Karin Norington-Reaves – District 10

My entire career has been focused on public service, improving the lives of others through systems change, and creating economic opportunity through education and workforce development. From the classroom to the courtroom to the C-suite, my career has always focused on uplifting our most vulnerable populations.

My first experience with direct service delivery was as a bilingual 1st through 5th grade elementary school teacher in Compton, CA, in the early 90’s. As a new teacher, I strove to make a difference in the lives of all my students, who were Black or Latinx. From Genny, who was language confused, to Trevon, who had a speech impediment, and Herika, who didn’t know the difference between letters and numbers, I impacted my students by treating them with respect and humility, fighting for their right to supportive services, educating them to the best of my ability, collaborating with their parents and celebrating their wins. I’m proud that my students made significant gains under my instruction. Then, I launched the school’s bilingual program, which served 1st through 5th grades. My most important moment was securing special education and speech therapy services for the students most needed after a two-year battle. 

After witnessing firsthand how systems fail students and families, I dedicated my career to systems change and public policy reform. 

I launched my legal career advocating for mentally ill youth and adolescents at the Office of the Attorney General in Maryland. There, I upheld youth’s rights by ensuring they were actually in need of psychiatric treatment and that the court and hospitals upheld the law. I litigated with the U.S. Department of Justice and the Citizens Utility Board, where I was also a lobbyist and consumer protection advocate. I spent eight years as a litigator and an adjunct law professor at Loyola University’s Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy.

My passion for education took me back to Teach For America as Executive Director in Chicago, where I was responsible for placing and supporting more than 200 teachers in Chicago Public Schools. Many of these teachers remain with CPS and have progressed to leadership within the district (i.e., Dr. Fareeda Shabazz, Principal at Walter Payton High School).  I later joined Innovations for Learning, connecting schools to corporate partners and developing reading buddy programs for K-3rd grades to increase literacy rates for students on Chicago’s south and west sides. Our evidence-based program demonstrably improved reading scores for participating students–the overwhelming majority of which were Black, Latinx, Chinese, or immigrants from various African nations such as Eritrea and Ethiopia. 

I oversaw the administration of federal, state, and philanthropic funds and the creation of impactful youth and adult programs.  Among these were Opportunity Works, Hospitality Hires Chicago, Hire Chicago, and the city’s COVID-19 Contact Tracing Corps and vaccine ambassador programs. I generated private and public funding to expand workforce development services throughout Chicagoland and programs designed to support and empower underserved youth. These programs were life-changing in providing access to permanent unsubsidized employment in well-paying jobs with career pathways. 

Finally, I serve on the board of the Untapped Potential Project, where I collaborate with labor leaders to foster career development for young people by expanding access to pre-apprenticeship programming. 

My long-term vision is that every child attends a well-resourced, safe neighborhood school that offers a high-caliber education that meets them where they are, regardless of need, through expert educators while fostering a deep sense of belonging. This is my north star. We get there through intentionality and political will—by putting our money where our mouth is and funding the amplification of the things we already know work.

I envision a school district that fully equips students with the academic, social-emotional, and career skills they need to make meaningful contributions to our workforce and community. Fulfilling this purpose depends upon our ability to provide equitable education that addresses the student’s unique needs and allows for critical thinking, innovation, and career development.

To move us forward, increasing literacy and numeracy skills for all students is paramount, as these are foundational for any long-term educational success. I would focus on standards-based instruction and test for mastery before advancing a student to the next topic/subject.

Career and Technical Education is only offered at a small percentage of the district’s schools, creating an inequitable system that leaves many students without direction.  Our schools need solid career readiness, exposure, and exploration for all grades 6-12 students. Other districts in Illinois require students to develop career plans as early as 7th grade and provide robust offerings for middle and high school students to help them discern their career path and, most importantly, be prepared for it. Chicago is behind in developing the career pathway endorsement as state law requires. As a workforce development practitioner, I would also champion this vital aspect of middle and high school education.

Community engagement and outreach are critical to effective and impactful policymaking. Board members should utilize community meetings, targeted outreach, community-based and political organizations, churches, Community Advisory Councils, and other existing networks to discern and amplify the community’s voice.

I anticipate holding office hours in conjunction with regularly scheduled community meetings held by various elected officials, such as Aldermen and committeemen. I also plan to connect with Local School Councils and parent organizations to capture their concerns, needs, and interests. To engage youth, I would consider the feasibility of a student advisory board to provide feedback on the decisions that will impact them. 

