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Time of India
15-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Chicago Public Schools cuts 1,450 jobs, targets teachers and special education support amid $734 million deficit
In one of the most sweeping education job cuts seen in recent years, Chicago Public Schools (CPS)—the third-largest school district in the United States—has laid off over 1,450 school-based staff members as it scrambles to reduce a ballooning budget deficit that now stands at $734 million. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The layoffs, announced just weeks before the start of the 2025-26 academic year, affect not only classroom teachers but also paraprofessionals, special education support staff, and safety personnel. These cuts come as the district delays its annual budget vote, raising fresh concerns about the financial sustainability of urban public school systems in the U.S. Who is being laid off? According to official figures and data analyzed by education outlet Chalkbeat, the layoffs include: 432 teachers 311 paraprofessionals (including teacher assistants) 677 Special Education Classroom Assistants (SECAs) 33 security officers 5 parent workers In total, over 1,450 school-based employees have lost their jobs. These reductions have impacted 57% of CPS district-run schools (excluding alternative or specialty schools). The remaining 43% of schools saw no change or even a slight increase in staffing levels, based on school-by-school budgets released Friday. This year's cuts are comparable to last year's numbers, when 1,410 staffers were laid off. However, the scale of this year's budget deficit has triggered new levels of anxiety across Chicago's education landscape. What's driving the budget crisis? Initially, CPS had projected a deficit of $229 million earlier this year, under then-CEO Pedro Martinez. That estimate was based on the expectation that the district would receive $300 million in additional funding from state and city governments. However, when interim CEO Macquline King took charge in July, she revealed that the shortfall was far worse than expected—by nearly half a billion dollars. The updated $734 million deficit includes: Lack of new state or city funding Rising operational and staffing costs A contentious $175 million pension reimbursement owed to the City of Chicago Inflation-related cost escalations in transportation, food services, and energy End of federal pandemic-era relief funds (ESSER) that had temporarily bolstered budgets This fiscal cliff comes at a time when many urban school districts across the U.S. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now are facing similar challenges: shrinking enrollment, higher special education needs, and rising per-pupil costs. Retention pools: A partial safety net CPS has created retention pools for a limited number of staff, primarily to mitigate disruption in special education. According to district officials, up to: 123 special education teachers 300 Special Education Classroom Assistants will be retained on payroll and reassigned to schools with staffing gaps over the academic year. However, not all laid-off staff qualify. The retention pools exclude employees with low performance ratings, and there's no guarantee of reassignment if vacancies don't open up in time. In previous years, around 80% of laid-off CPS staff eventually found placements elsewhere in the system—but with budget cuts deepening, even that figure is uncertain this year. Will more cuts follow? CPS has not ruled out additional rounds of staffing adjustments once enrollment numbers stabilize in the first weeks of school. The district may also choose to borrow funds, though this approach has divided the school board and civic leaders. CPS officials say they are trying to remain 'student-centered' and responsive, and may restore positions at schools based on where students actually show up in August and September. However, with no final budget approved and mounting political pressure, schools are preparing for continued uncertainty. For educators, students, and parents, the consequences are real: larger class sizes, reduced special education support, fewer counselors and aides, and more pressure on already stretched teachers. As other cities watch how Chicago navigates its crisis—through cuts, borrowing, or state intervention—this could become a national test case for how America's school systems survive the next phase of post-pandemic recovery. TOI Education is on WhatsApp now. Follow us .
