Kate Doyle (District 2)

Section 1 - Basic Information & General Questions

Candidate's Name  Kate Doyle

District 2

Campaign link  https://www.katedoyleforchicago.com/

Are you a current or recent CPS parent, grandparent, or guardian/caregiver? None

Are you a CPS graduate?  No

Have you ever served on a Local School Council (LSC)?   No

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? 4.5 years

Describe your CPS experience. 

My experience in education is broad, deep well-suited perfectly to bring fresh perspectives to Chicago’s public school system, to bring data-driven analysis to the Board of Education’s decision-making, and to bring the consensus-building skills to help move a 21-person Board with diverse perspectives and goals to consensus around advancing equity, improving student outcomes and bringing accountability for both through greater transparency.  Although I have not been a CPS employee, I am about to be a CPS parent who will send my son to our CPS neighborhood school, and I have been an attentive CPS observer informed by the expertise I’ve developed working on the front lines of big-city public education.

I have worked as a special education teacher and a proud AFT member in a high-needs high school in the New York City Public Schools; I have worked in corporate communications; I’ve been a consultant to non-profit organizations in the job training and education policy space; and for the last six years, I have been running KindWork, an award-winning nonprofit organization I launched to help low-income young adults break through barriers to prepare for and enter careers in tech industries.

Nobody else in this race has the mix of experience in teaching and education entrepreneurship, experience in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, and experience conceiving, creating, and managing an organization focused on education and job training.

It’s through these experiences, working with hundreds of young adults, that I have become increasingly concerned about the many shortfalls in our K-12 system that create barriers to real post-secondary success. I am committed to using all of my diverse experience to advocate for CPS students as a school board member.

Why are you running for the Board of Education? 

I am running to serve on Chicago’s first elected Board of Education because I care about its mission as a parent of a child about to enter school. I believe fervently that everyone deserves the highest quality public school system – not only my children and the children across our City, but our City’s businesses who need a high quality, skilled labor pool from which to fill good jobs, and our residents who are concerned about reducing crime and improving the quality of life in every neighborhood of the City. 

I am running because we need a progressive, independent voice advocating for our students. As a proud mom to a future CPS student and a former special education teacher in high-needs public schools, I understand the challenges within our education system. My background includes leading national community engagement programs and founding a nonprofit that trains low-income young adults for tech careers. I have a proven history of building relationships with diverse coalitions, ensuring all voices are heard. My experience in budget and contract management will help me make fiscally responsible decisions for our schools. I envision CPS as the top-performing large school district in the country, where every student feels welcomed and supported. Achieving this requires a commitment to equity. I promise to be a leader who will listen to my community, be responsive, and work tirelessly to ensure that in CPS every learner’s needs are met.

Growing up, my family went through a long and difficult period of instability. My public school is what got me through that time. My teachers, my counselors, and my coaches got me through. School was my safe space to be a regular kid in a sea of uncertainty. I’ll be forever grateful, and that is why I’ve dedicated my career to work in service of others. I am running because I want to give back that same care that was extended to my family when we needed it most.

What is the most pressing challenge our district is facing? 

There is no one challenge that is “most pressing” – because CPS’ challenges are interrelated. They boil down to funding – where it is coming from, and where it is spent to further our values and our goals for our children.

CPS is facing a budget shortfall of nearly $500 million. We must build relationships within the General Assembly and maximize the funding from the State within its available resources. That means doing a better job not only of communicating CPS’ needs, but also that the new Board of Education will be an effective steward of public funds and manager of the largest school system in the State so we improve achievement for ALL students.

Improving achievement for all students requires directing funding equitably to ensure learners who need extra support receive it. Students with disabilities must receive their full service minutes and the education they need to thrive. We must tackle systemic racism and inequity in our schools; students of color face notably lower achievement and graduation rates, largely because of inadequate resources going towards schools in majority-POC communities. There are many students and families who are unable to fully participate in the educational process because of language barriers; the surge of migrants from South America in 2023 has brought a wave of new Chicagoans who are facing this issue, and how we address it will determine how well they are integrated into our communities.

All this takes resources, so our schools can be adequately staffed, with everyone who helps our schools run, from teachers and support staff to custodians and food service workers, are paid living wages. Every student in every school is entitled to their fair share of those resources. Our job, as a Board of Education, will be to bring in those resources from available sources, and to ensure that they are spent efficiently, wisely and fairly to meet our goal of a high-quality education for every CPS student, everywhere.