I will collaborate with community organizations to provide information sessions on future agenda items to ensure that our families fully understand the impact that board decisions may have on their scholars.

As a Board member, I am responsible for advocating for all schools, not just those in the 10th district. 

The need for adequate funding can’t be overstated; CPS currently spends nearly $29,000 per student, with most students not on grade level. That is an atrocious return on investment. The state’s adequacy level is 90%, but that still represents a shortfall, and we have an ever-growing unfunded pension debt. Real estate taxes alone will not meet CPS’s budgetary needs. Additionally, recent reports state that CPS wrongly included COVID relief funds in its year-over-year base, contributing to next year’s deficit. 

My priority will be targeting wasteful spending and redirecting it to other areas that best support student needs. Funding decisions must be rooted in educational priorities and support services without making cuts in our classrooms. (I agree with the current Board’s refusal to saddle the districtDistricttenable loans further). We must keenly see bloat, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending. I do not doubt that that exists within the current budget, and I would endeavor to root it out and eliminate it.

The District needs to do more than increase revenue; it must align budgetary priorities with the needs of students and teachers. Budgeting has to begin with schools in mind, not the central office. Work needs to be done to decrease expenditures and ensure that the funds the District does have are spent effectively. I would strongly recommend an independent forensic audit to determine whether/where waste and redundancies exist. I guess that an audit will reveal multiple opportunities for cost savings.

Finally, CPS must engage more fully in strategic public/private partnerships to fill gaps in service for students and teachers. Numerous tutoring and after-school programs, FQHCs, and community-based health programs would gladly partner with CPS. Additionally, thousands of companies call Chicago home. What has CPS done to partner with them profoundly and invite substantial investment that could offset the pending reduction in funds? Careful planning for the reality that these funds would run out should have been undertaken from the moment they were made available. 

The current budget represents an effort at equitable funding, yet it needs to be revised in many regards. Schools like Bronzeville Classical lost roughly $500,000 and several teachers, while one school gained nine staff even though it only has 25 students. There isn’t much equity in that. 

Equitable funding decisions should be made not in a vacuum but with context. Had the Board analyzed the impact of adding more teachers than the staff at an under-enrolled school, they might have made a different decision. (Absent intentionality, simply adding staff does little to increase enrollment in a city with fewer students.) 

As a Board member, I would focus on first ensuring that schools have all they need to offer students a high-caliber educational experience—a well-rounded, well-resourced school building with trained adults. That should be the center of our focus. We should build the budget from the center—from the schools first, then out to the network office, then to the central office. 

The budget needs to reflect our priorities. If students and their well-being come first, we must fully fund schools. 

Over a decade ago, CPS closed 50 schools. Most buildings need to be emptied today without being part of local community plans. How would you ensure that the buildings are brought back online to benefit children, families, and the community as a whole?  What is your plan to address underutilization and responsible facilities planning to address the district’s capital needs? How would you pay for these initiatives?

CPS has a master plan for existing facilities that identifies all school building needs. The projected repair cost for the district’s entire physical plant is roughly $14B.  This does not include the care and upkeep of existing buildings that were mothballed under the Emanuel administration, which are now under the control of the Cook County Land Bank Authority. 

There are numerous revenue-generating uses for our school buildings. Defunct buildings could be sold at fair market value rather than severely discounted rates. Existing buildings with vacant space can be rented and house multiple programs and organizations.  CPS must leverage existing facilities to their fullest potential, whether through rental agreements or the development of collaborations that could benefit both the district and the community. Examples include creating more sustainable community schools or parent universities with private sector funding, co-locating workforce development centers (fully funded by the federal government through the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership), and housing job training programs.

Equity begins with allocating our resources in a way that centers and improves educational outcomes for our students. High-dose tutoring, intensive literacy interventions, and comprehensive enrichment activities are all critical to successfully combating the effects of historic inequity in educational opportunities for Black students at underperforming schools. I would advocate for and fight to ensure the necessary funding is directed at these solutions.

Moreover, the schools reflect disinvestment, de-prioritization, and the persistence of poverty. We also have to advance the families sending students to those schools to advance the schools. Classroom interventions are critical, but so are resources for parents who want the best for their children but may not know how to support them. Parent universities, wrap-around services, and a holistic approach to education are imperative to increasing student outcomes. 