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CPS lays off 161, eliminates 209 positions to plug budget hole
In a cost-cutting move to plug a $734 million shortfall, Chicago Public Schools officials on Friday said they laid off dozens of workers in the district's central office and citywide staff. In all, CPS laid off 161 employees, according to district officials. The cuts come after interim schools chief Macquline King told the Chicago Board of Education at a meeting Thursday that the district faces a budget deficit that's $201 million more than officials previously cited. Though the budget is typically released in June, district officials have yet to finalize a spending plan — or say how they plan to address the now $730 million shortfall. Before Thursday's meeting, the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73, which represents public service workers in schools, held a news conference urging district officials to prevent additional cuts. Under the blazing sun, scores of parents, teachers, and school staff members gathered, holding signs and wearing union T-shirts. Among those hit by the layoffs were 87 members of SEIU Local 73, nearly all of whom were crossing guards, district officials said. Seven CTU employees and 67 employees across the district's central office and network offices were also affected, officials said. Reductions only affected central office and citywide staff who are not assigned to schools, officials said. In a statement to the Tribune Friday night, SEIU Local 73 President Dian Palmer said it was aware that CPS 'has begun issuing layoff notices to staff' but that 'we do not yet have numbers on how many have or will be impacted.' 'We believe that laying off any of these essential workers would be a significant blow to our education system,' Palmer said. 'Our union will work to mitigate the impact of any layoffs and continues to call on the City of Chicago and the Board of Education to urgently explore other alternatives that will not directly harm students' education.' CTU officials in a statement to their website Friday said the union was gathering information about the details of the layoffs and 'working to make sure that impacted members are able to exercise the rights we have won in our contract.' CTU members ratified a new contract with CPS in April. 'These layoffs disrupt the whole school community and undermine the hard work our school staff devote to students every day,' CTU officials stated. Officials also eliminated 209 open positions across the offices. 'Chicago Public Schools remains committed to using every available dollar to support student learning and school communities, despite the district's ongoing and well-documented funding challenges,' district officials said in a statement. 'In continuing preparation of the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, CPS is taking a careful and strategic approach to reduce spending while minimizing the impact on classrooms.' Officials said that over the past several months, while under the leadership of previous CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, the district's talent team has been 'working closely with the Budget Office and department leaders to take a thoughtful look at how we operate.' Together, they've been 'identifying ways to be more efficient and find cost savings across our central offices and administrative functions,' officials said. Employees affected by the central office actions were notified Friday, officials said. Union partners were notified earlier this week. Officials said the district 'acknowledges the thoughtful and difficult work undertaken by teams across the organization to ensure these decisions have the least possible impact on students.' District officials also stated the district remains 'focused on transparency and fiscal responsibility and will continue to work closely with city leaders, labor partners, and community stakeholders to address the long-standing structural underfunding of public education in Chicago,' adding that ensuring 'students receive the high-quality education they deserve remains the District's top priority.' tkenny@
Chicago Tribune
28-06-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
CPS lays off 161, eliminates 209 positions to plug budget hole
In a cost-cutting move to plug a $734 million shortfall, Chicago Public Schools officials on Friday said they laid off dozens of workers in its central office and citywide staff. In all, CPS laid off 161 employees, according to district officials. The cuts come after interim schools chief Macquline King told the Chicago Board of Education at a meeting Thursday that the district faces a budget deficit $201 million more than officials previously cited. Though the budget is typically released in June, district officials have yet to finalize a spending plan — or say how they plan to address the now $730 million shortfall. Before Thursday's meeting, the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73, which represents public service workers in schools, held a news conference urging district officials to prevent additional cuts. Under the blazing sun, scores of parents, teachers, and school staff gathered holding signs and wearing union T-shirts. Among those impacted by the layoffs were 87 members of SEIU Local 73, among nearly all of whom were crossing guards, district officials said. Seven Chicago Teachers Union employees were also impacted. 'CPS children cannot afford to lose the care and resources union members have fought so hard to obtain since the pandemic,' SEIU Local 73 President Dian Palmer said in a news release Thursday. Officials also eliminated 209 open positions across the offices 'Chicago Public Schools remains committed to using every available dollar to support student learning and school communities, despite the district's ongoing and well-documented funding challenges,' district officials said in a statement. 'In continuing preparation of the Fiscal Year 2026 budget, CPS is taking a careful and strategic approach to reduce spending while minimizing the impact on classrooms.' Officials said that over the past several months, while under the leadership of previous CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, the district's talent team has been 'working closely with the Budget Office and department leaders to take a thoughtful look at how we operate.' Together, they've been 'identifying ways to be more efficient and find cost savings across our central offices and administrative functions,' officials said. Employees affected by the central office actions were notified Friday, officials said. Union partners were notified earlier this week. Officials said the district 'acknowledges the thoughtful and difficult work undertaken by teams across the organization to ensure these decisions have the least possible impact on students.' SEIU Local 73 in its release called on the city and the Chicago Board of Education to 'urgently explore other alternatives that will not directly harm these students' education.' Meanwhile, district officials stated the district remains 'focused on transparency and fiscal responsibility and will continue to work closely with city leaders, labor partners, and community stakeholders to address the long-standing structural underfunding of public education in Chicago,' adding that ensuring 'students receive the high-quality education they deserve remains the District's top priority.'
