Board of Education
Chicago Public SchoolsChicago, IL 60602 (Directions)
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Reporting
Edited and summarized by the Chicago - IL Documenters Team
COVID-19 data discrepancy, Bus driver shortages, Charter school renewals
Good Morning! I’ll be live-tweeting today’s @ChiPubSchools Board of Education meeting for @CHIdocumenters #CHIdocumenters. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. Due to COVID-19, the meeting will be held remotely.
10:20 AM Jan 26, 2022 CST
President Miguel del Valle calls the meeting to order. Roll call vote to establish a quorum. Six members are present, a quorum has been reached.
President del Valle and the board members are thanking interim chief education officer, Maurice Swinney, EdD, and chief health officer, Dr. Ken Fox for their service to the district.
The meeting begins with the ‘honoring excellence’ agenda item. Kind School Awardees are Beard, Burke, Carver, Fiske, Palmer elementary schools.
Interim chief education officer: Maurice Swinney, EdD delivers updates and farewell remarks. He reminds everyone that LSC elections are coming up in the Spring. https://t.co/91ukQt3EQc
Dr. Swinney reflects on his life in public service. Dr. Swinney speaks about the balance between calling someone out vs. calling them in. He also gives thanks to everyone who helped him advance his equity framework.
An emotional Dr. Swinney ends his remarks. President del Valle wishes him well on his upcoming journeys.
CPS CEO Pedro Martinez begins his remarks by thanking Dr. Swinney for his service. CEO Martinez says the district is seeing a slow uptick in vaccination rates, increased testing capacity, and cases stabilize.
CEO Martinez says last week the district had 19k students in quarantine.
CEO Martinez is optimistic that the Omicron surge has spiked. He also says that CPS will follow the CDC’s guidance of shortening the recommended duration of quarantine.
CEO Martinez ends his remarks by saying he wants his team to reflect the diversity of the district. No questions from board members.
The next scheduled board meeting will take place on Wednesday, February 23, 2022, at 10:30 am. Public participation begins. Each speaker is allotted 2 mins.
CTU President Sharkey speaks first. He says he doesn’t want to rehash previous disputes with CEO Martinez. However, CTU President Sharkey says that the training for the contact tracing program still hasn’t taken place. He also wants accurate data to be shared with the union.
The next public speaker says that Urban Prep hasn’t properly followed COVID protocol. Says there is little testing being done and vaccination rates are extremely low.
SEIU Local 73 Executive VP says custodians are facing multiple issues. Slow replenishment of supplies, staff shortages, slow delivery of machines, lack of schedules, and multiple contract violations. Wants contract with Aramark to end.
Multiple public participants are speaking glowingly about Urban Prep.
Public speakers are speaking favorably about charter schools because of upcoming contract renewals. Find more here: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/breaking/ct-chicago-public-schools-charter-school-renewals-20220126-cldo4cbbsbfodl5rtgsbgq5t7q-story.html
CPS Parent Joanna calls attention to the bus driver shortage. She says her fourth-grade daughter hasn’t had bus service since the start of the year. It has caused stress and affected her work.
Public participation ends. President de Valle says that many of the issues brought up are going to be addressed in later presentations. The meeting goes into a 20-minute recess.
The meeting has reconvened. CPS chief health officer, Dr. Ken Fox delivers health & safety during COVID update. https://t.co/n8YU4aDa4X
Dr. Fox says an ongoing dilemma within CPS’ COVID response is COVID-19 vax opportunities still outpace demand. https://t.co/wwlL45P8o3
Dr. Fox addresses the reporting of CPS’ misleading COVID data. Says the potential solution is to publish positives from screen testing at the school level. https://t.co/qE9TKCRRbv
More about CPS’ COVID data changes here: https://news.wttw.com/2022/01/25/chicago-public-schools-claims-no-ill-intent-behind-changes-covid-19-data-dashboard
CBOE President de Valle says he wants the test-to-stay pilot program to work so children won’t continue to miss days of school.
Board member Elizabeth Todd-Breland says she doesn’t see how schools open again in the fall without a vaccine mandate.
CEO Martinez says the vaccine debate will be intense on the local level. And that the vaccine mandate won’t happen until the vax gets full approval from the FDA.
Health & Safety during COVID update ends. Charter renewals presentation begins.
The majority of the charter schools didn’t meet their renewal performance standards. The recommended renewal term length depends on performance. So all the charter schools got varying term lengths. Board members believe this is the only way to hold charters accountable.
Now the Office of Inspector General’s Investigation of Sexual Allegations presentation begins. https://t.co/kJw3oIqbjP
How the OIG responds to allegations of sexual misconduct. Reporting of sexual misconduct has recently increased. https://t.co/ZxQtp15ZRu
Overview of the OIG investigation and findings. 3 MLA staff engaged in sexual misconduct. 7 staff members failed to timely report instances of sexual misconduct. The OIG & OSP have increased dialogue and working to implement policy changes. https://t.co/40wS1g6ieU
The final presentation will be Transportation Update delivered by executive director Kimberly Jones. Jones says that due to the shortage of bus drivers about 700 diverse learners don’t have transportation.
Jones says it’s her goal to give bus service to all diverse learners by February 28th.
Jones says that there are fingerprinting events being held to hire more bus drivers.
CEO Martinez says he wants to expand different modes of transportation service for students.
Board members are expressing frustration over broken promises by vendors hired to fill the bus driver shortage. Failure to provide transportation for CPS students is being blamed on the national shortage of bus drivers.
22-0126-RS3 - Resolution regarding school bus transportation in response to the National school bus driver shortage being discussed by CBoE members. The resolution reaffirms that students with IEPs are provided with transportation to school.
Vote on public agenda items begins. Resolution 22-0126-RS3 passes with a 6-0 vote.
Approval of Record of Proceedings of Meetings open to the public 12/3/2021 & 12/15/2021 passes 6-0.
Resolutions RS1 & RS2, reports from the CEO, reports from the interim chief operating officer, reports from the interim chief procurement officer being considered. Non-delegable Board Reports that require member action can be found here in the agenda: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21185886/board-of-education-2022-01-26-agenda-for-the-board-of-education-meeting.pdf
Matters on pages 6,7, & 8 passes with a 6-0 vote. Motion to hold a closed session pass. The meeting is now in closed session. https://t.co/irh0fu0WIi
The meeting reconvenes with a vote on executive session items. All executive session items pass with a 4-0 vote. https://t.co/8gKWivAPlj
@ChiPubSchools Board of Education meeting ends at 6:12 p.m. This ends my coverage for @CHIdocumenters find more information through Diane Bustamante’s notes at http://documenters.org
Attachments
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Agency Information
Chicago Public Schools
The Chicago Board of Education is charged with governing the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), setting policies, governing operations, and charting the direction of current and future programs.
A list of board members (with headshots) is here. Board members are currently appointed by the mayor. In 2021, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a bill into law that will gradually transition to a 21-member elected school board over the course of 2024-2027.
A list of CPS executive leadership is here.