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It’s Wednesday. Thanks for watching our candidate forum for Chicago Board of Education president. Catch up on the latest from WTTW News below, including a story on last night's event.
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From left: Jessica Biggs, Hilario Dominguez, Victor Henderson and Sendhil Revuluri appear at a WTTW News forum for candidates for Chicago Board of Education president on Sept. 15, 2026. (Genie Lemieux / WTTW)
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With Election Day less than two months away, the four candidates running to become Chicago’s first-ever elected school board president faced off Tuesday to discuss finances, student achievement and their vision for the future of education as part of a special town hall forum hosted by WTTW News.
Current board member Jessica Biggs, former Chicago Teachers Union political director Hilario Dominguez, ex-board vice president Sendhil Revuluri and trial attorney Victor Henderson are the four candidates seeking to become the next board president.
They appeared for the hourlong forum at WTTW Studios to take questions from “Chicago Tonight” anchor Brandis Friedman, as well as Chicago Public Schools students and voters who will have a say in the November election.
Some backstory:
Whoever wins will be tasked with leading a board that must help secure $150 million in funding this year, stabilize the finances of a school district facing budget shortfalls that could grow near $1 billion and ensure Chicago’s students are learning and achieving at the appropriate levels.
November’s election features not only the board president race, but for the first time in Chicago’s history, all 21 seats will be up for grabs.
CPS is counting on another $285 million in TIF funding under its 2027 budget, along with $150 million in additional not-yet-approved state funding. That extra funding has not yet been secured, and if it fails to materialize, CPS has said it will likely need to enact mid-year cuts and layoffs.
The candidates:
Biggs, a former CPS teacher and principal, is the lone current board member running. She’s earned the support of Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle and SEIU Local 73. She's pushed for what she called a “five-year financial recovery plan” to ensure the district is moving as many resources as possible into its classrooms.
Dominguez has worked as a special education teacher and has the backing of the powerful CTU, which called him a “leader” in its historic 2019 strike. He said he’s the only candidate who actually attended CPS as a student and called on the board president to be “transparent and accountable to the people that elected us.”
Revuluri served on the board under then-Mayor Lori Lightfoot and said the current board needs to better understand what’s most important to Chicagoans and “set very clear expectations.”
Henderson has portrayed himself as an outsider in this race. He serves on the board for the Urban Prep Academies charter schools. He’s said the single most important thing the board and CPS as a whole must focus on is educating children properly.
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Sponsor Message
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On Tuesday, September 22nd, 5 pm to 8 pm, join Full Spectrum Education, Northeastern Illinois University’s Goodwin College of Education, and NEIU Libraries for the launch of “Reckoning with Redress,” a cinematic digital history project on the Japanese American Redress Movement.
The event also commemorates the 45th anniversary of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians hearings held on Northeastern Illinois University’s Main Campus. Refreshments, Taiko drumming performance, film screenings of “Enough” and “Reckonings,” and a panel discussion are scheduled.
This free event is part of the “Reckoning with Redress” exhibition, ongoing through October 31st.
RSVP at NEIU.edu/reckoning-redress.
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A Chicago parking meter is pictured in a file photo. (400tmax / iStock)
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A deal has been reached that will allow Chicago’s parking meters to be sold to a New York-based investment firm that in turn will sell an airline that has been carrying out deportations for the Trump administration, five alderpeople announced Tuesday.
Stonepeak Partners first asked the City Council to approve the $2.53 billion sale of the meters from Chicago Parking Meters LLC in July, only to run into a brick wall of opposition.
The new deal requires Stonepeak to sell Omni Air International, which has a contract with the Department of Homeland Security to provide long-haul deportation flights, according to the City Council members. More than a dozen progressive members of the City Council said they would not allow the sale of the city’s meters unless the firm sold Omni Air.
In addition, Stonepeak has agreed to pay the city $75 million once the sale closes, according to the City Council members. Stonepeak will also pay 5% of its net operating income annually to the city, which is expected to yield $376.2 million over the next 57 years.
The agreement must be approved by the Chicago City Council. A final vote on the deal by the City Council’s Finance Committee could come as soon as Sept. 21, with a final vote by the City Council as soon as Sept. 23.
More context:
In 2008, the firm leased the city’s meters for 75 years in return for $1.15 billion — a much-loathed deal crafted by former Mayor Richard M. Daley and rubber-stamped by the City Council that continues to roil Chicago politics nearly two decades later.
The parking meter lease generated $1.97 billion in revenue for the firm between 2009 and 2024, records show. That is approximately $500 million more than was paid to the city nearly 18 years ago, records show.
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Bluegills may be small, but don’t count them out as long-distance swimmers. (Courtesy of Shedd Aquarium)
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Austin Happel, a researcher at Shedd Aquarium, has been tracking the movement of various species of fish in the Chicago River to better understand where they spend their time, how they make use of restored habitat and the environmental factors that influence their behavior.
