Chicago Board of Education Meeting June 26, 2025

Special Education Assistant Teacher Theresa Powers

The Chicago Board of Education monthly meetings are democracy in action where the public can speak up about serious issues in the schools.

But you will not read about many of these serious issues in the mainstream media. The Sun-Times or Chicago Tribune are corporate funded media that stick to the talking points their masters deem acceptable.

I already wrote two stories from the June 26, 2025 Chicago Board of Ed meeting that highlighted the genocidal battle in Gaza that burst out on a bulletin board in a Northside elementary school and the discovery that principal union activist Troy LaRaviere is no longer the president of the Chicago Principals & Administrators Association.

Neither of those stories were reported on by the mainstream media.

But there is even more to write about the rest of the meeting that a veteran like myself who has been covering the Chicago Public Schools beat for many years still finds surprising and important to report out.

The monthly board meetings public participation period begin with five minute speeches by union officials. The first speakers are usually the presidents of the Chicago Teachers Union (Stacy Davis Gates), SEIU Local 73 (Dian Palmer) and the Chicago Principals Assoc. (Kia Banks).

Then the speakers line up to air their grievances or praise their schools.

The first group of public speakers at the board meeting advocated for green schools. They talked about 100 year old buildings surrounded by toxins and inadequate drinking water, and undrinkable water fountains. The Trustees then unanimously approved a resolution to launch a Healthy Green Schools Pilot Program that aims to invest in clean energy and building electrification projects across 12 neighborhood schools by fiscal year 2026.

The next group of speakers denounced the cuts to Special Education assistants or SECA’s. Cluster Special Ed Teacher Theresa Powers, in her red CTU shirt, said she has 13 students with an array of needs. “I rely on my team of classroom assistants, many autistic students who need stability,” she said. “My main concern about SECA cuts is the safety. I welcome anyone to spend one hour in my cluster room, when chairs are flying through the classroom and there are less adults in the room to deal with that. This is a recipe for disaster.”

A Corliss STEM High School Teacher said they won a contract for a full-time case manager, but she got push back from her administrator. After she voted against renewing her principal’s contract, she then received notification that she was being reassigned, and now was being displaced as the case manager. She said she contacted her assistant principal and the network chief. “And now I come to you to keep me at Corliss,” she said. “This is happening to many across CPS.”

Kimberly Dodd-Weston is a 25-year SECA at Corliss who had been subjected to harassment as a union steward for SEIU. “I've been verbally attacked by a co-worker and nothing was done,” she said. “This is a violation of (our) contract for a safe and healthy work environment.” She said she was denied employment and the admin refused to address the hostile work environment. “The admin told me I had to refrain from any union activity,” she said. “I ask the Board to please investigate conditions at my school that affect my safety.”

Parents and LSC members at Greeley Elementary School were upset about the cuts to their bilingual and Spanish classes, especially after they received 150 migrants who need bilingual services last year. “Greeley students do not deserve less because they are invisible on your spreadsheets.”

The Inter-American Magnet School saga continues as more speakers came to tell Trustees to get rid of their principal. Former LSC member Maria Ugarte said, “I feel like I won the lottery by being able to finally speak before the Board of Education.” She said the LSC voted no confidence in October 2024 in Inter-American Principal Juan Zayas, and filed formal charges against the principal. “Our community has shown CPS the numerous violations of his contract with our school,” she said. Ugarte said the principal submitted a budget without the LSC approval and there was no transparency. “We ask that the Board (to) continue the investigation into the principal for all these violations.” Like many Inter-American past speakers, she read her speech in Spanish and English, highlighting their dual language program. “It's been over 200 days and CPS still has not responded to the charges,” she said. “This delay has deeply harmed our community.”

Parent Lindsey Woods said Principal Zayas tries to block parents from running for the LSC, and retaliates against the students of parents he doesn’t like. “What more do you need from us to conclude this investigation,” Woods said. “Our kids are miserable having to show up everyday to a toxic administration. Until you remove our abusive principal we will show up every time.”

Once again a parent from the Marine Leadership Academy High School spoke out against the administration and asked for an investigation into alleged corruption. Four years ago CPS removed 12 employees and a volunteer from the Marine High School after they had been accused in a sex misconduct scandal that alleged they had inappropriate relations with students at the military high school while others were accused of a coverup.

Colleen Goetz, who identified herself as an advocate for students who declare Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, said everyone should be able to celebrate their beliefs, whether it’s in God or Beyonce. She said they were quickly denied under the separation of church and state an after school Bible study at a school to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “I wished I had the time to address all the different religions addressed at our schools over the 17 years since I started in Cabrini Green.” She mentioned witchcraft, astrology, Zen Buddhism and pride that are all flourishing and welcome. “The separations of church and state means those who believe in Jesus Christ are not given equal rights and are not welcomed or safe in Chicago Public Schools. God Bless you and Peace be with you.”

The last speakers were from Steinmetz College Prep High School. LSC Rep Vanessa Valentine said she was concerned that a video of a closed session meeting that was subject to confidentiality agreement signed by all participants was leaked to social networks which is a violation of the established rules. “We have allowed a small group of teachers to undermine the current principal,” she said. “Their actions have gone far beyond professional disagreement. Students are affected, causing division. We ask CPS for an immediate investigation and the removal of the LSC members who are breaking the rules.”

We wrote about the problems at Steinmetz earlier in which the delegate and teacher LSC rep were under attack for speaking out against the administration. A lawsuit was filed.

This was the first board meeting in quite some time where there were few charter schools present. The Charters usually flood the meetings, asking for renewals or refuting CTU complaints. This time only two Prospective Charter Schools reps spoke about their ‘amazing’ experience at their school. Charters were once the predators replacing public schools, but are now the prey after neighborhood public schools and the Chicago Teachers Union have fought back against the privatization model championed by corporate Mayors Richard Daley and Rahm Emanuel.