Kate Doyle – District 2

Throughout my career, I have dedicated myself to supporting working families and underserved children, starting as a special education teacher in a high-needs public high school. In this role, I worked closely with students and their families, many of whom faced significant barriers to accessing financial stability. I focused on transition planning for my students, ensuring they were set up for community success after high school. I also made it a priority to communicate effectively with their parents, breaking down the steps of the transition process and going above and beyond to connect them with supportive resources to ensure that they would not be overly burdened when their student transitioned from the school system.

In addition to my work in education, I am the proud co-founder of a nonprofit organization aimed at helping low-income young adults from underserved communities achieve economic mobility. Our organization provides career training and job placement services. An overwhelming majority of the individuals we serve identify as people of color and all come from low-income backgrounds; most of our fellows have not had the opportunity to pursue a college education, and many are unemployed when they first engage with our services. This program model and our theory of change were built in collaboration with community partners, youth from the communities we serve, and industry partners to develop an incredibly effective engine for economic mobility.

My vision for Chicago Public Schools is that we become one of the top-performing districts in the nation. We can become a district where, no matter their zip code, every student has access to well-resourced neighborhood schools for pre-K through 12th grade. We can make sure that their school experience is joyful, connected, and academically rigorous, and we can set them on a strong pathway to postsecondary success. To achieve this vision, the elected school board will need to have a strong fluency in the new CIDT framework to assess progress toward key indicators and identify areas of work that may no longer be serving our students and improving school outcomes.

An elected school board can provide a community-informed perspective and community oversight of the operational execution of the district’s North Star priorities. The elected school board can develop new community initiatives such as more robust engagement with school-based LSCs and regular student and educator listening sessions to drive better collaboration between local schools and CPS leadership.

As a board member, I hope to be an advocate for elevating the importance of postsecondary success pathways and planning across the K-12 continuum, emphasizing the need for innovation in this area. I will drive partnerships with local industry, labor, colleges, and the nonprofit sector, and I will prioritize funding for initiatives that are proven to increase postsecondary success outcomes in the long term.

As an independent, progressive candidate, my priority is to amplify the voices and needs of our community. To do this, I will establish a robust model of community engagement that keeps me connected to the diverse perspectives within our district. I will proactively reach out to constituents through surveys, town hall meetings, focus groups, and one-on-one conversations. By actively engaging with all corners of our community, I can ensure my decisions are truly representative. Regular engagement sessions will also be held for community members to discuss issues and provide feedback on Board decisions. These sessions will be accessible both in-person and virtually, with translation services available.

Inspired by the work of the leading voice on effective governance, Airick Journey Crabill, I believe that effective boards are driven by a community-centered vision focused on student outcomes. By maintaining this focus, I will ensure my votes align with the interests of our constituents (with a focus on my subdistrict, but considering the impact of those decisions citywide), not political funders or special interests.

The CPS deficit is approaching $500 million, and we must ensure that number does not continue to climb. In addition to state funding, we will need to consider other strategies to balance the budget. These may include introducing tax increases on those earning over $1 million annually, as well as studying how resources are being utilized so that the district can operate efficiently. I would support and encourage a third-party independent audit of CPS, provided that the auditor is versed in diversity and equity and uses an equity-based lens when evaluating the budget. We need to spend smarter, not harder.

I am committed to being a unifier, and will give everyone a listening ear to understand their concerns and needs for funding and resources. The board should continue to support the move toward needs-based funding which is allowing us to direct resources toward schools that have suffered years of disinvestment under old funding models.

First and foremost, I would urge the district to follow the recommendations made by the Black Student Success working group. We need to analyze the funding allocation to these schools even more thoroughly than we do others. We need to consider what is not working, where more funding is needed, and where spending needs to be adjusted. Curriculum should also be audited to ensure it is culturally sensitive and inclusive. Furthermore, we should improve retention and recruitment of Black educators, so that students have the opportunity to be educated by people who have a greater understanding of their lived experiences.

