CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — The Chicago Teachers Union says proposed budget cuts at Chicago Public Schools next year will mean chaos in schools, after 300 teachers aides — as well as other paraprofessionals — are laid off.
Grisel Sanchez said after two years as bilingual teacher’s assistant on the Southwest Side, she learned she was being laid off from Mark Twain Elementary the day after classes ended. Restorative justice coordinator Edward Ward said this is the second year in a row he’s been laid off by the district, leaving students and parents without an advocate.
CTU President Stacy Davis Gates said teachers, parents and administrators will feel the loss.
“Our paraprofessionals, like it or leave it, play a very important leadership role in the school building,” Davis Gates said. “Principals won’t be able to operate with the same type of dexterity that they do if our parents are not there.”
She added that staffing schools with restorative justice coordinators, like Ward, is especially necessary now — as CPS plans to change how it records and discusses disruptive behaviors by students in second grade and younger.
“If you don’t do this, this move, this shift, this good shift away from penalties for our young people — they’ll make a mockery of it,” she said.
The district said 595 paraprofessionals will be affected by layoffs and other staffing changes as part of its plan for next year, with about 300 of them being teaching assistants.
In a statement to WBBM, CPS said its proposed budget closes a $391 million budget gap while adding 500 teaching positions.
CPS said it has also set up what it’s calling “layoff prevention pools” that will guarantee affected teaching assistants will get paid next year.
They will also work to fill vacancies, but the district did not specify what those positions will be.
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