Chicago Public Schools Announces Virtual FY26 Capital Budget Community Meetings

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CHICAGO - Chicago Public Schools (CPS) today announced that it will host five meetings next week to engage communities on capital priorities as the District works to develop its Fiscal Year 2026 Capital Plan. The capital plan is a part of the District's overall budget that will be presented to the Board of Education later this summer. The meetings - which will be led by the CPS Capital Department, Office of Equity, and Office of Family and Community Engagement (FACE) - aim to provide communities with an understanding of the District's capital planning process and help the District prioritize critical capital needs.

"We encourage all CPS families and community members to participate in the capital investment process," said CPS CEO Pedro Martinez. "Community engagement is foundational to ensuring that our facilities and resources work to serve our students as effectively as possible. We look forward to hearing from our CPS community and incorporating feedback."

Two of the citywide meetings will be held in English with real-time Spanish translation and ASL interpretation. One citywide meeting will be held entirely in Spanish to create an improved community engagement experience for Spanish-speaking families. Additionally, this year for the first time we will be hosting two in-person meetings, one at CPS administrative offices in Garfield Park and one at Colman in the greater Bronzeville area. The meetings will be live-streamed on CPS' YouTube Channel, and the presentation materials will be posted on the Capital Plan Community Meetings website in English, Spanish, Chinese (Simplified), Polish, Urdu, and Arabic.

In addition to community meetings, the District is also collecting public feedback through an online survey. Members of the community who are unable to participate in the meetings are encouraged to complete the survey, which opens April 1, 2025 and can be completed until 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 17.

Participants in any of the meetings listed below should register online or tune in to the live-stream on CPS' YouTube Channel.

Thursday, April 3: 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. (English, Spanish)

Tuesday, April 8: 12pm. - 1 p.m. (English, Spanish)

Tuesday, April 15: 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. (English, Spanish) In-Person, CPS Garfield Park Administrative Offices, 2651 W Washington Blvd.

Thursday, April 17: 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. (Spanish only)

Tuesday, April 19: 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. (English, Spanish) In-Person, CPS Colman Administrative Offices, 4640 S. State St.

Consistent with prior years, the District will also hold public hearings to discuss the FY26 capital plan after the District's budget proposal is developed and released this summer. The CPS facility portfolio consists of 522 campuses and 803 buildings. The average CPS facility is more than 85 years old. Since FY16, CPS has invested approximately four billion in capital improvements across the District and has identified more than three billion in additional critical facility needs. This number is projected to increase based on the 2023-2024 Facility Assessments.