The four candidates in Chicago School Board District 10 agree on many issues, but split on important ones, such as whether they support charter schools or would prioritize neighborhood schools.
The district boasts a slate of competitors that bring a lot to the table. They are Karin Norington-Reaves, who runs a workforce development nonprofit and has a daughter with special needs; Robert Jones, a pastor who participated in a hunger strike to save a school; Adam Parrott-Sheffer, a former principal who now works as an education consultant and adjunct professor at Harvard; and Che “Rhymefest” Smith, a Grammy Award-winning songwriter and rap artist.
District 10 starts at 26th Street and stretches along Lake Michigan to the city’s southern border. It includes parts of Bronzeville, Hyde Park, South Shore and Hegewisch.
At more than $500,000, Norington-Reaves has, by far, the most money. Some of it was spent on her campaign and some given to her campaign fund. She is supported by two anti-Chicago Teachers Union, pro-charter school super PACs — the Illinois Network of Charter Schools and Urban Center Action. A third super PAC recently got involved in Chicago’s race, called Parents for Great Schools, and gave her $50,000. Some wealthy Chicago and out-of-state business people also gave directly to Norington-Reaves.
Jones is endorsed by the CTU. The union’s PAC and several PACs it is financing donated $321,000 to his campaign. Smith and Parrott-Sheffer are independents and have had far less money to spend on their campaigns.
None of the District 10 candidates support closing under-utilized schools or having police officers in schools on a daily basis, as they were until this year. Jones and Smith do not support charter schools and say they want to prioritize neighborhood schools over schools of choice — charters, magnets and selective schools.
Norington-Reaves and Parrott-Sheffer support having charter schools as an option for students. Norington-Reaves said she does not support prioritizing neighborhood schools over charters, magnet or selective enrollment schools. Parrott-Sheffer said he rejects the notion that the schools must prioritize one over the other.