It’s a new week. Kick off your Monday with the latest headlines from WTTW News.
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Curie Metro High School in Archer Heights is pictured on July 12, 2026. The school disciplined 12 employees in 2025, records show. (Victor Hilitski / WTTW News)
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More than 700 employees of Chicago Public Schools were found to have engaged in some form of misconduct within a single year, an analysis of district records shows.
Over the course of four months, WTTW News obtained records that provide a detailed look at how CPS disciplined employees in cases investigated by district staff, outside agencies or the CPS Office of Inspector General.
Between Jan. 3, 2025, and Jan. 6, 2026, Chicago Public Schools sustained misconduct allegations against more than 700 employees, with most cases involving routine workplace violations and dozens involving more serious allegations, including harassment, discrimination and fraud, records show. Among the most serious offenses, 10 employees resigned or were fired after facing allegations of sexual abuse involving a student, and almost two dozen cases overall involved allegations of sexual misconduct or discrimination.
An analysis of the records by WTTW News provides unique insight into the types of misconduct CPS employees were found to have engaged in and the disciplinary system used by CPS leaders that followed. The records offer an unusually detailed window into a disciplinary system that affects hundreds of CPS workers each year — but one that many employees say remains difficult to understand, navigate or challenge.
The types of misconduct run the gamut from small workplace matters like sleeping on the job to serious sexual offenses. In 2025, they included:
A lifeguard at Chicago Agricultural High School was fired in 2022 during an investigation involving pornographic images. The employee’s do-not-rehire status was upheld in 2025 after the OIG completed its investigation.
An employee at Tarkington School of Excellence received a third warning after findings involving conduct occurring while off-duty from the elementary school were sustained.
A teacher at Medgar Evers Elementary School was suspended without pay over allegations that included excessive absences and insubordination.
A principal at Hyde Park Career Academy received a written reprimand over allegations that included failure to perform required duties.
A security guard at Austin College and Career Academy was suspended without pay for three days over allegations that included using abusive language in the presence of students.
More context:
District records identified 723 employees tied to 794 disciplinary cases in which misconduct allegations were sustained. Not all findings and disciplinary actions survived appeal. In 2025, about 3% of these allegations were overturned or reduced by an appeal, and the average case involved three allegations.
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Sponsor Message
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Bring the family and enjoy the fun!
July 25 & 26, 2026 | 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
11141 S. Cottage Grove Ave, Chicago
Railroad Days is Chicago's premier railroad celebration! This year, we mark 100 years of electric rail. Join us for:
- Tour historic 1926 Pullman-built electric commuter cars
- Free STEAM Fair: From Rails toFree STEAM Fair: From Rails to Rocketships
- WTTW’s Geoffrey Baer presents in historic Greenstone Church
- Walking tours, great food, mini steam train rides, face painting, live music, and more!
Grab a friend, and we’ll see you there! Kids 12 & under free. Tickets & info: friendsofpullman.com/special-events
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The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Walser House, a Chicago 7 Most Endangered in 2025. (Eric Allix Rogers)
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In the Austin community on Chicago’s West Side sits the J.J. Walser House, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1903.
A local organization is working to preserve the landmark and transform it into a community asset for generations to come.
“Behind us is the J.J. Walser House,” Darnell Shields, executive director of Austin Coming Together, told WTTW News on a recent tour. “This is a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the world-famous architect. It’s one of five surviving standalone Frank Lloyd Wright homes in the city of Chicago.”
The home is an early example of Wright’s Prairie-style architecture, featuring low-pitched roofs, overhanging eaves and an open floor plan that was considered groundbreaking at the time.
“This is one of his first representations of the Prairie style, this open concept that you see here where we literally have the separate spaces, but you can stand from one end of the home and just see through the living room, dining room, all the way to the backyard,” Shields said. “It was just really cutting-edge for the time.”
More than 120 years later, time has taken its toll.
After years of uncertainty following the death of the home’s longtime owner, Austin Coming Together purchased the house. The nonprofit plans to restore the property.
“Back in the ‘70s, they (the previous owners) were, I believe, the fourth or fifth stewards of the home,” Shields said. “And they had the home from the 1970s all the way up until it transferred over to us.”
For Shields, preserving the home isn’t just about saving an architectural treasure. It’s about investing in the neighborhood where he grew up.
