It’s election day Monday, arguably the largest yet quietest citywide election day when more than 6,000 candidates vie for the job of governing the city’s public schools, Becky Schlikerman and I reported in today’s Sun-Times.
Some 6,362 people are running for Local School Council at 513 Chicago Public Schools, including 422 elementary schools whose communities will cast ballots Monday; the rest are high schools voting Tuesday.
We’ll see if any of folks whose names appeared on an online “do-not-vote” list win their seats — among the candidates are charter school teachers, former mayoral staffers, a former Board of Education member and several employees from the Illinois Network of Charter Schools — the statewide organization advocating charters, which also opposes a bill in Springfield that would require that charter schools elect LSCs, too.
Polls at schools should have opened at 6 a.m. Monday morning and remain open until 7 p.m. Elections coincide with report card pickups, CPS said in a press release Monday.
You can also find every school’s candidates here in a solid piece of reporting by Catalyst Chicago.
It’s not just parents who can vote — all community members, 18 years of age or older, can vote at their neighborhood elementary and high schools. Parents can also vote in schools where their children attend. Here’s where you can find your neighborhood school — choose the option to search by your home address.
“I encourage parents to be active participants in their child’s schools, but I also urge community members who are passionate about education to take a hand in their community and vote in Local School Council elections,” CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett said in the release. “Getting involved at the school level is a great way to have a positive impact on your community and helps the District achieve its goal of ensuring our students are 100 percent college-ready and 100 percent college-bound.”
A handful of schools won’t hold elections this week because they didn’t get enough candidates: Austin Polytechnical Academy High School, Bond Elementary, Dyett High School (which is also phasing out), Hirsch High School, Lindblom Math & Science Academy High School, TEAM Englewood Community Academy High School and Ida B. Wells Preparatory Elementary Academy.
Another election will be held on May 14 to fill LSC seats that remain vacant following this week’s District-wide elections. The new two-year terms begin on July 1, 2014.