I will work with other board members to set deadlines regarding the Committee’s staffing, to ensure that it is fully staffed in a timely manner; furthermore, I will work with stakeholders in the Black community to seek recommendations of committee members. Ultimately, the board should serve in a supportive role in selecting members, with stakeholders in the community being the ones to make the recommendations of who serves. In establishing this committee, it will be critical that the board institutes a quarterly or yearly evaluation process to determine that it is operating as expected and meeting its goals.

I believe selective-enrollment and magnet schools are vital to the fabric of CPS, offering high-quality options for students who excel in specialized areas. For some students, particularly those with academic or artistic capabilities greatly exceeding those of their peers, these schools are essential to ensure that all students are properly served by the public school system. These schools have a proven track record of preparing students for success, and they should be celebrated and fully funded. However, we must ensure that access to these programs is equitable and that the student body reflects the diversity of CPS.

When it comes to charter schools, I recognize that some have demonstrated high performance, but many others have not delivered better outcomes than neighborhood schools. Instead of expanding charter schools, CPS should focus on ensuring all students, regardless of school type, have access to strong educational opportunities. And poor performing charter schools must be held accountable.

Our priority must be strengthening neighborhood schools, while maintaining high standards for accountability across all school models. Our neighborhood schools must be able to offer a level of academic rigor that will prepare any student who wishes to attend higher education the opportunity to do so and to succeed in that setting. We must also enhance onramps to other postsecondary pathways like the skilled trades and bring our Career and Technical Education in line with the jobs of the future.

School choice within the public school system helps to ensure that all students can be served by the public school system wherever they are academically or socially, in skill development or emotional development. That being said, it is our job to make sure that school choice enhances equity of educational opportunity, rather than creating greater inequity.

With the influx of new arrivals and the finding that roughly 20% of Chicago’s English Language Learner students are not reaching English language proficiency, it’s clear that the resources for providing support are not sufficient and are not being distributed equitably. I will advocate for greater investment in TBE and Dual Language programs, as well as for providing proper staffing and teacher training to schools with large and growing populations of English language learners. We can work with teachers, parents, and community members to make sure that new arrivals and existing ESL/bilingual students are not falling behind, and that really begins with ensuring that educators are trained, certified, and prepared to provide the instruction that these students need.

As a former special education teacher I feel strongly that we must do more to support our diverse learners and ensure they are receiving all of their mandated services. The pandemic further exacerbated underlying issues in our special education services across the district, from incomplete evaluations to more students with disabilities being separated from their general education peers for the majority of the day.

We must ensure the rightful presence of every student with disabilities in high-quality instruction with their grade level whenever possible and appropriate. The LRE provision is one of IDEA’s strongest principles, and CPS must renew its efforts to uphold this commitment by enhancing inclusion with adequate support whenever possible. There is, of course, a small population of students who will benefit from specialty school placements and we must respect their IEP team’s decision and prevent a district representative from overriding their placement recommendations.

CPS must also do more to enhance cohesion between special education professionals, general education teachers and counselors, and other school staff. For example, I have heard from numerous parents who attended IEP meetings with no general education teachers present.

CPS must also never hold an IEP meeting with a parent or caregiver present who is not an English speaker without access to translation services for vital IEP documents – regardless of whether the parent has made the direct request to a case manager. We need to remove the burden from the family and act proactively to involve them. Without translation services, these parents are effectively cut out from the IEP planning process.

I also believe that CPS can do more to support the transition process for students with moderate to severe disabilities receiving special education services as they age out of the district. Many students may find themselves on long waiting lists to gain support after their 22nd birthday.

I absolutely support the whole school safety plan, and believe we need to further engage in a holistic approach to improve student safety and well-being. Every school should be fully staffed with at least one nurse and one social worker, and we need to improve the availability and quality of before-and-after school activities to give students more opportunities, chances to develop their interests and passions, and safe places to be. We need to continue to find ways to gather anonymous feedback directly from students so we can have a continuous pulse check on self-reported measures of well-being.

The greatest predictor of chronic absence is a lack of safe, free transportation to school. We must immediately restore busing to all schools, including for selective enrollment and magnet students.

Attendance data should be used to inform interventions needed at the student and school level. We should be using attendance data, specifically looking at chronic absence, to see where the most critical need is, to do early intervention and support the students and their families.