“It’s not just about rebuilding or restoring the asset,” Shields said. “It’s: How’s this asset actually going to work for the folks that live here? How’s it going to create some betterment that they can be proud of?”
The restoration won’t come cheap. Shields estimates it will take close to $3 million to restore the home.
“It’s going to take a tremendous amount of fundraising efforts to be able to bring this project to full realization,” Shields said.
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(Michael Izquierdo / WTTW News)
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The city of Chicago spent $136.9 million on overtime for members of the Chicago Police Department during the first half of 2026 — nearly 70% of the entire budget the Chicago City Council set aside for police overtime as part of the city’s spending plan, according to records published by the city’s watchdog.
CPD spent approximately $700,000 more on overtime during the first six months of 2026 than it did during the same period in 2025, according to a database published by Inspector General David Glockner.
Some backstory:
CPD’s budget for 2026 is $2.1 billion, including $200 million to pay members of the police department to work more than eight hours a day or 40 hours a week, records show.
In all, Chicago taxpayers spent $285.9 million on overtime for members of the Chicago Police Department during 2025. To finish 2026 on budget, CPD must reduce its spending on overtime by 30% as compared with what the department spent in 2025, based on the data published by the inspector general.
CPD spent $162.5 million more than its City Council-approved budget in 2025, records show.
CPD has overspent its budget five years in a row, according to Chicago’s Annual Comprehensive Financial Reports from 2021 to 2025.
Asked about overspending by CPD in 2025, Mayor Brandon Johnson said on July 7 that officials were “making tremendous progress, particularly around the police budget, and especially around overtime.”
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More From WTTW News:
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Mayor Brandon Johnson is urging anyone who may have been victimized by federal immigration agents during “Operation Midway Blitz” to come forward and detail their experiences to the Chicago Police Department.
Chicago officials delayed an additional payment into the city’s four underfunded pension funds after Cook County officials announced the second installment of 2025 property tax bills would be at least two months late, acting Chief Financial Officer Steven Mahr told members of the Chicago
City Council.
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Back in the Day: July 20, 1968 - The First Ever Special Olympics Takes Place at Soldier Field
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On this day 58 years ago, the first-ever Special Olympics took place in Chicago at Soldier Field. The competition was designed to combat social exclusion and prejudice against people with intellectual disabilities, as well as empower these athletes to develop skills, strengths and abilities. It was founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who was the sister of Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy. Her mission started thanks to her sister, Rosemary Kennedy, who was lobotomized in 1941 and lived under care until her death in 2005. At the opening ceremony, Kennedy Shriver took the mic in front of 1,000 athletes from 26 states and Canada and recited what would become the Special Olympics
credo: "Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt." Following the first edition of the games, Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley said to Shriver, "Eunice, the world will never be the same after this." He was right: The Special Olympics is bigger than ever and currently boasts over 3 million people registered as participants in the games. For more, read this WTTW story.
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This Week’s Civic Events and Meetings
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Every Monday, WTTW News highlights the best ways to get involved with local government.
Show Up Chicago
Show Up Chicago, a "combination community gathering, cocktail hour and political panel show" is happening Monday evening at the Hideout. This month's theme is "Our Socialist Moment" and will feature guests like UIC history professor Kevin Schultz and 40th Ward Ald. Andre Vasquez. The 7 p.m. event is free, but you can RSVP here.
City Council
On Wednesday at 10 a.m., there will be a regular meeting of Chicago’s City Council. Check the source website for an agenda and more details.
WTTW
Join Illinois Institute of Technology and WTTW at IIT's Michael Paul Galvin Tower Thursday evening for a screening of "The Birth of Gospel," one of 30 documentaries in WTTW’s award-winning "Chicago Stories" series. "The Birth of Gospel" follows Thomas A. Dorsey, widely known as “The Father of Gospel,” who wrote one of the genre’s early hits while coping with the death of his wife and child. The evening will begin with remarks by Stacy Robinson, producer and writer of The Birth of Gospel and a live gospel performance. Following the screening a panel conversation moderated by Pam Morris, radio personality at WVON-AM will include Sherry Williams of the Bronzeville Historical Society, Robert Marovich of the Journal of Gospel
Music, and gospel vocalist Queenie Lennox. For more details and to RSVP, click here.
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What's your favorite local festival to attend during a Chicago summer?
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Email DailyChicagoan@wttw.com with your responses and your answers might be published.
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Newsletter Producer: Josh Terry
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