Karin Norington-Reaves (District 10)

Section 1 - Basic Information & General Questions

Candidate's Name  Karin Norington-Reaves

District 10

Campaign link  www.karinforkids.com

Are you a current or recent CPS parent, grandparent, or guardian/caregiver? CPS Parent

Are you a CPS graduate?  Yes

Have you ever served on a Local School Council (LSC)? Yes

Have you ever served on a Parent Advisory Committee (PAC)? No

Have you ever served on a Bilingual Advisory Committee (BAC)? No

Have you ever served on a Community Action Council (CAC)? No

Have you ever worked in a CPS school? No

How long have you lived in the district you are running to represent? 25 years

Describe your CPS experience. 

I attended Shoesmith Elementary (K-2), Brenneman Elementary (2nd/3rd), Walt Disney Magnet School (3rd-8th), and Lincoln Park High School (Performing Arts program). All of my children have attended CPS, and one is currently enrolled. My daughter attends James Otis World Language School where I serve as the chair of the LSC. 

As the Executive Director of Teach for America I placed and supported over 200 teachers in Chicago Public Schools. I later joined Innovations for Learning as Director of Corporate Relations connecting schools to corporate partners and implementing literacy programs for K-3rd grades in schools throughout the city, inclusive of the 10th District. 

While serving as Chief of Staff in the 20th Ward I served on several education committees and was the liaison for schools within the Ward. I helped ideate and stand up the efforts in Woodlawn to replicate the Harlem Children’s Zone and improve the schools within that community. 

As CEO of the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership I collaborated with CPS on numerous initiatives including training CPS career counselors on the resources of the public workforce system for the benefit of high school students. I developed, funded and implemented programs for CPS students such as integrating the SOAR centers with the workforce development system (moving them from co-located partners to integrated Hubs). 

Finally, before departing The Partnership, I led the efforts to create the now annual skilled trades expo which debuted in March 2022. Prior to that it languished for a year without direction. I secured a budget, provided the framework and led my team and our partners to a successful event which has now been replicated twice. 

Why are you running for the Board of Education? 

As a K-12 graduate of CPS, a Chicago taxpayer and parent of a CPS student I am running to represent families like mine who want to remain in the city we love and want quality schools for our children in order to do so. I am running for my daughter who came to CPS as a newly adopted, blind, English language learner. Despite my experience as a former teacher and attorney, I found the IEP process overwhelming and secured legal counsel for assistance. It occurred to me that if it was that complicated for me, what was it like for other families. So, I’m running too for the families that struggle to navigate the byzantine IEP process in order to secure appropriate services for their special needs students. I run for the families that aren’t even aware that their kids are entitled to such services. 

I am running for the students who cannot read, whose career prospects will be severely constrained if they don’t make significant gains in literacy and numeracy. And for the students who graduate without direction, guidance, or support. 

I am running for the families who contemplate leaving Chicago in order to find a better school system for their child. And, for the taxpayers whose hard-earned dollars fund our flawed but resilient system. I am running to ensure that we have experienced fiscal and education stewards on the Board; to decrease the partisanship and ensure that our children are not sacrificed on the altar of politics. I run because we need competent, experienced leaders who understand just what is at stake if we don’t get this right. 

What is the most pressing challenge our district is facing? 

The most pressing challenge faced by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is a projected $500- $700 million deficit for the upcoming school year. There have been many financial missteps that have negatively impacted the financial health of the district. While there are a plethora of opportunities for growth across the district, none of them can be addressed without proper funding. 

Past and current budgets have not been prudent and I don’t feel they prioritize the well-being of our students. We need a full financial audit of the budget so we can clearly identify wasteful spending, chronically vacant and unnecessary central office positions, and opportunities to bring public/private partnerships to address the other needs across the district. 

Section 2 - Board Responsibilities & Commitments

How will you interact with CPS students and families in your district to ensure that the voices of the most impacted are heard and understood?

