CPS considering program cuts and staff furloughs to pay for pending teachers contract

The head of Chicago Public Schools is telling the mayor’s office that paying for the pending Chicago Teacher Union contract could mean mid-year cuts to programming and operations, eliminating some staff training or, as an “option of last resort,” forcing all staff to take furloughs — a move that would ultimately reduce raises negotiated in a new contract.

WBEZ and the Sun-Times obtained detailed slides prepared by Chicago Public Schools outlining potential options to pay for the teachers contract. That deal is still being negotiated but, given existing CPS salary offers, the school district will have to need at least $120 million that is not in this year’s budget. CPS officials gave the confidential draft ideas to the mayor’s office on Sept. 3.

In a statement, CPS warned against making too much of these ideas, noting that the “mere discussion of fiscal considerations” can “cause unnecessary concern and fear among school communities, and distract from our mission to provide students with a quality education.” The statement also said these decisions will not be made “alone or in a vacuum.”

“Whatever the cost of the new CTU contract, the Board of Education will need to approve an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2025 budget that was approved in July, which will require lengthy public discussion about identifying savings and revenue sources to pay for it,” the statement said.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez has publicly rejected the mayor’s demand that the school district take a short-term loan to pay for contract costs this year. He has called borrowing fiscally irresponsible. Yet he has provided little public insight into how he plans to end the year in the black, which he is legally required to do and which he has said is important.

The ideas outlined in the slides are setting off alarms with the Chicago Teachers Union and other unions, who now worry any gains made at the bargaining table could be undermined.

Stacia Scott, executive vice president for SEIU-73, urged the school board on Thursday to reject these measures. Her members, which include custodians, bus aides, security guards and other staff, would be particularly vulnerable. They are the lowest paid workers in the district.

“They were forced to give back their raises twice in the past, when the district needed a bailout,” she told Board of Education members. “They cannot afford to have the district balance its budget on their backs with furlough days or cuts.”

CPS reached a contract deal this spring with SEIU-73. Scott said schools are still short staffed with special education classroom aides having to work with too many children at once.

Cost-saving ideas like these are part of what’s fueling the clash between Mayor Brandon Johnson and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. Johnson has asked Martinez to resign but the CEO has refused, leading to a stalemate.

Cuts to schools are antithetical to Johnson, who was once a middle school teacher and spent years as CTU organizer. Reacting to questions about CPS’ cost-saving, Johnson’s office said the mayor’s “vision for public education calls for investments in our students — not layoffs, cuts to classrooms or other harmful school actions that have traumatized families and communities across the city. This kind of treatment has a devastating impact, and is not a responsible option for our schools.”

In order to balance this school year’s budget district officials say they saved $505 million by cutting administrative costs, laying off central office staff, restructuring debt and leaving vacancies unfilled. In the slides, they note they are limited in making cuts to operations and programs because they’ve already been reduced.

The district has offered CTU 4% raises this year and between 4% and 5% for the next three years. It is also in contract negotiations with the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association.

The mayor since this summer has been demanding that the school district take out a loan in part to pay for these contracts. But Martinez has refused, saying in a recent letter to the CTU president that “it would only exacerbate our financial challenges in the long run.”

In that same letter, which was provided by CPS, Martinez calls “updates on options” provided to the mayor’s office “preliminary and informational, with no

recommendations from CPS leadership.” But he also acknowledges that, without new revenue, position and program cuts are inevitable.

In the slides, CPS says it is trying to find savings without cutting teachers already promised to schools and without “impacting the instructional day.”

Among the options on the table: reducing the number of engineers, bus aides, security guards, tech supports; terminating leases with buildings rented by CPS’; buying less non-digital curricular materials; and cutting tutoring, mentoring and other programs.

The detailed slide on furloughs, which are described as the “option of last resort,” contemplates having all staff, union and non-union, stay home when students are not scheduled to be in class. These could be professional development days. For every one of these days, the school district would save $15.4 million, but it would reduce average teachers pay by .5%, according to the slide.

The slide shows up to four potential furlough days, resulting in a 2% decrease in pay. In 2011, the school board appointed by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel that was facing similar budget woes, voted to rescind promised 4% raises, a move the teachers union and many staff never forgot.

The CTU House of Delegates took a vote of no-confidence in Martinez last week. Some delegates told WBEZ they were disappointed in the lack of support for migrant students and that there were cuts in their high-poverty schools, despite his assurances that these schools would be protected.

But delegates were also told furloughs were being floated, according to a CTU official.

CTU Vice President Jackson Potter gave these slides to board of education members at their Thursday meeting.

“We're not inventing this stuff,” he said. “We're not imagining drastic measures. We know that there's serious consideration of cuts over investment, and to prove it, we've given you a last document that shows furloughs and mass layoffs are becoming the default mechanism.”

He then turned his attention to Martinez.

“What other plans are there?” Potter said. “If you don’t fight for revenue. You need a balanced budget and you can only balance the budget on the backs of our students.”

Sarah Karp covers education for WBEZ. Follow her on X @WBEZeducation and @sskedreporter.