Chicago Board of Education Sets Guiding Parameters as CPS Community Develops New Five-Year Plan

CHICAGO – The Chicago Board of Education Thursday adopted a resolution that aims to guide engagement and development of the District’s next five-year strategic plan. The resolution outlines parameters that emphasize strengthening all neighborhood schools as a critical step toward supporting students and closing opportunity gaps. Work on the District’s next plan has begun and will continue this spring with community engagement and outreach, beginning with the District’s Shape Our Future Survey as well as current engagement sessions about the District’s facilities master plan.  

“This resolution declares a new chapter in CPS,” said Chicago Board of Education President Jianan Shi. “While the strategic plan will be developed in partnership with our entire CPS community, we are centering equity and students furthest from opportunity. As such, this moment requires a transformational plan that shifts away from a model that emphasizes school choice to one that elevates our neighborhood schools to ensure each and every student has access to a high-quality educational experience.” 

President Shi and CEO Pedro Martinez described the parameters as the high-level guidelines within which the District’s vision, or “North Star,” will be developed to produce a high-impact, transformative Strategic Plan for School Year 2024-25 through 2028-29.  

They emphasized Thursday that the resolution is not a vote to close selective enrollment, magnet, or charter schools. The Board has committed to working in partnership with our CPS communities to ensure the new plan helps develop high-quality PreK-12 pathways in neighborhood schools, prioritizing our most under-resourced communities.

“This resolution articulates the key values and parameters that will drive the development of our District’s future work,” said CEO Martinez. “It very powerfully calls out that the District must make data-based decisions that close existing opportunity gaps to ensure success for Black students, Latinx students, students with disabilities, English Learners, and students in temporary living situations.” 

While CPS will work with the community and its City partners to co-design the strategic plan, the resolution calls for “a model that centers neighborhood schools by investing in and acknowledging them as institutional anchors in our communities, and by prioritizing communities most impacted by past and ongoing racial and economic inequity and structural disinvestment.”

Specific community engagement sessions about the development of the new strategic plan will begin in February. The new strategic plan will be approved by the Board of Education in the summer of 2024.  

To read the full resolution, visit the Board website.  To listen to the discussion at today’s Board meeting, please use this link.

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