CBS News
24-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates urges Chicago Public Schools to borrow to avoid spending cuts
Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates on Monday called again for Chicago Public Schools to borrow money to address a $529 million budget deficit. Speaking at the City Club of Chicago, Gates said the Chicago Board of Education should take out a loan to avoid cuts. Davis Gates also said more needs to be done to persuade lawmakers in Springfield to provide CPS more money, arguing the state's education funding formula calls for district to receive $1.2 billion more each year. She also called out some city and state Democrats for denouncing book bans across the country while not supporting the union's efforts to fill library shelves in public schools. "That's why I'm confused when people are frustrated and irritated with the Chicago Teachers Union when they insist on reconstructing school libraries and the schools in Chicago. We don't need dumpsters like they have in Florida if the library doesn't exist in Chicago," she said. The school district's new fiscal year begins July 1, but CPS has yet to announce a plan to balance its budget. CPS interim President Macquline King will lead her first school board meeting on Thursday.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
CPS narrows interim CEO search as negligence allegations surface in top candidate's record
The Chicago Board of Education has narrowed its list for the interim schools' chief down to three candidates in recent days, one of whom has a history of alleged negligence as a principal, according to documents obtained by the Tribune through the Freedom of Information Act. The people in consideration are: Macquline King, the city's senior director of educational policy; Alfonso Carmona, CPS chief portfolio officer and Nicole Milberg, the school district's chief of teaching and learning. All of the candidates have backgrounds as educators and principals, working their way up to administrative roles. Carmona and Milberg both hold ranks within CPS. King is the only person being considered who works with the city. They all have a professional educator license with a superintendent endorsement. Managing the nation's fourth-largest school district requires a specific, narrow managerial skill set and focus, several board members and a former district official told the Tribune. The incoming interim superintendent will need both the financial expertise to pass the budget and the school-level understanding to successfully start the school year, they said. The new 21-person board, which is split between mayoral-appointed and elected members, will decide on the short-term schools leader later this month. It will also conduct a search for the permanent replacement later this fall, according to Che Rhymefest Smith of District 10 on the South Side. A simple majority — or 11 out of 21 members — is required to vote the candidate in. 'The one thing we don't need is any more shameful representations of leadership that were not properly vetted,' Smith said, referring to the abrupt resignation of former school board president the Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson last October for his social media posts deemed antisemitic and conspiratorial. Other board members emphasized the importance of conducting the interim CEO search with integrity. 'And we are trying to depoliticize it, because it shouldn't be a political process, right?' said Anusha Thotakura, a board member from District 6, spanning neighborhoods from Streeterville to Englewood. 'We want the best candidate for the job.' Whether outgoing schools chief Pedro Martinez's temporary replacement comes from CPS or the Johnson administration could affect potential borrowing scenarios adopted by the school board to balance a tight fiscal budget for 2026, which begins on July 1. Board members are reconciling with decades of financial mismanagement while balancing CPS' books. Macquline King, a former principal at Mary E. Courtenay Language Arts Center in Uptown and the now-closed Alexandre Dumas School in Woodlawn, currently serves as the city's senior director of educational policy. She holds a Doctor of Education degree from National Louis University, according to her LinkedIn profile. As senior director of educational policy for the city, she gets paid by CPS but technically works for the city. King disclosed in CPS documents in 2022 that she is exempt from living in Chicago, as employees hired before 1996 are not required to live within city limits. Public records show she owns property on the Near West Side. King helped manage the fallout of the 2013 Stockton Elementary merger with Courtenay, a turbulent time marked by staff tensions and student fights, according to district officials who requested anonymity due to the ongoing CEO search. But her employee record shows she didn't act with urgency on several occasions, according to CPS documents