Angel Gutierrez, a Chicago Public Schools board member representing District 8A on the Southwest Side, is running unopposed for re-election in the district’s first fully elected board race.
In a recent interview, he outlined four urgent priorities he says will shape the district’s future: reimagining career pathways, addressing $16 billion in deferred maintenance, tackling chronic absenteeism, and managing declining enrollment.
The election on Nov. 3 will determine whether his faction gains board control and the power to reshape district strategy.
“We have to look at our physical pledge, right? I think we have $16 billion in deferred maintenance,” Gutierrez said. “That’s money that we have to pay for a roof, to paint, change a bathroom from the ’60s to modern, but that doesn’t include any potential new construction.”
Career pathways beyond college
Gutierrez said CPS must expand options for students who will not attend college.
“I think we need to reimagine teaching and learning,” he said. “This means understanding not every student is going to go on to college, but what are the other pathways that we are providing them? Not only the trades, but are we doing anything in cybersecurity? Are we doing anything in transportation logistics, right? Those types of pathways that are prominent and happening now. Are we preparing medical technicians for the medical fields?”
He cited Douglas High School as an example of severe underutilization. The school currently serves 27 to 29 students despite a capacity of 1,008—a stark illustration of misaligned resources on the west side.
Gutierrez then described a vision for repurposing low-enrollment schools to serve both students and communities.
“What if, in the morning, students had a trade that they can go to or one of the pathway curricula and then in the evening you’d open that up to the community, which has high unemployment and unfortunately, not high educational attainment rates for education. How can you do that?”
CPS is prioritizing programmatic and capital investments through the city’s 2025 Sustainable Community Schools Initiative, which converts public school facilities into community hubs offering mental health support, medical services, academic programs, mentorship, and job training.
However, active neighborhood schools in Gutierrez’s District 8A are not currently part of the program, which specifically targets under-resourced schools on the city’s south and west sides.
Gutierrez pointed to a concrete example of what targeted investment could accomplish despite the city’s push for an additional $150 million. State Rep. Angie Guerrero-Cuellar, who serves his district, secured $10 million to $15 million to begin an expansion addition to Hubbard High School, a badly overcrowded Southwest Side campus.
“We had money that was secured by the state rep to purchase land and to begin an expansion addition to Hubbard High School. The building would be made in a way that configured to do these pathway pieces that I’m talking to you about.”
The expansion, however, still faces a roadblock. CPS and the city have not authorized the TIF funds needed to acquire the property at 3710 W. 63rd St. for the expansion. While Springfield is holding the state funds in reserve, the city has denied additional TIF funding, citing insufficient budget funding to complete the project.
Absenteeism
Gutierrez flagged chronic absenteeism as a crisis with an unexplained dimension. “I think the district has 40.6% of chronic absenteeism. And the untold story to that is that the same percentage of students that miss is the same percentage of teachers that miss, right? So something’s not happening. Right? Something’s off there, right? And we need to be able to address that.”
He did not elaborate on what might explain the parallel rates or what solutions he envisions.
According to the Illinois State Board of Education, CPS teachers had higher chronic absenteeism than the state average in 2024-25. 43.2 percent of CPS teachers logged 10 or more absences, compared to 34 percent of teachers in the rest of the state meaning 2 in 5 teachers missed 10 or more school days in that time period.
Correspondingly, 2-5 students showed reading proficiency, less in math proficiency.
56.8 percent of CPS teachers missed 10 or less days. With a total of 23,002 full time teachers in 2024-25, it is possible teacher absenteeism is higher.
Union negotiated, contractually approved “release days” are also encouraged by the CTU; these days are considered time spent supporting the school district and are not documented as absences by the state.
Maintenance funding vs. building inequities
Gutierrez pointed to Douglas as a case study in misaligned resources. “I had to sit through, this year, Douglas getting $14 million for repairs over the course of this past year. And yet I have schools in my sub-district that have real needs, and we can’t get those things served because they don’t rank in the one or two priority as critical.”
He contrasted the overcrowded schools on the Southwest Side, where Hubbard operates past capacity, with nearly empty buildings like Douglas. He proposed a Blue Ribbon Commission to study school consolidation.
“I think that that could be done with the Blue Ribbon Commission, that you include community, family, parents, financial and educational experts, nonprofits.,” Gutierrez said. “There’s different places and different states that do different things. They grab neighborhoods and they look at the schools and figure out if we were to join and combine these schools, what could we do; what could we put in place that will benefit students, families in that particular community?”
Gutierrez also raised the cost of maintaining closed buildings. “We still have on the record probably, I don’t know, 5 to 10 of the schools that we closed during the Emanuel years. That costs us $150,000 roughly to maintain, to clean, to cut grass, all that stuff annually.”
Declining enrollment
Gutierrez acknowledged the tension between rising teacher salaries and shrinking enrollment.
“We have to get our funding in order,” he said. “You can’t do any of this until you start to look at declining enrollment and figuring out why it’s happening. Because I believe that we owe it to students now and in the future to create an education system that is continually be pivoting to address the needs of students and their families and communities.”
State funding
Gutierrez said a $150 million appropriation for CPS included in the state budget will not materialize. “Look, I was in a session last night with three legislators, and they said not happening. Not until CPS gets their business in order. I’ve spoken to my contingent on the southwest side, and they say the same thing, not happening.”
Property acquisition
Gutierrez voted against a board resolution authorizing assistance payments to help property owners and tenants relocate from properties CPS wants to acquire. He characterized the resolution as part of the mayor’s broader tenant relocation payment plan.
“It was a resolution that I voted against because, again, we’re not in the business of real estate,” he said. We still have on those properties from the Emanuel years that were closed. That costs us $150,000 roughly to maintain, to clean, to cut grass, all that stuff annually.”
Gutierrez said the idea to pay tenant and/or property owner moving fees on property the city wants CPS to buy.
“Look, it was brought to us by a CTU-supported board member who’s bringing it to the board as part of everything you hear this mayor talking about. So like most of the things that you’ll see brought to the table in terms of resolutions by Brandon Johnson appointees they are an attempt to continue his agenda, so he can say, ‘Hey, look, CPS supports…’ No, you had board members who supported it and it wasn’t unanimously approved.”
The mayor has since amended the Protecting Renters Ordinance to include only tenant fee bans, a city-wide rental property registry, and a new Bureau of Rental Housing Services.
The election
Despite running unopposed, Gutierrez has responded to questionnaires and attended forums, emphasizing his responsibility to constituents. He stressed the stakes of the election.
“Look, like I said, this election is super important,” he said. “I can’t stress that enough. A lot’s at stake, not only in the near term, but also for how we look at school in the future. If the side that I sit on gets a majority, we will have the ability to truly govern and make some decisions that I think are needed.”