Mayor, CPS, CTU announce expansion of sustainable community school program amid budget crisis
Chicago Public Schools facing $734M budget hole
CHICAGO (WLS) -- Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chicago Public Schools and Chicago Teachers Union leadership and Chicago families gathering Monday as sustainable community schools will be expanded within CPS.
Currently there are 20 schools under this program; the expansion will bump the total to 36.
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The additional 16 sustainable community schools will be in the Austin, Belmont Cragin and Englewood communities.
Alicia and Arianna Anderson both attended Fort Dearborn Elementary, one of the sustainable community schools.
"I could go to a lot of my teachers and we can talk about things, stuff that's happening inside and outside of school," Alicia Anderson said. "It wasn't like just all workbooks and learning. There wasn't a rift between teachers and students. It was like a big community."
According to CPS and CTU, sustainable community schools integrate the needs of the school, students and the community.
They are meant to expand services beyond academic needs.
That includes extending the time a school building is open, offering families GED and English as a second language courses, health and wellness programming and connecting the school with community resources.
"That means more mental health support, more mentorship programs, more community-oriented events, more access to resources for jobs, housing," Mayor Brandon Johnson said.
Dyett High School on the South Side is Chicago's first sustainable school. It is a model that brings wraparound services and resources to schools, transforming the buildings into neighborhood hubs.
"I believe that students can only succeed and learn when they are supported, and that's what this village model does," interim CPS CEO Macquline King said.
"What you see today is an expansion of community, an expansion of hope, an expansion of what young people deserve," CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said. "In our collective bargaining agreement that we landed in April, we made sure to expand this idea."
CPS already invests $10 million annually to fund its current 20 sustainable community schools.
The move to expand the program comes as the district is faced with a $734 million budget hole, and there have been calls for the state legislature to step in.
"The challenges that we are facing are severe," Mayor Johnson said. "So here's what I can say is that, as a collective, we're working to ensure that, you know, this year's budget allows for these investments to be maintained. And we're going to need those same parents who are concerned, like all of us, to work with the General Assembly to ensure that they are fully funded as a district."
In less than two weeks, Chicago Public Schools must present its 2026 budget to the school board. A vote is schedule for Aug. 28.
"We inherited a really reckless, irresponsible budget. We're working through a process now to ensure that, you know, every single school building, that those needs are being met," Johnson said.
The mayor and CTU have consistently turned to Springfield for help, calling on the state to fully fund CPS under an evidence-based state funding formula that allows the state several years to adequately fund the district. At a hearing on CPS finances last week, lawmakers did not express any desire to help CPS close this year's budget gap.
"Springfield isn't meeting. So, there's no more money to be had there. Therefore, there's no basis for assuming there's more money coming from Springfield," Civic Federation President Joe Ferguson said.
To help close the gap, CPS has already announced cuts to crossing guards and custodians.
Ferguson says restructuring debt, more Tax Increment Financing money and shifting a municipal employee pension payment back to the city will help, but it may not be enough. He expects drastic mid-year cuts.
"Money is never part of any conversation that anybody is having these days, except for making public facing theatrical demands of Springfield," Ferguson said.
CPS students head back to school in two weeks.
