Board of Education

Here is a link to the agenda for today’s meeting https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21270615-board-of-education-2022-02-23-agenda-for-the-board-of-education-meeting

And here is a link to the stream which is expected to go live shortly https://www.youtube.com/c/ChiPubSchools/videos

Roll call taken. 6 members are present today.

del Valle opens with expressing CPS’ commitment to requiring masks from all students and faculty, despite the recent announcement from the city

Honoring excellence: Coach Dorothy Gaters the Former Marshall High School Girls Basketball Coach

“I want to thank you for many many, years of service… and what you did to establish and maintain school pride at Marshall high school over the tears.” -del Valle

“I think the term GOAT gets thrown around a lot but Coach Gaters is and was the GOAT.” -Member Todd-Breland

The former Agassiz Elementary in the Lakeview neighborhood is now named Harriet Tubman Elementary School.

Brooklyn Rogers and Benjamin Ochoa two 7th graders from Tubman are speaking on the significance of this name change as Harriet Tubman was someone who believed in change and equality.

“Our students are the new conductors of the underground railroad.” - Tubman Principal Kimberly Gibson

@tubmanCPS “What you’ve demonstrated though is now you can be the conductor above ground.” -Member Sotelo

“This is year-round work. Black history is year-long work.” -Member Todd-Breland

“Thank you for this moving testament of what is possible.” –Member Melendez

Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova shares remarks on her experience immigrating to the U.S. and aspiring to work in CPS.

She closes with encouraging parents and community members to participate in the 2022 LSC Election. Here is a breakdown of the timeline: https://t.co/I2uOZ0aAow

Dr. Stephanie Jones, Chief Officer of the Office of Diverse Learner Supports & Services says that all of the 700+ students that were facing transportation issues have now been routed.

@PedroCPSCEO says that he is thrilled @chicago is at a place to remove the mask and vaccination mandate, however in an effort to remain cautious of the potential risk to students, @ChiPubSchools policy will remain the same.

***for the time being

@PedroCPSCEO says screen testing results are now being separated by school, so that data will be available soon

@PedroCPSCEO also says that CPS is looking at the process of selective enrollment and how they can make it more equitable. He says this will not affect this year’s applications. If they make changes & they are approved, they would be effective in Fall 2023.

Back on the issue of transportation, @PedroCPSCEO says that within the next 2-3 months CPS will present a new policy that lays out the tiers of prioritizing the most at-risk students.

Emphasis on prioritizing the most at-risk first, but intending to serve all students.

“The fact that we are talking about this, when just a month ago we were in a surge, is a positive thing.” -
@PedroCPSCEO on masking

Update: The next board meeting is scheduled for March 23.

We’re proceeding with the public participation portion of the meeting.

@CTULocal1 President @SharkeyCTU1 is the first public speaker.

Although he will not seek relection he will remained involved in CPS. He says he’s glad CPS intends to keep the mask mandate intact. He says he recognizes that at some point CPS will consider removing it, and lists what CTU will look into before being ok with removing it.

We have a parent calling in support of @UrbanPrep - Englewood Campus specifically. Principal Joseph Mason of the Englewood Campus speaks in person on the excellence of his students & requesting a charter renewal for the school.

We’ve gone through 4 more public participants speaking on behalf of Urban Prep’s grant renewal

One more Urban Prep student and parent have spoken on the excellence of @UrbanPrep & how they help young lead young men to success. Their message is loud & clear as all speakers today, besides Sharkey, have been from the @UrbanPrep community.

We now have a call-in from the @NLCP_Lawndale community speaking on NLCP’s importance to the neighborhood.

A parent has called in with concerns about the Building Level Safety Committee, stating that there is a lack of transparency (with no information on CPS’ website) and no parent representation involved.

A speaker is asking CPS to convert to making masks optional in accordance with Chicago’s incoming policy

CPS Parent Nancy Griffin calls asking for more data-driven decision making in regards to policy and mitigation.

Another parent cites that CPS parents received an email last night that states the reasons why CPS has decided to continue to require masks in school. She’s speaking against their reasoning.

