From left on both rows, Maggie Cullerton Hooper, Ebony DeBerry, Kate Doyle and Bruce Leon are running for District 2 on the Board of Education. [Campaign photos]

Ebony DeBerry, Maggie Cullerton Hooper, Kate Doyle and Bruce Leon are competing to represent District 2 on the partially elected Chicago Board of Education next year. District 2 includes the North Side neighborhoods of Edgewater, West Ridge, Albany Park, Rogers Park, Lincoln Square, Ravenswood, Andersonville, Peterson Park and Budlong Woods.

The second district race’s fundraising limits were lifted last week after Leon reported a $150,000 loan to his campaign. In all but two of the school board races, contribution limits have been lifted as a result of the amount of money being raised.

From left, Jennifer Custer and Michelle Pierre. [Campaign photos]

Jennifer Custer and Michelle Pierre are running for the District 1 seat on the Chicago Board of Education in a race that pits the interests of the teachers union against charter school supporters. District 1 covers parts of Edison Park, Norwood Park, Portage Park, O’Hare, Dunning and Mayfair. 

The first district race’s fundraising limits were lifted earlier this month after the state elections board determined more than $100,000 had been spent by independent groups to support Pierre. In all but two of the school board races, contribution limits have been lifted as a result of the amount of money being raised.

Mayor Brandon Johnson presides over a City Council meeting in April 2024. [Don Vincent/The Daily Line]

The City Council will meet on Wednesday at 10 a.m. to consider final approval of two major bond refinancing ordinances recently passed by the finance committee that are key to the city getting its budget shortfall under control.

Alderpeople have also called for two special meetings in the afternoon — one that covers the shakeup at the Chicago Board of Education and another that represents the latest effort to save the city’s recently decommissioned acoustic gunshot detection technology ShotSpotter.

Democrat Eileen O’Neill Burke and Republican Bob Fioretti are competing to become the next Cook County State’s Attorney. [O’Neill Burke photo by Michael McDevitt/Fioretti campaign photo]

Although Eileen O’Neill Burke is favored to win the Cook County State’s Attorney race in a county that regularly votes for Democrats, the former judge told The Daily Line she’s not taking anything for granted as polls open countywide.

Early voting began in Chicago Thursday and begins in suburban Cook County next week, and former Ald. Bob Fioretti is hoping his appeals to law enforcement, crime victims and suburbanites spooked by Chicago violence leads to an upset in the race to replace State’s Attorney Kim Foxx.

CPS CEO Pedro Martinez provides testimony at a Chicago Board of Education meeting on Sept. 26, 2024. [Livestream]

The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Board of Education didn’t act on CPS CEO Pedro Martinez’s contract or on a proposal to take out a high-interest loan to help shore up its budget at its Thursday evening meeting, but it did vote on a school closure moratorium following allegations from the teachers union that Martinez was looking at closing or consolidating schools.