Bruce Leon – District 2

My whole life. First I ran a business TandemHr for 27 years. We gave employer paid time (5%) to work at food shelters, homeless, or Tutor kids. Since selling business my philanthropy leonlegacyfund.com give 5% or roughly 60k to helping poor many children of color. Lastly I have served on board of big brothers (and participated).

To make CPS a world class organization that will help revive our great city.

1. get the c level people and second tier the best and brightest. Give them incentive contracts with KPIs centered around great student outcomes and teacher satisfaction. An organization is only as great as its people!
2. balance the budget. Focus on a reorg of the nonteaching 22,000 jobs, and redistribute to overcrowded schools. Consolodate a few of the schools operating below 20% capacity
3. Get creative to secure state and federal funds by displaying a partnership in getting more lean and efficient. Look for other creative revenue approaches like renting rooftops to cellular or corporate partnerships .
4. develop a one and five year plan with measurables every month. Employ NPS to constantly rate parent and teacher satisfaction
5. make all board members required to do annual
6. Team building and leadership as well
7. As board governance to insure the board operates with professionalism and unity

I could assist in all areas as I have extensive board experience Including a publicly traded bank.

My answer is clear. My role on the board is 80% global meaning entire CPS and 20% local. I would let LSCs, PTAs and principals do their job. It’s not for me to go to all LSC meeting and is actually quite disruptive. CPS needs to realize the elected board is unpaid without even reimbursement. CPS needs to create a board Liason position 3or 4 so they could cover say 3 districts to assist interaction with local schools and board members. I would hold quarterly meetings with all LSCs in district 2A

All of the above EXCEPT payday loans. Corporate partnerships need to be looked at. Business is a stakeholder in CPS along with parents, teachers, students, and TAXPAYERS. Making nonteaching staff more efficient, selected consolidations, and possible revenue by say renting rooftops. Also combining pension plan with state plan should be considered especially given the possible saving 500-600 million annually.

I’m all about financial transparency and huge believe in Independant audits

There should be a priority to funding neighborhood schools with out diminishing our excellent magnet schools. Turning those schools back to neighborhood schools will force many families into the suburbs and is lose lose. I don’t believing in pitting schools against each other on how the dollar is allocated. I believe in abundance theory

Every student regardless of race, religion or nationality deserves a high quality education. Those schools in intensive status need special attention especially when you add the 8300 migrant children

I would form a sub committee on the board to study past attempts to provide equal opportunity and with the help of experts come up with a new plan part of the one and five year plan the board has to develop

By making more efficient the 22k non teaching jobs we will have additional resources to dedicate to close the black student achievement gap. This is one on one tutoring and additional social workers since the effects of the pandemic hit that population especially hard

They are a Critical part of the fabric and actually keep families from leaving city to suburbs. I do NOT agree with squeezing funding for these schools are using things like withholding transportation as a way to divert students and funds from these important schools

My company TandemHr serviced many chicago manufacturing facilities where Spanish was primary language. We hired great bilingual hr consultants because explains benefits or hr policies in a foreign language is a recipe for disaster. Same in schools. These students need Spanish speaking teachers and staff. That may require a 3-5 plan to get fully staffed

I love programs like Reach which have shadow aides assisting those in need and helping them get to full integration if possible . We need to measure the success of students with disabilities in each district to ensure equitable measures are being met no matter what the zip code is

Safety is one of my four pillars. That includes bullying based on race and religion. The 211% uptick in reported anti semetic incidents since 10/7 is just one area where if a student does not feel safe at school they cannot perform. Each school has digfent needs and I would leave it up to LSCs and principal to decide if security guards are needed. Also there should be a zero tolerance bullying and violence policy in every school.

This has been a major issue since the pandemic we need district wide social workers and guidance counselors to determine the root causes. After all a happy student who is physically cared for should love going to school that should be the goal

Offering AP classes is an important aspect to ensuring that our highly motivated and capable students are given the same opportunity to earn college credits in line with the norms of the rest of the state

Curriculum is an ever changing organism that needs to have direction and policy guidelines on a macro level with schools making certain decisions according to their needs. For instance technology needs to be a core part of all curriculums but whether ever classroom has a smart board or starting at what age should be left to that school

Local school councils should be able to run at their own descretion within the playbook of norms and standards the board should create. Decisions such as safety and security officers, extra curricular activities, teacher review mechanisms can be employed by each LSC

I am a HUGE believer in hiring great A players and letting them lead and operate without micromanagement from above. I believe you set up measuring systems that will help you detach failing principals and then you move to quickly replace

LSC s should be interacting with principals but in a supportive role to help them achieve and maintain greatness and to be a bellweather to alert when failing principals when they are failing.

Every option should be looked at including renting to charters and creating additional special enrollment schools. Keeping a school like Douglas which was built for 1500 students open for less tha 60 makes no sense. There are great options which would actually be great for those 60 students

Most important is to seperate CTU from the board. The current situation is terrible for all stakeholders
Collective bargaining should be held by a sub committee of the board and in private. These public negotiations are horrible for students teachers parents and taxpayers

My local people just want great outcomes within reasonable costs and choices the allow each student to find a great school that will allow them to reach the full potential