I anticipate co-locating my office with elected officials in my district and utilizing regular community meetings for engaging families. I also plan to connect with Local School Councils and parent organizations to discern their concerns, needs and interests. It is imperative to maintain open lines of communication to share not only the challenges but the successes as well. 

Additionally, I want to implement office hours outside of regular board meetings to ensure families have the space to express their concerns intimately. I want to engage youth and advocate for a student advisory board to provide feedback on the decisions that will impact them. 

Finally I plan to implement a feedback system that will allow families to share their experiences outside of the traditional meetings. I will collaborate with community organizations to provide information sessions on upcoming agenda items that are complex or convoluted to make sure our families fully understand the impact that board decisions will have on their scholars

What specific actions will you take to address and repair the historical harms within Chicago Public Schools, and how will you ensure that students, parents, and educators are actively engaged in the healing and trust-building process?

I believe the most effective answer to this question must come from the communities that experienced the harm. I cannot tell a community what they need to heal, so I would have to defer to my previous answer about intentional engagement with the slighted community members. While it would be easy to pretend I understand, I would do a disservice to the variety of communities negatively impacted by CPS policies. 

My role on the board will be to facilitate healing by building community trust and allowing those families to lay the foundation for repairing the harm. Trust comes from relationships, persistence over time and consistency in word and deed. Where the district has fallen short in these areas, the Board can insist upon, support and in some cases facilitate a path towards repair and healing. I would caucus among other members and staff to effectuate much-needed relationship building.

What is your understanding of the Board’s relationship with Local School Councils? How will you collaborate  with LSCs in your district?

Local School Councils are independent entities authorized by the state, subject to legal obligations. The Board does not have authority over LSCs and the primary authority that LSCs have is the hiring and firing of principals as well as approval of the budget at the school level. 

That said, it is important that Board members be connected to LSCs in their districts and understand their needs. Many LSCs lack enough members to make a quorum. Some are well-attended while others are not. I am a LSC chair and parent participation at our school is a real challenge. Board members can meet with LSCs, offer insights into what's happening at the Board level and even connect LSCs to various resources to connect with parents through the network and by collaboration with community groups. 

List the Board committees you intend to join and describe any new Board committees you will propose.

Finance/Audit Committee: Drawing from my extensive experience in establishing successful public-private partnerships, I would aim to secure additional funding sources for CPS. These partnerships would not only provide financial support but also foster collaborations that enhance educational outcomes across the district. We must commit to exploring innovative approaches to revenue generation from CPS's substantial assets, particularly our existing and defunct school buildings. CPS must leverage existing facilities to their fullest potential, whether through rental agreements or the development of collaborations that could benefit both the district and the community. Examples include creating more sustainable community schools or parent universities with private sector funding. 

Special education committee: I have personally experienced the challenges of navigating the special education system in CPS with my daughter, Rachelle, who was born without eyes. She is in an inclusive classroom and academically outpaces her sighted peers, but this is only a result of my advocacy from preschool and beyond.

I will advocate for increased resources and funding to enhance special education services across all Chicago schools. This includes recruiting and retaining qualified special education teachers, providing professional development opportunities, and ensuring access to assistive technologies and accommodations for students and educators. 

Workforce Committee: In my role as CEO of the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership my team and I trained career counselors in workforce development resources and tools. Our schools need solid career readiness, exposure, and exploration for all students in grades 6-12. Leveraging my prior experience, my work designing and implementing young adult and youth programming, and private and public sector employer relationships, I can help shape policy that creates district-wide adoption of in-depth career readiness programming for all students. 

How will you prioritize your time to ensure you give your role on the Board of Education the attention it deserves?

Upon winning the election I will resign from other boards on which I currently sit so that the Chicago School Board and my full-time employment as CEO of i.c.stars would be my only obligations besides parenting and my leisure time. 

I have secured the approval and support of my employer to run for this office. I would carefully manage my schedule and carve out time to participate in both Board and community meetings. I have also secured regular childcare to permit evening meetings.

