Cracks revealed between Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Teachers Union at June board meeting

With a month remaining before Chicago Public Schools finalizes its budget for the next school year, Chicago Teachers Union members gathered ahead of a Board of Education meeting Thursday to decry end-of-school-year layoffs among approximately 300 CPS staffers in teaching assistant and restorative justice coordinator roles.

CPS and the union have presented a united front in recent months, joining together to lobby for state funds and to make their collective bargaining negotiations accessible to the public. But as resources have become more scarce—with the district facing an approximately $400 million deficit when pandemic-era federal relief funds expire in the fall—different priorities emerged at Thursday’s more than six-hour meeting.

Education support staff, known as paraprofessionals, help manage classrooms and materials and provide tailored support to students. CTU members said that by cutting the number of staff members who often support homeless, bilingual and special education students, CPS will destabilize not only staffers’ families but also their students.

CPS said in an emailed statement that it will increase certain paraprofessional positions by hundreds next school year and, in the meantime, “made staffing adjustments” to reflect changes in the student population. However, by establishing ”layoff prevention pools,” CPS said impacted employees will be assigned to vacant positions and guaranteed pay throughout the next school year.

Instructional assistant Sandra Lockhart said she worked at Lasalle Language Academy in Old Town for 20 years before receiving an email that she would be laid off next school year. “I do not understand how those cuts were made,” she said. “How are you going to make sure that these students can feel comfortable in their buildings without these veterans in our schools?”

In an emailed statement, CPS spokesperson Sylvia Barragan said that compared to staffing levels last fall, the district will be adding 600 special education paraprofessionals, 30 restorative justice coordinators and 500 teachers next year, to “prioritiz(e) reduced class sizes to enhance teaching and learning at each school.”

She added that teaching assistants comprise about half of the 600 paraprofessionals impacted by the adjustments overall, representing a half-percent reduction in total staff.

Laid-off from his position as a restorative justice coordinator at Sherman Elementary School in New City, Edward Ward said of CPS, “They look at the people who are doing the work, on the ground, in the streets and they say, ‘You’re disposable,’ because we lack the fiscal dexterity to balance a simple budget.”

Barragan said CPS is committed to guaranteeing a job for any of the impacted teaching assistants and that historical data confirms laid-off staff members who remain in the District will regain their employment in CPS.

Despite a “challenging financial outlook,” CEO Pedro Martinez said at the board meeting that he remained confident either the same level of funding, or a slight increase, would be allocated to schools overall in the 2024-25 budget, which will be considered for approval next month.

CPS officials also upheld investments in curriculum, behavioral support, extended learning time, and teacher professional development, which the district credits with spurring academic gains that outpaced other large districts, according to research by Harvard and Stanford universities.

Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova said ia range of measures from the 2022-23 to 2023-24 school years demonstrated overall improvement, including the number of students who took Advanced Placement tests, a higher number of academic intervention plans created to provide targeted support to struggling students, more schools which implemented a behavioral health team and a greater number of students who participated in enrichment programs outside the regular school day.

However, disparities among student groups persist. Chkoumbova noted that achievement levels among Black students, English learners and students with disabilities “are not where they need to be”. Meanwhile, she added that the needs of vulnerable students in the district are increasing. In the past school year, CPS has gained an additional 10,000 English learners, 12,000 students in temporary living situations, and 4,000 students with disabilities.

CPS parent Grisel Sanchez was recently laid off from her role as a bilingual teacher assistant at Mark Twain Elementary School in Garfield Ridge. She was told she could reapply for her job, but she wasn’t guaranteed to be rehired at the same school. “This has put me in a hard position, stressing me over finances for the summer, as I am a one-income household,” she said. “Why am I being taken away from my school?”