo and CPS and they put together a presentation to outline the options for the families at PA but at no point did anyone from
044CPS orero ask the families or Educators what they wanted or needed Dr Carmona who led the meeting for CPS would not allow any of the parents or staff to use the microphone to speak in the meeting yesterday either it was symbolic of cps's failure to truly listen and collaborate the goal did not seem to be a community meeting or engagement it felt like damage control that did not stop the P Community from making it clear to CPS and asero that they want their students and staff to stay together and that is the option they deserve when Dr Carmona was asked directly why pa was not saved he put the responsibility on the board saying he presented the option but this board did not choose it he left out the part where he told this board
045that option was not feasible if it wasn't for the leadership of this board Dr Carmona would have wanted to close C Naros as well the families and staff at PA want to stay together we owe it to the school communities to keep them whole which means together CPS failed to keep Aero accountable when they were given a contract with no repercussions if they closed schools and now CPS is telling families take what you can get today at 3M there is a similar meeting at Aero crw CPS and Aero should learn from the meeting at P yesterday and provide the opportunity for the crew families and staff to share what is in the best interest of their students let families use their microphone so their voices can be heard by everyone conclud youring them to yell
046across the room is unfair use of Power by CPS we'd also like to know the status of theou between Aero and CPS has there been an agreement reached for the five schools have you included the voices of the families the staff and the Union in those conversations about those five schools to reach that agreement please conclude your remarks thank you thank you our next speaker is Angelica H speaker number 8 who is joining us virtually please enter star 6 to unmute good morning all my name is Angelica harees I'm a parent at Carlos quentes ACO school first of all I would like to thank the members of the board who voted on maintaining five of these seven assetto schools open for the remainder of its contract and the transition of our schools to cps's network
047going forward with this said I eagerly request board to sign such amended resolution with assetto and make it official as our schools communities are awaiting such action nonetheless after the boards decided that bass and Cru should close at the end of the school year I earnestly plead both boards to create a detailed plan for both of these schools the fact that these two schools will be closed at the end of this 2025 school year makes the outcome of our fight beater sweet as we fought together to save all seven assetto schools moreover I would like to knowledge and give my wholeheartly thank you to those who advocated for our students parents and teachers every step of the way other persons Byron cro Lopez Carlos Ramirez Rosa Julia Ramirez and especially to the Chicago Teachers Union
048for their unwavering support and commitment in saving our schools although they themselves are still in the fight for a renewal of their contract which I too fully support in closing I am a fir firm believer that it takes a village to raise a child child and hope that we all come together for the greater purpose of safeguarding the well-being and education of all of our city students as this is our most important responsibility and for which we all are accountable thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker is Tanisha R speaker number nine good morning my name is Tanisha I am currently a CTU field representative and one of the Liaisons for the special education committee prior to becoming a field representative I worked as both a general education teacher and a special
049education teacher for over 10 years members of the board as you prepare to vote on a budget amendment next week I want to urge you to vote for a budget that invests in our schools and doesn't cut from our students a budget that creates the opportunity to settle our contract to today I want to talk about one of our five outstanding issues more prep time for educators to prepare for our students having additional preparation time means that we are actually able to write effective IEPs differentiate instruction collect data progress monitor individual student goals stay in compliance with state and federal regulations collaborate with general education teachers clinicians parents and other professionals all while researching and participating in professional development only to enhance the student experience sounds like a lot right well these are the daily
050duties and responsibilities of special Educators who sit in classrooms throughout the district we as special educators are offered workload reduction funds which to some degree acknowledge that special education teachers along with clinicians carry a heavy workload which in return forces them to complete these various tasks outside of the 6.25 work day imagine a situation where teachers are actually able to complete these tasks during the work day the demands of special education teachers can lead to burnout if adequate time isn't allotted for Preparation and planning so many times we hear the district say that our most vulnerable students are a priority well as the students say stop capping or making false statements it is time for the district to align their words with their actions don't just say our students are a priority show that they're
051a PR priority how can we say how can something that cost the district no money at all be so complicated to settle we will we be the district that is all about tail and no show are we up for the challenge of making the better the school day better I ask that you support our demands thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker is M aala speaker number 10 good morning to everyone behind me and to the board in front of me my name is Emily aella I am a second generation CPS Alum and a mother of a third generation CPS student when I was a student at gista Language Academy in the East Side neighborhood my class had a ratio of 35 students to one teacher as children in the school as
052students we were aware of the class sizes being large through hearing the buzz from teachers but it wasn't until I became a CPS parent that I fully understood what that ratio meant for schools for teachers and most importantly for the quality of student educ ation today I have a son who is in Special Needs prek at sski elementary school just three blocks away from my Elma M gisto and as much as I appreciate the support that my son receives in his class it is so easy to see the exhaustion on his support team's face at the end of the school day during pickup um it it is so painful and disheartening to see the same struggles persist across Generations across schools in the same neighborhood in the same school system this is going on like
053a 20 plus 30 seconds remaining 20 plus year problem that I'm sure that statement can apply to many people's concerns in here as an advocate for Healthy Green Schools I believe that we need to approve budget amendments that raise teacher pay and reduce class sizes as a way to invest in sustainable healthy learning environments that promote Focus energy and long-term well-being the well-being of teachers is the most important key component to school Wellness overall and this new board has the power to take action that will break this cycle of neglect and show Educators that they are appreciated and valued please conclude your remark thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker is Nora wil wilsy who is joining us virtually she's speaker number 11 please enter star 6 to unmute hi my name
054is Nora WI can you hear me yes please proceed I'm a national board certified School librarian in my 22nd year in CPS I'm on the board of directors for the American Association of school librarians and I'm a member of the big bargaining team I'm currently the librarian at King College Prep High School in tenwood funding this contract is crucial to give our Stu schools and students the staff they need CPS and CTU are now close to an agreement to add new librarian positions each year for the next 3 years it's amazing we currently have around 75 Librarians so this could more than double the number of schools with a librarian by the end of this next contract it's really exciting and we need your vote for funding to make our our agreement happen I mentioned
055CPS has around 75 Librarians this year and I want to share examples of how low this number truly is and to highlight that our budget demands are simply everyday school for students in the suburbs in CPS we have over a 100 high schools for our students we have 12 high school librarians Wells Librarians to meet the needs of our approximately 100,000 high school students in comparison bers Grove district has around 5,000 high schoolers the number of Staff in their libraries 13 more than in all of CPS high schools Hinsdale has 4,000 high schoolers they have seven Librarians nerville's 5,000 students have eight Librarians nutrier for their 4,000 students they have 12 Librarians districts surrounding Chicago provide libraries and Librarians for their students this is not considered a luxury but just a 30 seconds remaining if