To succeed, the committee must have a leader to drive the work, staff to implement it, and funding to make it all possible. Without this, we cannot expect to see real, lasting change. I will vote to explicitly include a line item funding the committee’s proper infrastructure in every budget during my tenure on the Board. With funding comes accountability– the committee must also regularly report to the Board on clearly articulated deliverables and outcomes. Rather than a set of goals and aspirations, the committee must develop a strategic plan with benchmarks and deadlines for demonstrable improvements in Black student success. As the mother of black children and a proud Southside resident, I commit to participating on the committee and ensuring accountability– we deserve no less. 

I would also pursue replication of the Woodlawn Children’s Promise initiative–a combination of the New Communities Program and the Harlem Children’s Zone. This initiative brought together the schools in Woodlawn and the community to map out a comprehensive education plan for students and families. The work of Geoffrey Canada in New York informed the plan. Community organizations, parents, and students took ownership of implementing the strategy and ensuring the schools met local needs. We can also draw examples from the work of the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, which created job opportunities for parents and served to promote peace and order within the schools. There are models from which we can draw right here in our district. We have the tools to repair the harm done to our students. 

I am the product of neighborhood, magnet, and selective enrollment schools. I recognize the benefits of them all, and I support the right to access each. Our students have diverse needs, and they should have access to a diverse array of schools.

I support charter schools as a viable option for many families seeking the best for their students. CPS has systematically harmed many families across the city while deftly meeting the needs of others. I firmly believe parents should have the autonomy to choose the school that best serves their students.

Ideally, all schools should be well-resourced and offer a high-caliber education for every student regardless of need. We must offer strong instruction, extracurriculars, and supportive services at every school, and yet students with talents in STEM, the performing arts, languages, or accelerated learning shouldn’t be held back from their potential—regardless of their zip code or race.

When I attended school, it went without saying that if you were bright and Black, you went to a handful of high-achieving schools, including Whitney Young. The diversity at these schools today has fallen precipitously since race was removed as a consideration and replaced with census tract data as a proxy; therefore, Jones, Whitney Young, Payton, and Northside College Prep have dismal numbers of Black and Brown students, which by no means reflects the number of high achieving Black and Brown students in this city.  That ought to be remedied.

I appreciate that the selective enrollment process is intended to be objective. However, I am concerned that it, perhaps unintentionally but disproportionately, precludes greater diversity among student bodies and consequently forecloses opportunities to students of color and many students with disabilities. 

Test scores alone are not the sole indication of academic aptitude. Indeed, many brilliant people need to test better. I am in favor of altering the admissions process to include other indicators of higher-level thinking, aptitude for accelerated learning, and problem-solving. 

All schools must abide by federal law requiring that all students receive education regardless of immigration status. First, we must conduct thorough screening for new arrivals so that we can connect families to schools and relevant resources. 

Second, schools should have access to ELL funding to meet these students’ needs. For parents with work permits, we should replicate the programs designed by the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, which empowered parents to become paraprofessionals and thereby earn wages while keeping a presence in the schools. This provides much-needed support within the school community. Philanthropic funding is available for dual-generation programming, which may align with this.

Collaboration with community groups serving immigrant populations is also critical. These groups can help navigate language and cultural barriers, address parent concerns, and generally ease the burden of an emotionally challenging transition to a new life.

First, we must build capacity for inclusive classrooms where special needs students learn as much as possible alongside their peers. To do this, we need more teachers with exceptional education credentials and more, better-trained SECAs [special education classroom assistants]. (Perhaps now that their wages have increased, we’ll see more interest in these roles).

We also need a full audit and searching examination of special education service provision — its strengths and shortcomings, coupled with a strategic plan to address the gaps. Money is one of the issues, and political will and leadership are the other. With the new director of the Office for Students with Disabilities, I’m hopeful for change. 

Teachers and principals need additional training and accountability regarding special needs students. There is also a need for parent education. The current IEP [Individualized Education Program] process is burdensome and inaccessible for many parents. We need to do more to help them understand their rights and responsibilities. An ombudsperson could help them navigate the IEP/504 processes. They are complex and can be overwhelming. Simplifying the process and making it more accessible to parents is very important. 

I support implementing the whole school safety plan and especially appreciate its comprehensive focus on physical and emotional safety/wellbeing. That said, what’s glaringly absent is the type of mechanism that saved lives in the most recent school shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. There, each teacher had a panic button on their I.D. badge. That button immediately locked down the school and prevented further death and destruction. We need similar mechanisms in CPS and, frankly, all schools nationwide. 

School safety is more than freedom from violence; it starts with ensuring all our buildings are clean and physically sound learning places. Some schools lack consistently functioning heat, air conditioning, and elevators, and some have deteriorating structures that put students and staff at risk for injury. We must prioritize investments in the physical buildings so students feel welcome and, more importantly, want to return.