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?

Relationships matter.  As a member of the Board of Education, it will be of utmost importance for me to know what’s happening on the ground – which means forming relationships and keeping in touch with teachers and parents at our schools, to learn what is working and what isn’t, to gauge how new initiatives are working, and to gain insights as to what data we need to measure to help CPS improve. In fact, I am already doing this, for example, I met with a family newly arrived from Venezuela, with a child enrolled in their neighborhood school, to hear how their child has been served, and how language issues have been addressed. I have met with a father struggling to get his son’s IEP services met; I’ve toured schools with Principals and heard firsthand about their challenges retaining staff, getting necessary repairs completed, and dealing with increasing demands from the Central Office; and countless more conversations.

One of the most difficult things for many people who get involved in government and community service is making the transition from advocating for change on the outside to being responsible for directing the change on the inside. Often, the most effective outside advocates can have a hard time reconciling the important issues they advocate for with the economic and political realities that require building coalitions and finding common ground with others who don’t share all your goals. My background and experience have led me to understand how progress is made in such environments. Our job as a Board will be to run the Chicago Public Schools; my job as a member of the Board will be to advocate for our community’s values, to advance the quality and opportunities for education for all of Chicago’s students and their families, to create a skilled and vibrant workforce for our City’s economic future, and most important, to do all that in a manner that successfully persuades the other Board members to do what is needed to meet those goals.

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?

The most important thing to address the historical harms within Chicago Public Schools is to keep them from recurring – and elsewhere in this questionnaire I discuss the imperative of ensuring equitable distribution of resources and the importance of making sure that every student in every neighborhood has access to the same quality educational opportunities. 

Repairing historical harms requires an understanding of the harms that have come from under-resourcing schools in communities of color. Poor educational outcomes and differences in achievement resulting from historical inequities have harmed entire communities. This is only one piece of an entire culture of systemic racism that has created pervasive inequalities far beyond the educational sphere. Inequalities in economic or cultural opportunities stem in no small part from inequalities in educational opportunity, but the ability of CPS to address those consequences for former students is limited.  We have a responsibility as a society to address systemic racism, and as a school district, it is important to focus our efforts on the pieces of that responsibility that we are best suited to address.

Inequalities affect entire classes of people, but the harm to a class is actually a collection of individual harms to individual people, and the best way to address those harms is by addressing them individually.  Students who are behind their age cohort in reading or mathematics due to systemic discrimination are entitled to the extra care, attention and resources we need to bring them up to their age level and beyond to their individual potential. While we are limited by State law as well as available resources, skill sets and mission in our ability to provide assistance to those long past school age, we can work immediately to address the harms to students still in the system, whether making up for past deficits or providing more equitable educational opportunities going forward.

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

Schools belong, first and foremost, to the parents who entrust their children to them and to the communities they serve. Local School Councils are the mechanism for bringing parents and community members into the decision making process with principals and teachers to shape the school’s Continuous Improvement Work Plan (CIWP), which is its core strategic planning process, and allocating the school’s budget to further its CIWP. LSCs also hire and retain principals and evaluate them regularly to ensure that they are implementing the parents’ and community’s priorities through the CIWP.

The Board’s job is to ensure that the resources exist for each school to fund their CIWPs, and that those resources are equitably distributed; and to make sure that each school is adhering to legal requirements, meeting or exceeding standards, and advancing the common goals for our children that we share as Chicagoans. With 646 schools across the City, it is neither feasible nor desirable for a 21 person Board to micromanage each school; at the same time, leaving that management to a central oversight bureaucracy does nothing to take into account the variations in educational needs, cultural makeup or community concerns of individual schools and the communities they serve. That is where LSCs come in, to provide locally oriented and culturally responsive oversight from people who are direct stakeholders in that particular school.  

To make the model work, it’s necessary for there to be unfettered communication between the LSCs and the members of the Board. The new elected School Board creates a structure for Board members to help LSCs in their districts to fulfill their missions, providing lines of communication for LSCs to make their concerns known. As a member of the Board, I will make it a priority to know each LSC member in my district, to attend LSC meetings whenever requested by the members, and to work together with each LSC to advance its goals and to raise its concerns.