056we don't receive your vote to fund this contract we will remain where 85% of CPS students graduate without ever having had a library or a librarian this is just one of the many staff needs our contract would provide positions that have been negotiated and agreed upon by CPS which are all important please help us fund these needed positions that both CPS and CTU feel are essential funding schools is not extravagant or irresponsible it's an investment for the future that pays dividends thank you thank you for your comments our next speaker is Natasha dun speaker number 12 who is joining us virtually please enter star 6 to unmute hi my name is Natasha dun I am a community leader and education Justice um Advocate a parent a CPS parent Chicago Public Schools mission is to provide
057a high quality public education for every child and every neighborhood yet more Black Elementary and high school students travel over six miles to school more than any ethnicity these combined proportionately black students commute further from home to school than all other ethnicities and CPS over 61,000 420 black students in CPS have endured school closures turnarounds and mergers compared to only 7,000 Latino and only 5,000 white students black neighborhoods are disproportionately impacted by violence and according to University of Chicago crime lab black Chicagoans experien more homicides per residents and the safety Gap have doubled since the 90s finally only 21% of black students could proficiently I understand that everyone is new to this role but I must stress that delaying the creation of the black student achievement committee is no longer an option the longer we
058wait the more we allow systemic racism and discrimination to persist harming black students and communities I sent an email today for a resolution for your review this resolution is Comm Community vetted and signed by multiple groups and leaders I urge you to ensure this standing committee is fully operational by April 15th to ensure transparency and inclusivity I expect the Staffing process to involve collaboration your president myself and other key leaders in identifying individuals who can contribute to this critical work this is a crucial step in dismantling inequities because many of you all talk to talk but we about to walk to Walk um and we must work together in doing that so I urge you to check your emails let's talk let's get this started as soon as possible thank you thank you for your
059comments our next speaker is the Delo Bess Lawson speaker number 13 who is joining us virtually please enter star six to unmute good e good good morning everyone my name is Adella baz I am a power resident of the AL Riverdale community on the South Side I am also a cloud CPS graduate having attended aldrid Carver and finger schools I'm here to today to urge you to support a budget amendment that ensures the school has funding to hire nurses social workers this will also will provide necessary pay increases to retain experienced high quality Educators I am living proof of the difference these Investments can make as a CPS student I was fortunate to have Educators who went Above and Beyond I'll never forget a counselor who was taking me to out her way to get
060my hair done because at the moment that's what I needed that kind of commitment and motivating me to strive for Success it also underscores the importance of supporting and retaining black Educators who play a critical role in lives of black students this experience is what drives my work today at promoting health education and equity in my community I take pride in returning to the same schools I once attended to help young people understand how to protect their health their community and their environment as a you you as members of the board have the opportunity to be a source of support for the children I work with thus as my teachers and counselors supported me I urge you to vote in favor of funding for our schools and ensuring our Educators receive a fair contract thank
061you thank you for your comments our next speaker is Carolyn day speaker number 14 good morning I thank you for the opportunity to allow uh me to speak before this committee um as she stated I am Carolyn day I am a graduate of Chicago Public Schools a former employee in the office of specialized Services um high school programs education to careers and the Illinois Career and Technical educational programs for elementary school career developments we are the Black United Fund of Illinois and we're very very thankful to be a longtime vendor of Chicago po Public Schools providing the safe passage Services we are also the founder of safe passage um with our um deceased founder Henry English we come to you today asking for your consideration greatly to meet with us we think that that we
062can definitely add more value to what safe passage currently offers we're requesting a meeting with the CPS budget analyst to include a safe passage director Gregory Saints and acting Chief um M shinsky to show you that there is a way that we can expand the safe passage program because it not only provides safety and academic benefits but actually return on investment on monies that have been invested to Chicago Public Schools we'd like to meet with you along with our vice president Lafayette for you have 30 seconds for me a former director of youth program Services we know that the funds uh that come through Chicago Public Schools um not just grants were expanded to 125 CPS employees to present TW 1200 Community workers in closing we we want you to know that the student um
063their safety is in jeopardy with the closing of the schools and cutting of the budget and is imperative that we meet with a budget analyst we want you to know that our workers are committed to the students available on pleas conclude your remarks and can also work after school hours as well so with the oath of in public trust we thank you very much for this opportunity thank you for your comments our next speaker is Johnny Banks speaker number 15 yeah good morning uh to the boy good morning my name is Johnny Banks I'm the executive director of anak at midnight in 2009 I was leaving far I mean was leaving Finger High School taking a kid home that was in trouble I went West on 111th Street East on 111th Street Darion Alba was
064being murdered and out of that was born the safe passage program this program uh has been a a boom of Safety and Security for the young people in the city of Chicago right now sayfe page servic is about 191 schools we are we encounter almost 100,000 students a day uh back as they come and as they go providing Services uh uh uh the safe pastors leadership would like to call us nosy neighbors we in everybody's business in the community to find out what's going on who's doing what and why it's being done and so this morning I'm just advocating uh for the retention of the safe pastors program that you guys would take a look at it and actually what it does uh for the investment that you make and the return of your investment
065uh it is it is something that I think that any any any business would be interested in finding out how to keep it going it is something that is absolutely needed for our students we know our students personally we know them by name we meet their parents we meet the siblings we engage uh uh in the summertime working in the park districts in um after school sometimes we even do our truancy work uh that is assigned to 30 seconds remaining so we do a lot and I just wanted to just drop that in your spirit to let you know that we think that with your support that this program should be retained and we should be able to keep serving the the scholars of the city of Chicago thank you thank you for your comments
066our next speaker is Janette Baker speaker number 16 hello I am Janette Baker and I'm like the ultimate stakeholder I am a CTU field representative and the class siiz coordinator for the district I am a former CPS student I have a kid that went to CPS I've been in Chicago Public Schools working since for 29 years I started started out as a psrp I was a teacher I was a substitute I was a administrator I was an instructional coach I've done it all um and I'm here before you just to ensure that you understand the need to settle this contract and to invest in our students our students are the foundation of this city um we all know that students are all students are diverse Learners they learn differently they have different needs they have
067different um learning styles they have different learning rates um when we have Educators that have smaller class sizes they can the students will receive the targeted and specialized instruction that they need to succeed um academically each and every student their family their community and the city as a whole benefit from our students being in smaller classes there's no debating uh smaller class sizes per CPS when we moved from the student-based budgeting to a a more Equity of the K through eth grade classes without distinction should have capped at no more than 26 students um and then for high school it should have been capped at no more than 21 students now we find our place we find ourselves in a place that we are actually still negotiating for parity for over 600 almost 700 classrooms
