Chicago Principals and Administrators Association

Every child in every school deserves the support they need.

Assistant Principals are essential to delivering that support, but right now, parents across Chicago don't know who will be in their child's school come fall because CPS leadership has failed for decades to address budget shortfalls.

Communities deserve transparency and investment in the people who support students every day. Right now, we're not getting it from CPS.

The bottom line is that schools should not be forced to choose between maintaining leadership capacity and protecting other critical supports.

Now is the time to protect the systems that help schools succeed.

Students, families, and school communities deserve certainty - not unanswered questions about who will be there to support them in the fall.

School leadership is support, not overhead.
It is culture.
It is safety.
It is opportunity.

If you believe every student deserves a school built to help them thrive, make your voice heard NOW.

Contact your local school board representative and advocate for the staffing and leadership schools need.

https://chicago.theschoolleader.org/find-and-contact-your-chicago-school-board-member

"Every child in every neighborhood deserves a school with a capacity to help them thrive." - Cy Hendrickson spoke those words at today's CPS Board Meeting.

Education isn't a privilege. It's a promise we make to every student. But it's only fulfilled when schools have the resources, staffing, and support they need.

Without AP's, students won't have the full opportunity to succeed, grow, and reach their potential.

Assistant Principals are the backbone of our schools. They:

🏨 Manage multiple buildings
🎒 Support hundreds of students
📝 Lead special education services
👪 Communicate with multilingual families
✒️ Complete hundreds of mandated evaluations
🏥 Respond to emergencies
📔 Ensure children have food, bedding, safety, and support

CPS's proposed cuts don't just impact 120 assistant principals. They impact every student, family, teacher, and principal who depends on these leaders every single day.

https://chicago.theschoolleader.org/news-and-advocacy/aps-are-essential-and-fight

Our students deserve better than arbitrary math and budget decisions that devalue the people holding schools together.

Assistant principals are essential. Full stop.

AP's Are Essential and the Fight Continues As we continue to confront the devastating realities of the proposed SY26-27 school budgets, I want to remind every member that CPAA’s first and most urgent priority has been fighting to protect Assistant Principals as foundational positions in every school.

Teachers cannot do their best work when they don't have support.

Assistant Principals are often the people solving problems before they reach the classroom, supporting staff, managing operations, responding to student needs, and helping maintain a positive school culture

Strong schools depend on strong support systems. Assistant Principals are part of that foundation.

Assistant Principals help hold student support systems together.

They connect students to the support they need before challenges become crises.

When schools lose these essential administrators, support becomes fragmented. Schools become reactive instead of proactive, and students fall through the cracks.

Don’t cut the people helping students succeed.

School safety doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because Assistant Principals are there every day, coordinating the systems that keep schools safe and students supported.

They oversee arrival and dismissal, monitor hallways and common spaces, lead emergency drills, respond to incidents, and help prevent problems before they escalate.

When these positions are cut, the work does not disappear.
Proactive prevention decreases, disorder increases, and student success is put at risk.

Don’t cut the people who help keep schools safe.

Assistant Principals are the unsung superheroes of our schools.

They are the first call in a crisis, the steady presence for students, the support system for teachers, and the leaders helping schools move forward every single day.

The work they do does not disappear because a budget line changes.

What changes is the number of people available to carry out the work.

That is not sustainable.
That is not student-centered leadership.

CUTTING AP'S WON'T CREATE STUDENT SUCCESS.