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

I would join the Special Education Advisory Committee, which focuses on advocating for the needs of students with disabilities and improving services across CPS. As a former public school special education teacher with a graduate degree in special education, I bring both hands-on experience and academic expertise to these discussions. My background equips me to understand the unique challenges faced by students with disabilities and to advocate effectively for solutions that improve their educational outcomes.

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

I will ensure that I am setting aside 15-20 hours per week for my role on the Board of Education. I will accomplish this by reorganizing my professional commitments so I can have this capacity to serve fully. One of the blessings of being your own boss is the flexibility to build community service time into the schedule where it is needed and then plan my own work around it.

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 proposed CPS budget for FY24-25 reflects a challenging fiscal situation, with a $500 million deficit and the end of pandemic relief funds. I support the transition to needs-based budgeting, which prioritizes equity by directing more resources to schools with higher needs.

We must advocate for increased state funding through the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula and address the pension disparity, where CPS covers the majority of its pension costs while the state supports most suburban and downstate districts. Additionally, we should explore new revenue sources, such as infrastructure funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to upgrade school buildings, reduce schools’ carbon footprints, and reduce operational costs.

Internally, a comprehensive audit of CPS programs is needed to ensure resources are allocated efficiently, prioritizing student outcomes and long-term financial stability.

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?

When facing the overwhelming budget realities in CPS due to state shortages in Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) and the end of pandemic relief, my priority would be to protect the daily learning experiences of students. This means ensuring that resources directly impacting instruction, such as classroom materials, teacher positions, and academic programs, remain intact. High-quality instruction and access to learning must be prioritized, even in difficult financial times. This must be done, however, with a view to equity, ensuring that students who are the furthest from opportunity—such as English learners, students with disabilities, and those in low-income communities—continue to receive robust support notwithstanding the constraints in resources.

At the same time, CPS cannot emerge from perennial budget woes without making a strong case to the decision makers and to the public who elect them that CPS deserves the resources we need to fulfill our mission. That means making sure that we convey a clear vision for fulfilling the mission of CPS, a clear articulation of the resources required and how they will be deployed, and clear evidence that funds allocated to CPS are being responsibly stewarded and generating measurable results and a strong return on investment. This will require data-based advocacy that clearly communicates needs and priorities and that demonstrates that CPS is meeting or exceeding goals and expectations, establishing clearly in the minds of legislators and voters that funding public education is money well spent to improve the quality of life for all.

What experience do you have with complicated budgets?

Professionally, I serve as the CEO of a nonprofit organization, where I manage a multi-year organizational budget with diverse revenue streams. This role requires me to navigate financial complexities while ensuring sustainable growth and keeping the mission central to our operations.

I also have experience serving on nonprofit boards, where I’ve overseen financial decisions, ensuring responsible fiscal management. Additionally, I’ve collaborated with consulting teams to develop sophisticated financial models that drive program expansion and operational efficiency.

In the private sector, I’ve managed multimillion-dollar initiatives, handling both budget and contract management, and ensuring alignment between financial resources and strategic goals. 

These experiences have given me a well-rounded approach to financial oversight, blending strategic planning with equity considerations and clear communication of financial decisions.

To further enhance my skill set, I am currently enrolled in the Certificate in Education Finance (CEF) program at Georgetown University, which I will complete next month. This program has provided me with a deeper understanding of how financial decisions, policies, and resource allocation affect student success. It emphasizes practical applications across finance, economics, and public policy, making me well-equipped to lead on budget management in the education sector.

I am the only candidate in this race who brings to bear experience as an educator, as a business executive in the private sector, as a nonprofit leader in the education sector, and as a parent entering a long tenure with Chicago Public Schools next year when I plan to send my son to our neighborhood school.

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

The first step to equitable and transparent funding is a thorough audit of funding and expenditures in CPS. Then, as a group, the Board needs to determine where we can make spending more efficient, and how to balance the funding so that ALL CPS neighborhood schools are fully funded. School funding should be distributed based on school needs, not the amount of tax revenue in the neighborhood in which the school lies. Funding will need to be reallocated, and a collaborative approach to securing funding is critical.  Some schools have greater needs because of a higher proportion of students for whom English is not their primary language; some have greater needs because of the impacts of years of funding inequity and systemic racism. Many of these schools are in areas of poverty, while some schools in other areas are rich in tax revenue and voluntary contributions to “Friends of…” organizations. I appreciate and applaud parent groups who raise funds to enrich their schools’ offerings, but we also need to take care of schools that lack those resources yet may have even greater needs. 