obtained by the Tribune under the Freedom of Information Act. While never formally disciplined beyond warnings, King was cited in multiple internal investigations between 2015 and 2019. Several of the allegations were later dismissed due to insufficient evidence. In April 2015, she waited several weeks before calling the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services over the alleged physical abuse of a student, according to a CPS memo signed by her supervisor. Under CPS policy, employees are required to report suspected abuse to DCFS within 48 hours. Without enough credible evidence, an investigative report dismissed the finding against another school employee, but not against King. In October that year, a CPS investigative report shows, she failed to implement the school safety plan after two students were found in a bathroom stall together, pulling their pants down and 'looking at each other's private parts and butt,' without staff supervision. The school's policy was changed to require staff members to accompany students to the bathroom before and after school. The reports state, however, that the school's staff didn't take any action to ensure it was enforced. According to an interview included in the reports, King stated that the assistant principal was in charge of overseeing the afterschool program at that time, as she was on leave. King was also cited for negligent supervision for failing to properly notify emergency contacts after a student broke their arm in December, according to CPS investigative reports. The assistant principal at the time informed the student's guardian that the reason for the lack of notification was that a nurse on duty that day was absent, according to the reports. The allegation was dismissed due to a lack of credible evidence. A CPS memo indicates that four years later, King allowed a volunteer to work at the school without requiring a background check. A memorandum of understanding later showed that the person had criminal charges. King did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from the district for the other two candidates didn't contain any citations of negligence or misconduct. Alfonso Carmona, originally from Colombia, is CPS's Chief Portfolio Officer, a role he has held for three years. He oversees enrollment, new program development, and school accountability. Before that, he worked as a bilingual teacher at Inter-American Magnet School in Lakeview, principal at Healy Elementary School in Bridgeport, and superintendent of St. Augustine Prep in Milwaukee, Wis. He joined CPS administration as a network chief. Carmona recently led presentations to the school board on options for absorbing seven of 15 Acero charter schools slated for closure. He holds a bachelor's in economics from the University of Cartagena, two master's degrees and a Doctorate in School Administration from Western Illinois University. Nicole Milberg, CPS's chief of teaching and learning since fall 2023, oversees the district's academic strategy, including curriculum and teacher training. She previously served as a network chief, supporting diverse school models and leading the shift to remote learning. Milberg began her CPS career as a resident principal at John Fiske Elementary School in Woodlawn, later leading Ellen Mitchell Elementary School in West Town. She has also worked in Newark, N.J. and Washington, D.C. She holds a Master of Business Administration from the Yale School of Management and a Master of Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, according to LinkedIn. District officials are counting on at least $300 million in additional funding from the city and state to balance the upcoming budget. However, the state budget was passed at the final hour late last Saturday, with several spending cuts, including to K-12 school districts across the state. In 2017, state lawmakers pledged to increase funding by $350 million annually for ten years to fund schools adequately. This year's budget is $43 million below that target. And the city will face its own challenges this budget season, with President Donald Trump threatening to cut billions in funding. Without additional cash, layoffs of as many as 1,700 district employees could be on the horizon, a suggestion floated to board members in mid-April. To get through the last fiscal school year and meet its growing pension obligations, city officials proposed several borrowing scenarios for the district. CPS CEO Martinez called them a short-term fix that wouldn't help the ongoing financial crisis. The financial disagreement in part cost him his job last December. His last day with the district is June 18. Martinez argued for months that while large debt issuances are a fairly routine practice for the large school district, a budget that relies on borrowed revenue for regular expenses wouldn't be sustainable and could hurt CPS' credit rating. The incoming interim pick will face the same questions and challenges.