Section 3 - Budget & Facilities

What are your thoughts on the current proposed district budget for SY24-25? As a board member, where would you look to increase funding and where would you make budget cuts?

The current budget represents an effort at equitable funding, yet it misses the mark in many regards. Schools like Bronzeville Classical lost roughly $500,000 and several teachers, while one school gained 9 staff even though it only has 25 students. There isn’t much equity in that. 

Equitable funding decisions shoul be made not in a vacuum but with context. Had the Board analyzed the impact of adding more teachers than staff at an under enrolled school they might have made a different decision. (Absent intentionality, simply adding staff does little to increase enrollment in a city where there are fewer students). 

As a Board member I would focus on first ensuring that schools have all they need to offer students a high caliber educational experience--a well-rounded, well-resourced school building with trained adults. That should be the center of our focus. We should build the budget from the center--from the schools first then out to the network office, then to central office. If there are cuts to be made they should come from the lowest priorities, not from the schools. Schools should be fully-funded first and foremost. 

After first funding schools we should target redundancies and inefficiencies--in other words cut the fat. How is it possible that the per student cost has risen while the number of enrolled students has decreased along with student outcomes? 

The budget needs to reflect our priorities. If students and their well-being truly come first then we need to fully fund schools first. 

Funding for CPS is in a particularly precarious situation due to state shortages to Evidence-Based Funding (EBF), the end of pandemic funding, and more. What would you prioritize when facing these overwhelming budget realities?

While the need for adequate funding can’t be overstated, CPS currently spends nearly $29,000 per student, with the majority of students not on grade level. That is an atrocious return on investment. The state’s adequacy level is 90% but that still represents a shortfall, and we have an ever-growing unfunded pension debt. Real estate taxes alone will not meet CPS’s budgetary needs. Additionally, recent reports state that CPS wrongly included COVID relief funds in its year over year base contributing to next year’s deficit. 

My priority will be targeting wasteful spending and redirecting it to other areas that best support student needs. Funding decisions must be rooted in educational priorities and support services, without making cuts in our classrooms. (I agree with the current Board’s refusal to further saddle the district with untenable loans). We must have a keen eye toward bloat, inefficiency and unnecessary spending. I have no doubt that that exists within the current budget, and I would endeavor to root it out and eliminate it.

What experience do you have with complicated budgets?

My experience with complicated budgets is rooted in my decade long leadership of the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership where I oversaw a budget comprised of state, federal, local, corporate and foundation funds. The federal funds were the most complicated and were largely reimbursement based dollars that had to be spent in accordance with myriad regulations. Additionally, 80% of the base federal funds were required to be obligated within the first of the two year grant life. My staff of nearly 90 were funded across multiple funding streams and had time allocated across public and private dollars simultaneously. 

During the 12 years that I led workforce development for Chicago and Cook County, I managed a collective total of more than $500 million dollars, raising roughly $150 million and distributing the lion’s share of that to more than 100 community-based organizations. I successfully managed to have clean reviews from federal, state, City and County audits. 

What will you do to ensure equitable and transparent funding for neighborhood schools?

Candidate declined to answer

Many parents have expressed an urgent need for capital improvements in their schools. What steps will you take to ensure that schools have functioning facilities, particularly bathrooms and water fountains?

CPS already presented a facilities master plan to target all of the dilapidated schools that do not have adequate facilities, yet they lack a clear plan on how to finance the urgent repairs. It is unacceptable that any school has poorly functioning facilities. The currently projected capital budget could run the existing deficit well over $1B according to Kids First Chicago. As a member of the board I will draw on my relationships with corporations and labor to raise the funding needed to restore our schools to adequate use. I will target the most egregious facilities in the short-term while collaborating with our stakeholders to create a plan to prevent this cycle of poor maintenance that plagues our most vulnerable populations. 

