joining us on Chicago tonight.

voices?

I'm Brandis Friedman.

Here's what we're looking at.

And by City Council to put Chicago Public Schools, CEO and board members on the hot seat fizzles.

The Chatham community on the city's south side has been grappling with the flooding problem for years.

A look at efforts to fix it.

And North Eastern Illinois's new president on the challenges of leading a public university and her vision for its future.

>> And notice some of today's top stories, soaring pensions, spiraling personnel costs and a massive amount of debt are all contributing to the dire financial condition for the city of Chicago.

According to a new budget watchdog report, the report from the Civic Federation says Mayor Brandon Johnson should only consider raising property taxes as a last resort to bridge a projected 982 million dollar budget shortfall for 2025.

Instead, the group led by a former city inspector general urges eliminating vacant positions, increasing the city's garbage fee to charge residents and maybe skip the additional pension fund payment slated for this year.

Mayor Johnson is slated to lay out his budget plan later this month.

Families and teachers impacted by the planned closure of 7 CPS charter schools are criticizing the plan to close and demanding answers.

>> What we see here today is due to his model and feeling this was bound to happen.

why then his charter school model through a federal?

Prioritize profits.

And political connections over student needs.

Particularly in that communities we were his targets.

>> Last week, the board of directors for Cerro Charter schools voted to close 7 campuses at the end of the school year impacting more than 2000 students.

The Chicago Teachers Union, which represents Acero teachers says it's the largest closing a majority Latino schools in the district in response CTU is asking Chicago public schools to assume operation of the schools and says it plans to push the state legislature to pass a moratorium on school closures.

That includes privately-run charters.

>> Meanwhile, Chicago public school sees an increase in enrollment for the second straight year.

This after 12 years of steady enrollment declines today the district released its figures which serve as the official count for the school year showing more than 325,000 students, increase of just over 2000.

>> Despite that increased, the district is still much smaller than the 2013, 2014 school year when Roman topped 400,000 students.

Cps says much of this year's increase is driven by Latino students and kindergarten through 5th graders and enrollment increased for almost all racial and ethnic groups except for black students.

more of this story on our website.

What happened at today's City Council meeting with Public Schools, CEO Pedro Martinez right after this.

>> Chicago tonight, what he's made possible in part by the support of these don't use.

>> A push by older people to put Chicago Public Schools, CEO Pedro Martinez and board members on the hot seat fizzled today as turmoil is still swirling around CPS.

Some city council members demanded immediate action while others said today's Marathon meeting was a waste of time.

W t Tw News reporter Heather Sharon joins us now to break down today's along but not very eventful hearing.

Heather who showed up for today's meeting with the City Council's education committee.

Pretty much only CEO Pedro Martinez and his leadership team.

None of the former CPS board members showed up and none of the new CPS board members showed up.

>> Alderman a Jeannette Taylor, the chair of the Education Committee said the new board members told her they were not prepared to sort of field these questions from the City Council.

Now, this quite a result after all of the back and forth at last Wednesday's City Council meeting with alderman go gusts threatening to subpoena these board members.

And of course, the city's top lawyer saying hold on a minute there.

You don't have that authority.

>> That controversy appears to have ended not with a bang, but a whimper.

So did we learn anything new about the financial crisis that CPS is facing?

We did Pedro Martinez made the same pitch he made on our show last week that the city needs to use money set aside from property tax revenues to fight blight and fund redevelopment.

Instead to keep the school district out of the red.

Now we heard Mayor Brandon Johnson said, well, that would be great, but that's probably not going to be enough money, which is why he has urged the district to take out a short-term loan to sort of bridge the gap to what he says will be the full transformation of the school district.

But that's where we have for pretty much a month and we didn't get anywhere different today.

So all that said, what's next?

Well, the new CPS board supposed meet for the first time later this month at that meeting, they can take action and terminate.

Pedro Martinez says contract, which would usher in a whole new era for CPS.

But the controversy will remain as well as questions about how the district is structured financially.

There are many schools that are very underutilized with not very many students costing the district lots of money.

Now we learned a little bit today about that controversy where Pedro Martinez said it was important for him to have that sort of analysis, but that it's not worth it to the district would save much money and of course, create a massive controversy.

And of course, we know then there's that school board election coming up on November.

5th on Election Day.

Only at That thing.

