CPS School Board: The race in the South Side’s District 10

School board District 10 has the biggest celebrity in the race, but he’s joined by other heavyweights: a Harvard education consultant, a workforce development expert and an activist pastor who went on a hunger strike to save a school.

District 10 begins at 26th Street and extends along Lake Michigan to the city’s southern border. The candidates emphasize the insight they have gained from their experiences as professionals, but also have personal reasons for taking up running.

When Karin Norington-Reaves is on the campaign trail, she talks about running the Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership and the need for more career and technical training in schools.

But her passion comes from advocating for her daughter, who is blind and wakes up at 5:30 a.m. to travel from Chatham to a North Side school that can accommodate her. She calls CPS’s special education system “Byzantine.”

“My daughter was born without eyes, but not without a brain,” Norington-Reaves said at a recent forum. “She deserves to be able to attend a top-notch school that will meet her where she is, provide the accommodations she needs and watch her grow and thrive.”

Robert Jonesa pastor at Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church in Bronzeville, participated in a 34-day hunger strike in 2015 to keep Dyett High School open. He has also been involved in other fights for South Side institutions, including saving Mercy Hospital. He has four children who attended school in East St. Louis.

Norington-Reaves is supported by the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and endorsed by Urban Center Action, an independent expenditure organization against CTU. Jones is endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union and other progressive organizations.

The 10th District’s two independent candidates are Che “Rhymefest” Smith And Adam Parrott-Sheffer. Rosita Chotonda participates as a writer.

Smith, a well-known rap artist and producer, has funded much of his campaign. He and his son attended public schools in Chicago. Smith said his CPS mentors helped inspire him to become an artist.

“I stayed in the community and brought back what my teachers had given me,” said Smith, who lives in his great-grandmother’s bungalow in Chatham.

Adam Parrott-Sheffer lives in Hyde Park. He was principal of a North Side elementary school in the early 2010s and faced budget problems. At a forum, he said he had learned how to prevent budget cuts from hurting children. He now works as an educational consultant. He has two sons in CPS.

School types and choice

Jones and Smith said they oppose publicly funded, privately run charter schools as an option in our questionnaire. But in forums they said they were okay with existing charters remaining open. Jones said he sees the school ecosystem as a fabric, and there are many parts of the fabric, including charters.

“I would support existing charters that treat students, faculty and staff respectfully and meet the needs of the students,” Jones wrote.

Smith said some charters will expel students who are not at a certain grade point average or have behavioral issues, leaving neighborhood schools to grapple with these students. He also doesn’t like that money from charter school operators into these elections.

“When we have charter school people showering our political candidates with money bombs in our neighborhood to control policy, I find that problematic,” Smith said at a rally forum hosted by Chalkbeat.

Norington-Reaves, a school grant recipient, believes who runs a school is not as important as the quality of education the school provides.

“We need a variety of schools to meet the different needs of our children,” she said. She pointed to unique charter schools, such as the Betty Shabazz International Charter, which offers an Afrocentric education and “gives children the opportunity to learn about themselves and leave that school with a sense of self that is contrary to what society at large thinks . learns.”

Parrott-Sheffer also supports charter schools as an option. But he wants neighborhood schools to become so attractive that parents ‘open doors’ to get their children a seat. “It should not be the case to close existing schools, regardless of governance models, and tell families that we know more about what is good for their child than they do,” he said.

Parrott-Sheffer and Norington-Reaves also said CPS should expand magnet and selective enrollment schools or at least create more specialty programs within schools. Parrott-Sheffer said any student who wants and is up for the challenge should have access to these programs.

CPS budget and leadership

Parrott-Sheffer publicly pledged support for CPS CEO Pedro Martinez in a LinkedIn post. This came as it became clear that the mayor’s office wanted to replace Martinez. The CEO and the mayor continue to disagree about how tackle a budget deficit.

Martinez recently said he wants the mayor to do that generate $462 million from special tax districts called TIFs. The mayor has said he will provide TIFs as much as possible, but CPS may have to borrow — an idea Martinez has dismissed as fiscally irresponsible.

On LinkedIn, Parrott-Sheffer wrote: “It’s important that we have an adult in the room who rejects the pressure to take out high-interest loans that would ruin our city. We cannot sell out our future because we do not have the courage to face the hard truths now.”

Smith said he is not in a position to rely on Martinez or the loan. Without knowing all the details, he said it would be irresponsible if he had already made up his mind.

Although Jones is backed by the CTU, which is aligned with Johnson, he said he needs to evaluate Martinez before making a decision and is opposed to a loan. At a forum, he recommended an audit of CPS’s budget and said the board “must prepare to make tough decisions when it comes to spending. You can’t just print money,” Jones said.

Norington-Reaves said she would not remove Martinez because the decision to replace him is not based on his actual job performance. She also says that insufficient attention is being paid to reducing expenditure. “Where can we cut fat?” she asked at a candidate forum.

Sarah Karp provides education for WBEZ. Follow her on X @WBEZeducation And @sskedreporter.