We need transparency in funding so that the public can see the disparities. This includes not only disparities within CPS, but also disparities between CPS and suburban and downstate schools.  Clear summary statistics and graphs showing the sources and uses of funding across schools and areas within CPS, and across different school districts, will help to build community support for fundamental fairness in education funding.

We must also engender a greater spirit of cooperation within and between communities. We should encourage “Friends of…” organizations to “adopt” another school in an area of great need, to fund enrichment in both schools and to foster connections across neighborhoods and communities. The stronger the case for increasing equity, the easier it will be to recruit “Friends of…” organizations to share their largesse in this manner.

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?

Learning doesn’t happen in crumbling buildings with poor lighting or inadequate ventilation, or in buildings that are sweltering in the fall and spring and freezing in the winter. Learning doesn’t happen in overcrowded classrooms or in buildings lacking the capacity to support necessary technology.  We can’t catch up with the need to provide adequate facilities in every neighborhood of the City without some creativity.  Standard public facilities budgets won’t make a dent.  

CPS needs to look beyond traditional school building funding sources. Federal and State programs intended to slow climate change, to improve air quality, or to enhance energy efficiency and sustainability can provide funding for critical infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions through replacement of outdated heating plants and to improve air quality by adding air conditioning and filtration equipment; utility companies can provide rebates to schools that improve facilities to reduce their energy usage.  

Whether through building new efficiencies into school buildings or creating economies of scale through shared facilities, infrastructure improvements not only improve educational outcomes, but reduce operating costs by lowering energy usage and reducing the incidence of minor repairs – freeing up energy and repair funds for education.

Most urgently, the new Board will need to work with the General Assembly to identify funding specifically for renovating or replacing deteriorating public school buildings, for providing improvements to heating and cooling systems, for retrofitting buildings with high-speed internet access and other technology infrastructure.  This is a pressing environmental concern as well as an educational concern and should be a top priority for Springfield as well as for CPS and Chicagoans.

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? 

CPS is facing ongoing transportation challenges, with over 2,200 students with disabilities still waiting for bus routes as of September 2024, largely due to a national driver shortage​. I am honored to have the endorsement of CPS Parents for Buses, which highlights the transportation issues affecting students at selective enrollment and magnet schools. The decision to cancel busing for these schools has disproportionately impacted low-income families, with 85% of affected students coming from such households. CPS’s lack of communication has worsened the situation for many families.

To address this, I would expand driver recruitment with better wages, flexible conditions, and sign-on bonuses. I will also push for renewing the $500 monthly stipend for low-income families, auditing transportation spending, and improving routing software to increase efficiency. Additionally, I support allowing paratransit for students with priority needs, freeing up buses for magnet and selective enrollment schools, and advocating for the re-enrollment of students who left these schools due to transportation issues. Finally, I will set clear communication standards to ensure parents are informed of major changes​.

Section 4 - Educational Programs & Academic Success

How do you define a quality education?

A quality education fosters both academic excellence and personal growth, providing students with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in a complex, ever-changing world. At its core, this means their education is rigorous, pushing students to engage deeply with challenging material and build their skills over time. It ensures that students can demonstrate mastery of key competencies through authentic assessments that go beyond traditional testing, allowing students to apply their knowledge in real-world scenarios and demonstrate true understanding.

Connectedness is another critical element—students should feel a sense of belonging in their school community, knowing that their learning is relevant to their lives and futures. They must feel safe to be themselves and supported in exploring their interests. 

Differentiation is also key, as a quality education recognizes that each student learns differently. This means providing personalized support to meet students where they are, whether through targeted interventions, enrichment opportunities, or varied teaching strategies.  Differentiation is essential to providing redress for historical harms due to past inequities – inequities have affected each child in a unique way, and each child deserves to have their inequity-driven educational deficits addressed in the manner most suited to their 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 Board of Education’s role in ensuring quality education for all students is to set clear goals for academic success, prioritize equity in decision-making, and hold the district accountable for improving student outcomes. This includes allocating resources based on student needs and ensuring all policies and programs serve students equitably, regardless of background, zip code, or school type. The Board must also engage with the community to understand the unique challenges faced by different schools and use this input to guide decisions that ensure every student has access to a high-quality education. And of utmost importance is the Board’s role as an advocate for the students, families, teachers, administrators and non-academic workers of all kinds who depend on the Board of Education for their livelihoods, present or future, and in particular, advocating for funding and support adequate to ensure that there are enough resources that they can be distributed equitably throughout the school district while providing a high-quality education for each and every student.