Heather Sharon, thanks so much.

Thanks.

Brandis.

And you can read Heather's full story on our website.

It's all a W t tw dot com slash news.

>> Up next, what's being done to combat persistent flooding in a Southside community?

Climate change isn't just creating stronger hurricanes and melting polar ice caps.

It's also increasing urban flooding in places like Chicago and residents of the Chatham neighborhood on the South Side experience more flooding than any other community in the city and are gone.

Lead project is working to alleviate the problem.

The problem alongside neighbors who've experienced the damage of urban flooding firsthand.

Joining us now with more, our major fears executive director of the Greater Chatham Initiative and a Chatham resident.

And Catherine O'Connor, director of engineering at the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.

Thanks to both for joining us.

Major, let's start with you, please.

You're a longtime Chatham resident.

You actually a very personal connection to the devastating that happens there.

Tell us more about that.

Please.

Yes, I'm a daughter of Chatham.

Our family house.

>> I we call we had 4 major flood events, 2 of which the water trickett electrical fires and we had smoke damage throughout the house.

And so we know what it's like personally to live through that.

And then I look at my neighbors who also have had serious flooding events and then connect the dots between why people have not updated their kitchens in their bass because we have every 6, 8, years you have a major flooding, basement.

>> That is where you put your additional funds.

So it is a significant problem and it impacts wealth.

>> How how things progressed over the years, how they worsened.

>> They're the same.

I mean, when we look at South Center for neighborhood Technology, good analysis in 2015, we have been looking at.

3, 1, 1, calls to report flooding events.

And we had a major flooding event in July of last year where many people experience flooding.

So we're concerned and we're taking steps because we know as they severe weather events occur more often that we should Congo.

It rains.

And unfortunately, when it rains in Chicago, it floods in Chatham.

>> All right.

Katherine Howe is urban flooding different from the flooding that most of us think about most of us.

Think about riverine flooding and the river gets to a flood stage and over bank flooding.

But more recent focuses urban flooding, urban flooding is devastating.

Homes are a problem.

FEMA is designed or it has been established for mostly for riverine flooding.

And now even FEMA refocusing on urban flooding.

They see the devastation.

They see the heartbreak.

They see the terrible expense to residents.

WR D and FEMA, federal and local governments are taking a closer look.

And and more of a focus, right?

We tend to think of it as the kind of thing that occurs in the wake of Hurricane Milton, for example, that we've been seeing lately.

But it can happen when.

>> When Chatham gets a lot of because major everywhere in Chicago, of course, see rain.

But the surrounding area, as you've said, that flood more than other parts of the city.

Tell me about why hatch, Adam is situated for that to happen right?

>> So we've been working with our Khon lap through their Crocus project, which is a significant projects funded by EPA and they've been helping to use their scientists and supercomputers to help model and tell us why the flooding is happening.

And so this is a 5 year project.

year 2 of 5, but preliminary information in the case that basically the water from Chicago is backing up into our home.

So this is infrastructure problem.

But yes, we have a high water table and have a high water table, but that doesn't explain disproportionately white water backs up in basement.

Catherine, does Mw Rd have any any sense of is is experiencing this specifically?

>> July second, 2023, the West Side was hit much harder.

30's toward Cicero that It flooded.

Directly proportional to the rain.

They've received 9 inches of rain and roughly 12 hours.

So I know does have some low lying areas.

We are aware of some depression, areas and so that we are working with the city, Chicago Department of Water Management creating more green space in intercepting that flow as much flows.

We keep out of the collect out of the combined soar.

The less likely it is to back up into the home.

So on July second, 2023, I think it's informative to know that a typical Chicago house would have discharged on the order of 400 gallons of water from a dishwasher in showers, etc.

The rain that fell that day was 8,000 gallons fell on the roof of the typical Chicago House.

8,000 gallons versus 4,000 gallons.

We want to interrupt intercept the roof load disconnect.

The downspouts water reclamation district has published Green Neighbor Guide and walks residents through what you can do to protect your home in a green manner, create more green space.

If you have the property to meaningfully collect and we do subsidize rain barrels else.

Capture the road.

float new drug radar Chatham initiative.

As mentioned, you all are partnered with Argon combat this issue.

And there's the studying and researching Take us back to how it started, how you all were able to get involved in a climate project like this.

