Will The Mayor Restore Funding? | Aug 2013

In the days leading up to the start of the 2013-14 school year and after 50 school closings and severe school level budget cuts, RYH posted multiple posts imploring Mayor Emanuel to restore funding and sharing possible action steps for parents. The posts are below.


7 Days Until School Starts. Will the Mayor Restore Funding?

As we’ve stated, there is $162 million in cuts to traditional schools and an increase to charters of $85million

In addition to the:

90 positions cut in HS English

22  HS Social Studies

37 HS History

28 HS Librarians

21 HS Biology

6 HS Chemistry

3 HS Physics

10 HS Computer Ed

50 HS Math

And;

68 elementary schools that lost an art position

47  elems music

22  elems technology; and

51 elem librarians

Too many schools to list lost a special education position:

530 Special education positions were cut. This includes aides and teachers.                                                                                                      

What can the city do to restore funding? They can send some of the TIF surplus funds back to our schools and/or address overspending in Central office. Cuts to classrooms should come last.  Call the Mayor's Office at 312-744-3300.

These are some of the areas in Central Office that could be reduced:

1)Family and Community Engagement Office – Received an increase of $2.1 million with budget at $8. 8million.

2)Office of Innovation and Incubation – Increase of roughly $8 million, budget at $50 Million. About $40 million of this is for New School Development. How about putting a one-year hold on charter growth while our traditional schools are being decimated?  

3)Human Capital office – Increase of $22 million. About $20 million of this is for a no-bid contract for SUPES academy to train Principals and Network Chiefs given to a company that has very little experience working in Chicago. So far Principals have reported to us that the trainings are “not worth $20 million.”

4)Portfolio Office –this group which mainly works on school actions still has $6 million and did not receive a decrease despite the fact that the Mayor and CPS has said they will do a 5 year moratorium on school closings.

5)Chief Financial Office- increased by 13 positions. Corporate accounting has gone from 50 to 65 positions in two years.

6)Accountability Office – Still has $14 million in the budget for FY2014 despite CPS putting out a recent press release that they are going to be cutting back on standardized testing. Shouldn’t the budget reflect this?


11 Days Until School Starts: Will the Mayor Restore Funding?

In addition to the:

68 elem schools that cut a music position;

42 HS that cut 86 English positions;

51 elem schools that cut a librarian;

28 HS that cut a librarian;

47 elem schools that cut a music position; and

37 HS Science positions that were cut…

These Elementary Schools lost a Technology position:

Brighton Park Elem, Caldwell Academy of Math and Science, Carroll, Chavez, Claremont, Curtis, Earle,  Dewitt Clinton, Edgebrook, Garvey, Goethe, Hearst, Jahn, Lovett, Mozart,  New Sullivan, Otis Pasteur, Reinberg, Stagg, Swift,, Tilton,

These High Schools Lost a History Position:

Alcott, Amundsen, Austin Polytechnic, Bogan 3, Bowen, Curie, Foreman, Gage Park 2, Hyde Park, Kennedy 2, Kelly 5, Lane 3, Marshall, Mather, Mason, Morgan Park HS 2,  Multicultural Arts, Orr 2, Payton Phillips, Robeson 2, Steinmetz, Von Steuben -2,  Washington.

CPS’ said they had no alternative but to make these school-based cuts. We disagree with that statement. We’ve been calling on the mayor all summer to declare a TIF surplus. He can also scale back on some of the extraneous central office spending that we shared earlier in the week.  

We are joining the Common Sense LSC Coalition to email CEO Byrd-Bennett today regarding the TIF surplus. Per Common Sense, the message should be sent to her special assistant atjmbaux@cps.edu.

SAMPLE EMAIL:

Dear CEO Byrd-Bennett,

I am writing to respectfully request that you ask Mayor Emanuel to declare the FULL $200 million in TIF surplus, half of which would be returned to CPS to alleviate the budget crisis. These cuts are devastating to our schools.

{Describe your cuts here or why this issue is important to you.}

As a former principal and teacher, you certainly must find these cuts unacceptable, too. We believe that the only short-term solution is the declaration of unencumbered TIF funds. Please ask the Mayor and the City to ensure that all public schools are fully funded to ensure that students receive the highest quality education possible.

Sincerely,
XXX

Or, and this is not from the LSC Coalition:

Ask her to eliminate the FACE department which is taking $8.8 million away from school budgets, the Innovation and Incubation Department, which is taking $50 million away from school budgets, the no-bid SUPES contract, which is taking away $20 million from school budgets, some of the $14.4 million from the Accountability Office which is taking away from school budgets….


