Chicago Public Schools Announces Virtual FY24 Capital Budget Community Meetings to Gather Input and Identify Project Priorities

CHICAGO - Chicago Public Schools (CPS) today announced that it will host five virtual meetings next week to engage communities on capital priorities as the District works to develop its Fiscal Year 2024 Capital Plan. The capital plan is a part of the District’s overall budget that will be presented to the Board of Education later this summer. The meetings — which will be led by the CPS Capital Department, Office of Equity, and Office of Family and Community Engagement (FACE) — are intended to provide communities with an understanding of the District’s capital planning process and help the District prioritize critical capital needs.

“We look forward to another year of our families and community members participating in the capital investment process,” said CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. “Community engagement is a critical piece in moving forward together to ensure we provide the best facilities and resources for more than 322,000 students.”

Feedback collected through previous engagement sessions led to the prioritization of several capital initiatives, including restroom upgrades and parking lot refurbishment, over the past three years. The District has continued to prioritize investments that promote equitable access to high-quality learning environments. The District allocated $644.5 million in FY23 for capital projects that included roof and mechanical projects, upgrades to expand preschool programming, and continued updates to ensure schools are accessible to students and staff with physical disabilities.

Three of the citywide meetings will be held in English with real-time Spanish translation and ASL interpretation. New this year, CPS is hosting one meeting with real-time translation in additional languages, including Arabic, Urdu, Polish and Chinese, and one citywide meeting will be held entirely in Spanish to create an improved community engagement experience for Spanish-speaking families. The meetings will be live-streamed on CPS’ YouTube Channel, and the presentation materials as well as the video recordings will be posted on the Capital Plan Community Meetings website in English, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Polish, Urdu and Arabic.

Information on the Virtual Capital Meetings:

Participants for any of the meetings listed below should register online or tune in to the live-stream on CPS’ YouTube Channel.

• Tuesday, April 18: 3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. (English, Spanish)
• Wednesday, April 19: 3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. (English, Spanish)
• Wednesday, April 19: 5 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. (English, Spanish, Arabic, Urdu, Polish, Chinese)
• Friday, April 21: 12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. (English, Spanish)
• Friday, April 21: 3 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. (Spanish)

Consistent with prior years, the District will also hold public hearings to discuss the FY24 capital plan after the District’s budget proposal is developed and released this summer. The CPS facility portfolio includes 522 campuses and 803 buildings. The average CPS facility is over 80 years old. Since FY2016, CPS has invested approximately $3.5 billion into capital improvements across the District and there is more than $3 billion of additional critical facility needs.

These projects include major renovations to ensure schools stay warm and dry, relieve overcrowding, and remain safe learning environments, among other priorities. Additionally, CPS is in its fourth year of investing $100 million over five years (to Fiscal Year 2025) to ensure all District campuses are more accessible.

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