>> Ruth really thrilled with that partnership with our KHON.

We have longstanding relationship with some are gone officials.

And so they asked us if we would participate and we really grab that opportunity because we really want to drill down and figure out why the flooding is happening.

Yes, and so having become a partner with them, we've learned that as captain says, Snow that the fancy word file infrastructure, putting in trees putting in native plants putting in.

>> And what people can do individually putting in.

>> Over hits sewers and some point all of that's important.

But if the reality is that he sewer is system can't handle the overflow of rain and is backing up and in our basements.

We need to fix the pipes.

infrastructure is really important.

>> And we need to do that because as we all have lived through this, that we have more 300 year flood events that happens.

It seems every 2 or 3 weeks.

And so we don't want to be North Carolina where they said we couldn't thought of it.

And so therefore, we didn't plan for it.

And we did do anything protect those folks.

So we see our cons project as an opportunity to really drill down understand what is happening so weak.

It can get fixed.

So it's not just happenstance.

>> Catherine, you know, there's a perception that flooding is inevitable based on, you know, geographic location.

And of course, in the city we've got more concrete and asphalt that does not soak up the rain the way green space might.

How can massive floods be prevented?

I don't have a good massive warning will 12 inches of rain or 9 inches of rain in 12 hours.

There's no system that can handle that.

So what we need for dad is adaptive management and we need to make sure that things are off of the floor in the basement that major challenge.

But we do want to be flood resilient.

We have over 250 projects in design or construction.

We've taken 19,000 structures out of significant flood risk in just the 10 years that water reclamation district has had authorization to work of local projects.

We work very closely with Chicago Department of Water Management after flood last July.

We do have a significant project.

in the works approved by our Board of Commissioners for construction on the West side of Chicago.

And that will protect hundreds of homes.

But those huge.

9 inches of rain.

We did.

That was not forecast.

I don't know.

just want to make sure that that doesn't happen and I don't know how we do and that folks as as prepared for it as they can be.

We have to leave it there.

Best of luck to both.

Thanks for joining us.

Need your fears and Katherine Connor, thanks.

Thank you.

Okay.

>> Up next, one on one with the new leader of northeastern Illinois University.

It is a challenging time to be the president of Public University.

Aside from the perennial task of finding resources to create a compelling educational environment, protest over the war in Gaza have been roiling campuses across the country.

Northeastern Illinois University has certainly seen its fair share in recent years, including in narrowly averted a strike.

And the departure of the former university president following a vote of no confidence by faculty.

Now a new leader is officially taking the reins of leadership at any IU, although we should note she's been serving as interim president since July of 2023.

But I do believe she was inaugurated recently.

She's gonna tell us about it.

Joining us now is Dr Katrina about Jordan, president of Northeastern Illinois University.

You came all the way from next door all the way from next.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank So you've been at Northeastern since 1997 became interim president last year, but you were inaugurated a couple of weeks You obviously know the university very well.

And you've already, you know, got a lot of experience in your role as interim.

Of course.

What do you see as the university strengths to build absolutely well, first of night, Northeastern has 157 year history and tradition and in serving Chicago in creating spaces and places for folks who >> otherwise wouldn't have access to higher education.

We started as the teachers college and expanded over the years to include number of programs.

One of our strengths is recognizing that education is the pathway for many communities offering mat.

Teacher education programs to practitioner programs.

We are also a strong option for new transfer students looking to complete their degrees.

We have long had a history of being that kind of destination location for neighboring to your partner schools.

We are also very proud to serve students that might not otherwise have an opportunity to go to college.

And we.

I the opportunity and the privilege to teach and train them up so that they can be on a level playing field with their competitors from around the city in the state?

we have extraordinary faculty, world-class faculty a real commitment to service teaching and student success.

So I think we have assistance to move us forward.

All that said, what would you say are some of the challenges going forward?

But you have to work on certainly well at the global level, if you will, any of our state universities are experiencing changes enrollment.

Declines fluctuations.

We are also currently in a in in a state where attention to higher education and funding for higher education has returned as a as a priority.

We have a long way to go to get to the front at a quit funding that we need to deliver our programs to have the kind of teaching and learning spaces that our students need.

So it's always resources.

of course, responding to changing demographics.

Students needs have changed substantially since the pandemic and trying to meet students where they are and still give them the tools that they need to be successful university.