12 Days until school starts: Will the Mayor Restore Funding?

In addition to the 68 elementary schools that lost an art position and the 42 high schools that lost 86 English positions, the 51 elementary and 28 high schools that lost librarian positions,  below are the elementary schools that lost a CPS funded music position and High Schools that lost a Biology and Chemistry position:

Elementary schools that lost a music position:

Altgeld, Audubon, Azuela, Barton, Bennett, Blaine, Brown, Brownell, Byrne, Carver, Casals, Chicago Academy, Christopher,  Columbus, Cook, Cooper, Cullen,  Dewey, Erickson,  Evergreen, Farnsworth, George Pullman, Greeley, Goudy, Holmes, James Weldon Johnson, Kellogg, Kellman, Laura  Ward,  Madison, McCormick, Mireles, Newberry, O’Toole,  Peck,  Pirie, Ravenswood, Ray, Robert Black Magnet, Brown Community Academy, Ruiz, Shields Elem, Shields Middle, Sutherland, Vanderpoel, Wacker, Woodlawn Community. 32 more elementary schools didn’t have music to cut.

High Schools:

Biology: Bogan, Clemente, Crane, Curie 3, Gage Park, Hancock all 3, Kelly, Kelvyn Park 2, Lakeview, Marshall, Morgan Park, Lane, Prosser, Sullivan, York  Chemistry: Lane, Corliss, Robeson, Spry Uplift, York. Physics:  Michelle Clark Academic Prep,  Chicago Military Academy, Devry University Advantage Academy, Von Steuben, Morgan Park HS, Crane, Payton, Wells. Earth Science:Foreman, Peace and Education.

Meanwhile…in addition to the $50 million going to the Office of Innovation and Incubation, the $8.8million going to the Family and Community Engagement Office, the increase to the Talent and CFO’s office, why is the budget for the Accountability Office at Central Office no lower than last year at $14million when CPS just made an announcement that they are scaling back dramatically on standardized testing?  $14,474,409 for the Office of Accountability.

It’s interesting that Crain’s reported on June 10th that “in 2011 Chicago spent half as much as New York on instruction-related expenses but three times as much on general administration.”

And it’s interesting that CPS says they had no alternative  but to make these school-based cuts when they have increased so many central office departments as well as funding to charters.

A budget is a set of priorities.

Email us if you want to work further on advocating against school-based cuts:info@ilraiseyourhand.org


13 Days Until School Starts. Will the Mayor Restore Funding?

In addition to the 67 (actually 68) elementary schools that lost an art position and the 42 high schools that lost 86 English positions, today we’re taking note of elementary and high schools that had to cut librarian positions.

Elementary schools:

Albany Park Multicultural,  Altgeld, Azuela, Belmont,  Bennett, Bright, Carroll, Carter, Carver, Casals, Chicago Academy, Cragin, Castellanos, Darwin, Decatur, Dodge, Edison, Fairfield, Field, Finkl, Fleming, Foster Park, Garvey, Gregory, Jenner, Hamline, Keller, Kinzie, Lawndale Community Academy, McNair,  Miles Davis, Mireles, Mitchell, Nettelhorst, O’Keefe, Robinson, Rogers, Skinner North, Stowe, Wacker, Washington, Whitney, Wildwood. And these schools lost part of their library staff but will still retain some staffing:  Armstrong,  Barry, Goethe, Hedges,  J.Thorpe, De Dominguez,  Falconer.

High Schools:

Al Raby, Amundsen, Bowen, Clemente, Corliss, Farragut, Gage Park, Lane -2, Fenger, Fenger, Foreman, Harper, Hope College Prep, Hyde Park, Julian, Kelly, Kennedy -2, King, Lincoln Park High School,  North Grand, Orr, Robeson, Von Steuben, Walter Payton, Washington,

While slashing traditional public schools, CPS did manage to increase funding to charters for FY2014  by $85 million. Some of this is due to new enrollment and some is due to the switch in per pupil budgeting. Also, CPS put out an RFP for new charters yesterday. Priority areas are  Albany Irving, Ashburn. Logan Square (high school), Pilsen-Little Village, Midway, Sauganash,  

http://www.cps.edu/NewSchools/Documents/RFP_ForNewSchools.pdf

Given that CPS has cut funding to traditional high schools by 14% (Catalyst reported) perhaps next year’s “space utilization crisis” will be seen in high schools after they are further defunded and destabilized.  Catalyst also noted that charters got an overall increase of 12% with an enrollment increase of 10% while neighborhood elementary schools got an overall decrease of 3% with an enrollment increase of 4%. Traditional high schools show a projected enrollment decline of 2%.

