Democratic state lawmakers on Wednesday unveiled their latest attempt at drawing districts for an elected school board in Chicago, a little more than a year before voters first cast ballots for the body and days before the legislature reconvenes in Springfield for its final scheduled session of the year.
The new map represents the legislature’s third attempt at crafting boundaries for 20 districts, each of which will eventually elect a representative to the board that oversees Chicago Public Schools. The shift to an elected board, which was approved in 2021 and takes full effect after elections in 2026, also includes a board president elected citywide.
In an initial step, 10 members will be elected in November 2024. The remaining members, including the president, will be appointed by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, who advocated for the change to an elected board in an earlier role as an organizer for the Chicago Teachers Union.
A public hearing on the new map has yet to be scheduled and, aside from the boundaries, several related issues remain unresolved. Among those are how elections will be conducted for the first 10 board seats next year and whether board members will be allowed to be paid.
Nevertheless, the two Chicago Democrats leading the mapmaking process in their respective chambers, Sen. Robert Martwick and Rep. Ann Williams, both said they hope lawmakers will be able to send a final map to Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s desk before the legislature is scheduled to adjourn for the year on Nov. 9.
“It is my sincere hope that we get this passed now,” Martwick said, adding that giving potential candidates more time to prepare, “the better the outcomes will be.”
Lawmakers aren’t under deadline pressure to act next week. They have until April 1 to finalize the maps after pushing back their self-imposed July 1 deadline last spring. But there has been a push for the legislature to act sooner rather than later, particularly from those interested in running for one of the seats.
“This has been a long time coming, and I know the people of Chicago are ready to take a look at the maps, decide about potential runs and move forward, finally, with an elected, representative school board,” Williams said.
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The maps released Wednesday include slight shifts from previous versions in the racial and ethnic makeup of the proposed districts.
The latest map includes seven majority Black districts, six majority Latino districts, five majority white districts and two “coalition” districts, where no racial or ethnic group makes up more than half the population. A previous version was comprised of seven majority Black district, seven majority Latino districts and six majority white districts.
In one of the new coalition districts, which includes parts of Rogers Park, West Ridge and North Park on the North and Northwest sides, the population is about 38% white, 19% Black, 20% Asian and 21% Latino. In the other, which runs from Irving Park to Dunning on the Northwest Side, there’s a relatively even split between the white and Latino populations, 43% and 44%, respectively.
Throughout the mapmaking process, advocates have pushed for districts that better represent the CPS student body, which is 47% Latino, 36% Black and 11% white, according to the latest data from the Illinois State Board of Education.
But that’s complicated by constitutional requirements that districts be representative of the entire population — not just those who attend public schools. Citywide, Latinos represented 29% of the population, according to the 2020 census, roughly the same as the Black population, while white residents made up 33%.
“The goal was to maximize the representation as best we could, and I think this latest map accomplishes that goal,” Williams said.
The new map was already meeting with some criticism. Valerie Leonard, co-founder for Illinois African Americans for Equitable Redistricting, said she had concerns that the map doesn’t go far enough in consolidating Black communities such as the Austin and North Lawndale with nearby West Side areas. She noted that those communities typically work together on education issues.
“To see Austin split off from the other communities with whom they normally work … it pulls away some of the synergy,” Leonard said.
Aside from issues of representation, lawmakers have yet to completely figure out the logistics of an election next year in which voters will choose 10 candidates for four-year terms, with the other 10 members and the board president being appointed to two-year terms — voters will choose their replacements in 2026.
Options include allowing only half the districts to vote next year and having the others wait until 2026, or pairing districts for the first round of elections, then dividing them in two for future years.
That issue was a concern for Corrina Demma, an organizer for Educators for Excellence.
“At the end of the day, my question is still who gets to decide which 10 get to vote and which 10 don’t?” Demma said. “When we talk about equity and access, we want to hold that process for everyone. To discount half the city right out of the gate, we’re already being inequitable.”
While it creates complications, staggering elections was part of a compromise that led to the approval of an elected school board in both legislative chambers after years of unsuccessful attempts, said Martwick, who previously sponsored proposals that would have made the transition to a fully elected board all at once.
“I don’t think there’s a perfect solution to this,” he said. “I think they’re all fine. I don’t think any of them are great. But I think this is one of those things where the members of both of these chambers will have to come together and make a decision.”
For her part, Williams said she favors a solution that will “ensure that as many Chicagoans as possible can participate in the process to elect representatives of their choosing as soon as possible.”
“So, however we can make that happen, I’m open,” she said.
Also lingering is the question of whether board members will be paid for their work. Martwick introduced a proposal last month that would allow the new board to authorize compensation for its members.
Currently, school board positions statewide are unpaid, but proponents argue that allowing Chicago school board members to be paid could make it possible for people from lower-income communities to serve.
Whether that issue gets taken up along with the district map remains to be seen.