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.

My vision for Chicago Public Schools is that we become a district where, no matter their zip code, every student has access to well-resourced neighborhood schools for pre-K through 12th grade and that their school experience is joyful, connected, academically rigorous, and sets them on a strong pathway to postsecondary success. This is a right, and it is a problem that not every student currently has access to a well-resourced neighborhood school.

I also believe that our selective enrollment system and magnet schools should remain intact as an option for families who benefit from their programming. Students who are gifted often have special social and emotional needs that require differentiated services, no differently than students with other differentiated learning styles and abilities. That said, we need to immediately address the racial disparities between selective enrollment students and CPS as a whole, better prepare capable students in low-performing schools for the rigors of selective enrollment curriculum, and work to eliminate barriers in the process to get into selective enrollment. To grow opportunities at our neighborhood schools and continue to deliver programming at our selective and magnet schools, we must advocate for full funding from Springfield.

When evaluating the future of charter schools, we need to take a student-centered approach. I oppose expanding charter schools. As we fully fund neighborhood public schools, and families have an easier choice in sending their student(s) to a well-resourced neighborhood school, the demand for charter schools will lessen. However, we need to consider the short-term impact of closing charter schools in large numbers. Some charter schools are very high-performing, and at least in the short term, those should stay open. This will help to bring us closer to equity for low-income students of color without bringing back discriminatory programs like Invest in Kids, which I strongly oppose.

How should the Board approach charter oversight and accountability?

The Board’s approach to charter oversight and accountability must prioritize ensuring that every student, regardless of the type of school they attend, receives a high-quality education. This means holding charter schools to the same rigorous standards as traditional public schools, ensuring that they meet clear benchmarks for student achievement, equity, and transparency. While high-performing charter schools provide a bridge for many families, particularly in low-income communities of color, until all neighborhood schools are providing the education our students need and deserve, lower-performing charter schools should be required to improve or be phased out quickly.

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?

The Black Student Success Working Group made key recommendations to address systemic inequities and improve outcomes for Black students in CPS. A critical recommendation is expanding access to culturally relevant curriculum and instruction, fostering an inclusive learning environment that reflects the lived experiences of Black students and enhances engagement.

Another important recommendation is increasing access to mental health resources tailored to Black students. Supporting their social and emotional well-being is essential for academic success and helps address the unique challenges many Black students face both inside and outside the classroom.

Additionally, targeted support in literacy and math is crucial for closing opportunity gaps. Providing individualized, high-quality instruction in these areas is key to improving long-term outcomes for Black students. As I indicated elsewhere in this questionnaire, the effects of systemic racism may have disparate impacts on communities of color, but it is individual students who bear those effects and individual students who deserve redress for those effects in the form of individualized remedial educational assistance tailored to their systemically-imposed educational deficits.

Incorporating these recommendations into CPS's strategic plan will help create an equitable and supportive educational environment, addressing long-standing gaps in achievement while ensuring that all students thrive.

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

We need to increase staffing and training for special education evaluators to reduce the backlog in assessments. Many delays stem from understaffing or uneven allocation of resources across schools. By ensuring adequate personnel and professional development, we can expedite evaluations and ensure consistency in how students are assessed.

I would work to establish clear timelines and accountability measures for the assessment and placement process, ensuring that families know what to expect and that the district meets its obligations under federal and state laws, like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This includes stricter oversight to ensure that evaluations and placements occur within the legally required timeframe.

I would advocate for better communication and support for parents, particularly those from underserved communities. Many families face barriers in navigating the special education process. Providing clearer communication and support in multiple languages would help ensure equitable access to assessments and services.

Finally, I would push for regular data collection and public reporting on special education timelines, ensuring transparency and identifying any disparities in how quickly students are assessed and placed across different demographics and schools.

