A Small Victory

Your calls, emails and visits to his office worked!

Along with 26 other colleagues in the Chicago City Council, 11th Ald. James Balcer stood with Chicago's children and signed onto the ordinance that return this year's TIF money back to CPS, fully funding our schools for the next school year.

This is a great first step, but there's still much work to be done.

Kudos to Ald. Balcer for standing with parents, neighbors and children in the 11th Ward, and city-wide.  773.254.6677

Your calls and emails helped demonstrate what an important issue this is to Bridgeport.

If you can, please call or email Ald. Balcer to say thanks for the support!

Our work isn't done - getting this ordinance proposed is only the first step to making sure our schools are fully funded.

Schools Action Alert - Call the Alderman!

Our schools will experience major budget deficits next year.

To give you an idea of local loss:
Graham: $300k
Haines: -$300k (Loss of 3 positions)
Sheridan: -$516k (Loss of 3 teachers & 3 teacher assistants)

The citywide parent organization, Illinois Raise Your Hand for Public Education, is gathering budget loss information from parent members. So far they have heard from 142 schools and over $82 million has been lost.

Please call Alderman Balcer and ask him to tell the Mayor to declare a TIF surplus. A

lderman Balcer's Office phone number: 773 254 6677.

 Possible scripts:
a) If you just want to leave a message OR that's the only option: "Hi! I'd like to leave a message for Alderman Balcer. My name is ____ & I am a (CPS Parent/Parent/Concerned Citizen/Taxpayer/Voter) concerned about the severe budget cuts to our schools. (Pick a school or Pick all 3 above) lost $___ which will result in the loss of teachers, support staff, supplies and textbooks, impacting the education of thousands of kids in our Ward. The mayor needs to declare a TIF surplus & give money back to the schools. Mayor Daley declared a TIF surplus 3 years ago and returned $90 million to CPS. We know this can be done. We expect you to call the Mayor and ask him to declare a TIF surplus. We'll be bringing a letter by to get your support. Thank you."

b.) Maybe you actually get him on the phone: "Hi, this is _________I am a constituent and my school _______just lost _________ ( x dollars or x positions). We need Alderman _______'s help in restoring these positions. As you know, our schools weren't properly funded to begin with and we can't operate with this loss.
Possible answer: Well, there's not much the City Council can do when it comes to education.
You: "Actually, there was $1.7 billion in TIF accounts at the end of 2011 and $454 million was diverted from Chicago property tax revenue into TIF accounts. 53% of all TIF surplus money would go back to the schools. We would like you to call Mayor Emanuel and ask that he declare a TIF surplus so that we don't have to lose ______ positions."
Possible answer: "Well, much of that money is tied up. We don't know for sure how much is in there."
You: "Mayor Daley declared a TIF surplus 3 years ago and returned $90 million. We know this can be done. We expect you to call and we'll be bringing a letter by to get your support."

Thank you so much!

If you'd like to learn more about TIFs you can listen to & view slides of the 11th & 12th Ward TIF Illumination talk from a couple of weeks ago. It was sponsored by the McKinley Park Civic Association & the Bridgeport Alliance.
 http://www.civiclab.us/2013/06/11th-and-12th-illuminated/
Don't have time to listen? Here's some basics on TIFs: http://www.civiclab.us/the-tif-report/how-do-tifs-work/

BA in the News!

CPS protesters claim budget cuts could leave students without toilet paper

"So we got socked," says CPS parent Jennie Biggs. "Losing money and now we also, my principal also has to pick up supplies, so there's a real chance he's going to have to pick between teachers and toilet paper."

Schools Update

The Bridgeport Alliance hosted a School Task Force meeting Thursday, June 6, from 6:30 - 7:30 at Benton House. Our goal for this initial meeting was to start building a school and
community network of people who want to get involved in strengthening our schools and our community. We need all of our school communities to come together, learn from one another, and help each other out when needed.

Also, as a community, we should give input into the "Bridgeport-Chinatown" (CPS title of our neighborhood) section of the CPS Draft 10 Year Educational Facilities Master Plan. This, by law, was due May 1, 2013. The final 10 Year Facilities Plan is due October 1, 2013. If you would like to get involved in collecting information, checking data, and responding to this Plan on behalf of our community, please get in touch with the BA at info@bridgeportalliance.org.

Please get in touch, too, if you'd like to get involved in our schools.

Here's a link to the Draft 10 Year Educational Facilities Master Plan:

Things to pay special attention to:

• Pages 78 & 79.... It's officially due October 1, 2013 so there's a list of how CPS will engage communities this summer. You can also find the "Conclusion" here.
• Pages 124 - 129... "Bridgeport-Chinatown" section. If anyone would like to help come up with input on this section OR if you want to check CPS data for accuracy OR if you see a glaring error, please see the email above and get in touch.
• You can also find an individual school's "Educational Facilities Master Plan" on www.cps.edu.

• Click on the "Schools" Tab (on the far left of the CPS homepage)
• Go to "Find a School."
• Type in your school's name and click Find.
• Once on your school's page, scroll all the way down to the very last report under
• "Report Name". Click on "Education Facilities Master Plan."

We recommend you look this over within your school community: at a LSC or PAC meeting, with teachers or with your principal, etc. We know there are some errors for some schools & we should try to get them corrected.

Thanks for your continued commitment to our schools and our community!