ROGERS PARK — While 20 neighborhood schools on the city's Far North Side saw over $1.6 million slashed from their budgets, the area's three charter schools will see a $275,000 decrease in funds as well, according to data provided by Chicago Public Schools Wednesday afternoon.
Between Asian Human Services Passages school, UNO Rogers Park, and Chicago Math and Science Academy, UNO saw the largest dollar amount lost, $107,697, but Passages had the largest chunk of its budget taken percentage-wise — 2.62 percent.
Chicago Math and Science Academy had $99,075, or 2.14 percent, taken from its budget.
Last summer when school budgets were first released, UNO was one of the only schools in Rogers Park which saw an increase in its budget. At that time, it was given a $1,515,899 bump.
The cuts are part of a $120 million district-wide decrease, $20 million more than CPS first announced.
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.”
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