As we mentioned, it's been through a little bit of turmoil in recent years.

A faculty vote of no confidence in the board and your predecessor, Cory Gibson.

>> Near faculty strike last year and also struggling with enrollment declines as well as low graduation and retention rates.

How are you working to steady the ship?

Certainly while the transitional year for the interim president, which I was privileged to take on.

>> What's really the beginning of that transition trying to we gather the university synergies that's positive energies around charting a path forward.

And that means getting folks together to engage folks that maybe have not been engaged to tapping into the streams and the resources and the community that we have.

It is also having strong decisive leadership where we can make quick decisions when we need to.

I think also we're engaging in the process of strategic planning relaunching this this year.

That will be formative as we chart a path forward.

And I think we we're seeing some returns.

We had a 4% increase Fall enrollment for the first time in several years.

It's just step, but it does show that the strong effort around marketing and communication supporting our programs and student success retention that we're moving in the right direction.

You're also a Hispanic serving institution and minority serving institutions.

What do you think that means?

And how does?

>> Had head of those designations?

You know, what does it mean about how you supported students?

Sure what we are proud minority-serving institution and on the oldest Hispanic serving institution in our in our region.

We also just qualify for in apz status, which is very you're going to have what that Asian American Native American Pacific Islander that larch wonderful community.

We have reached threshold of having.

>> percentage of students that help us qualify for grants and all kinds of things because serving population of students but taken together is that minority serving institutions specifically as a Hispanic serving institution.

You know what that means is a mission to serve.

We have a long-standing relationship with these communities rooted in both multiple campuses.

We have beautiful from Seville, historic campus and our Southside.

We have Avondale neighborhood campus for our Central campus.

And these are also extensions of status and commitment to being HSI the side.

It also means that our students are going to be in classes and programs that recognize the important diversity, the textures of difference and diversity that make their learning experience unique.

We're also going to be graduating students that have been in classes that look more like the world.

They're going to be and work end in a global environment our classroom, it's very much like the board rooms and and the the students that they're going to be teaching when they go out into the world.

And so I think we teaching and training students at one of the very successful on that front, universities have struggled over the last year with balancing students right to free speech with a speech that can be deemed hateful.

Some university presidents have even lost their jobs over this issue.

>> How do you plan to manage that issue?

>> Well, I it's very important think about 2 things.

First of all, universities have always been contested spaces beautifully.

So many ways we knew universities and spaces of higher education have tried to cultivate spaces where differing opinions and viewpoints can safely and productively be engaged.

We also are having to engage as universities and really what our role is in terms of speaking out and about things that happened at a national level and a global level.

What is our primary focus is to teach train and and and help students learn or is it to be a voice for certain positions?

And so I think we are like many institutions and ongoing work with how we situate ourselves in response to challenges in the world.

All right.

How you say would you describe your vision for any IU?

Wow, I would say it's some big and bold.

I been at the University for 27 years and I have seen what you education can mean in the lives of our students.

And I think one of the most important aspects of division is this ability so that our region recognizes not just that we're HSI, we're in a sigh but that we are contributing to the local and regional workforce.

We are helping to diversify our workforce with the students that come through northeastern.

I also know that we're going to have an opportunity to develop a stronger partnerships with two-year institutions to continue to grow that our growing programs like nursing program, cyber security in those things that think we're going to be impactful for our community.

Lots of work ahead for the newly inaugurated president of you Dr. Katrina Bell Jordan, thank you for joining us.

Thank you.

>> And that is our show for this Wednesday night.

Be sure to check out our W T Tw News Voter Guide.

It is a one-stop shop for everything you need to know before voting.

>> You'll find candidate profiles and questionnaires as well as key dates to know and how to find out if you're registered to vote.

That is all at W T Tw dot com slash voter guide and join us tomorrow night at 5, 30 10, several charter schools to close at the end of the school year.

Parents weigh in and HIV cases are climbing among Latino local health professionals on the reasons why and what can be done to combat it.

Now for all of us here Chicago tonight, I'm Brandis Friedman, thank you for watching.

Stay healthy and safe.

>> And have a good night.

>> Closed caption made possible.

Why Robert, a cliff and Clifford law offices, a Chicago personal injury and wrongful death that is proud to recognize.

turns recognized