Call the Mayor's office and tell him to restore funding to our schools: 312-744-3300. Ask him to return some of our property tax money that's sitting in TIF accounts and/or revise the budget to prioritize classroom spending and avoid non-essential increases to Central Office.and to stop defunding traditional public schools. Also, send these emails to your alderman, state representatives and US representatives. They need to be informed about what is happening to our  public schools.

On a positive note….thanks to all the parents who have donated used books to Books First. You have helped bring over 4,000 books to schools at CPS with no library and high homeless rates. Here’s a note from the parent who is organizing this:

We've collected 4,000 books which will help 600 of the most underserved CPS kids...and many, many of them came from people involved in Raise Your Hand. We're onto our 3rd school. The Principal just lost the $2,000.00 which she hoped to use to create a library. The elation in her voice when she heard that we'd have 2,000 books to her this year was just incredible. Take care.

Email booksfirst01@gmail.com if you want to donate books.


14 Days Until School Starts: Will the Mayor Restore Funding?

The city has options to help restore funding to our schools and it is unclear if they will do so with only two weeks left before school starts. Cuts to basic programs at CPS are staggering and we will be highlighting program cuts for the next two weeks looking at an elementary and HS programs each day.

We have been advocating together for a TIF surplus all summer and so far the Mayor has given no indication that he will return any of the unallocated TIF funds, which is property tax money that has been diverted from the schools and other taxing bodies.

There are also quesitonalbe areas of spending in the CPS budget and many departments in Central office that got increases while our traditional schools received deep cuts. Ginger Ostro, Budget Director of CPS, stated at the City Council Education Hearing on Friday that “CPS had no alternative” but to make these school-based cuts. We disagree with that statement.

  • Family and Community Engagement Office – Received an increase of $2.1 million with budget at $8. 8million

  • Office of Innovation and Incubation – Increase of roughly $8 million, budget at $50 Million. About $40 million of this is for New School Development. How about putting a one-year hold on charter growth while our traditional schools are being decimated?

  • Human Capital office – Increase of $22 million. About $20 million of this is for a no-bid contract for SUPES academy to train Principals and Network Chiefs given to a company that has very little experience working in Chicago. So far Principals have reported to us that the trainings are “not worth $20 million.”

  • Portfolio Office –this group which mainly works on school actions still has $6 million and did not receive a decrease despite the fact that the Mayor and CPS has said they are doing a 5 year moratorium on school closings. Shouldn’t this department have been reduced?

  • Chief Financial Office- increased by 13 positions. Corporate accounting has gone from 50 to 65 positions in two years.

  • Intergovernmental Affairs – had 5 positions in FY2012 and is budgeted for 17 in FY2014. Will our kids see a positive outcome in the classroom from this increase?.

And here are 68 schools that had an art position at the elementary level this past year and won’t have the same CPS funded position this fall:

Agassiz,Aldridge, Audubon,  Avalon Park, Beaubien, Belding, Blaine, Boone, Brighton Park Elem, Burbank, Burke, Burley, Burr, Caldwell, Carnegie, Canter, Casals, Chicago Academy, Cook, Deneen, De Dominguez, Disney, Dubois, Ella Flagg Young, Ericson, Evergreen, Evers, Gale, Galileo, Garfield Park Elem, Gillespie, Graham, Gray, Gresham, Hale, Henderson, Jahn, J Thorpe, Joplin, Jungman, Langford, Lara Academy, Lawndale Community, Lenart, Libby,  Manierre,  Marquette, MJackson, Mark Sheridan,McClellan,  McDade, Neil, OA Thorpe, Peterson, Prescott, Reavis,Sayre, Robert Black, Seward, Smyser,Von Linne, Wacker, Ward Howe, Warren,Whistler, Zapata,

Below  are High Schools that had English positions cut some reducing their English department in half:

Amundsen lost 3 positions, Austin Polytechnic 1, Bogan 5, Bowen 3, Chicago Acadey 1, Clark 1, Corliss 1, Curie 3, Dyett 1, Farragut 4, Foreman 3,Gage Park 1, Hancock 2,Harlan 4, Hirsch 1, Hope College Prep 1, Hyde Park 3, Kenwood1, Kelly 2,  Kennedy 8, Kelvyn Park 3, King 1, Lane 1, Lincoln Park High School 2, Manley 1.5, Marshall 5,Morgan Park 1,  Orr 1, Phillips 2, Prosser 1, Robeson 1, Schurz 4, Spry 1, Steinmetz 4,  TEAM Englewood 1, Upflit 1,Walter Payton 1, Wells 2,York 1

Call the Mayor's office and tell him to restore funding to our schools: 312-744-3300. Ask him to return some of our property tax money that's sitting in TIF accounts and/or revise the budget to prioritize classroom spending and avoid non-essential increases to Central Office. 

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