Chicago school board president talks cuts and uncertainty with principals: ‘You need to understand what I’m grappling with’

When school board President Sean Harden met with principals earlier this week as part of an ongoing effort to emphasize transparency and inclusivity, he was candid.

“Can we win the lottery?” he joked. “I’m being facetious, but I’m being real.”

The round table discussion Tuesday evening was hosted by the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association at Peterson Elementary in North Park. School leaders from Edgewater to Austin raised concerns about the impact of leadership changes, the need for equitable resource allocation and budget delays.

Harden was not shy about directly addressing Chicago Public Schools’ $529 million cash crunch, saying he wants community input while making tough decisions about cuts for the upcoming school year. Despite extensive unknowns looming in the months and years ahead, he remained positive.

Typically, school-level budgets are released between March and May to ensure that principals, local school councils and school communities have sufficient time to plan. A newly expanded, 21-member school board has pushed back the release of those budgets, which Harden attributed Tuesday to the district’s fiscal challenges, but also the growing pains with a governing body that is three times the size of the previous seven-member board.

“It’s painful to be honest, but it’s also what the public wanted in a democratically elected school board,” he said. “So you’re getting what you asked for.”

The target date for the release of those budgets is mid-May. The district aims to settle its full budget in early July.

State legislation in 2021 created a roadmap to transition to an elected school board, a years-long effort from community activists who said their voices were being ignored under former mayors who prioritized privatization over community schools. Under Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former organizer with the Chicago Teachers Union, some board members have emphasized they are putting community voices first — a shift, they say, from how things were done before.

“Tuesday talks,” which will be a regular practice moving forward, are an example of that, said Kia Banks, CPAA’s vice president. Banks said communication with Harden since he was brought onto the board by Johnson last December has been “pleasant,” and that the president’s thinking is “strategic” and “inclusive.”

“One thing that’s bringing me joy today is to see us engaged in something that’s proactive,” she said. “Oftentimes, I see us reacting and then trying to fix the mess that someone else creates.”

A tight budget, difficult decisions

Harden inherited a budget already squeezed by the end of federal pandemic funding and debt accrued over decades, he told principals Tuesday. He has had to factor in the potential of more funding cuts due to “attacks from the federal level” that he said there was no way to prepare for.

“You need to understand what I’m grappling with,” he said to the anticipatory faces seated around him at tables arranged in a rectangle. “You may not agree with it, but you will have an appreciation for the tools that I have, the limitations that I have, and the weighty decisions that are before us.”

According to a presentation given by district officials to board members in late April obtained by the Tribune, the board, staring down the barrel of half a billion in the red, will “need to identify $529 million spending reductions,” to be implemented at both the administrative and school level.

That estimate doesn’t include an $175 million payment for a pension fund for nonteaching CPS employees pushed for by the mayor.

Suggestions for reductions floated in the presentation were: cuts to the central administrative office; decreasing citywide supports, like building maintenance or reduced professional development; or downsizing at individual schools. CPS has not considered deep school-based cuts in recent years.

District officials propose reducing school funding by $200 to $260 million, while maintaining reasonable class sizes, the presentation states. They estimated in the presentation that there could be over 1,600 positions cut. Staff support for high-needs students, such as English Language Learners or students with disabilities, would be prioritized, according to the presentation.

CPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the presentation.

Harden estimated Tuesday that the board is looking at 1,500 potential layoffs.

“Those types of actions are absolutely abysmal, and nobody from the mayor to the board president and everybody in between wants to see that happen,” he said.

Other suggested cuts would affect afterschool programming and operations like crossing guards or transportation costs, the presentation suggests.

Principals were given the opportunity to write their questions for Harden on index cards as he listened and acknowledged their individual worries. They asked how decisions would be made about which schools would receive cuts. He urged them to contact him directly.

“Reach out to me … if there’s something you want to know, something that’s present, something that’s not sitting right, and it’s impacting your ability to run your school community,” he said.

Principals also pressed Harden for answers about how the transition to a new CPS chief would be handled to ease disruption at the school level. Pedro Martinez, the current chief executive officer, is leaving his post in mid-June after a drawn-out struggle with the school board over finances.

“What happens up here is not going to impact what happens every day (at schools),” Harden said. “You’re going to make sure your babies are taken care of by hook and crook.”

As a CPS graduate and a consultant and real estate developer for his day job, Harden acknowledged the financial drain of maintaining the infrastructure of the district’s dilapidated buildings. Asked the pointed question about the potential of school closures, he said that type of decision needs “to come from the community.”

More funding for the district from the state or city will be critical in the months and years ahead, said Harden. But both entities have their own mounting challenges with upcoming budgets.

Harden, however, remained optimistic.

“I have a pretty expansive network of partnerships, and I know how to leverage the mayor,” he said Tuesday. “Part of it is knowing the ask and what it is that we need to do.”

A day later, he started whipping school board votes to change a previously approved board resolution in order to help get the mayor’s second in command to fill in for the interim CPS CEO.