Sarah Karp | WBEZ
By early Wednesday afternoon, the heat index — a measure of what the temperature feels like when factoring in humidity — was at 116, tying July 14, 1995, for second-highest heat index on record for the city’s climate site.
After a seemingly quick summer break and ahead of a forecast heatwave this week, students, parents and leaders kick off the school year with “the same level of energy across the whole city of Chicago,” Mayor Brandon Johnson said Monday.
Chicago Public Schools open Monday with a new mayor and a school board who want to shake up how the school district is run.
Nine principals have been removed pending discipline or investigations into “serious misconduct” in recent years. Of those, six are Black men.
The newly seated board, hand-picked by Mayor Johnson, leans heavily on activists with experience in organizing and with nonprofit groups.
Urban Prep Academies, the once-lauded charter school that caters to Black male students, got the go-ahead to continue operating its two campuses for the upcoming school year after a judge rejected Chicago Public Schools’ plans for a takeover.
La nueva junta tomará sus puestos este mes y será la última junta de CPS completamente designada antes de que una junta ampliada y parcialmente elegida de 21 miembros asuma el cargo en 2025.
The new board will have a different feel than in past years when consultants, lawyers and bankers filled many of the seven seats. Only one of Johnson’s appointees is a lawyer, and she runs a legal aid organization.
CPS voted last fall to close the all-boys charter school, but a judge Friday put the closure on hold, granting the school a first victory.