AustinTalks (http://austintalks.org/tag/budget/)
29th Ward residents approved six out of seven projects that will be completed over the next several months. The projects include street resurfacing, community park improvements and a pedestrian crosswalk, with a safety island.
Voting will be available to any resident of the 29th Ward who is 14 or older. Ballots will be available online on Ald. Chris Taliaferro’s website and in person at his office, 6272 W. North Ave.; at the Austin Chicago Public Library, 5615 W. Race Ave.; and at the North Austin Chicago Public Library, 5724 W. North Ave. Voting ends Nov. 20.
CPS officials released school-by-school budgets in April, three months earlier than last year.
About 390 residents cast votes last month to decide how to spend Ald. Chris Taliaferro’s $1 million menu money. Sixty-five percent will go to street and alley resurfacing, while $312,500 will be spent on four community projects.
Voting runs through Nov. 20th on five neighborhood projects on the list to be funded out of Ald. Chris Taliaferro’s $1.3 million “menu money” budget. This is the second year those living in the ward have been able to take part in “participatory budgeting.”
The focus should be on showing West Side residents that students can receive an equitable and well-resourced education at Austin’s existing high schools, writes resident Dwayne Truss.
West Side business owners, parents and social workers met last week in Oak Park to discuss the potential and challenges facing the school. The conversation was moderated by Reesheda Graham Washington, executive director of Community First Association and owner of the LIVE café, where the meeting was held.
The layoffs will hurt West Side students and the community as a whole, educators and advocates say.
West Side schools in the state’s largest district will see fewer teachers, staff in September when classes begin, warn community activists and others.
The first of three meetings being held to discuss which neighborhood projects should be funded with “menu money” is set for June 14 at Amundsen Park. Two other gatherings are planned for Rutherford-Sayre Park and the Columbus Park Refectory later this month.