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

To ensure students receive all required IEP minutes, CPS should focus on real-time tracking and regular audits to monitor IEP service delivery. This transparency can allow both parents and educators to track IEP service and ensure that students are getting what they need.  Additionally, CPS needs to hire more teachers generally, but especially in special education, to ensure there are enough qualified teachers and support staff to meet students' needs. This includes investing in teacher training programs to build a pipeline of qualified educators.

The Board should hold regular listening sessions with the OSD Family Advisory Board and should visit special education programs across the District. Continuous professional development for educators is essential to help them understand their legal responsibilities and work effectively with diverse learners, and it would be worthwhile for Board members to audit some of those seminars as well.

Finally, CPS should maintain clear communication with families, empowering parents to stay informed and avocate when IEP goals aren't being met. 

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?

CPS continues to face significant staffing challenges in its bilingual programs, which affects thousands of students. To address this, I would advocate for expanding recruitment efforts both locally and internationally. 

I would urge the Office of Talent to focus on hiring qualified bilingual educators by offering competitive salaries, signing bonuses, and incentives like tuition assistance for teachers seeking bilingual certification. Similar initiatives have proven successful in other states facing similar shortages.

Additionally, partnerships with local universities to create teacher pipelines are crucial. Programs such as "grow-your-own" teacher residencies, already employed by CPS, should specifically target bilingual individuals who are eager to enter the profession. This would ensure a steady flow of certified teachers into schools with the greatest needs.

CPS should also streamline the certification process for bilingual teachers and provide professional development opportunities for current educators to earn bilingual endorsements. Working with state licensing boards to remove barriers for certification would help increase the pool of qualified teachers.

CPS must strengthen community partnerships with immigrant and refugee organizations to support students and families, this can be done via the FACE department. By providing more language resources and engaging families in their home languages, CPS can foster better communication and trust, ensuring a more inclusive learning environment.

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

We must make the case that to address the "beauty gap" and ensure equitable access to arts, music, and library programs in CPS, it’s essential to focus on whole-child development. Schools under heavy academic scrutiny are often the ones lacking creative programs, further deepening educational inequities. Restoring these programs provides students with outlets that foster emotional expression, critical thinking, and engagement.

Schools with well-resourced libraries and arts programs show higher academic achievement, particularly in literacy and critical thinking. Libraries, in particular, support independent learning and offer inclusive spaces that help bridge equity gaps for students from underserved communities. 

Hiring more certified arts educators and establishing community partnerships with local arts institutions will provide students with sustained enrichment opportunities.

Section 5 - School Culture

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

One of the most profound losses of the last 50 or so years of American life has been the loss of community, of a sense of common purpose, that we’re all in this together.  It perhaps started when a Presidential candidate asked America in a debate, “are you better off than you were four years ago?” Not “Are we better off” or “Is the country better off,” rather, the candidate gave viewers permission to stop that analysis at themselves, to the exclusion of everyone else. 

We need to restore civics education – many students graduate without having any idea who represents them in Washington or Springfield, or how many chambers there are in the United States Congress; but our lack of civics education has also resulted in a loss of civic pride or a sense of civic responsibility.  It has left too many of us – adults as well as students – feeling like they don’t belong to anything.

A renewed civics curriculum that emphasizes the role of citizens in maintaining the commons and in guiding society can instill a renewed sense of belonging. As we deepen cultural awareness, sensitivity and celebration of diversity, we must also be mindful of maintaining what unites us as a community, a City, a country. Chicago is a beautiful quilt of diversity – but if we don’t keep it sewn together, it is just a collection of separate, disjointed patches.

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

To increase in-school mental health support for CPS students, I would propose several specific policy-driven steps to build on the district’s vision for mental health services, which emphasizes a robust continuum of care, multi-tiered systems of support, and community partnerships.

Increase Clinician Staffing and Expand Behavioral Health Teams (BHTs): Each school should have adequate staffing of school nurses, counselors, social workers, and psychologists to meet the mental health needs of students. 

Mandate Mental Health First Aid and Suicide Prevention Training: Teachers and school staff need comprehensive and ongoing training on recognizing early signs of mental health issues, including warning signs such as excessive fear, sadness, or mood swings, and knowing when to refer students to clinicians or BHT members. Schools must prioritize suicide prevention given that 17% of Chicago high school students and 33% of middle school students have seriously considered suicide, according to the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS).

Ensure Community Partnerships: CPS must continue expanding partnerships with external mental health providers to increase on-site services and provide additional layers of care. Collaborations with community organizations ensure that students have access to comprehensive mental health and substance use services beyond what is available within school walls.

