Parents Outraged Over CPS Budget Cuts at Local Schools

The ramifications are stark. 

It's projected that Cassell Elementary School will have upwards of 42 students in their second and third grade classrooms. Morgan Park High School will cut 17 teachers. Kellogg Elementary School's budget was slashed by 10 percent. They'll lose a special education teacher, two and a half classroom teachers and a music teacher.

Three schools, but the story is the same across the 19th Ward and the entire Chicago Public School System. In the proposed budgets handed down to local schools the resources that were once counted on are slipping away. 

"The new normal for our kids is less than what we had, and that just can't happen," said Margaret Laraviere, whose child just completed kindergarten at Kellogg. 

Parents are showing up at local school council meetings and grassroots forums looking for answers, searching for the next steps to take. 

At a Monday evening meeting at Kellogg parents talked about what the cuts will mean for their children and how they can fight them. Pressuring local elected officials, outreach to the media and informing fellow parents were all discussed. 

Kellogg, a school of 269 students, will have a budget $365,000 smaller next year. That equates to about $1,357 less in funding for each student. Courtney Sinisi of Cassell's LSC says they are loosing $500,000.

Outraged is the first word that comes to her mind. 

She faught againts the longer school day imposed by CPS and says these proposed cuts just reaffirm the fact that the promises associated with the added minutes never materialized. Her school is set to lose four teachers. 

She hopes they can fight and restore some of the cuts, but this battle is on top of the other issue long-facing Cassell -- overcrowding. 

The projections Sinisi has are that next year Cassell will have 41 students in first and fifth grade classrooms, 42 in second and third and a classroom of 38 in fourth grade. 

"That is just not a constructive learning environment," Sinisi said.

She has taken it upon herself pay for extra help and tutoring outside of the classroom for her daughter to make up for the shortcomings of her large classroom. 

Some parents are taking even more drastic steps. 

Sue McLaughlin sits on the LSC at Kellogg and is aiding in parents' efforts to pushback against the cuts. However, she has already made the decision that her daughter will not return to the school for seventh grade next year. 

She says she loves the school and believes in a public education, but the uncertainty caused by constant CPS changes and cuts is just too much to risk. 

Advocacy organization Raise Your Hand Illinois has uncovered almost $84 million in cuts to local school budgets. The number is likely to be hire, but CPS will not release the budget figures in advance. 

READ MORE: Group of City Officials Propose Solution to CPS Budget Cuts