Hall Pass: Your Ticket to Understanding School Board Politics, Edition #130

By

Ballotpedia staff

Welcome to Hall Pass, a newsletter written to keep you plugged into the conversations driving  school board governance, the politics surrounding it, and education policy. 

In today’s edition, you’ll find:

  • On the issues: The debate over year-round school schedules 
  • In your district: Reader responses to chronic absenteeism survey 
  • Chicago mayor appoints new school board following resignations 
  • Extracurricular: education news and numbers from around the web
  • Candidate Connection survey

Reply to this email to share reactions or story ideas!

On the issues: The debate over year-round school schedules

In this section, we curate reporting, analysis, and commentary on the issues school board members deliberate when they set out to offer the best education possible in their district. Missed an issue? Click here to see the previous education debates we’ve covered.

Traditional school schedules typically have 175 to 180 days of instruction and a nine to 11 week summer break. Year-round schedules vary, but typically still contain about 180 instruction days with shorter breaks throughout the year. For example, the 45/15 calendar cycles through four, 45-day instruction periods with 15-day breaks (usually with a longer six-week break in the summer).

Paul T. von Hippel and Jennifer Graves say year-round schedules make it harder to retain teachers and create childcare difficulties for working mothers. They also claim evidence shows no difference in student learning between year-round and traditional schedules, as the total number of school days remains about the same.”  

Jordan McGillis argues that year-round schedules with shorter breaks boost learning retention and reduce learning loss. He also says long summer breaks make childcare difficult for working families and that year-round schedules reduce those problems.

Busting the Myths About Year-Round School Calendars | Paul T. von Hippel and Jennifer Graves, Education Next

“Remember that balanced year-round calendars have no more than the usual 175 or 180 school days, so while they do include more school days during the summer, they also have fewer school days and more vacation days during the fall, winter, and spring. That being the case, one might expect that children on year-round calendars learn more during the summer, but less during the rest of the year. And that’s exactly what we’ve found. … Research confirms some of the challenges that year-round calendars pose for parents and teachers. Jennifer Graves has found that, in counties where many schools adopted year-round calendars, mothers were less likely to enter the workforce when their children reached school age. In addition, schools struggled to attract and retain experienced teachers, who were often working mothers themselves, after adopting year-round calendars.”

Why Do American Schools Have Such Long Summer Breaks? | Jordan McGillis, RealClear Education

“Considering the education system’s core purpose of transmitting knowledge and skills, the chief argument against summer is that it yields learning loss. Academics have regularly confirmed what any teacher or parent could tell you: kids forget quite a bit over the summer. Brookings Institution Megan Kuhfeld and Karyn Lewis analyzed summer slide research in 2023, finding that ‘a long line of research on learning and cognition has shown that procedural skills and those that involve a number of steps tend to rapidly deteriorate in the absence of practice or other reinforcement.’ … The ancillary, often-unspoken, role that school plays is childcare. During the large portion of the year it isn’t there, parents are more likely to be stressing over day camp pickup than decompressing on the beach. By adopting a year-round school calendar, we resolve each of these issues: kids can enjoy air conditioning during the months when it’s most needed, lessons can be better retained, and families can be better served.”

In your district: Reader responses to reducing chronic absenteeism survey 

We recently asked readers the following question about chronic absenteeism:

How does your district address absenteeism? If it’s an issue, what strategies involving the school board, educators, and parents could improve attendance?

Thank you to all who responded. Today, we’re sharing a handful of those responses. We’ll return next month with another reader question. 

A district superintendent wrote:

The community which I am fortunate enough to work, has worked to change the narrative around absenteeism. Rather than solely focusing on the attendance requirements, excused vs. unexcused absences and medical reasons why students should stay home, we have worked to balance that conversation. Here is the big idea. We want students in school every day and when they are not here, we miss them and school is not the same. We do this through supportive conversation, proactive letters to students about how important they are to our schools, and how we can make an environment which is supportive to everychild. We have a lot of work to do, but a balanced and student centered approach has helped build a better place for our students.

A community member from Wisconsin wrote:

My district addresses absenteeism by clear and open communication between the parents and the school administration as a first step.

A school board member from Minnesota wrote: 

We have filed more truancy citations to parents on chronic absences according to state law. We have been more aggressive with meeting with parents and students to find out why there are so many absences and work to change the behavior.

