EDGEWATER — While the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago Public Schools continue to battle it out over contract negotiations, CPS announced Tuesday $120 million in district-wide cuts — including $1,627,380 from Far North Side schools.
Schools lost 4.87 percent of the money they get from CPS based on the number of students enrolled, but some of that loss was offset by federal grants and leftover state funds.
In Edgewater, West Ridge and Rogers Park, Decatur Classical School saw a $46,321 decrease — but that accounted for 3.22 percent of its overall budget, the largest chunk taken from any other Far North Side school.
Tim McCaffrey, a Decatur parent and Local School Council member, said his school had anticipated the cuts "to the extent you can be prepared for them" when approving Decatur's budget in the fall.
He said his school's LSC and Parent Advisory Council are still trying to determine how exactly the cuts will affect Decatur, but he expects nothing major will change.
Two of the area's high schools, Mather and Senn, saw significant student-based-budgeting cuts from CPS — $410,379 and $357,227, respectively. But they were able to re-coop enough funding through federal and state accounts that less than 2 percent of each school's budget was ultimately lost.
Eduardo Cesario, principal at Clinton Elementary School, told DNAinfo his strategy of "hustling" for outside funding resources last year was key to helping Clinton to stay in "great shape" during each new round of budget cuts.
"We're in really great shape," Cesario said. "I mean it would be nice to have that money, of course ... but we're in good shape for the rest of this year."
Cesario said Clinton won't be losing any staff and his crew had been working to mitigate funding cuts also since the fall, making them "pretty prepared" for what they knew was to come.
The money that was cut would have been used toward buying computers and investing in technology, Cesario said, but he's thankful that at least next year he "won't have to scramble" to make ends meet.
"Everyone's hoping that this can come to some sort of resolution shortly," Cesario said. "Right now, thankfully, we budgeted well."
The district's 2015-16 budget included a $480 million hole CPS head Forrest Claypool hoped could be plugged through state funding by the new year. But with few signs of movement in Springfield, the schools chief said, he and his central staff have no choice but to take drastic action.
“These painful reductions are not the steps that we want to take, but they are the steps we must take as our cash position becomes tighter every day — especially as the District relies on short-term financing to pay its bills," Claypool said in a written statement Tuesday. "We are doing everything in our power to sustain the gains our students are making in their classrooms.”
Find your school in the list below, which includes the overall net funding loss and how much of the school's total budget that represents.
Edgewater — (-$631,770 total)
• Goudy Elementary School: -$71,618 (1.72 percent)
• Hayt Elementary School: -$97,298 (1.86 percent)
• Rickover Military Academy:-$75,321 (1.96 percent)
• Senn High School: -$180,999 (1.99 percent)
• Swift Elementary School: -$68,557 (1.80 percent)
• Helen C. Peirce Elementary: -$137,977 (2.64 percent)
Rogers Park — (-$342,968 total)
• Eugene Field Elementary School: -$28,336 (1.50 percent)
• Armstrong Elementary School: -$99,960 (1.21 percent)
• Gale Elementary School: -$24,234 (1.15 percent)
• Jordan Elementary School: -$36,933 (1.15 percent)
• New Field Elementary School: -$46,534 (1.64 percent)
• Sullivan High School: -$51,546 (1.30 percent)
• Kilmer Elementary School: -$55,125 (1.40 percent)
West Ridge — (-$652,642 total)
• Clinton Elementary School: -$88,680 (1.42 percent)
• Decatur Classical School: -$46,321 (3.22 percent)
• Jamieson Elementary School: -$120,100 (2.42 percent)
• Mather High School: -$174,126 (1.59 percent)
• Rogers Elementary School: -$85,897 (2.10 percent)
• Stone Scholastic Academy: -$101,763 (3.18 percent)
• West Ridge Elementary School: -$35,755 (0.79 percent)
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