Bussing challenges have a long and fraught history in CPS. The last few years have been particularly difficult for special education students, as well as those who attend magnet and selective enrollment schools. Given CPS’s recently announced plans for the coming school year, How do you plan to address the ongoing school bussing challenges and ensure that all students have reliable, safe, and equitable transportation to and from school? 

I firmly believe every student should have access to free transportation to school. My daughter’s bus was empty every day that she was picked up, there was plenty of room for general education students. Although I recognize the need to prioritize special needs students, I see opportunities for logistical improvements. My daughter attends James Otis World Language School. It is not our neighborhood school. My daughter is blind. She gets up at 5:30 am to take the bus across town to attend school that meets her needs, this should not be the reality for any family. I plan to work with Chicago Public Schools to audit and reorganize routes to maximize bus space and travel times. 

Moreover, we are not preparing a talent pool of bus drivers. I plan to use the resources I gained as CEO of Chicago Cook Workforce to create a commercial driver apprenticeship and produce the next crop of bus drivers. Through a partnership with the Teamsters and Olive Harvey College, we could be training bus drivers to address the current and future gaps. 

Additionally, I recognize that CTA has experienced shortages in ridership, and yearly, CPS collaborates to provide free transportation for students. I believe that the program should be expanded, and the district should collaborate with CTA to identify areas where we can contract our buses and drivers on underutilized routes to better service our students instead of contracting out to private companies. 

Other cities have successfully implemented similar programs. In San Francisco, CA, the San Francisco Unified School District partnered with the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to provide year-round free transportation for students. The program resulted in increased ridership among parents, and increased attendance by students, and many of their parents reported that the program allowed them to redirect resources to other areas. 

Section 4 - Educational Programs & Academic Success

How do you define a quality education?

A quality education is one that centers the needs of the students, parents, teachers, and community, in that order. It must be culturally competent and adequately use students lived experiences to prepare them for future success. It is responsive to changes in the student's environment and prioritizes socio-emotional outcomes alongside academic outcomes. A true quality education lies in the district's ability to address a student's individual learning needs and balance it with the school community's needs.

What is the role of the Board of Education in ensuring quality educational programs for all students regardless of their background, zip code, or school type?

The school board should prioritize accessibility, ensuring that a child's education is not left to chance or stifled by its zip code. We cannot leave education to the luck of the draw. More, not fewer options is what parents want and need. The existence of a selective enrollment school does not preclude that of a high functioning neighborhood school and vice versa. We have a duty to review all policies to ensure they are created equitably. 

What are your views on the roles of neighborhood, selective enrollment, magnet, and charter schools within CPS? Please address each type of school in your answer.

I am the product of neighborhood, magnet, and selective enrollment schools. I recognize the benefits of all of them, and I support the right of access to each. Our students have diverse needs, they should have access to a diverse array of schools. I do not believe that we have to sacrifice selective enrollment schools for the sake of much-needed neighborhood schools. 

Ideally, all schools should be well-resourced and offer high caliber education for every student regardless of need. We must offer strong instruction, extracurriculars and supportive services at every school, and yet students with talents in STEM, the performing arts, languages or accelerated learning shouldn’t be held back from their potential—regardless of their zip code or race. 

Ideally, every student should be able to attend a local school and have their needs met there—this is not our reality. Thousands of families have left CPS because they felt they were done a disservice by our traditional public school system. More, not fewer options is what parents want. 

I support Charter Schools as a viable option for families seeking the best for their students. CPS has systematically harmed many families across the city, while deftly meeting the needs of others. I firmly believe parents should have the autonomy to choose the school that best serves their student.

How should the Board approach charter oversight and accountability?

I believe ALL schools should be held to the same standard in terms of education quality. I firmly believe that we should implement universal curriculum standards to ensure that all students are provided with quality, culturally competent curriculum. 

High caliber standardized curriculum ensures educational equity and consistency across all schools. Currently, individual schools choose curricula at the principal’s discretion. This leads, in part, to uneven outcomes district wide. 