A school board candidate in South Carolina wrote:

Any days missed that are unexcused you are required to attend after school closes for the summer. If you do not come and finish the work, you don’t pass.

A school board member from Ohio wrote: 

In our district we have incentivized attendance by engaging with students and community members through various projects. In our elementary and middle school, we conduct a “One school, one book” program that gets area businesses involved. The students are encouraged to read with their families one chapter per night, then visit local businesses to answer trivia questions and receive a Tiger Paw to bring back to school. These are exchanged for a treat then hanged in the hallways. Also, the same grades participate in a House Challenge each year where the students and teachers are separated into three “houses”. Attendance, behavior and academics are all incentivized and rewarded throughout the year. 

We’ll return next month with a new survey. If you have a question you’d like us to ask, hit reply to this email and let us know! 

Chicago mayor announces new school board appointees following resignations 

The upcoming November election for the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Board of Education was already one of the most talked-about school board elections this year—and that was before all seven board members announced their resignations on Oct. 4. The announcement gave Mayor Brandon Johnson the chance to appoint a new board just weeks before Election Day.

The resignations followed months of tension between the board and Johnson over funding issues and the district CEO.   

The election is notable as it marks the first time Chicago residents will elect board members to oversee the country’s fourth-largest school district, beginning a transition away from a fully mayor-appointed board. The board will expand from seven to 21 members in January, when the new members take office. Voters will elect 10 members in November, and Johnson will appoint 11. In 2027, the board will become fully elected. 

Governor J.B. Pritzker (D) signed legislation in 2021 that set these changes into motion. 

Funding, absenteeism, school closures, charter schools, safety, and the role of teachers unions have been issues in the election, making Chicago a prominent microcosm of education debates playing out in towns and cities nationwide. 

In the coming weeks, Ballotpedia will provide detailed coverage of the candidates and issues in the election. For now, here’s a quick guide to help you understand why CPS Board of Education members resigned, what it means for the election, and what happens next. 

On Oct. 4, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the seven members of the CPS Board of Education announced the board members will step down at the end of October. The board members are Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Mariela Estrada, Mary Fahey Hughes, Rudy Lozano, Michelle Morales, Jianan Shi, and Tanya Woods.

Johnson appointed six of those members last July, shortly after he won election, replacing all but one of former Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s appointees.

Johnson announced six new appointees at a press conference on Oct. 7: Olga Bautista, Michilla Blaise, Mary Gardner, Mitchell Ikenna Johnson, Deborah Pope, and Frank Niles Thomas. Johnson said he planned to appoint an additional member at a later date. 

Johnson said the newly appointed board members would remain on the board in January, when the elected members assume office. In a press release, Johnson said new members will get a chance to learn the ropes before the full 21-member board takes office on Jan. 15, 2025. All board members will serve for two years.

Public Act 103-058415, which Gov. Pritzker (D) signed on March 18, 2024, specifies that elected and appointed members cannot reside in the same subdistricts. According to Chalkbeat Chicago’s Mila Koumpilova, “One key issue with appointing new members on the cusp of the election is that mayoral appointees must live in the half of each district not represented by the member elected in November. Until those election results come out, it will remain unclear whether the people appointed by Johnson to the board on Monday meet that requirement.”

Johnson clashed with the board and CEO Pedro Martinez over staffing cuts in the 2024-25 budget. The board voted 7-0 on July 25 to pass a $9.9 billion budget for the upcoming school year. Johnson, along with the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU), opposed aspects of the plan, which proposed cutting some support staff as a way to close a $500 million budget deficit. Johnson said, “That is not what the people of Chicago elected me to do, to cut our school district. I am not going to do it.” Johnson instead recommended CPS take out a short-term, high-interest $300 million loan to cover teacher raises and pension payments. 

The budget also did not include money for a new contract with the CTU. Negotiations over that contract are ongoing. The CTU has asked for 9% annual raises, while the district has offered between 4-5%. 

Johnson was a teacher with CPS and an organizer with the CTU before becoming mayor. The CTU endorsed Johnson’s bid for mayor in 2023.

CEO Pedro Martinez’s administration rejected the loan proposal. CPS Chief Financial Officer Miroslava Mejia Krug said: “We can all recognize that issuing debt has not been a good thing for CPS.”

