To help inform voters on who’s running for Chicago’s elected school board, the Chicago Tribune education team posed a series of questions to the candidates in each district. These questions ranged from basic information on their background and campaign platform to their stance on several issues facing Chicago Public Schools.
See the answers from Angel Gutierrez, candidate for elected school board in the 8th District, below.
About the Candidate
Name: Angel Gutierrez
Age: 52
Neighborhood: Garfield Ridge
School District: 8
Education: Master of Public Administration, Roosevelt University; Bachelor of Arts in political science, Loyola University Chicago
Current Job: Nonprofit consultant
Previous Political Experience: None.
Questions and Answers
In the interest of transparency, the candidate’s responses shown here are published as written and have not been edited by the Tribune.
Did you attend Chicago Public Schools or is anyone in your immediate family a CPS student? Yes, an immediate family member.
Have you worked at Chicago Public Schools or another school? What is your background in education?
I worked at Chicago Hope Academy as the Chief Advancement Officer leading all of the fundraising, communications, and external relationships of the organization.
Why are you running for a seat on the Chicago Board of Education?
I’ve always been engaged in my community, but I hadn’t considered running for elected office until I received my property tax bill with a 40% increase, which made me wonder how our tax dollars are being used to invest in the future of our city? As a father of school-age children, it struck me that I am paying higher taxes to further fund an underperforming district that fails to effectively serve our students. Under-enrolled schools, overpaid leadership staff, and lack of effective budgetary oversight are all harming our district, and ultimately our students.
How would you describe your district?
The demographics of District 8 is 60.8% Latinx, 18% White, 15% African American, and 4.7% Asian. Parents in my district choose to send their children to schools that best meet their needs, whether it’s a CPS, charter, or private school. However, our district faces significant challenges when it comes to education. Two local high schools are overcrowded, and selective enrollment options are limited (no Arts school) with long waitlists. Additionally, there are no pathway-to-work schools, like trade programs. There’s also a need for full-day Pre-K for 3-year-olds to better serve our young working families. More broadly, it’s a family-oriented community that values work and opportunity. There’s a large first responder and municipal employee presence which brings with it a great deal of Chicago pride.
How would you describe your campaign platform?
My vision for our school district is centered on:
- Establishing Board Transparency
- Ensuring Top-Quality Education for Every Student
- Responsible Management of Chicago Tax Dollars
What is the single most important issue facing CPS students?
As a school district we have to do a better job of ensuring that every student has every opportunity to succeed. If only 31% of elementary students in Chicago Public Schools are meeting state standards in reading, and only 19% are meeting math standards; what does that mean for the long-term trajectory in school? When our students are dreaming about becoming video game designers and doctors and we can’t provide them with the math fundamentals to begin paving that path, we have failed them.
Provide three to four key points you want voters to know about your campaign.
- Establish Board Transparency — I aim to establish transparency within the Chicago Board of Education so that no stakeholder feels “left in the dark.” In order for all our community members, school staff, educators, parents, and students to advocate for the necessary change they need, they need access to clear, accurate, and timely information. I aim to empower our constituents by bringing transparency while bringing everyone together.
- Ensuring Top-Quality Education for Every Student — I will work to ensure that families have more top-quality education options to choose from. As the current system leans into becoming a one-size fits all model, we will see this serve some families but not all. I will lead with a true, equity lens and try to serve all families based on their specific needs.
- Responsible Management of Chicago Tax Dollars — In addition to providing more transparency around the district’s budget, I will work towards a budget formula that equitably distributes resources without compromising the quality of education at high-performing schools. The current approach does not account for the unique needs and context of every school. The board should work towards understanding all these needs and challenge themselves to meet those needs with the resources available.
Given this year’s budgetary problems and disagreements on how to solve them, what do you propose for the district’s funding in future years? Would you support the district in taking on any loans in future years to fund the annual budget?
No—we need to begin addressing the structural deficits that exist and must stop kicking the can down the road. I believe that TIF funding should be used for its original intent and purpose to encourage development, capital works, and job creation. What better place for all three of those things to happen than a school that has $14 billion in Capital Projects and $3 billion in differentiated maintenance?
