AustinTalks (http://austintalks.org/tag/schools/)
There are nearly 700 open seats on 267 local school councils across the city; five schools in Austin are still looking for members to serve. See the list AustinTalks has compiled of members currently serving on LSCs in Austin.
Elementary school LSC elections are Nov. 18, and high school LSC elections are Nov. 19. In-person polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Local school councils — made up of parents, students and community members that can make school budget and principal hiring decisions — were once seen as a bastion of school-level democracy, according to Block Club Chicago.
About 50 people gathered at La Follette Park Friday before marching to Chicago Board of Education member Dwayne Truss’ residence. They were protesting the contract between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Police Department, and calling on Truss to vote against the contract at CPS’ Aug. 26th meeting.
All but four Chicago Public Schools in Austin could see an increase in their budgets for the 20-21 school year. The Chicago Board of Education still needs to approved the school district’s $2.8 billion budget; that’s expected to happen sometime this summer.
Half of Austin’s public schools are categorized as underutilized in a recently released report. Another report gave two of Austin’s 13 Austin elementary and high schools a higher rating than the year before, while four schools saw a drop in their ratings.
Get help completing your student’s application for the 2020-2021 school year before the Dec. 13th deadline. The Austin workshop will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. Dec. 4 at BUILD Inc., 5100 W. Harrison St. Bring your student’s ID number if you have one.
Take part in a discussion at 6 p.m. May 23 about the resource officers in Chicago Public Schools. Representatives from the Office of the Inspector General will also be discussing the gang database. Dinner will be served at the free event, which will be held at Sankofa Culture Center at 5852 W. Chicago Ave.
Longtime resident Dwayne Truss hopes CPS CEO Janice Jackson will ensure West Side students get the same opportunities for IB, STEM and other programs more commonly found in other parts of the city.
Officials results from last month’s two-day election won’t be available until June, CPS officials say.
Participants discussed at this week’s meeting about how to get more local teens to attend Austin high schools rather than leave the neighborhood.