Jessica’s Priorities for CPS

[Placeholder text] As President of the Chicago School Board, Jessica will work to ensure all students have equitable access to excellent, well-resourced schools. Explore Jessica’s priorities below and learn how her experience as well as the concrete action steps she supports, uniquely equip her to be an effective advocate for change.

Put Students and Their Learning First — Not Politics

Every child in Chicago has a right to an excellent education; the quality of a child's education should not be determined by their zip code. As Board President, Jessica will refocus the Board of Education on what actually matters: setting clear goals for student learning, holding leaders accountable for results, and ensuring that our schools are places where the young people of Chicago feel included, engaged, and prepared for the future.

To do this, Jessica will prioritize:

  • Reading and math proficiency in the early grades are the single strongest predictors of long-term student success. Jessica will require the board to set explicit K–2 literacy and numeracy goals, with particular focus on the students furthest from opportunity: students with disabilities, Black students, students learning English, and students living in poverty.

  • Graduation rates matter — but graduation into what? Jessica will push the board to focus not just whether students graduate, but whether they are ready for college, a trade program, or another pathway to success. She will advocate for programs that keep older students engaged and on track through post-secondary persistence.

  • Declining enrollment among school-age Chicagoans is not just a budget problem — it is a signal that families are losing confidence in the system. Jessica will track CPS enrollment as a share of the city's total school-age population as a public accountability metric, treating it as a measure of whether the district is earning the trust of Chicago families.

Principled, Independent Leadership — A Board That Actually Governs

The board's job is clear: set goals, pass aligned policy, adopt a responsible budget, and hold the CEO accountable. Five years from now, every Chicagoan should be able to say they knew what this board was focused on — because the communication was clear, the actions matched the rhetoric, and the results showed up in schools. Jessica will lead that board — through collaboration, not command, and with the independence she’s already shown in her actions and in her votes.

To do this, Jessica will:

  • Jessica is the only candidate in this race whose independence is documented in votes, not promises. She opposed the operating loan under City Hall pressure. She led an independent superintendent search. She built the coalition that passed a responsible budget. As board president, she will answer to Chicago's children — and to voters — not a mayor, not a union, and not any donor.

  • Jessica will lead the board in adopting a clear governance framework: standing and ad-hoc committees that do real work between board meetings, a public legislative calendar, defined criteria for major decisions, and structured feedback processes that give school communities genuine input before decisions are made.

  • The board president's relationship with the superintendent is arguably the most important in the district. Jessica will build a genuine working partnership: the board president as partner and champion, keeping board members in the lane of governing — not managing, and building connections with community to make sure the board and district are responsive to current and changing needs. She will establish a transparent, public CEO evaluation framework with clear goals tied to student outcomes, and hold that standard consistently.

A Responsible Path to Long-Term Financial Stability

CPS is underfunded — and too many of the dollars it does receive never reach a classroom. Jessica will do the hard work of changing both: building real partnerships with the City and State around a shared, multi-year financial recovery plan, and establishing the credibility that makes Springfield want to invest in Chicago's schools. The measure of success is not a balanced budget in any one year. It is a parent enrolling their child in kindergarten with the confidence that this district will be there — stable, resourced, and focused on their child — every step of the way to graduation.

To do this, Jessica will:

Stand with Every Student, Every School, and Every Community

Jessica believes the voices of students, families, and communities belong in the room where decisions are made — not consulted after the fact. As Board President, she will make community representation a standing expectation of how this board operates: building district-wide structures that bring LSC leaders, faith institutions, families, and local organizations into the board's ongoing work — consistently, not just in moments of crisis.