068of fourth to eth grade fourth eighth grade classes and that's based on this year please conclud your remarks numbers um we are trying to get those numbers down to 28 so you as the board you controlled all of the Dynamics and the structures of everything in our district and you're charged with ensuring that the budget includes every bit of the funding needed to guarantee that each classroom doesn't go over mandatory levels or limits um thank you very much please consider making sure that the budget shows the classes are feasible thank you for your remarks thank you our last speaker from the list is L Sama who's joining us virtually please enter star 6 to unmute what EST leadership t in ped martinz thank you we'll have our Translator translate the statement good morning members of
069the board my name is Lama I return to you to call for an investigation into La Leon for the abuse of authority the alteration of official documents and for permitting the misuse of funds and into kashasha Ford for the harassment and manipulation of members of the LSC and bog and the improper manipulation of documents Peter Ramirez for helping the previous administration at Marine Leadership Academy Christine Novi create false evidence that resulted in the termination of my position Jerry Taylor for signing my termination letter when he knew of the irregularities and for authorizing the payment of a check for work I did not perform with the intention I believe of buying my silence the eoc's office for deliberately delaying and in many cases simply not carrying out investigations investigation investigator Miss Chari who contacted me on
070February 3rd on M March 4th I sent her a message and have received no response Vicente dipre MLA coach for selling students playtime during games and for compromising the emotional state of those who couldn't pay making those less fortunate have to watch as those who could bu playtime were celebrated with a pizza party additionally for not being able to provide receipts to confirm how collected funds were used the sports department for not being able to justify the more than 50 $15,000 paid to Mr Dei and Pedro Martinez and bdana shoa for not protecting students interests thank you thank you for that President Harden this concludes public participation board members do we have any questions or comments related to public participation Susan board member Brown requested to the extent possible anyone who has prepared remarks could
071you share with the board yes we'll collect those remarks and we'll also share them with the board members thank you thank you this concludes public participation segment let's now proceed with fy2 amended budget presentation Mike when you're ready please proceed thank you good morning president Harden members of the board my name is Mike sidowski and the chief budget officer for Chicago Public Schools my presentation today will be about the FY 2025 amended budget that is being proposed for a vote at the March 20th board meeting to begin want to recap the initial budget that was passed in July of 2024 the budget that was approved by the board in July of 2024 which totaled $9.9 billion this included three components first $8.3 billion to fund the district's operating budget which covers our day-to-day expenses second
072$611 million to fund the district's capital budget which includes investments in buildings and infrastructure and is funded primarily through through bonds issued by CPS finally $817 million of the 2025 budget funds the district's Debt Service budget which pays for principal and interest on bonds issued to fun the capital budget this was the budget that was approved in July as we discussed when the board passed the FY 2025 budget at the July 2024 board meeting CPS has planned to amend the budget once the district had a final commitment of total Tiff surplus funds and other appropriate local revenues to support potential outstanding costs in this fiscal year the proposed amendment to this budget adds the remaining committed Revenue to the CPS budget to increase this year's operating budget from 8.43 billion to 8.57 billion as part
073of our FY 2025 amended budget we are adding the remainder of the funding available from the city of Chicago's 2025 budget which was finalized in December and included 29 $98 million of Tiff Surplus funding for CPS 159 million of this Tiff Surplus funding was included in cps's original FY 2025 budget the remaining 139 million is being added to the proposed amended budget the amended budget allows the board to use the 139 million in any additional appropriate local resources to support three pending contracts first the pending collective bargaining agreement with the Chicago Teachers Union second the pending collective bargaining agreement with the Chicago principles and administrators Association and third the pending intergovernmental agreement with the city of Chicago for a reimbursement of a portion of the on behalf of cost for expenses related to the Municipal
074Employees annuity and benefit fund for context on the remaining funds the city budget approved in December included a tiff Surplus allocation of $298 million for CPS the largest Tiff Surplus allocation in recent history however this total was $186 Million short of the $484 million requested to meet projected costs in this year's budget and provides the district with only $139 million above what was included in the balanced budget approved in July this chart shows a breakdown of the request um $97 million was requested to cover base funding that has been included in cps's budget since 2019 $62 million was requested to cover the SEIU Local 73 contract costs the contract of which was ratified in May of 2024 these two items were included in the approved FY 2025 budget totaling $159 million the remainder of the
075request included $150 million for projected um CTU and cpaa labor contract costs and $175 million to fund a reimbursement to the city for the Municipal Employees annuity and benefit fund these total pending costs represent $325 million making up the balance of the $484 million request as you noted on the previous slide um with the final amount delivered by the city of $298 million um this leaves $139 million for pending costs in this year's budget this amendment provides the board the flexibility to utilize the remaining $139 million of Tiff Surplus funding plus other potential appropriate local resources for the aforementioned pending agreements while CPS expects that the $139 million will be sufficient to cover a year One cost of pending labor agreements with CTU and cpaa other resources or budgetary reductions Beyond those needed to keep
076the initial approved FY 2025 budget in Balance will be will need to be identified to cover the reimbursement to the city for meabf pension costs that concludes my presentation on the 2025 proposed amended budget or members are any questions or comments Bo member boy okay um I'm wrapping my P around this um so if if if we don't use the remaining 139 million to satisfy the labor agreements with CTU and cpaa what would happen what what would the financial implications be for the remainder of this year this and and next year what would happen so I can answer that question focusing on this year's budget as that's what this amendment contemplates um what this amendment does is provide the ability for the board to direct the $139 million of additional funding while also providing the
077flexibility for other solutions that may arise to satisfy any of the three contracts that I mentioned at this point what we have identified and confirmed is that we do have access to the $139 million there's still a possibility of other Solutions coming into play but at this point that's the amount of money that we have remaining so I can't speak to the broader consequences of of what could happen if those dollars are not used for the labor contracts but at this point those are the resources that we've had we have identified and the choice will need to be made of what is done with those resources may I ask a followup to that yeah okay so so the amended budget will require a 2third majority vote to pass right right I believe that's true but
078if we do this intergovermental agreement with the city that would only take a simple majority to pass I I'm just concerned because I'm trying to understand the process if the amended budget passes then it's possible that another vote could take place after that and could have us giving that 139 that we have to satisfy the labor contracts to the city for the meabf and that that has me concerned is am I understanding it right so the amended budget as proposed if approved allows the board to make decisions on how to use those funds within those three pending agreements our labor cont our pending labor contract with the teachers union our pending labor contract with the principles and administrators Association and the pending intergovernmental agreement with the city for the reimbursement for the meabf pension costs
079so I want to keep coming back to that and what this amendment does is provide that flexibility provide that optionality for the board to decide how those funds and any other additional available resources or options are used to satisfy those contracts so board member let me help a little bit so um again we wanted to give the board the flexibility because that's you know I always that's part of my philosophy we never want to box in the board so we want to give you as much flexibility the amendment gives you that flexibility uh so that the money can be used for any of those options that might just laid out if the amendment passes and then you also pass the IGA with the city then you're basically the board is making the decision to to