A common curriculum promotes coherence in learning, ensuring that students who transfer schools don’t experience learning delays. However, balancing standardization with flexibility is crucial to accommodate diverse student needs while maintaining educational rigor and innovation. 

Our board has a responsibility to students first, and our role in oversight should be similar to our role within CPS, rate the schools according to set academic outcomes and balance the results with the overall need of the school community. 

The initial recommendations of the Black Student Success Working Group were shared earlier this summer. Which of those recommendations will be most important to incorporate into the district’s strategic plan and why?

Implement policies and programs to ensure Black students, across all schools, experience rigorous grade-level instruction 

CPS faces significant challenges in ensuring all 3rd graders are proficient readers. Third grade literacy is one of the single biggest predictors of long-term success through 12th grade. The district must be committed to increased literacy and proficiency outcomes for all students. 

Relatedly, 40% of CPS students are neither enrolled in postsecondary education (college, skilled trade training) nor employed one year after graduation. This is a direct by-product of low literacy and numeracy rates coupled with a lack of commitment to career and technical education. 

Our schools have a duty to equip our students with the skills and opportunities needed to succeed in the workforce. Currently, Career and Technical Education is only offered at a small percentage of the district’s schools, effectively creating an inequitable system that leaves many students without direction. 

Create targeted supports for Black students with disabilities focused on inclusion: First, we must build capacity for inclusive classrooms where special needs students learn alongside their peers as much as possible. To do this we need more teachers with special education credentials and more, better-trained SECAs. (Perhaps now that their wages have increased, we’ll see more interest in these roles). We also need a full audit and searching examination of special education service provision—its strengths and shortcomings, coupled with a strategic plan to address the gaps. 

With the new Director of ODLSS, I’m hopeful for change. Teachers and principals need additional training and accountability with regards to special needs students. There is also a need for parent education. The current IEP process is burdensome and inaccessible for many parents. We need to do more to help them understand their rights and responsibilities.

How will you work to ensure special education assessments and placements are more timely and equitable? 

I plan to work with stakeholders to increase resources for diverse learners and support staff. Alot of inconsistency and inequities come down to lack of available resources for special education programs, and a lack of parent voice surrounding assessments and IEP's. Families feel overwhelmed by the process, and we have to work as a board to make sure all components (including testing) of special education are clear and concise to meet the unique needs of each of the learners.

What should the Board board do to guarantee students are receiving all of their required IEP minutes?

First, we have to clarify and educate staff surrounding the guidelines for IEP's. This process has to be continuous and done in lockstep with the parents of students who have IEP's. 

Second, we have to provide oversight and implement feedback mechanisms to allow teachers and families space to review what is currently being done and provide guidelines on how to improve for the future. 

We as a board have to work to refine the policies surrounding IEP minutes and require that CPS regularly provide data surrounding successes and shortfalls across the district. 

In 2021, even before the recent influx of asylum seekers, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) put CPS on a corrective action plan because the district was out of compliance with bilingual education requirements. To date, CPS still fails to staff bilingual programs and certified bilingual teachers at all schools that need them. What steps would you advocate for the district to take to solve this problem?

Compliance is critical, this means that all schools must abide by the federal law requiring that our students receive education regardless of immigration status. First, we must have better screening for new arrivals so that we are able to connect families to schools. Second, schools should have access to ELL funding to meet these students' needs. For parents with work permits we should replicate the programs designed by the Logan Square Neighborhood Association which empowered parents to become paraprofessionals and thereby earn wages while also keeping a presence in the schools. This provides much-needed support within the school community. There is philanthropic funding available for dual generation programming that may align with this. 

Collaboration with community groups serving immigrant populations is also critical. These groups can help navigate language and cultural barriers.

How would you advocate for the reinstatement of comprehensive art, music, and library programs to our schools? 

I would continue the work I've been consistently doing. For the past 30 years, I've been working with stakeholders to identify gaps within a community and then collaborating with civic, corporate and philanthropic partners to secure funding and programming to fill those voids. 