As he's analyzed the data obtained from telemetry tags attached to fish, Happel's expectations have been upended more than once. His biggest shock? The river's resident bluegills.
He was counting on them to be homebodies in order to discover their nesting sites, but while some stayed put, others surprised Happel with their range.
One-third of the 15 bluegills he tagged logged 5 miles or more in a single day, and one in particular, which Happel dubbed the “marathoner,” swam nearly 7.5 miles in a day on multiple occasions.
“That's an endurance swim,” Happel said.
Scaled to human size, the overachieving bluegill covered the equivalent of 52 miles, according to the Shedd — approximately the swimming distance from Navy Pier to Racine, Wisconsin.
Happel performed some quick calculations and estimated the fish, roughly the size of an adult's hand, was moving at 4,000 body lengths per hour, versus 3,000 body lengths per hour for a human marathon swimmer.
“So the fish is going faster,” said Happel. “But that's an elite swimmer, a marathon swimmer. The average swimmer is going to go about half of that (body lengths). So our fish could in fact swim laps around a person. If I was looking at it correctly, it could do the race twice when the person was doing it once.”
Though Happel laughed at the comparison, in all seriousness, as people prepare to jump into the Chicago River on Friday or race on Sunday, his research is a reminder that while swimming in the river remains a novelty for humans, plenty of fish call the waterway home — some 80 species at last count.
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More From WTTW News:
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At Tuesday’s meeting of the county's board of commissioners — who also oversee the preserves — Adam Bianchi, general superintendent of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County, delivered a report outlining key investments made between 2023 and 2025 that he said “simply would not
have happened” without additional tax dollars.
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Back in the Day: September 16, 2016 - Cubs Clinch NL Central
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A decade ago, the Chicago Cubs were in the midst of a dream season. While they didn’t know it at the time, they were en route to their first World Series win in 108 years, breaking a historic drought that many fans believed was a curse. On this day 10 years ago, the Cubs clinched the NL Central title, becoming the first team that season in Major League Baseball to secure postseason baseball. Though the team had lost the night before to the Milwaukee Brewers, their division rivals the St. Louis Cardinals also lost to the San Francisco Giants, which secured the Cubs’ place at the top of the NL Central for the first time since 2008. “This is just the first step,” said Cubs manager Joe Maddon. “I mean, we have much larger baseball fish to fry in our skillet.”
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Chicago-Area Live Music Recommendations for Sept. 16-22
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Each Wednesday, WTTW News producer Josh Terry presents must-see live music shows from indie rock to jazz, country, hip-hop and more.
Thursday, Sept. 17:
The B-52s, Devo at Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre. Tickets.
Expect awkward, herky-jerky dancing from the crowd for these alt rock legends.
Dutch Interior, Racecourse at Constellation. Tickets.
This wildly collaborative Los Angeles folk rock band makes knotty but relatable songs.
Liz Phair, Sleater-Kinney at Salt Shed Fairgrounds. Tickets.
Headlined by a former New Trier graduate and Rainbo Club regular.
Friday, Sept. 18:
The Beths, Lunar Vacation at Concord Music Hall. Tickets.
New Zealand alt-rockers hit Logan Square. A Riot Fest aftershow.
Iggy Pop, Pixies, Rise Against, Sex Pistols, Santigold, more at Douglass Park. Tickets.
Riot Fest returns for three nights of eclectic punk and rock in Douglass Park. Day one of three.
Phoebe Bridgers, Alex G at United Center. Tickets.
The folk star headlines an arena. Night one of two.
PUP, Destroy Boys at Metro. Tickets.
Canadian punk excellence in Lakeview. A Riot Fest aftershow.
Saturday, Sept. 19:
Hana Stretton, Austin Cash at Constellation. Tickets.
This ambient folk artist has one of the best albums of 2026.
Phoebe Bridgers, Alex G at United Center. Tickets.
The folk star headlines an arena. Night two of two.
Tool, Morrissey, Nas, Sugar, Bright Eyes, PUP, Kiwi Jr., more at Douglass Park. Tickets.
Riot Fest returns for three nights of eclectic punk and rock in Douglass Park. Day two of three.
Sunday, Sept. 20:
Alanis Morissette, Elvis Costello & the Imposters, The Format, Patti Smith & Her Band, Twin Peaks, Taking Back Sunday, more at Douglass Park. Tickets.
Riot Fest returns for three nights of eclectic punk and rock in Douglass Park. Day three of three.
Brown Horse, Poolish at FitzGerald’s. Tickets.
This talented U.K. group is inspired by Jason Molina, Neil Young and classic country.
Starcleaner Reunion, National Photo Committee at Schubas. Tickets.
See a rising indie rock group before everyone else catches on.
Monday, Sept. 21:
Graham Hunt, Jawdropped at Subterranean. Tickets.
This Wisconsin maestro cleverly combines pop-punk with ‘90s alt-rock.
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What's your favorite spot to grab coffee in the city?
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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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