080have that money be given directly to the city therefore leaving no money at this point unless we have other solutions for the for the ne for the cbas for thetive bargain agreements what I can tell you what are right now our chief labor neg negotiators at the at negotiations today so he can't be there be here this minute but he has been told by CTU staff that if this money is not available for the collective bargaining agreement that it will it will it may will result in in a potential strike vote that's been really clearly told to us just as just as recently as in the last week the last week or so um and I guess my question is not related to the budget but related to a matter that we as a board
081approved um relative to um bringing on Baker Tilly to the work that we're doing and being able to try to figure out when we will have that report so that we can digest it given the complexities of what is facing us as a board over the course of the next um several days so just that was that's my question and um if someone can answer that that'd be great thank you I could tell you board member CER is that the Bea till report is still being developed uh we expect to have it in the coming days uh it will be a major component to determining what our next steps are uh for the board um it'll be what we look at or board have the opportunity to review it and then inform the decisions around
082how resources are then allocated so I think at this point we still have all the the options on the table and we'll continue to move we recognize that all three of these are obligations that the district has uh and we're doing everything in our power to meet them uh Smith thank you I have a few questions uh once uh our guidance uh from the bond attorney is that taking out a bond to cover operational costs would be unconstitutional is there a plan for overcoming the legal barrier and what evidence do we have that if we took out a bond that it would pass constitutional scrutiny so what I can say about the topic of a bond on this and what you're referring to is that we are not legally allowed to balance our budget using
083the proceeds from debt so the state law through the school code requires that CPS have a balanced budget borrowing to General proceeds for the district does not provide Revenue that allows us to balance a budget in compliance with that provision of the school code so with regard to any specifics around a bond issuance or anything like that I can't I can't speak to that at this point but that's um that's the interpretation of um of the school code that we've gotten and and member Smith just to to make sure it's clear you're not legally allowed to pass a budget that is not balanced uh to pass a bud to to get into contracts or any kind of agreements with a BAL with a budget that's not balanced that you know as a board is not
084balanced is actually a crime it's actually a misdemeanor and could result in the loss of a board seed if staff are complicit in that it's also uh staff would lose their jobs as well and that's by law all right my uh follow-up question is today uh chalkbeat reported that the amount requested of CPS for the city's pension payment is actually above the amount required to pay can you confirm the uh accuracy of that statement and if it is accurate would it be more prudent for this board to make a bonus pension payment or to satisfy our teachers and principles with what they bargain for in their contract so I want to clarify one thing regarding your question is that the financial matter being considered here with regard to the pension payment is a relationship between
085CPS and the City of Chicago it's not a payment to the pension fund it's a reimbursement for the city's expense that they are paying for the pension fund that does include CPS employees um now I I can't speak to the specifics around what you know what they have paid into the fund I did see the report that that they paid in additional money in the last fiscal year into the fund um but I can't speak anymore about that so member Smith the only thing I can share with you is um because we were watching the the city budget hearings uh because we were looking to see how much tip they would release to us and one of the conversations they had was the fact that every year at least recently the city has been making
086additional pension payments including to this pension and so that was a debate within the city about you know is that something that still could be done should be done um and as far as we know last year they did make that additional payment and it looks like this year they're also planning to make the additional payment and that's more around um you know because the Pension funds are just so underfunded so they're they're they're they're in essence think of it as they're they're they're giving more than the minimum payment that they required by law U because again you know the funds are just so underfunded board member Brown yeah I have this question up Mike you can answer it or or CEO Martinez um city council has made a commitment to make sure that this
087that Chicago public schools had access to the Tiff Surplus is that accurate would you say that that's actly the budget that was passed in December included the $298 million of surplus do aldermen like giving up their tiffs I can't speak to what Alderman like or don't like when it comes to prioritizing projects that within their wward versus just your your your opinion just what do you I I I would I would venture to say that there's probably a wide range of opinions on that okay so if Alderman are M if the city council is making a long-term commitment to say that the the expiring TI will come to Chicago Public Schools CEO Martinez or Mike do do you all believe that if we don't make that meabf payment that they would continue to do that
088so so I think um I don't know I don't know is the answer M member Brown of course every year the city has to go through their budget process and we know this year how difficult it was even for them to get to their final budget I think what I can say and and it's important to have context tiffs um in their origination were supposed to expire after 23 years many of these tiffs are now in their third term and unfortunately um and the areas where they had the highest tiffs are the areas that the highest developed today downtown the West Loop the South Loop Etc and so these these tiffs if they had been allowed to be expired when they were supposed to we would be uh CPS would be receiving an equivalent of
089at least $600 million per year every single year if the tips would have been allowed to expire the funds that are right now in the bank accounts of the city half of those funds would be in the distri District's bank and we would not have to borrow for payroll every year tiffs have created a lot of value for our city I'm I'm a CPS Chicago Kid I know what downtown looked like before in the 70s and 80s I know what the West Loop and the South Loop um in fact South Loop didn't even exist I think it wasn't even a term I don't think even West Loop was a term at that time in the 70s and 80s and so they've created a lot of benefits I think the the philosophical challenge that exists is
090that you know they're now on their third term and so I appreciate the fact that the current Administration is releasing more Tiff I appreciate the fact that they're being a little bit more transparent about it but it is it is a challenge and it is especially in a time when CPS has already lost federal funds could potentially lose more federal funds and the fact that we are so underfunded by our state okay I I guess this would be my last part of this question I think um it's so I I'll say what folks don't want to say that Al are not going to be with tiffs former mayor Dy used to say that tiffs were our only Economic Development tool and as CEO Martinez said it went to De they were supposed to be developed
091to reduce blight to address blight we know that through the porting of tiffs that means wealthy districts taking the tips from low-income communities they've been able to do huge corporate development and it hasn't really impacted our communities the way it should but Alderman hold on to those tiffs like is the golden grab and I just I I want to raise a common sense question for us if they made a commitment to make sure that we have access to those expiring tiffs and the Tiff Surplus if we don't make that meabf payment what Alderman in their right mind what city council in their right mind would say well we're going to honor this in commitment to you and then when we made a commitment through our CEO to pay the meabf payment and so I just
092think you know a little politics one-onone we you know they're not going to be support of of those resources coming into CPS for our long-term Health as we look to try to correct this structural deficit that Chicago Public Schools is in because it didn't start with this board and it didn't start with this mayor this is structural and I think that we we got to have the courage to do the type of work that it's going to take to address it on a long-term basis yeah thank you member Brown for saying that that it's structural just real quickly um again and this is on You Know city council testimony so and by the way it's said three different times because you know we've actually looked at the tape again even though it's you know 5
