Equity, special education, and representation: the first CPS school board elections

Ebony DeBerry, Kate Doyle, Maggie Cullerton Hooper and Bruce Leon, all candidates running for a seat on the Chicago Public Schools school board in District 2, mean Ebony DeBerry, Kate Doyle, Maggie Cullerton Hooper and Bruce Leon.

For the first time, the public will be able to vote for representatives on the CPS school board, according to Chicago city officials press release. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the bill into law legislation leads the implementation of an elected school board for CPS in 2021.

Candidates will appear on the electoral ballots of voters based on their Illinois residence. The deadline for returning the ballot in person is November 5 at 7 p.m., and the winner will be selected after all votes are counted.

The Lake Shore campus is part of District 2, which includes Lincoln Square, Ravenswood, Peterson Park, Andersonville, Edgewater, West Ridge and Rogers Park.

Ebony DeBerry

DeBerry, a former CPS student, attended Gale Elementary and Sullivan High schools and later became a teacher in the district. She is a board member and recruiter for Grow Your Own Teachers, an organization that supports racially diverse people who want to become teachers in their own communities.

In an interview with The Phoenix, DeBerry said one of the goals included in her platform focuses on increasing enrollment and the number of minority faculty in CPS schools.

According to CPS, the student population is 47.3% Latino and 34.2% Black demography for the 2024-2025 school year. DeBerry’s “Problems.” website includes a goal to increase the number of black and Latino faculty members.

“This neighborhood is predominately black and brown,” DeBerry said. “Children cannot become what they do not see in front of them.”

DeBerry said she supports equality and increasing school funding. CPS budget for fiscal year 2025 application to the Board of Education called for the district to move away from a student-based funding model to a needs-based model. However, as page 12 of the city’s 2025 spending plan shows, CPS is struggling with deficits and must return the money to the city. Budget forecast.

“Some of the city’s amazing schools have thrived for decades, others have been underfunded for just as long,” DeBerry said. “We want to make sure every school is able to prepare a child for the future.”

DeBerry is endorsed by several Chicago aldermen and Congresswoman Delia Ramirez.

All inquiries can be directed to the DeBerry campaign side.

Doyle, a former special education teacher and CEO of KindWork, a nonprofit that provides low-income youth with technical education, said her policy proposals include raising student achievement in technical education. Doyle is the mother of a young son entering CPS school.

According to career and technical education program data, students can gain the skills they need for the career they want to pursue after high school or post-secondary school. CPS.

No schools are listed CTE Matrix 2024-2025 offers each of the above-mentioned courses to its students. The matrix is ​​a data sheet of all CTE courses offered at CPS high schools. At two District 2 schools, Sullivan and Senn High School, only three CTE classes are available to students.

Of the 33 courses on the CTE roster, Sullivan offers only two: the Entrepreneurship track in the Business program and the Health Sciences track in the Health Sciences program. Senn offers only health sciences.

“We should start by providing robust CTE instruction in the early grades,” Doyle said. “I want to ensure equitable access to technical education.”

All inquiries can be directed to the Doyle campaign side.

Among Cullerton Hooper’s other areas of interest, he is an activist for people with disabilities and victims of gender-based violence. She currently serves as a senior consultant for the Alliance for Black Equality PAC and has two children enrolled at the neighboring school in Albany Park, where she served on the local school board for eight years.

Cullerton Hooper said her priorities include recognizing the complexities of educating students with disabilities and community involvement.

In 2018, CPS transferred control of special education to an independent monitor after finding that the district had violated federal law, The Related press reported.

“The system that works the way it does, regardless of the people who work in it, is to avoid litigation,” Cullerton Hooper said. “People with disabilities don’t have deficits, the world does. It is the responsibility of CPS to compensate children for the opportunity to learn.”

All inquiries can be directed to the Cullerton Hooper campaign side.

Leon is a small business owner and philanthropist who believes in the power of local government independent of city hall. According to him, Leon’s family has lived in Chicago for five generations campaign website.

According to his endorsement, his support includes local officials such as Controller Susanna Mendoza and several aldermen website. He also supported it Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Republican Party.

Leon did not respond to requests for an interview.