The board overseeing Chicago Public Schools will triple in size and transform into a fully elected panel by 2027, under a measure Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law Thursday.
The Chicago Board of Education is now composed of seven people appointed by the mayor. Under the new structure, a group of 21 elected and appointed board members will take over in 2025. The first school board selected only by voters will be seated in January 2027.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot supported an elected school board during her 2019 mayoral campaign, but backtracked and later pushed for a hybrid panel. She raised concerns about the elected board structure in a letter to Pritzker on Thursday.
“The bill creates the nation’s largest elected school board by more than double. Even Los Angeles, with a larger school population than Chicago’s, only has seven elected members, while HB2908 would create an unwieldy 21-member board,” Lightfoot wrote.
Over the years, the size of Chicago’s school board has ranged from five to 15 members. Chicago’s mayor has held at least partial board control since 1872. The Chicago Teachers Union has long pushed for an elected school board and applauded the bill signing.
“Students, families and educators will now have the voice they have long been denied for a quarter of a century by failed mayoral control of our schools,” a union statement said. “Chicago will finally have an elected board accountable to the people our schools serve, as it should be.”
Here’s what you need to know about Chicago’s elected school board.
What is the timeline for transition?
The Illinois General Assembly is set to draw geographic districts by February 2022. There will be 10 electoral districts for the 2024 election and 20 for the 2026 election and beyond. In the future, the district map is slated to be revisited with the release of census results every 10 years.
The first hybrid board will be seated on Jan. 15, 2025. The mayor will appoint 10 members to serve two-year terms and will also appoint a board president, subject to City Council approval. The remaining 10 seats, with four-year terms, will go to those who voters choose in the 2024 election.
The 2027 board will be fully elected. Voters will take to the polls in 2026 to elect a board president and 10 members who will serve four-year terms.
From 2025 to 2027, each of the 10 Chicago districts will be represented by one elected board member and one appointed member. Starting with the 2027 board, there will be one elected member for each of the 20 districts, plus the board president.
Who is eligible for a board seat?
School board elections will be nonpartisan, just like Chicago mayoral and aldermanic races.
Board candidates must be U.S. citizens and registered voters who have lived in Chicago for at least a year before the election or their appointment. Board members cannot be CPS employees, nor can they own or work at a company that has a contract with CPS.
In her letter to Pritzker, Lightfoot pointed out that all Chicago residents, regardless of immigration status, can vote in Local School Council races. A traditional Local School Council — which hires and evaluates the school’s contract principal — is typically composed of the principal, six parents, two community residents, two teachers and one nonteacher staff member, plus one student if it’s a high school.
CPS says it does not check or track immigration status of LSC voters. Community and parent voters do not need to be U.S. citizens.
What else does the measure do?
HB2908 also puts in place a moratorium on school closures and consolidations until the hybrid board is seated in January 2025. The legislation comes as CPS has seen steep enrollment declines, from 404,151 students in 2012 to 340,658 this past year. There are 100,000 students “at risk” of not reenrolling in the fall, interim CPS CEO José Torres told board members at the July meeting.
The measure also creates the Chicago Board of Education Diversity Advisory Board, which is appointed by the mayor, to offer the school board guidance on issues such as creating an equitable and inclusive learning environment for noncitizen students.
What’s next?
The measure is effective June 1, 2022. Follow-up legislation is expected to address campaign finance rules and board member compensation, along with potentially some of the reforms Lightfoot seeks.
tswartz@tribpub.com
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