In September, the Chicago Sun Times, Fox32, and other outlets reported Johnson had asked CPS CEO Pedro Martinez to resign. Johnson denied the reporting, saying, “[I] didn’t ask anybody to do anything. The only thing that I’m requiring in this moment is leadership that’s prepared to invest in our children.” 

However, in a Sept. 24 op-ed in the Chicago Tribune, Martinez wrote that Johnson had asked for his resignation. Martinez said, “I have chosen not to resign because doing so would risk creating a leadership vacuum and instability that could disrupt the strategic progress we’ve made to date.”

Only the board can dismiss Martinez. The board selected Martinez as CEO in September 2021. 

City and state officials weighed in on the resignations: 

  • Over the weekend, 41 of the city’s 50 aldermen—or city council members—signed a letter that supported the board’s decision to pass the CPS budget without taking on new debt. The letter stated, “There is extreme cause for concern now that those voices have been diminished.” Five aldermen scheduled a special City Council meeting for 2 p.m. on Oct. 9 to address the resignations.
  • Johnson said, “The City Council can have as many hearings as they want. There’s only one person who has the authority by state law to make appointments. And that’s the mayor of Chicago, and that’s me.”
  • State Rep. Ann William (D), who supported the legislation to turn the CPS Board of Education into an elected board, said: “The level of state oversight necessary for the district will be informed by the decisions made by the Mayor and his administration in the coming weeks and months.”

When all 21 board members assume office in January 2025, the CPS Board of Education will be one of the largest school boards in the country. Of the 13,194 school districts in the country, only 240—or about 2%—have school boards with more than 10 members. Those 243 districts are spread across 18 states.

South Texas Independent School District (STISD) has the largest public school board in the country, with 24 members. STISD is composed solely of magnet schools and has roughly 4,200 students. The largest board overseeing a traditional public school district is the Maine School Administrative District 54 district, with a 23-member board. Around 2,200 students attend schools in that district.

Districts with 10 or more board members enroll an average of 10,215 students. CPS enrolls more than 323,000 students.

Click here to read an earlier issue of Hall Pass on the size of school boards across the country. 

Extracurricular: education news from around the web

This section contains links to recent education-related articles from around the internet. If you know of a story we should be reading, reply to this email to share it with us! 

Take our Candidate Connection survey to reach voters in your district

Today, we’re looking at survey responses from two of the four candidates running for the general election for Chicago Public Schools school board District 9 on Nov. 5 in Illinois. Lanetta Thomas and La’Mont Raymond Williams completed the survey. 

Therese Boyle and Miquel Lewis are also running in the election. 

Here’s how Thomas answered the question, “What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?”

  • “Equitable Education in CPS: As a former CPS student and mother of children with special needs, I advocate for equitable access to education. I’ll focus on addressing funding disparities and ensuring support services for all students.
  • Community-Centered Solutions: Engaging parents, educators, and communities is crucial. I’ll prioritize collaborative approaches to issues like school safety and curriculum development, fostering empowerment within CPS.
  • Support for Marginalized Students: Drawing from personal experiences, I’ll champion policies that provide mental health resources and trauma-informed care. Every student deserves to feel safe and supported in their educational journey.”

Click here to read the rest of Thomas’ responses. 

Here’s how Raymond Williams answered the question, “What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?”

“My public policy agenda consists of expanding the curriculum to include vocational and Career Technical Education programs to offer alternative educational options for students who are interested in the trades. Not all students want to attend college and offering an educational path, both encouraging obtaining skills in emerging job markets and promoting additional education, will create a more equitable curriculum. This will also serve as an incentive for other students to attend CPS. Additionally, I intend to advocate for more equitable resources for students with disabilities and special needs. I plan to advocate for expanded busing for all CPS students, as transportation insecurity should not be an additional stressor for both students”

Click here to read the rest of Raymond Williams’ responses. 

If you’re a school board candidate or incumbent, click here to take the survey. If you’re not running for school board, but there is an election in your community this year, share the link with the candidates and urge them to take the survey!

Other school board races with 100% survey completion this week include the general election for Indianapolis Public Schools school board District 1, in Indiana.

In the 2022 election cycle, 6,087 candidates completed the survey. 

The survey contains more than 30 questions, and you can choose the ones you feel will best represent your views to voters. If you complete the survey, a box with your answers will display on your Ballotpedia profile. Your responses will also appear in our sample ballot.