Another charter school parent is calling in, asking for parent involvement in the Safety Committee.

Two parents speak in person against CPS maintaining the mask mandate in schools.

“Our children do not belong to the CTU, CPS or Lori Lightfoot.” -Speaker #23, CPS Speaker

We have another speaker saying that this mandate is illegal and will result in lawsuits.

A parent calls in asking for an ending to masking because students need a “return to normalcy”.

Caller Leonard Moore asks for consideration of the proposal of a new high school in North Lawndale, as one has not been built in over 60 years. The proposal has been presented to members of the board before.

Public participation is now over & the members will add their comments.

Not much there, we’re moving onto the business portion of the meeting & presentations.

The Office of Portfolio Management is presenting on the co-location of North River Elementary with ASPIRA Charter School in Albany Park.

They say that the parents of staff of these schools have been included in weekly emails that explain updates and gather any concerns or feedback from the community.

Safety measure meetings will be held to discuss safe passages for students to get to and from school.

The students will transition to a single campus between May-August 2022, in time for the new school year.

Moving on to a presentation on a renewal recommendation for @UrbanPrep Englewood Campus, which we’ve seen so much support for today.

Here is a breakdown of the criteria schools are essentially graded/rated on when being considered for renewal. https://t.co/wGNUTSKtK1

They are asking for a one year renewal to their grant for the Englewood campus which currently serves 188 high school students.

They’ve noted that academic performance criteria has been calculated based on older numbers due to not have SQRP scores due to covid.

Today there will be a vote on a new accountability policy, so we are now going over an Accountability Redesign Process presentation to prepare for that.

Covid has affected many aspects of this policy, including the timeline the committee has had to put it together. Rather than have the final policy done in April as planned, they will be taking more time.

Taking up to April 2023 to finalize.

So update on the policy… They have created an advisory group consisting of 26 diverse people to synthesize best practices, solutions, and stakeholder input.

They’re also implementing a Stakeholder Engagement Design Team and this is listing of who is involved in that. https://t.co/8AwTsuXccP

I don’t think I could copy this email address before they move on to the next slide, but in the first bullet point there is a link to further explain the process and details of this policy (in both English & Spanish). https://t.co/iauJRTY3ic

Vice President Revuluri & Member Sotelo stress the importance of making sure that parents understand the policy and that there is transparency in the process of creating it.

We’re moving on to the discussion of public agenda items.

I think we need a little less heat, a little more light.” -Vice President Revuluri

Member Melendez says respects that parents concerns of masking comes from their children’s individual experiences, but CPS must commit to a resolution that considers the safety and experience of the collective.

Member Todd-Breland adds onto that saying that being cautious is the right thing to do.

“It’s our family members who have been more sick. It’s our family members who have died.” - Member Todd-Breland on the disproportionate impact covid has had on Black and brown communities

She says that “masks are not oppressing anybody.”

“The day will come when we will be able to become mask optional.” “We’re gonna go from a pandemic to an endemic.” -del Valle

He says that he believes that within the near future, given that no new covid variants arise, CPS will be able to go mask-optional.

@PedroCPSCEO agrees, and says he hopes it happens during this school year.

“I thought delta was going to be it, and then omicron humbled me completely.” - @PedroCPSCEO

Ok time for voting.

The vote to renew @UrbanPrep charter grant renewal is approved.

All initial items are passed including PR-4, PR-5 and PR-6 on the public agenda.

PR-10, EX-4, EX-5, AR-1 are accepted on the agenda.

AR3, AR4, AR5, AR6, AR7, AR8, AR9, AR10, AR11, AR12 are all voted on and passed.

EX6 The Warning Resolution for Nathaniel Swopes, a Tenured Teacher from John B. Drake Elementary School is passed.

RS6 regarding to the dismissal of tenured teacher Ina Boshnakova is passed.

The meeting minutes for the January 26, 2022 meeting (not public) is passed.

The meeting adjourns at 2:16 pm.

The energy towards the end of this meeting definitely felt less patient and it felt like the board members were rushing for it to be over.