There are a ton of community organizations that offer these programs and we should explore using partnerships to fill in the gaps for schools that do not have the funding. 

Section 5 - School Culture

What do you believe is the role of the Board in fostering a culture of belonging for every CPS student?

We have a responsibility to ensure that all policies and procedures are created through an equitable and inclusive lens. We need to consistently meet with stakeholders to ensure that all CPS policies create a safe and inviting environments for all students. 

We should secure funding to enhance programs that increase cultural competency, socio-emotional learning, and diversity initiatives, prioritizing resources that can be provided free or low cost for students across the district. 

Most importantly we have to oversee the handling of complaints students make when they experience an environment that is not inclusive to their identity and culture. We have a responsibility to prioritize perception over intent and take the concerns of our students serious. 

What are specific steps you will propose to increase in-school mental health support for our children? 

1. Collaborate with city colleges and universities to create an apprenticeship program for mental health professionals and allow them to earn clinical hours while serving our students. 

2. Identify partnerships with community organizations to provide on-site mental health supports for students. 

3. Prioritize trauma informed discipline policies that emphasize restorative justice over punitive responses. 

4. Create a district-wide strategic plan to provide wrap around support to students after they experience trauma. 

5. Create an education initiative to properly inform parents and students about the mandatory mental health days available to them. 

What policies do you propose to help stop bullying in CPS schools?

1. Regularly do training and workshops for students, parents, staff and stakeholders that clearly define the types of bullying and the consequences. 

2. Prioritize integrating social-emotional learning into the school curriculum and offer space for peer mediation and anonymous reporting. 

3. Refine the district policy surrounding bullying and track incidents to identify areas for growth. 

4. Promote inclusion and diversity as a way to celebrate differences and introduce students to new cultures. 

5. Increase supports for students that experience bullying and simplify the transfer policy for families that do not feel safe in their school environment. 

What specific steps will you take to address and reduce racial bias in our schools, both in terms of pedagogy, curriculum, and disciplinary practices?

While the board has little to no say over individual school curriculum, we can create partnerships and training programs that help educators create culturally competent lessons. 

Professional development should be an ongoing process, and the district should implement a clear discipline policy for students and staff that outlines expectations and opportunities for healing. 

We need to implement a communications plan across the district that provides guidelines for inclusive language and create affinity groups to provide safe spaces for students.

Students who report sexual assault and violence in CPS schools often feel that their voices are not heard. What is your approach to ensuring meaningful accountability and what will you do to ensure that this type of violence stops?

Any type of sexual assault or harassment is UNACCEPTABLE. CPS policies are far from adequate and the students and staff who bravely come forward are often revictimized during the litigation process. 

The district needs a comprehensive plan for investigating sexual assault/violence cases that focus on treating the victims with dignity during the process and removes staff that violate our policies. 

Any staff member founded to have engaged in sexual harassment/ violence should be removed from their position. 

Finally, we need provide supports for students when they come forward and compel the district to provide mental health services for the victims. 

How do you plan to ensure that LGBT+ students are protected and supported in CPS, both in anti-discrimination policy and inclusive curricula?

We have to emphasize awareness campaigns that promote respect and celebrate the history of the LGBT+ community. Students should be empowered to serve as leaders to define CPS curriculum and polices to ensure they are not singled out or stigmatized. 

We should simplify access to information about LGBTQ+ rights and for community stakeholders and students to help families that have members in their families. 

Additional wrap around supports should be provided for students and families and we have to create training programs for staff that emphasize the need to avoid offensive phrases and punitive treatment. 

Is there anything you would change about the recently adopted Whole School Safety plan? What can the Board do to ensure its implementation?

We have to monitor and regularly benchmark goals for its implementation while holding school administrators accountable for resistance to programing. Like most of the plan's CPS has, it is limited to the funding available to support the initiative, so we have to work with restorative justice organizations and the stakeholders in the justice system to make sure we identify issues and can address them in a restorative way.