Candidate Forums for CPS Local School Council Elections Begin Next Week 

Chicago Public Schools will begin hosting candidate forums next week ahead of the 2026 Local School Council elections, giving parents, students, and community members a chance to hear directly from candidates seeking to help govern their neighborhood schools.

Schools across the district will hold in-person and virtual forums between Feb. 23 and Feb. 27, according to CPS’s Office of Local School Council Relations. 

One of the first West Side forums is scheduled for Austin College and Career Academy, 231 N. Pine Ave., at 5 p.m. on Feb. 23, where candidates will introduce themselves and answer questions from voters.

Residents can check whether their local LSC races are contested — and whether their schools have enough candidates running — by visiting CPS’s interactive election map at schoolinfo.cps.edu/map-lscelection/. Individual schools may also host their own forums outside of the districtwide window, and families are encouraged to contact their local campuses for details.

In Austin and neighboring West Side communities, the map shows a mix of competitive and underfilled races.

Across the roughly 50 LSC races in The Culture’s West Side readership area, only 19 currently have enough candidates to fill both parent and community seats — less than half of all contests. CPS considers a race “satisfied” only when there are enough parent candidates and enough community candidates to fill all open positions.

The Austin community area alone has 18 LSC races shown on the map, with 10 meeting the threshold for enough candidates and eight still lacking sufficient participation. Parent and community candidates are tracked separately, meaning some schools have enough candidates in one category but not the other.

Among the most competitive Austin races:

• Nash Elementary has eight parent candidates running for six open seats and six community candidates running for two seats.
• DePriest Elementary has 15 candidates competing for six parent seats and three people running for two community seats.
• Michele Clark Academic Prep lists 11 parent candidates for six seats, along with enough community candidates to fill available spots.
• Austin College and Career Academy, meanwhile, has no parent candidates currently running, but five candidates vying for two community seats.

In nearby Garfield Park, only Brown and Dett elementary schools currently show enough candidates in both categories among roughly 15 schools listed on the map. 

North Lawndale’s 17 races appear more competitive overall, with seven meeting the threshold; Sumner Elementary may be the most crowded contest, with 11 people running for six parent seats.

How Local School Councils Work

Local School Councils are elected governing bodies that help shape key decisions at individual CPS campuses, including approving school improvement plans, evaluating principals, and overseeing discretionary budgets.

Each council typically includes:

• Six parent representatives elected by parents or guardians,
• Two community representatives elected by residents who live in the school’s attendance boundary,
• Two teacher representatives elected by staff,
• One non-teaching staff member,
• One student representative at high schools, and
• The principal, who serves as a non-voting member.

Elections will take place on March 18, when all CPS schools will hold LSC voting on a single day. Parents vote for parent representatives at their children’s schools, while community members can vote at schools located within their neighborhood boundaries. High school students also vote for the student representative position. 

CPS is also recruiting approximately 2,000 paid election judges to staff polling sites during the election. Information about applying, nomination workshops, and assistance in completing candidate applications is available through the Office of Local School Council Relations at 773-553-1400 or lscrelations@cps.edu.