093plus 6 hours of a little bit of it's a little bit traumatic for me to even look at part of it and and the it was very clear throughout the testimony that in fact the table that Mike showed showing the request for the 484 was actually shown to city council um I also was asked a couple of times by Alderman Beal and a few others about again confirming the amount we always said $484 million and again it was a way to really show collaboration with the city to help them on this pension payment even though it's not our legal responsibility but it it does cover a portion of our employees and we've always acknowledged that uh but the commitment was based on the request for 484 the the and then at the end when the
094city council passed their final budget the the amount came in you know very short of that $299 million I also think board members longer term in terms of tiffs I can just tell you this from my experience in four other cities in in the state in this country a fully elected School Board uh you know has complete power of whether tiffs exist whether they're extended um and this board has never had that and so I think another philosophical debate is when this board becomes a fully elected school board at that point is there then you know again you know a change in that in that philosophy because again I've been I've been in three other cities and I can tell you any time the even the the the theory of a thft being created elected
095School boards had that final decision and I will tell you almost 100% of the time they voted it down or Custer thank you um my my question is about actually the meabf payment so we have $139 million that's sitting that we have lots of options um to to use but according to the meabf payment the city is demanding 175 so that still leaves a $36 million deficit um to what they're asking from us to begin with so I guess my question is um how do we come up with that $36 million does it mean cuts to this year's um or to this fiscal year and given the fact that we are in March um and a new budget has to be passed in July what's even left on the table um to meet that $36
096million demand if we do need to do that yeah so so again coming back to the nature of this amendment what it does provide is the $139 million that we know about and that has been allocated but also leaves open the possibility of other Solutions be it through addition additional revenue or reductions to expenses in this year's budget Beyond what's needed to combat some of the pressures that we're facing already on the revenue side and and some areas of cost overrun so um the amendment provides that flexibility that said when we're talking about reductions at this point in the year we're already today is March 13th we're almost 3/4 of the way through through the year and our options really at this point are much more limited than they would be if we were talking
097about this in July August September October um so most of our budget has been you know has been committed spent to date and so the options to find additional resources through cutting operating expenses is is limited at this point Thank you for Rivas thank you Mr President um so one thing I I wanted to clarify and and let me know if my thinking is correct here um when the city declares a tiff Surplus so they're declaring a tiff Surplus because they also need that funding to balance their own budget once a surplus is declared we receive our percentage that would have gone to CPS had it not gone into that Tiff bank account I believe it's 54% is that correct that that's correct so when the Surplus is declared the amount of Tiff funding that
098is Surplus is redistributed to taxing bodies based on the proportion of the overall property taxes that they represent we are just over 50% 52 54% of that overall tax burden so when the tip Surplus is declared those funds come back to CPS in that percentage so can the city next year because they're angry at us for not making this payment let's say can they declare a tiff surplus of $600 million and not provide us the 300 million that belongs to CPS so that's a question that we've never contemplated but based on my understanding of the process and the and what how that works I do not think that's possible yeah so car um board member R so I have researched this and by law uh and so again just to explain what a tiff Surplus
099is every year um the city receives $1.2 billion minimum in tiffs every single year to the extent that those funds are not spent they they go into a bank account basically and it's real cash it's not like madeup cash it's real cash it's in the bank um those balances you know as of the last publicly available data was over $3 billion with it be uh they've never been lower than a billion dollars in the last decade and so those funds and and they' so they've grown by law whenever those funds are lease they have to go to the taxing bodies that is by law about more than 50% goes to CPS the city itself uh gets just under a fourth of it and the rest of the funds go to city colleges the parks the
100water department Etc and so that is by law thank you I also uh wanted to clarify that the original ask of city council was 484 million is it and we received um two 298 that's correct okay so below what we requested to be able and that was the promise you made was that if we receive the 484 we will make this payment this 175 correct that's right m r so basically we said look if you want us to help you uh because it really was us helping the city because remember board members for a 100 years the the the pension fund itself has existed for more than a 100 years we never were asked as as a district to make a payment into the fund um I'm not saying it's right or wrong that's just
101that's just a fact it's only been in the last since uh the last since 2020 over 2019 that we started being asked to make payments gradual payments and again that was on the commitment of former Boards of that we had to start seeing the release of more additional tip funding because we don't we didn't have a revenue source and uh my final question um now if this amendment were to be voted down does this mean we come back next month month with a different budget amendment that would be more aligned to the needs of our teachers and leaders as we're working on finishing up these contracts so my understanding member Ras is um and I you know and I think I may suggest to the board a kind uh recommendation that maybe maybe we lay
102out some of these options at next week's board meeting for you because it is really confusing I had a double check and triple check with um so if the amendment is is not passed asked then we then the budget process would start over uh next uh and we and it could start whenever the board wants it and that's the 15 day cycle and then we go right through it um and you can also amend the resolution at um next week as well so whether it's to say we want to be clearly and just say we're going to use the 139 for the city pension payment or you can amend the the am the resolution to say we want the money to be specifically used for uh the collective bargaining agreements so that is those are
103the decisions that that you would have uh next week and so but to answer your question if if nothing is passed if nothing has passed then you would start the process again for a future budget amendment yeah I'll just comment that that wouldn't be prudent for us to limit ourselves I mean the amendment was written intentionally to give the board the ability to have options and so you know we should continue to move forward would be my recommendation for the board as you look at these very weighty decisions you want to go into them having the ability to have as many options as p as possible on the table manua thank you um thank you Chief I know that we've had discussions about refinancing of debt um could you share a little bit about the
104current plans I know you mentioned you have projections for refinancing of debt and then I'm reading in the Tribune the article that they published about us 20 $40 million worth of debt that could be refinanced is that already a part of the projections that you have and could you share about potential refinancing options that we could have that could save us some money and open up some money for us sure so um first with regard to the $240 million in the Tribune story we don't have the details exactly on what what that contemplated so I can't speak exactly to that particular proposal um what I will say and what we have discussed particularly with regard to next year's budget is doing debt restructuring in order to to free up budgetary space in next year's budget
105a process that we do each each year in order to keep our debt payments as stable as possible and Depend and dependent on market conditions so what we've discussed as far as options and potential solutions to help with next year's you know 5 to 600 potentially 7 to 800 million do deficit are doing things of that nature but things that are are part of our normal process each year so is there any refinancing that can be done for the situation that we have right now so I I'll let Mir Slava uh Mia Kruger CFO speak to that question good afternoon po member Ana mava Mia KR she Financial Officer um I also read what has been said on on on the newspaper I don't have the details but we have done everything that we could