Use Data-Driven Approaches: The Board should monitor mental health trends, absenteeism, and academic performance to assess the impact of mental health interventions. Schools with higher rates of mental health concerns should receive targeted support to address the needs of their students.

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

CPS already has a robust Anti-Bullying and Bias-Based Behavior Policy, which provides a foundation for addressing these issues.

I propose strengthening existing policies and introducing new measures that address both prevention and intervention. CPS already includes social media behavior in its cyberbullying policies, but we can further support students and families by providing education on responsible social media use and creating family workshops to help parents understand and monitor online interactions.

Enhanced training for staff on recognizing cyberbullying and bias-based behaviors, along with stronger collaboration with families, will help students stay safe both in school and online. Expanding resources like Safe 2 Help Illinois can also encourage students to report incidents in a secure, anonymous manner.

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

To address and reduce racial bias in CPS schools, I would advocate for a comprehensive approach based on CPS’s Equity Framework and the Office of Equity’s mission. Ensuring the curriculum is culturally relevant is key, as it should reflect the diverse identities of Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other marginalized communities. This includes revising curricula to affirm students' experiences and histories. Additionally, all CPS staff should undergo ongoing anti-racism training to dismantle biases and create inclusive classroom environments. Expanding restorative justice practices is essential to address racial disparities in disciplinary actions, ensuring policies are equitable and supportive. Finally, fostering inclusive decision-making by involving students, families, and communities of color in policy design ensures that solutions are co-created with those most impacted by systemic racism. By focusing on these areas, we can foster a more equitable and supportive environment for all 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?

A comprehensive approach is required, starting with a fully resourced Title IX Office that can ensure all cases are handled fairly, promptly, and transparently. The office must provide regular updates to victims on the progress of their cases and establish clear appeals processes if concerns are not addressed. This will ensure that perpetrators are held accountable, and victims’ rights and well-being are safeguarded.  Investigations of complaints should be thorough and fair, affording due protections for victims and due process for the accused, to ensure integrity in the operation and findings of the investigations and respect for outcomes.

Schools must also track and publicly report data on gender-based violence and harassment in an anonymous and transparent manner. This data collection will help the district identify patterns, assess the effectiveness of interventions, and make continuous improvements in how cases are handled, holding the system accountable while working to reduce incidents of violence.

Creating a supportive school environment where students feel safe to report misconduct is essential. Expanding peer support systems and increasing mental health resources for survivors can provide continuous care, while partnerships with organizations such as Rape Crisis Centers, Center on Halsted, and Chicago Says No More can offer critical services, resources, and training to students and staff. These partnerships will enable schools to access expertise on preventing and responding to gender-based violence.

Furthermore continuing to build on the CPS Personal Health & Safety Education instructional program, integrating instruction on consent, healthy relationships, and boundaries will help to foster a culture of respect and safety. 

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

This issue is deeply personal to me as the sibling of a trans brother who lacked access to safe and inclusive spaces during his K-12 experience when we were growing up. His journey has shaped my perspective and fueled my advocacy for LGBTQ+ students, motivating me to push for stronger protections and support systems within CPS.

To ensure LGBTQ+ students are protected and supported, I would focus on two key areas: anti-discrimination policies and inclusive curricula. CPS’s Comprehensive Non-Discrimination Policy already safeguards against bias-based bullying and harassment, but it’s essential to strengthen oversight, ensuring consistent enforcement and proper staff training to respond to incidents promptly.

In addition, I would encourage CPS’s Curriculum Department to collaborate with organizations like Center on Halsted and Equality Illinois to develop comprehensive professional development for teachers. This would help further integrate LGBTQ+ history, literature, and perspectives into the curriculum, creating a more inclusive learning environment.

Through strong policies and inclusive education, we can create the safe and supportive environment that LGBTQ+ students deserve, ensuring no student feels marginalized or unsafe.

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

The Board can enhance this transition to schools adopting their Whole School Safety plans by mandating regular public reporting on safety outcomes, such as tracking incidents and the effectiveness of restorative practices in improving school climate. This will ensure accountability and allow the community to stay informed on the plan's progress. 

I also urge the district to ensure enough central office support from the Social Emotional Learning team to support schools in increasing access to SEL resources.