The Chicago Board of Education recently adopted a new 5-year Strategic Plan. Which aspects do you support and which would you change, if any?
I think the plan lacks to address two things that I would want to see and know as a Board member:
- What is the estimated cost to implement the Strategic Plan compared to the estimated gains, and how are we paying for it?
- There also needs to be an acknowledgement of the backlog of critical capital and infrastructure needs in our schools that are not being addressed due to funding constraints. We have to ask how the vision for this plan addresses those needs in an equitable and fiscally responsible manner?
As thousands of migrant families settle in Chicago, how should the District handle the influx of English learners? What more should be done to ensure consistent bilingual education is provided and funded?
CPS needs to continue to work with our federal and state partners to ensure that they invest in English Learner Programming with adequate, consistent, and committed funding. This includes funding talent and the talent pipeline for more Bilingual Educators. In addition, the district must continue to collaborate with agencies, city providers, and post-secondary institutions to help meet the needs of students. Some of that help can come in the form of recruiting more bilingual teachers and aides.
Do you believe the district has historically underinvested in South and West side schools? Yes.
If yes, what solutions would you propose to address inequities and opportunity gaps in the school system?
Yes, under-investment in the South and West side has led to many current challenges including crumbling infrastructure, under-enrollment, school closures because of under-enrollment, and negative narratives about our schools. If we want to address inequities and opportunity gaps in the school system, we have to collaborate on what initiatives would uplift those communities in the most meaningful ways. It may be that we need to reimagine under-enrolled schools in ways that benefit both students and the broader community. Let’s enable those neighborhoods to define what real investment can look like and build partnerships with labor, postsecondary institutions, community groups, and other organizations to take schools from being underinvested and underenrolled to reimagined and thriving.
Since his election, Mayor Johnson has indicated a desire to move away from school choice and bolster neighborhood schools. This was recently reinforced by in the District’s 5-year Strategic Plan. Do you share this position? Why or why not?
No I do not agree with Mayor Johnson’s move to focus primarily on neighborhood schools. I believe that each district should be providing an array of education options to parents and students from selective enrollment to magnet to neighborhood to Arts to Science to Classical or Trade schools. I want all CPS funded schools from the Neighborhood, Selective Enrollment to Alternative and Charter Schools to be successful because when all our students succeed, we all succeed. Let’s not de-emphasize selective-enrollment and magnet schools to better support neighborhood schools. Let’s figure out a way to do both and build a world class school system.
What solutions do you propose to provide busing for students at selective enrollment and magnet schools?
This is an area that you do not have to reinvent the wheel in. The CPS Parents for Busing group has done extensive research in this area and has some great recommendations that I support. Some of these recommendations can even be reworked to support the broader need in transportation.
Here they are:
- Stipends — Earlier this year, CPS ended its policy of providing $500 per month to families who qualified for CPS transportation but could not get a seat on a bus. We ask that CPS reinstitute this policy. Given that 85% of the students without transportation come from low-income families, many cannot afford to pay for private transportation, nor should they be expected to do so. Many families also do not have the job flexibility that enables them to drive their children to and from school. This money would be a much-needed lifeline for thousands of Chicago students. Paying $500 per month is less than half of CPS is currently paying per student per month to bus students.