106do this year so uh when we went through the budget for this year we have about hundred about $80 million that we had we needed to pay we did some arrangements in our debt in order to save about $100 million that is included in in our budget for this year so everything that we needed to do for this year we did it I know the Chicago tribun is talking about our debt service fund well the debt has already been paid we cannot Finance what have already been paid so I think that we have done everything that we could have done for 2025 in order to help the the budget now we're looking into what are we going to do to help the budget for 2026 as you all know that the that the deficit is
107over 500 million po yes uh obviously we are talking about all of this in the cont text of having inadequate funding to really meet the needs of our children our Educators our support staff Etc I think we have to keep that in mind all of the time when we're having these discussions we are discussing Hunger Games and a budget of scarcity and that is not where we need to be obviously we will be many of us going to Spring Field seeking additional Revenue there may be complications down there a lot of this is coming from the tremendous cuts that we anticipate and are already seeing from the uh federal government and this is all problematic but that said we have a large number of employees who have been working through the meabf pension fund that
108pension fund is funded at the 25% level that is an outrageous level of funding that cannot be sustained we have as a board paid the meabf payment for the last several years and the city understood it to be something that we were taking on they are paying extra into that pension fund paying basically paying on the principal in addition to just paying on the interest in essence and I feel as if this is an obligation that we need to find a way to fund and if that funding involves rearranging things I think that's what we have to do if that funding involves some kind of loan at a non-predatory normal interest rate I think that's what we have to do we have to meet the needs of our Educators our support staff our collective bargaining
109agreements Etc yes we have to obviously do some rearranging for next year there's no doubt about that but in the meantime we have to figure out a way to do what we need to do and that's what I think I think this amendment opens up is the flexibility to do exactly that so that's my statement I have another question uh is it true that the meabf payment has already been paid by the city and that what we're being asked to pay is a prepayment for the next pension loan to be clear member Smith I can answer that mic so um this is actually a reimbursement to the city for last year so the so so member Smith your first your first statement is correct the city has already made the pension payment it is their
110legal obligation again I'm not saying it's right or wrong that it covers some of our employees but is by law it is their legal they have to make the payment and that has been made as of last year so what the city is asking us to is to reimburse some for a part of that payment which is the 175 okay thank you so a lot of this conversation has been around disentangling city and CPS finances right as we stand on our own and this conversation is really focused on an obligation um but I'm also concerned about Revenue sources and I I wonder if you could give you know a a bit of useful information about what sorts of Revenue um CPS has the ability to raise what sorts of Revenue the city has the ability
111to raise um and sort of where that puts us in this conversation of disentanglement yeah uh thank you for the question so I think you're hitting on you know something similar to what board member Pope mentioned about our constraints as a district in terms of our overall Revenue availability we're underfunded at the state level we've talked about that we're facing you know challenges going forward at the federal level that remain to to be seen how that plays out um and then we are restricted in how much available local resources we can raise on our own primarily due to the um state laws regarding property tax caps so one thing we've continue to highlight for CPS is that we don't have the ability to go out and raise additional Revenue when we have to incur additional
112costs so that's a challenge with the issues we're talking about today that's a challenge with all sorts of other issues that we Face where we see Rising costs but we don't have the availability to go out on our own as a board to raise additional Revenue to meet them without the the action of city state or federal governments now the I think the distinction you're referring to with regard to the ability to raise revenue is the home rule designation that allows the city and other entities that fall under that home rule designation to raise taxes to implement taxes on different things and raise revenue in different ways that allow to meet allow those entities to meet those costs be they pension costs or other obligations that they have so um you know coming back to
113what we're doing as a district we're Limited in what we can do in that sense and that's been a challenge that again we're facing with all these all the budget pressures that we're seeing and that we've seen over the last few years is that when these costs come on to cps's books we have a choice of whether to meet that cost or to find resources within our own budget it would have to be through cuts to be able to address address those Rising costs if the revenue is not available to meet them yeah and just just to add on that member bigs so the city actually under the I believe it was under the Emanuel Administration actually created a levy it was authorized to create a levy to u to for specifically for this pension
114and so the so the challenge is that the levy for and they had levies also for the fire and police so I agree with member Pope I mean this fund is very underfunded it is it is a significant risk for the city and I do worry about the impact it could have on especially on future employees um but the levy actually exists and it hasn't been raised now for a number of years I'm not saying it's easy to raise a levy uh but it does exist specifically for the municipal pension um for the municipal pension fund um unfortunately we don't you don't have home rule and even when you become fully elected um school districts are across the country just don't have home rule it's not something that's given to school districts you're always Limited
115in whatever revenues you can raise and then here it's even a double whammy because you're not allowed to pass a budget uh in any legal way that is not balanced and so it really just really puts a lot of restrictions on school districts the city doesn't have those kind of restrictions because they can they have home rule they can raise levies they can issue new levies they can borrow against future levies um and you know again to remember Pop's comment earlier we already have a legal opinion that is very clear we are not allowed to borrow for deficits uh and it is not allowed to be counted as Revenue those are just not uh not allowed by the law let me make a comment let me ask a question uh CEO Mike is this the
116first year this is not the first year we've been asked to make this payment correct correct we've made it in the past we've made this payment for four the four prior fiscal years yeah what was the previous year what was the amount that was paid $175 million and before that I believe two years ago was also $175 million okay so what makes the distinction in this year around the the payment because there wasn't a legal obligation to do so then yeah yeah so let let me answer that Mike so because there's a lot of there's a lot of history here um so initially under the lifefood administration uh because we had federal funds um and and maybe because they were also trying to balance their budget the district was asked at that time to um
117to start making a payment to the pension and it started with $60 million the board at that time and again she appointed that board um fought back and said it's not right uh we haven't paid it for 100 years and and said we only will do it if we get additional tip funding that first year um and that was with President Miguel deay that first year I the money did come in so we were able to get the $60 million we I think we've documented that the next year the request was $100 million again the board pushed back and said again this is not our legal obligation with all due respect um so we need to get also an additional Revenue Source IE Tiff um I believe maybe in that year they might have came
118in at 100 million I think I think it it might have I think that's what I remember and then the third year uh was was raised up to 175 and the district did not get enough TI funding so that was a huge debate I think that was the year that was when I came into CPS and I got caught in the middle of it not understanding any of this and so and then uh and so it was made reluctantly but at that time uh we had to use our federal funds and so the district did it reluctantly but said no more we're not going to do this again the following year um Mayor Johnson is now in office and he's literally in his first month and so he's asking the the board that was about
119to leave which was you know under President deay to make this payment the board said we cannot and so it went on for months uh the new board came on under Mayor Johnson still went on for months about I mean just this this this debate and at that time um it was and and and credit Mayor Johnson I mean like I said he followed through later that year with the with the one of the biggest Tiff surpluses we had and then continued that last year so again it was a lot more collaborative but even then uh the understanding was this cannot happen unless the revenues exist because of that it started a series of meetings um that was um myself and and the mayor and his team um making this request for the Tiff Fundy
