March 2008: Budget analysis

A Catalyst Chicago analysis finds 40 percent of schools had faulty enrollment projections this year, forcing principals to battle central office over hiring. One expert says CPS needs to overhaul its process.

Cover Stories

• School budget forecast: cloudy Each spring, the district kicks off the budget process by estimating school-by-school enrollment. A Catalyst Chicago analysis found that this year, one in five schools—most often, neighborhood schools—had projections that were substantially off, affecting staffing levels.
  
• Projections leave budgets in flux Each year, schools play the enrollment game, hoping the district’s projections are on target. If they are too low, schools find themselves scrambling to have enough teachers and staff ready to go on day one. In these four schools, 2007 projections were off—either too high or too low. Here’s how administrators coped with the faulty projections.
  

Letter From the Editor Is it possible that LSCs can—and do—work? The death knell is ringing for Chicago’s local school councils, and it has been for years. But as it turns out, LSCs just won’t die. It’s not for lack of trying on the part of those who have the power and means to kill them. Mayor Richard M. Daley took his best shot a year ago, when Curie High School’s local school council handed him a smoking gun in the form of a questionable decision not to renew the contract of a popular and competent principal.