- Pay, Benefits, and Legislation for Bus Drivers — Currently, CPS employs approximately 715 drivers, which is 600 fewer than CPS currently estimates is needed to route all students. Hiring additional bus drivers will allow CPS to better serve low-income students while also ensuring that diverse learners continue to receive the transportation assistance they need and are legally entitled to. Given the large gap in bus drivers, CPS could reduce the target number of drivers and, using the savings, could properly compensate current and prospective drivers with bonuses. Though CPS has increased bus driver pay, it still offers only $22-$27 per hour. Compared to neighboring cities, this pay rate is not as competitive as it could be. For example, Bensenville offers $27 per hour, Skokie offers $25-$30 per hour, and Niles offers health insurance plus a 401k to all drivers. Raising bus driver salaries and offering benefits would assist in the recruitment and retention of bus drivers for CPS. Additionally, we ask that CPS work in collaboration with parent advocates to influence state legislators and the Illinois Secretary of State to pass laws and regulations that facilitate driver recruitment. Below are four examples of such action that could increase the number of drivers available to CPS:
- Implement the Federal “Under-the-Hood Waiver” to increase the number of eligible drivers by allowing prospective bus drivers to skip the onerous requirement of physically lifting the hood of the bus and identifying parts of the engine
- Pass HB3476 to enable HopSkipDrive to come to Illinois
- Offer more Commercial Drivers License (CDL) certification dates/times
- Offer CDL certification exams in Spanish
- Prioritizing Low Income Students — Students from low-income families should be routed first. This routing can be done on an individual basis or by starting with the schools with the highest percentage of low-income families. Stipends (financial relief) can be given to students without a seat until one becomes available for them. Stipends provide immediate support until a bus seat becomes available.
- Paratransit Companies — Allow paratransit companies (vans) to begin transporting Priority Group A and B students from buses currently transporting less than seven students so that large school buses can be reassigned for larger populations needing transport to magnet and selective enrollment schools.
Please share your thoughts on how the District and the Chicago Teachers Union can settle on a new 4-year contract.
Negotiating labor contracts should always begin with CPS providing their union partners with detailed budget assumptions and projections for each of the fiscal years covered in the contract. These projections should include both expected revenues, expenses, and extra payments the district would like to make towards pension obligations or debt. Also, we need to factor in market conditions and inflation to ensure all sides have an understanding of what short-term and long-term impacts a contract can have. Once that has been established, contract negotiations need to be grounded in student service, reality, and trust. All parties have to be constrained by the information presented in the forecasts and bargain in good faith for our students around the matters they are legally obligated to.
In 2024, Chicago Public Schools’ average literacy proficiency rate is 31%, an increase from pre-pandemic years. These rates, however, were lower for students from low-income families, English learners and students with Individual Education Plans (IEPs). How should the district seek to improve literacy rates going forward?
I think we have to look at what we are doing well and try and replicate it. In addition, I would have CPS look at what other school systems are doing to improve their reading and math scores as an example at a local and national level. The Defense Department has run Schools that educate 66,000 children of civilian employees and service members and have seen a huge success and the State of Massachusetts seems to be producing strong results as well. These are just two examples of many more that exist for us to examine. In addition we have to look at using a standard curriculum to help measure progress that students are making or not making and the beginning and ending of school. The curriculum should have modules for in class as well as an online application as well. Schools should create opportunities for volunteers to help with tutoring around reading, writing and math as an additional resource to help students learn. If there is not a Quality Education Committee at CPS that looks at the data and works with educators to help synthesize data and reporting the findings along with recommendations around policies and strategies to help solve problems then lets create one and bring the experts in to help.
What is your position on expanded funding and renewal terms for charter schools?
I believe that each district should be providing an array of education options to parents and students from selective enrollment to magnet to neighborhood to alternative to charter to Arts to Science, Classical or Trade schools. I want all CPS funded schools from the Neighborhood, Selective Enrollment to Alternative and Charter Schools to be successful because those students are our students and when they succeed, we all succeed. I support students and parents having educational options in the form of charter and alternative schools as long as they are meeting the contractual requirements and performance metrics around educational attainment, enrollment, financial, community and parent engagement, services to students and extracurricular etc, that have been negotiated by CPS and contractor.
Please provide your thoughts on how to keep Chicago Public Schools as safe havens for students to learn and flourish fear of violence. How do you propose the district approach this?
I support implementing and funding CPS’s new whole school safety plan if it further empowers the school communities to make the decisions on how to spend their resources. For example there are some schools in the 8th district that are plagued with gang/turf issues and would love to have a police officer present in their schools as a deterrent and can’t based on the new model. This is a local school decision that should be made by the principal, local school councils, parents, students and teachers. As I heard way too frequently on the campaign trails from students, teachers, and parents – if teachers and students do not feel safe in schools – not a lot of teaching and learning will happen.
Originally Published: October 26, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.