Having spoken with CPS staff members in schools and those working centrally, there is agreement that the central office should be supporting this more than they currently are.

At the school level, we must create environments where students feel emotionally supported and connected. It’s the combination of systemic intervention and supportive school culture that will drive better attendance outcomes.

It is critical to expand dual credit opportunities. Not only do they help to give students a head start on college, they are often more affordable than AP courses and will help to close the opportunity gap for low-income students. The district must continue to strengthen its partnership and planning with City Colleges of Chicago. One thing that would be critical is teacher retention, and ensuring teachers who are equipped to teach these courses are equitably distributed across the city.

I support the use of evidence-based, high-quality curriculum that is culturally relevant. Schools and instructional leaders know the needs of their students and community when it comes to content, but having accepted standards for curriculum allows us to deliver an equitable and quality education across all schools. Skyline should be used as a baseline for schools, and as a Board Member, I will be committed to gathering feedback regarding its use, so that it can be improved and altered for maximum effectiveness across the district.

Schools belong, first and foremost, to the parents who entrust their children to them and to the communities they serve. Local School Councils are the mechanism for bringing parents and community members into the decision making process with principals and teachers to shape the school’s Continuous Improvement Work Plan (CIWP), which is its core strategic planning process, and allocating the school’s budget to further its CIWP. LSCs also hire and retain principals and evaluate them regularly to ensure that they are implementing the parents’ and community’s priorities through the CIWP.

The Board’s job is to ensure that the resources exist for each school to fund their CIWP, that those resources are equitably distributed, and that each school is adhering to legal requirements, meeting or exceeding standards, and advancing the goals of CPS as a whole. With 646 schools across the City, it is neither feasible nor desirable for a 21 person Board to micromanage each school, and this is where the LSC comes in, to provide locally oriented, culturally responsive oversight from people who are direct stakeholders in their local school.

To make the model work, it’s necessary for there to be continuous communication between the LSCs and the members of the Board. The new elected School Board creates a structure for Board members to help LSCs in their districts to fulfill their missions, providing lines of communication for LSCs to make their concerns known. As a member of the Board, I will make it a priority to know each LSC member in my district, to attend LSC meetings whenever requested by the members, and to work together with each LSC to advance its goals.

I am deeply concerned about the administrative burden being placed on school principals that is preventing them from engaging in instructional leadership activities. CPS must do more to preserve principals’ time and autonomy to best support their schools.

The LSCs know the individual issues of each school best, and are the ones who work directly with principals. Given their specialized knowledge, LSCs should lead the charge in hiring principals, and the board should not be able to remove principals without at least getting feedback from the LSC, as these changes can have a major impact on students.

I am deeply concerned not just about the impact of the school closures, but the continued harm caused by the underutilization of these spaces. One of my first initiatives as a Board Member would be to call for an audit of where these spaces are, how they are (or are not) being used, and how they can be repurposed. They may make strong community centers, for instance, places for students to remain engaged before and after school, which will improve educational opportunities and safety as well as giving kids a stronger sense of purpose. As for funding these initiatives, we will need to look at the broader context of the budget, and seek IGAs, and it may be necessary to get state or federal funding specifically allocated to this purpose.

I will always support all school workers’ right to fair wages and collective bargaining, including principals, teachers, support staff, and others. I will act as a liaison between CPS and the unions, serving as a support to their negotiations and encouraging good faith efforts on both sides, while always fighting for fair wages for all school staff. This will include reasonable negotiations in an effort to, whenever possible, prevent strikes from taking place, as they can negatively impact children’s education. However, I will NEVER encourage any school staff to accept unfair wages to prevent a strike.

One thing we struggle with, in District 2 and the CPS system as a whole, is low teacher retention. This is driven by teacher burnout due to lack of support. Our educators are essential pillars of our communities and important figures in our children’s lives, and we need to value them.

To address this problem, we need to ensure competitive, fair starting pay for educators and build more mental health and emotional support for everyone within schools (including educators and school staff). Furthermore, I will advocate for the Board to hold feedback sessions exclusively for teachers and support staff, to ensure their concerns are heard not just by the Chicago Teachers Union, but also by the school board.