120and so all the way to the point when it led to the request for the $484 million which was you know through last year all the way up the city council and so that's just been the history uh it's always been a contentious issue uh I think the district has always acknowledged that look at some point we have to have a longer term solution uh whether it's maybe can the city assign the levy that it has for the pension to the district and allow the district to be the one that raises it um I don't I'm not a legal expert on that but you know like those were the kind of conversations that we've been always wanting about you know what can the city do to help us to create the revenue source for it
121because by the way board members um this isn't an issue anywhere else in in in the state of Illinois I don't know why and maybe you know member Brown you're the historian maybe you can go back and look at this for whatever reason uh this District was never allowed to create a fund for its noncertified employees other districts were and so they did and they did it with cities and so there's another fund that the state has no doesn't fund put any money into it and it is more than 100% funded because they funded it and they made sure it was funded and then with the stock market gains it is now is is it's just a non-issue anywhere else except Chicago I don't know why the city never allowed the district to do that
122or participate in that again this thing goes back a 100 years I just I just don't know why um and then of course it became an issue you know four years ago when we were asked to start to contribute so those are important details that kind of outline or or signify there's a history of the payment there's a history of the recognition that the district has some obligation for and that this Administration did what it said it was going to do and provide it you know record Surplus in order to do it so the board member Brown's point you know it's important for the board to recognize all those components as it's make makes its decision going forward that you know we do our part they'll do our part has been evidenced by the record
123300 million or $298 million and a commitment for for next year those are important context board member Brown um yes sir thank you uh Mr President I so I know that the board has refinanced uh the CPS has refinanced debt in order to reduce cost in the past um so are we saying that every time that's happened has been illegal I mean there's a there's a long history of this type of action uh again in order to reduce costs and and uh you know balance the budget so so again remember Brown It's refinancings are not illegal and like I said as our CFO said we do them every year in fact I think the challenge is she didn't say this but I feel like we're more dependent on refinancings just just to even find you
124know just to be able to balance the budget and so so we're doing that every year um the challenge is um that's already built into this budget and we're already you know and that will be built into next year's budget it doesn't provide any additional room to create the source for this year um and like I said you know it's something we have to look at for next year because we have to it's just every year so so those those refinances are healthy and then you know and again you know we're being we're doing them annually so CEO Martinez and and just to be candid like we're hearing different and so we're getting a lot of information from different places but I think because it's not even just about as we know the municipal payment
125it's also about the teachers union pension and it's also about the the the um Chicago principles Association and so we're saying we have $139 million y'all just pick and figure it out and I think it's it's a lot more uh there's a lot more at stake than that and so I I just want to raise it that you know other experts are saying that you can refinance and then actually the debt is not paid out of our internal budget it's actually paid back by the Tiff Surplus or the expiring tiffs that that actually pays the loan back but then I think there's another challenge and I don't mean this I just think I don't see it a vision for a a state strategy not a state agenda that CPS is moving but a vision to
126make one of the largest economies in the world that for decades has been 49th in public education with a global City like Chicago to make Illinois the education State like a vision to because the cuts at the federal level are coming and but you I don't hear a comprehensive plan I hear it's almost like we in a we're in a boat and we got duct tape at the bottom of it and we're just hoping that the leak don't spring and I think that it's incumbent upon us as people in the positions that we're in that we have to articulate the whole package um you know we we we we don't want to ruin that relationship with the city as president Harden has said there's been a history of making the payment so consequently we've gotten
127the largest Tiff p uh Tiff Surplus we've ever received right so again yes it's law but basically what I hear you saying CEO is that it's ordinance and an ordinance can always be uh uh Rewritten it can always be amended so I just think we have to talk about the whole package here we're we're in a crisis that was not created by our CEO it was not created by you Mike it wasn't created by any of us here but it's in our lap and so the question is you know if we're going to talk we have to have a comprehensive conversation we need a Statewide strategy we we need a strategy to look at uh to come up with other forms of Revenue at the city level but we're in an emergency right now right
128and so I just want I I do think that what we're hearing from experts is that being able to finance uh this debt to lower the cost is an option so I just want to share with you all we're getting from experts just like the experts here that work for us at the district we're getting two sides of the coin and so we're trying to sift through all of this to come to a solution that that that that makes sense for our children yeah so so so member Brown I really appreciate what you said and um couldn't agree with you more about you know we need we need a very strong uh strategy with our unions with our mayor with with City Hall um around the state because we are we are just underfunded and
129and and that and that is clear by their own evidence that were underfunded um again in terms of the experts again just to and it's very complicated for the bers and I get that so again I I appreciate the fact that you're trying to understand it I think where it gets confusing is you know when when you talk about the city's ability because they control tiffs they control them um and so when you control your own Revenue Source it just gives you a lot more flexibility what you can do in terms of borrowing against that Revenue Source against because they have home rule they can create lobbies so the flexibility the cities have is just much higher and and and and again they can do things the challenge for a school district and again we
130have a legal opinion that the board members have it's very clear you're not allowed to borrow for any deficits you're not allowed to uh count any borrowings as Revenue that is just state law the tiffs don't belong to us they they belong to the city and so as much as I appreciate the fact that tiffs will be released the city has to make that decision year by year and so you know it is through the City budget and the vote that they take that's what determines the revenue for that year so I you know it's great to have the the commitments later on but we as a district have no control over them so you can't even use that in any way as a as a revenue Source by law the other um and so
131and so that's that's the biggest that's the biggest challenge is that now if the tips were released today today then those were count as revenues today and so again I I do believe that regardless um we need to come up with a long-term solution um because this this is part of the disentanglement this is part of the district becoming fully elected but it has to be all inclusive it's tiffs it's levies that exist right now can new levies be created for the district some of those may require you know State Law changes and I believe members uh member Brown the the pension legal obligation is a state law it is not a city ordinance uh pensions are very defined clearly in state law and who's responsible for them board members of thank you um so
132I just wanted to comment on the importance of knowing uh exactly the size of the hole that we have to fill and we still really don't know that because the contract has not been resolved um we keep hearing estimates um but we really need the facts and so for two months now we've been hearing that we're close to solving it and obviously a lot of progress has been made and kudos to all those who have done so much work on it but we've also been hearing for two months pretty much the same stumbling blocks so I just kind of want to say that it would be really important to get it done as soon as possible because for us to make these very difficult decisions I think it's important that we have actual numbers and
