Our educators cannot be expected to do the work of three people, and our students should not have to compete for a few minutes of their teacher’s attention.

As a recent CPS graduate, I saw how much responsibility we place on our educators. Teachers are expected to educate students with different learning styles, abilities, languages, and needs – sometimes while managing classrooms that are simply too large.

That is not fair to teachers, and it is not fair to students.

This issue is personal to me. My godson is a child who benefits from additional individual attention in the classroom. When a teacher has too many students at once, finding the time to sit down with one child, understand where they are struggling, and help them individually becomes incredibly difficult.

Reducing class sizes means more than putting fewer desks in a room. It means giving educators the opportunity to actually know their students.

It means noticing sooner when someone is falling behind.

It means giving students with disabilities, English learners, and children who need additional support a better chance to succeed.

And smaller classrooms must go hand-in-hand with fully staffed schools.

Every school should have the professionals students rely on – not only classroom teachers, but nurses, counselors, social workers, librarians, special-education staff, bilingual educators, paraprofessionals, clinicians, and other support personnel.

CTU’s current contract includes enforceable class-size provisions as well as expanded staffing for nurses, social workers, bilingual education, libraries, and students with disabilities. I believe the School Board should make sure those commitments become reality inside our schools.

As a Board member, I will support:

• Continued reductions in excessive class sizes.
• Full implementation of negotiated staffing commitments.
• A nurse, counselor, social worker, and other essential professionals available to students.
• Expanded special-education and bilingual staffing.
• More librarians and functioning school libraries.
• Additional classroom assistants and paraprofessionals where needed.
• Recruiting and retaining qualified educators instead of balancing budgets through vacancies and understaffing.

Our teachers already work incredibly hard.

The solution isn’t asking them to somehow do even more. The solution is giving them the people, resources, and working conditions they need to succeed.

Stop Making Students Pay for Underfunding

For too long, the answer to financial problems in public education has been to ask schools to make another sacrifice.

Another vacant position.

Another program reduced.

Another classroom stretched thinner.

Another educator expected to accomplish more with fewer resources.

Students should not be the ones paying that price.

As a CPS graduate, I have seen what “doing more with less” actually looks like from inside a school.

It isn’t an abstract budget discussion.

It is outdated resources.

It is an educator covering responsibilities that should belong to several employees.

It is students losing programming.

It is classrooms becoming larger.

It is a building waiting another year for something to finally be repaired.

I believe Chicago must move away from managing scarcity and toward fully funding the public school system our children deserve.

That means demanding that Illinois meet its obligations to Chicago students rather than immediately looking toward cuts, layoffs, furloughs, or reductions inside classrooms when financial challenges arise. CTU similarly made protecting school staffing and demanding adequate state funding major priorities during the 2026 CPS budget debate.

It also means protecting public education from privatization.

Public money should strengthen public schools.

I will support strong neighborhood schools and carefully scrutinize proposals that would move resources away from CPS classrooms or turn essential public-school functions over to private interests. CTU has likewise advocated keeping public dollars in public schools and opposing privatization.

As a Board member, I will fight for:

• Greater state investment in Chicago Public Schools.
• Protecting classroom funding during budget negotiations.
• Avoiding layoffs and staffing reductions that directly harm students.
• Strong neighborhood public schools.
• Responsible and transparent use of CPS funds.
• Investment based on student need rather than neighborhood wealth.
• Opposition to privatization efforts that weaken our public-school system.

There is money in this city and state.

The question is whether educating Chicago’s children is treated as a priority.

I believe it must be.

Every Student Deserves the Opportunity to Thrive

A great public school does much more than prepare a student to take a test.

Schools are where children discover music.

Where they perform on a stage for the first time.

Where they find a sport they love.

Where a librarian helps them discover a book that changes how they see the world.

Where a counselor helps them imagine college.

Where a social worker helps them through a crisis.

Where a bilingual educator allows a child to learn without forcing language to become a barrier.

And where special-education professionals make sure a student’s disability never determines the limits of their future.

Those things aren’t extras.

They are education.

I want every child in District 8B to attend a school where their needs can be met regardless of their disability, language, neighborhood, or family’s income.

CPS’s current agreement with CTU expands several of these services, including libraries and librarians, bilingual staffing, case-management support for students with disabilities, nurses and social workers, and access to arts and music.

