“Our communities are not stupid,” said one principal. “They know this is political wrangling. The outgoing CEO wants to put the blame on the mayor. Our students are NOT going to be the casualties in this war. We won’t have it.” “We had no say in a budget built on dollars the district doesn’t yet have,” said CPAA Chief of Staff and Lead Negotiator Kia Banks. “Yet principals are required to build their schools around it, present it to staff and families, and prepare to defend it… possibly with no safety net. We’re calling on CPS to provide written assurance that once this labor-intensive process is complete, school leaders won’t be forced to do it all over again.” A System Set Up to Fail CPS directives require principals to finalize their budgets within a short, fixed time frame and secure LSC approval, yet the district itself is under no such obligation to provide the funding information in a timely, accurate manner. This imbalance is frustrating and damaging to the reputations of school leaders and the reputation of the district. CPAA President Troy LaRaviere called on district leaders to stop undermining the very people responsible for building successful school communities. “School leaders want to focus on creating efficiencies and supporting students,” said CPAA President Troy LaRaviere. “But they can’t do that without clarity, consistency, and respect. They deserve to know that the plans they work so hard to create won’t be erased by shifting numbers in July, or worse, in the middle of the school year.” This isn’t new. School leaders have been here before. A decade ago, budgets dropped even later than this. In more recent years, principals were forced to scramble midyear when CPS pulled funds after schools had already staffed up, forcing some to beg for donations just to keep essential positions. Many lost staff. Some lost programs. “Those weren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet,” one principal shared. “Those were people… people who served students with care and integrity. And we were the ones who had to look them in the eye and deliver the news.”
Some will argue that tough decisions come with the job. But these aren’t decisions based on new or unforeseen challenges. These are manufactured crises set in motion by unstable planning, shifting rules, and a system that keeps principals in the dark. “Principals are planners. We’re strategic by nature,” Banks added. “When we’re denied the basic tools and consistent resources required for that planning, the message is clear: Our work isn’t valued, and student success isn’t the real goal.” The burden doesn’t stop at spreadsheets. It spills into school communities, where principals are left to explain the unexplainable. “Starting over, having to go back to our staff, our LSCs, our parents, makes it look like we’re the problem,” said one administrator. “But when the numbers fall apart, will CPS leadership take the blame? Or are we left to hope that our school communities understand what we’re up against and don’t hold it against us when contract time comes around?” Principals feel they are being asked to spend our summer propping up what looks more like a symbolic budget than a real one. “We want to focus on our students,” said an assistant principal via Zoom. “We want to celebrate their milestones. Instead, we’re being pulled into a shell game. We’re being forced to participate in a process that feels
We want to focus on our students. We want to celebrate their milestones. Instead, we’re being pulled into a shell game.
rigged, misleading, and not grounded in reality, where the numbers and answers keep changing, and the truth is impossible to pin down.”
CPAA is currently assembling a support team to assist principals during this critical budget window. But the association is also looking ahead. The union plans to push for stronger collective bargaining provisions that guarantee timely, fact-based budgets and require real engagement with school leaders before decisions are made. “We may not have had a real say in the budget process this year,” LaRaviere said. “But we are organizing to ensure we have a say in it for every year to come.”
24 • CPAA QUARTERLY MAG | Q3 AND Q4 2025
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