Chicago school board president candidate Jessica Biggs calls for putting student success over politics

Chicagoans will soon elect the Chicago Board of Education president for the first time ever, and among the four candidates running is incumbent board member and former Chicago Public Schools principal Jessica Biggs.

Biggs said as school board president, she would refocus the board on "what actually matters" — which is ensuring a first-rate education for all students rather than politics.

"I hear from families again and again that the district is really at a crossroads, and we've been far too immersed in a political back-and-forth for the last couple of years," she said. "So I want to make sure that the district really returns to a focus on the things that mater to families. Do they have access to a great school in their neighborhood? Are we focused on our academic outcomes? Are our district's financial challenges being resolved in way that is actually inclusive of our community voices, and that actually, we're set up for long-term financial success?"

In the interest of ensuring student success, Biggs' platform calls for expanding pre-K access, a focus on readiness for college, trade programs, or other pathways to a future after graduation for students, and a push to eliminate racial and socioeconomic inequalities that prevent families from accessing the best schools for their kids.

Former CPS chief executive officer Janice Jackson endorsed Biggs. The Service Employees International Union — which represents numerous CPS support staffers — also endorsed Biggs in a break with the Chicago Teachers Union, which endorsed its former political coordinator, Hilario Dominguez.

Biggs said regardless of endorsement, she would find common ground with the CTU.

"Teachers are critical in this district, and teachers' working conditions are our students' learning conditions, and so I am happy to be able to work with CTU and to have really drawn a diverse array of support of folks who don't always agree with one another," she said. "But my goal is really to get folks in a room and moving together towards a common vision for our students."

Biggs has been the subject of controversy surrounding her time as a CPS principal at Burke Elementary Schol, at 5356 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. in Chicago's Washington Park neighborhood. She was fired from her position in 2018 and placed on CPS' do-not-hire list until recently.

The reason was a finding by the district inspector general that Biggs may have tampered with attendance data. As described by the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ, the allegations were that Biggs directed staff to mark students tardy when they arrived at school late enough that they should have been marked absent or half the day.

A rise in the school's attendance rate helped the school's rating, the newspaper reported.

But the Sun-Times reported that the IG report did not show a "full-blown conspiracy to cheat," and that it was not clear that the rise in attendance was the result of mislabeling students tardy rather than absent.

Biggs herself has characterized the disciplinary action against her as retaliation for speaking out against CPS practices. She said she has always believed in standing up for students, and hopes voters will focus on that.

"You know, in that moment, I stood up for what was in the best interests of my students and families, even at great personal cost. So I have a track record of standing up for our students' interests, even when they don't align with my own personal interests," she said, "and I think that is an important piece that voters should consider when they consider my candidacy. I will always look out for the best interests of our students."

Meanwhile, the CPS budget will be a major issue for the next board president.

In July, the Chicago Board of Education approved a $10 billion budget, which relies on $150 million in state funding coming from Springfield. But Illinois lawmakers have not approved that $150 million, and district leaders have warned the Board of Education that it will be a "disaster" if Springfield does not cough it up to balance the CPS budget.

Biggs said she voted against the budget amendment that factored in "phantom revenue" from the state "because it's just not responsible."

"What I hear from state legislators over and over and over again is that they want to see us be responsible with the resources that we have before they would entertain any additional revenue coming into CPS," she said. "So I think that's an important beginning point for anything that we're doing around budgeting."

Biggs said CPS CEO Dr. Macquline King has been "really savvy" in handling the assumption of funds from the state that Biggs said are not coming this year, "in a way that will be minimally harmful to our schools."

"And then as we move forward, I'm calling for a five-year financial recovery plan — bringing together state, city, CPS officials to really figure out how we set some goals for our future as we move as many of our resources to our classrooms as possible," Biggs said, "because we need to be really intentional about justifying any administrative expense by what it produces for our students."

The election is coming up in November.