School is back in session for CPS students after summer of budget angst

With a DJ playing celebratory hip-hop music, and blue balloons flying overhead, Leland Elementary Principal Alesia Franklin-Allen welcomed back her students.

She worked to put first-timers, like five children who’d moved to the West Side school from the South Side, at ease.

“You guys are now at the home of the Mustangs,” she said. “We got a lot of great stuff going on.”

To Franklin-Allen, that includes the school’s science and math lab and a brand new turf field. The school’s library will be open for the first time in years, she said, after she applied to a program to staff a librarian.

“We want to make sure that our students leave here with the love of reading,” she said.

A similar scene played out across Chicago Public Schools Monday as classes resumed for some 300,000 students. The first day followed a summer in which layoffs and last-minute budget changes made it challenging for schools to plan.

The district is now in the process of rehiring laid-off staff and placing them at schools with vacancies while officials wait to see if the state or city will come through with the extra revenue that CPS is counting on.

There are positives, too. District officials point to the addition of special education staff to support the rising number of CPS students with disabilities, and the expansion of dual language and world language programs that help students learn a language other than English.

We checked in with students, parents, educators and city leaders as they kicked off the 2026-27 school year for CPS.

Mayor and CPS superintendent ring first bell at Leland

Mayor Brandon Johnson and CPS Supt. Macquline King attended the annual bell-ringing ceremony at Leland with elected officials and leaders from Chicago’s teachers and principals unions.

King kicked it off with a message about unity.

“We are one CPS, and this journey is a journey that we cannot take alone,” she said. “We are looking forward to seeing all of these bright and shiny faces throughout the entire school year.”

Johnson talked enthusiastically about the start of the school year, too, but he also brought up something hanging in the air — that the school district needs more revenue to make it through the school year without disruption.

A last-minute budget change increased the amount that CPS is assuming the state will provide by $150 million. Board members who voted for the change want to use it to put pressure on the state, which they point out has underfunded CPS and other school districts for decades.

Officials have warned that without the money, the district could face staff furloughs, a midyear spending freeze and other cuts.

“The fact that a billionaire pays the same tax rate as the women and men who provide food, our lunch cafeteria workers, that’s unconscionable,” Johnson said. “We have to demand more from those who have the ability to give more.”

But Johnson declined to answer questions about whether he will provide enough money from special taxing districts called TIFS to help CPS make it through the year, should additional state revenue not come through. Instead, he insisted that the pressure needs to stay on the state.

“Springfield has to fully master this idea that investing in Black and Brown and working-class people should not be an arduous task” he said. “It’s the righteous call.”

Fresh haircuts and first-day selfies

At Schubert Elementary School in Belmont Cragin, dozens of families stood outside Monday morning waiting for the doors to open. Nearby, a security guard arranged orange cones and wooden barricades to direct traffic.

“All right all right, first day!” he exclaimed.

Alena Grant stayed in line with her 9-year-old son, Alejandro, for as long as she could before she had to take off for work.

Alejandro sported fresh braids that hung below his chin. A new hairdo for a new year.

“We’re going to start doing braids instead of a ponytail,” the fourth grader said.

His mother said she was both sad and looking forward to Alejandro being back at school. She’d heard the uncertainty about the district’s budget over the summer and had some concerns that it would lead to cuts at her son’s school.

“Arts, gym, music and things of that nature, those are things that he’s interested in,” Grant said. “If those things are cut, then I’d be disappointed.”

About a mile south, high schoolers milled outside the entrance of Prosser Career Academy waiting for their classes to begin. Teens snapped selfies of their first-day outfits or posed as their parents took photos.

Wale Shelton stressed about what he was going to wear on the first day. The 14-year-old pored over options for “probably a week or two,” he said. But he wasn’t intimidated about starting ninth grade at a new school.

“I feel like it’s going to be a good time to meet new people and make new friends,” Wale said. He hopes earning a spot on the school’s basketball team will make that easier.

A first day for some teachers, too

Buzz, Woody, Jessie and other “Toy Story” characters smiled from the walls of Burnetta Cox’s vibrant kindergarten classroom at Revere Elementary School in Grand Crossing just a few days before the start of school.

Cox thought the familiar faces would help comfort her students as they walked in Monday.

“To give the kids an idea of ‘You’ve got a friend in me,’” as the movie’s theme song promises, Cox said.

But the kindergartners won’t be the only ones with first-day nerves. This is Cox’s first year as a classroom teacher after working in daycares and as a special education classroom assistant in Auburn Gresham.

It was there that she decided she “could do more” and joined CPS’ teacher residency program, which helps school staff and others earn a teaching license. Cox took classes while working and caring for her 14-year-old and 5-year-old.

“It was a lot,” Cox said. “I’m just glad I made it through.”

Cox spent weeks printing, cutting and laminating colorful “Toy Story”-themed posters for her walls. She crafted banners from tablecloths for her windows and collected books and board games for her library and play area. Her two children even helped organize the room for her students.

“I want them to see me as someone they can depend on,” Cox said. “I want to be a nurturing teacher.”