Additionally, we have to implement recurring training that emphasizes restorative practices. By implementing peer mediation and mentorship programs, we empower our students to think critically and provide alternative resolutions to disputes. Social-emotional learning is vital to students exercising good judgment, developing self-awareness, and gaining agency. Restorative practices also shift the disciplinary paradigm from punishment to personal growth. 

Finally, our schools should be culturally diverse centers of excellence that celebrate our students’ differences and make all feel welcome regardless of need, disability, religion, ethnicity, sexual identity or orientation, or race. 

Absenteeism is symptomatic of a more significant problem that will persist unless the root cause is addressed. In elementary school, absenteeism is typically connected to parental stability. (In high school, it also reflects student engagement or lack thereof, as students are more likely to be responsible for their transportation to and from school). Then, we focus on parental support and connection to resources that foster more excellent agency and understanding of why students must be on time and ready to learn. Parent mentors, parent universities, and resource referrals can all be used to engage and reengage families with excessive absenteeism.

No response was received.

I support implementing a district-wide standardized curriculum. A high-caliber standardized curriculum ensures educational equity and consistency across all schools. Currently, individual schools choose curricula at the principal’s discretion, which leads, in part, to uneven outcomes district-wide. 

As the product of a selective enrollment school and the mother of a special needs student, I also understand the need for curricular diversity and differentiated instruction. A standard curriculum should provide this as well. It also promotes learning coherence, ensuring students who transfer schools don’t experience learning delays.

Board members must be connected to LSCs in their districts and understand their needs. Many LSCs need more members to make a quorum. Some are well-attended, while others are not. I serve as the LSC Chair of James Otis Elementary School, and parent participation at our school is a real challenge. 

All LSCs are not created equally; some do not have a full complement of members, and many schools have little parental or community participation. There is more to be done to train and support LSCs. 

Board members can meet with LSCs, offer insights into what’s happening at the Board level, and even connect LSCs to various resources for connecting with parents through the network and collaboration with community groups. 

I support LSCs’ right to hire principals. I also support a principal’s right to hire teachers for their team. That being said, I serve as the LSC Chair of James Otis Elementary School. Having participated in the principal hiring process, I believe there is more to be done in training and supporting LSCs on the criteria for the process. Our LSC opted for the least experienced principal over a candidate with demonstrably more experience solely because the former had spent a year at the school as an Assistant Principal. To aid in her success, we worked with the Network Chief and identified the support needed for the principal. It was incredibly challenging but also informative.

Principals set the tone and culture for the school. They must be able to cultivate their teams and create the dynamics necessary to drive student performance and outcomes. 

CPS has a master plan for existing facilities that identifies all school building needs. The projected repair cost for the district’s entire physical plant is roughly $14B.  This does not include the care and upkeep of existing buildings that were mothballed under the Emanuel administration, which are now under the control of the Cook County Land Bank Authority. 

There are numerous revenue-generating uses for our school buildings. Defunct buildings could be sold at fair market value rather than severely discounted rates. Existing buildings with vacant space can be rented and house multiple programs and organizations.  CPS must leverage existing facilities to their fullest potential, whether through rental agreements or the development of collaborations that could benefit both the district and the community. Examples include creating more sustainable community schools or parent universities with private sector funding, co-locating workforce development centers (fully funded by the federal government through the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership), and housing job training programs.

I wrote a white paper in 2011 detailing the use of creative spaces and the integration of higher education, CPS, and workforce development within existing CPS schools. 

Existing and defunct spaces can be used creatively in limitless ways. What’s required is political will and intentionality to make those ideas a reality that benefits students, families, and the community. 

The Board does not drive the collective bargaining process. The administration is directly responsible for negotiating with CTU and the CPAA. As a Board member, I can hold the administration accountable for bargaining transparently and in good faith. Most importantly, I can ensure that students are at the center of the decision-making. I would call out any instance of the district operating in bad faith and would go further by refusing to approve any agreements not driven by our children’s best interests. 

School quality and access to high-performing schools is an issue in District 10. Everyone competes for top-rated schools, and the educational quality of the other schools varies wildly. This is the tale of our city in some ways, but when we have high-performing Level One schools that receive students from across the city, it disenfranchises neighborhood kids who are equally talented but may need to be made aware of the selective enrollment process. We need to expand access to high-caliber schools and create more opportunities for students to receive a high-quality education.