CHICAGO – Chicago Public Schools interim chief Macquline King is resisting pressure from Mayor Brandon Johnson to make a controversial pension payment and borrow millions of dollars to settle the district’s budget, a notable twist in what has become a deeply uncertain budget cycle for the fourth-largest school district in the nation.
Several city officials met with CPS leadership last Thursday without King to lay out recommendations aimed at helping her close a $734 million deficit by the end of August, according to several board members who spoke to the Tribune.
Among their suggestions: taking out a $200 million loan and asking for new state revenue, while accepting responsibility for a controversial $175 million pension payment, previously covered by the city. King initially opposed all of their major proposals, board members who spoke to the Tribune said…