NEAR WEST SIDE — Schools across the Near West Side will be forced to cut more than $1.7 million from their budgets mid-year, Chicago Public Schools officials announced Monday.
The mid-year cuts at 21 Near West Side schools total $1,771,564, according to CPS figures. Across CPS, $46 million in mid-year cuts were announced Monday.
The hardest hit on the Near West Side include Benito Juarez Community Academy and Jungman Elementary, two Pilsen schools, and Crane Medical High School at Oakley and Jackson.
The cuts aim to fill the hole blown in the district's budget by Gov. Bruce Rauner's veto of $215 million officials had been counting on, the district said.
Officials said they would freeze half of schools' discretionary funds, which can be used to buy textbooks and technology as well as to pay for field trips and non-salaried staff.
Joyce Kenner, a veteran principal at Whitney Young Magnet High School on the Near West Side, said the latest budget cuts leave the prestigious selective-enrollment school with "bare bones."
The situation is "the worst I've ever seen," Kenner wrote in an e-mail. "Honestly I do not know how we are going to fill this hole this time. ...This is going to affect the lives of all school stakeholders."
Kenner said it is possible CPS will decide to end the school year early, too, although CPS officials have not announced plans to do so.
"What organization or company has been affected like this? I do believe now is the time for our parents to take action and say enough is enough," she said.
Amid budget cuts in March 2016, Whitney Young laid off two science teachers.
Efrain Martinez, principal at Orozco Community Academy, said the mid-year cuts were "a shock." In order to cut $121,000 from Orozco's budget, he'll have to cut a number of programs — including afterschool programs, parent mentoring, field trips and professional development — and other needs to keep the school running — paper and other supplies.
Of all the program cuts, the targeted afterschool tutoring program that helps struggling students who may be on the cusp of failing will hit the fine arts and performing arts neighborhood school the hardest, Martinez said. The intervention program has helped kids graduate to the next grade or avoid summer school in the past, but now they will have to go without.
"What the Governor needs to understand, it is the kids that are suffering. That's very sad," Martinez said. "It's like we are two islands — Chicago and Springfield. And until the system is fixed in Springfield, our poor urban kids are going to be affected."
Orozco houses a regional gifted program for Spanish-speaking English-language learners in Pilsen, and about 98 percent of the elementary school's 560 students are Hispanic.
This is the second year in a row Chicago Public Schools officials have cut schools' budgets in the middle of the school year. CPS had counted on the $215 million vetoed by Rauner to pay employees' pensions when that bill comes due in the summer.
Near West Side school cuts
• Skinner West Elementary, 1260 W. Adams St., West Loop: $49,247 cut, - 0.68 percent
• Andrew Jackson Language Academy, 1340 W. Harrison St., Little Italy: $42,724, - 0.94 percent
• Galileo Scholastic Academy, 820 S. Carpenter St., Little Italy: $24,816, - 0.52 percent
• STEM Magnet Academy, 1522 W. Fillmore St., Little Italy: $37,424, - 1.04 percent
• Smyth Elementary, 1059 W. 13th St., University Village: $9,470, - 0.19 percent
• Brown Elementary, 54 N. Hermitage, Near West Side: $18,423, - 0.55 percent
• Suder Montessori Magnet School, 2022 W. Washington Blvd., Near West Side: $48,840, - 1.24 percent
• Dett Elementary, 2131 W. Monroe St., Near West Side: $26,545, - 0.61 percent
• Crane Medical High School, 2245 W. Jackson Blvd., Near West Side: $138,027, - 2.70 percent
• Irving Elementary, 749 S. Oakley, Tri-Taylor: $16,282, - 0.34 percent
• Whitney Young Magnet High School, 211 S. Laflin St., Near West Side: $182,623, - 1.12 percent
Pilsen school cuts
• Jungman Elementary, 1746 S. Miller St., Pilsen: $98,274, - 2.91 percent
• Walsh Elementary, 2015 S. Peoria St., Pilsen: $31,432, - 0.74 percent
• Pilsen Elementary, 1420 W. 17th St., Pilsen: $56,885, - 1.41 percent
• Perez Elementary, 1241 W. 19th St., Pilsen: $39,062, - 1.17 percent
• Cooper Elementary, 1624 S. 19th St., Pilsen: $77,065, - 1.54 percent
• Orozco Elementary, 1940 S. 18th St., Pilsen: $121,419, - 2.23 percent
• Whittier Elementary, 1900 W. 23rd St., Pilsen: $29,101, - .02 percent
• Pickard Elementary, 2301 W. 21st Place, Pilsen: $43,590, - 1.00 percent
• Ruiz Elementary, 2410 S. Leavitt St., Pilsen: $67,701, - 1.03 percent
• Juarez Community Academy High School, 2150 S. Laflin St., Pilsen: $612,614, - 4.14 percent
RELATED: See How $46M In CPS Cuts Affect Your School
The School Board is expected to consider the cuts at its Feb. 22 meeting.
Last month, Claypool ordered four unpaid furlough days for all CPS employees to save $35 million.
School district CEO Forrest Claypool blamed Rauner for the cuts.
“Governor Rauner’s actions cement a racially biased funding system that is also the worst in the country for children living in poverty,” Claypool said in a statement. “Governor Rauner did not create this unjust system, but he has chosen to perpetuate it, violating the civil rights of hundreds of thousands of Chicago schoolchildren and threatening their futures."
Eleni Demertzis, a spokeswoman for the governor, accused Claypool of attempting to "rewrite history and distract from 20 years of fiscal mismanagement by Chicago Public Schools."
"Governor and Mrs. Rauner have been decades-long philanthropic supporters of Chicago students and teachers, investing their time and resources into improving education outcomes,” Demertzis said.