The School Board now has a responsibility to make sure those commitments reach students.

I will support:

• Strong special-education staffing and services.
• Smaller caseloads for professionals serving students with disabilities.
• Greater bilingual and English-learner support.
• Nurses, counselors, psychologists, and social workers in our schools.
• Restoring and expanding school libraries.
• Strong arts, music, sports, honors, and extracurricular programming.
• Increased support for early-childhood education.
• Policies that give educators adequate preparation time and reasonable workloads.

Supporting students also requires supporting the people who educate them.

I do not believe teachers and school employees should be treated as an expense that CPS must constantly find ways to reduce.

Educators are the people who make public education possible.

As a Board member, I will respect collective bargaining, honor negotiated commitments, listen directly to educators about conditions inside their schools, and approach labor as a partnership rather than a conflict.

When educators have the resources and working conditions they need, students benefit too.

Our Students Deserve Better Than “Good Enough”

Every morning, families send their children to CPS trusting us with them for most of the day.

We owe those families more than academics.

We owe their children a safe building and food they can actually eat.

School meals are particularly personal to me.

I remember the quality of school meals from my own time as a CPS student. Today, I see my younger brother come home hungry because he doesn’t want to eat the lunch served at school.

That shouldn’t be something Chicago families simply accept.

A free meal is only fulfilling its purpose when students will actually eat it.

I support keeping school meals available without placing another expense on working families while also demanding improvements in quality, nutrition, freshness, and student satisfaction.

The current CTU-CPS contract has created a School Meals and Nutrition Committee specifically focused on healthy, high-quality food and includes a Youth Advisory Council so students can provide input on school dining. That’s exactly the kind of student involvement I want to strengthen.

Students should help tell CPS what is working and what isn’t.

The same philosophy applies to our buildings.

A child’s neighborhood should never determine whether they learn in a modern, well-maintained school or one waiting years for essential repairs.

I will advocate for:

• Healthy, filling, and appealing school meals.
• Preserving free access to breakfast and lunch.
• Meaningful student participation in meal planning and evaluation.
• Greater transparency around school-food contracts and quality.
• Safe drinking water and functioning bathrooms.
• Reliable heating, cooling, and ventilation.
• Clean and properly maintained buildings.
• Repairing aging infrastructure before problems become emergencies.
• Modern classrooms, libraries, laboratories, technology, and recreational spaces.
• Prioritizing schools with the greatest facility needs.

Students notice when society invests in them.

They also notice when it doesn’t.

Every CPS student should walk into a building that tells them their future matters.

Decisions With Communities – Not Decisions Done to Communities

This issue is one of the biggest reasons I decided to run.

I served as the Student Representative on my high school’s Local School Council.

That experience allowed me to see CPS governance from two perspectives at the same time.

I was a student directly affected by school decisions.

But I was also sitting at the table where some of those decisions were being discussed.

And I learned quickly that having a seat at the table doesn’t automatically mean your voice is being heard.

During my time on the LSC, I communicated with teachers, parents, community representatives, and administrators. When decisions were made, I asked why. When I believed students were being left out, I pushed for their involvement.

Sometimes that meant being persistent.

But that is exactly what representation requires.

Students should not simply appear in promotional photos while adults make every important decision for them.

Teachers should not discover major changes after they have already been decided.

Parents should not feel that their only opportunity to participate comes during a two-minute public-comment period after months of planning have already occurred.

And neighborhoods should not have major decisions about their schools imposed on them from downtown.

I support a model of school governance where students, families, educators, school employees, and communities are genuine partners.

That philosophy is also consistent with CTU’s support for Sustainable Community Schools, which emphasize robust services alongside parent and community engagement.

As a Board member, I will support:

• A stronger role for Local School Councils.
• Meaningful student participation in CPS decision-making.
• Regular meetings with student representatives.
• Listening sessions with educators and school employees.
• Community engagement before – not after – major decisions are finalized.
• Expanding the Sustainable Community Schools model.
• Greater transparency around Board decisions.
• Respect for organized labor and collective bargaining.
• School visits that allow Board members to hear directly from the people actually inside CPS buildings.

Chicago fought for an elected School Board because people wanted a greater voice in the system governing their schools.

We should honor that purpose.

Public education works best when the public is actually involved.