133not these theoretical numbers that we've been offered yeah and board member boys I'm Mike did you have a follow yeah if I could just to that to that comment the thing that we don't have final certainty on the numbers even for this year because especially with CT the contract is still outstanding what we do have is more certainty this year on this year's costs than we do in the subsequent years because the costs we're likely to incur this year will be wage based and so we you know we know what what we've offered we know where where the teachers union is currently at so we have a sense of what what those two what those costs are our proposal is within that 139 million of available Revenue but obviously to your point we're not going
134to know exactly until the contract's final but we do have more certainty at this point for this year than we do for the entire term of the four-year contract board member boys hi Mike um so how much have we received in Tiff over the last do you know the numbers for the last three years uh I don't have those exact numbers with me I believe so this year was the 298 million that we've discussed last year and we're talking Tiff Surplus here so last year I believe it was around 226 million um and then the year prior I believe was under 200 million but still in that in the range um higher than what we had received historically from that steadily increasing the city's giving us more and more Tiff dollars yes every year is
135that right um and you know we have these briefing these brief meet the small brief meetings with five board members at a time and we many of the folks on this board are education Advocates um parents so forth and we're talking about some kind of complicated governmental sort of stuff um I I'm wondering um Madam Secretary if there's a if there's how we can incorporate actual experts to come and talk talk to us and answer our questions I think it would be outstanding if we could have um I'm sure assessor kegi would be happy to come and tell help us understand how the property taxes and the levies go because we do have some Authority when it comes to those I would love for someone to come and talk to us about the Tiff and
136the Tiff Surplus I know there's someone from the city who's I don't know her name but she's got glasses and I saw her on WGN News recently um I just I feel like everybody in this room does CPS really well you know and maybe we need to bring in every time I leave the Board Room I make five phone calls to make sure that I'm getting the right Story the accurate story and the most upto-date story um and so what's the process that we can bring our own experts into not just make a speech but actually answer questions similar to what Mike is doing I would have to defer to the acting Chief of Staff as well as our Deputy um because as well as the CEO's team because they're the ones that actually schedule
137the 5x5 briefings that you're referring to as well as who is attending those briefings so it's something I'll bring back to the team and can but that can they come here and testify and answer questions not just like make a speech but actually answer questions from the board because this is I mean this is complicated stuff and we should have experts we should be no Mike you're an expert at what you do no shade and CEO Martinez really appreciate your input but I think if we're talking about tax levies if we're talking about Tiff and surplus we should actually have some people maybe a person from the city a person from the assessor's office um do that and and we can have an a real discussion a health discussion noted and I'll take that up
138with our team as well thanks that's all thank you board member banon um CFO KR and Mike be get into this too um I I just want to um push back on the refunding option I uh you know obviously we have a limit amount of funding and if it's a choice between pension payments sub payment to the city and funding our schools I think it's an easy choice for everyone at the table but we can't ignore that not making this pension payment won't have repercussions I mean we have repercussions uh in later fiscal years if this is in a vacuum it would be an easier Choice um so that's the only reason that I'm pressing so hard on the refunding option um my understanding or I'm asking you to um confirm more with um uh
139the city they I believe have a detailed funding option identifying the bonds that can be refinanced I know CFO kogy said that's not an option this year again I'm just um I'm asking to re re reexamine um that option um with these specifics in mind and maybe it's a meeting between President Harden and and the city and CPS um or to the point that board member blae made um something like that but um i' I'd like to hear more information uh as followup on how some specific proposals are not options I don't know if you're prepared to answer those right now referring to specific bonds I wouldn't imagine uh you can that uh in this forum but maybe um tomorrow or next week we can have some more detailed questions on on that yeah I'll
140just say board member Bannon that you know the discussions around options that are available are going to continue um you know directly with the city with the internal team I mean you know we're going to continue to work through without halt to examine to your point you know we're going to do everything possible to meet these obligations and if it comes down to we obviously we're going to protect classroom uh but we do recognize all of these things as being critical and so we're going to examine all options those that come up in the newspaper and every place else uh until we are satisfied that we've done everything we possibly can do and so just want to you know commend Mike Maris Slava you know you guys have been outstanding in terms of being responsive
141trying to work this through uh but the job is not done yet so we'll continue to have these conversations tomorrow and through next week thank you for your presentation thank you thank you I just want to put a finer point on U maa's request especially for tomorrow's hearing um the process CEO um and Ruchi um if you could let us know for having a subject matter expert um that can that can also stand with Mike and chief um Maris laava and the CEO um for tomorrow's hearing so that we can leave here with with Clarity of all of the options that that we need to consider um and also you know the city is not here to respond to the impacts I mean I was in city hall yesterday and I talked to a dozen
142aldermen um and the what they have Express to me is um one like us not not like us riging on paying that um payment um would be extremely difficult for the city and for all the taxpayers in in in the whole city so they are very concerned um that CPS doesn't make that payment and I would like to be able to I would like be able to leave the budget hearings and I think the entire city of Chicago and constituents across the city would deserve to have um PE you know folks who also understand and have opinions on on this that we need to be considering before we make our our decision next week uh is there something that you can respond to now Rie I don't know if you have the bylaws in front
143of you um or how we've done it in the past uh with having like subject matter experts um here never I'm happy to review that with President Harden and get back to you so we we'll take it into consideration we're clear what the board is requesting we just have to look into how to make it so so I'll follow up yes and sorry and worst case scenario I can talk to the folks that I me at least the two that I mentioned and maybe write something up and share um with contact information for somebody that they can call for a followup you know it I I think the the point here is you know we will Avail to all board members the information that's needed in order to make decisions so you know whether whether
144it be here or outside the I think what's critical is that we engage all the folks that we need so that everybody feels comfortable in the decisions that we're making you know and so you know we'll examine what's possible for tomorrow it's kind of short notice but to the extent that it's possible then we'll do it but if not be clear that we will still make available all the information that's needed and bring any experts that we can to the table well I'll make sure that that occurs yes sir yeah the only thing I wanted to say is there's been lots of mentioned by lots of board members here today relative to other data and information you know I got a file today and I can tell you I wasn't part of those conversations or
145even an extended invitation um to hear the brief from said horse's mouth um so for me it would be really important that whatever information you guys are talking about that all that information would be shared ahead of time so that we can all be on the same page thank you now point point taken board Gutierrez and that just underscores the point that I just made is it's critical that all board members have access and are informed with all the information everybody has so we're singing from the same H book This is complicated stuff no no doubt but we can't get through it uh we all have access to different sources of information and we are committed to bring it all to the table for full examination so we're fully informed all right this concludes our
146first fy2 budget hearing thank you for