CHICAGO — Chicago Public Schools officials have yet to identify a solution for the district’s looming $734 million deficit, as the August deadline to finalize a spending plan fast approaches.

In an update at a Chicago Board of Education meeting Thursday, CPS Chief Budget Officer Michael Sitkowski reiterated the district has identified $165 million in spending reductions, including cuts to its administrative staff, vendor contracts and operational efficiencies.

That leaves CPS with just a few weeks to balance its books, facing hundreds of millions of deficit. Sitkowski told the board that the district is prioritizing cuts that have less impact on the classroom.

“We are working hard to be able to develop a plan that keeps the pressure off of our schools, that keeps the pressure off of things that impact the student experience,” Sitkowski said. “There is still work to do on our end. We’re still doing that on a daily basis.”

The district is mandated by the state to approve a budget by Aug. 28. Officials released a budget plan in May, but that was banking on $300 million in funds from the city or state that has yet to materialize.

School-level budgets, or the specific allocation of money to each school, were released earlier this month — already pushed back from June. Several board members expressed concern that CPS has yet to identify a concrete solution to its fiscal woes.

“I’m sort of baffled that we are at this point, three weeks away from the need to present a budget, that we’re talking in generalities rather than in numbers and more specific proposals,” said board member Debby Pope.

The board meeting comes after a series of citywide engagement sessions hosted by CPS, where parents and residents were invited to weigh in on the district’s fiscal woes. District officials acknowledged the delay in the budget wasn’t ideal.

“There may be challenges,” interim CPS CEO Macqueline King said. “It may not work out the way that we want. We may have to have a plan B, but the goal is not to touch our classrooms.”

To address the shortfall, CPS could be forced to make millions of spending reductions. In June, the district laid off 161 workers and eliminated 209 positions. CPS also laid off 1,458 employees earlier this month, though officials said it was related to enrollment and programming changes. District officials told the Tribune it’s unclear if more layoffs are coming.

Sitkowski added principals should hire educators and workers for the school year despite the uncertain budget.

“We have a supply of excellent and diverse candidates ready to be hired right now,” he said. “We want principals to go ahead and make the hires now, because we know that that’s the most important thing.”

CPS has also floated taking out a short-term loan to plug the deficit. But critics say the high-interest borrowing could compromise the district’s long-term financial health.

About 77% of community forum participants who discussed borrowing money said the district should avoid doing so, according to Sitkowski. He said that 66% of groups urged CPS to avoid making more cuts to services.

King has yet to publicly weigh in on whether the district should take out a loan.

“Addressing our budget deficit is not about dollars, an account for numbers on a page. There are faces behind those numbers,” she said.

The district is continuing to appeal to elected officials for additional revenue, Sitkowski said. But some board members questioned whether it was still feasible for more money to come in from the city and state.

“Is there really time for those discussions and for that revenue to come into us in time to balance the budget?” said board member Jennifer Custer.

Other board members, along with the Chicago Teachers Union, have called for a special legislative session this summer to allocate more state funding to schools. School districts across Illinois have struggled with funding as COVID-19 relief funds run dry, and the Trump administration freezes billions in federal education funding.

“We can balance this budget without making cuts, if we have the will to properly fund education in the state of Illinois,” board member Ed Bannon said.

Gov. JB Pritzker expressed doubt that a session would be held at an unrelated news conference downtown Wednesday. The governor has previously said that he would like to increase education funding, but that finding the money was difficult.

“At the moment, I don’t see any reason why we would have a special session,” Pritzker told reporters.

Before the meeting, the CTU held a news conference calling on the state to allocate more funding to the district. Dozens of members raised signs demanding accountability from state legislators.

Deena DuBose was a music teacher at DePriest Elementary for 19 years, until she was recently laid off due to budget cuts, she told attendees. She’s worked as a teacher for 34 years.

“While this may look like a line item in a budget meeting, let me tell you, this is not just a number,” DuBose said. “We are real people being cut away from our students and our jobs.”

Board members also voted to adopt an updated version of the CPS Arts Education Plan, which will be in place for five years. While the original 2012 plan focused on arts education access, the updated version also focuses on the quality of education and will create a curriculum based on data on student learning patterns.

Access to arts education across the district has significantly increased since the adoption of the first plan in 2013, according to CPS.

The board also announced the departure of Ruchi Verma, general counsel to the board. Verma is one of several top staffers leaving the district, following the firing of former CPS CEO Pedro Martinez last year. Current Managing Deputy General Counsel Elizabeth Barton will be stepping into her role in the interim.

Verma, who worked for the board for more than 16 years, tearfully thanked members for their support. “It’s truly been an honor of my life,” she said.

____

©2025 Chicago Tribune. Visit at chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.