Chicago has a $305.7 million gap to close next year as it works to meet a 2023 goal to structurally balance its books, according to preliminary estimates released by the city’s finance team Wednesday. While Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration still needs to finalize estimates before formally releasing the annual budget forecast, the current estimate is down from the $867 million gap warned of in last summer?s forecast which lays out a picture of the city’s fiscal health over the next few years.

“My problem is with the city, because they have such a low bar when it comes to public health in industrial areas, and because we live in a world-class city, you would think that protecting public health, and policies that are rooted in equity, would be easy to do,” said Olga Bautista, an East Side resident and Executive Director of the Southeast Environmental Task Force. . “Everything that our mayors and our elected officials talk about, like equity and all these flashy words, [like] sustainability, all these things. But I’m more interested in the how. How will you do that,

Ald. Jeanette Taylor said students’ needs are so dire right now that “we don’t have the luxury to be holding onto money…Spend it now,” she told CPS leaders. “Our young people need you all. We are a city that is hurting … and you all have an opportunity to do something different. The fact that you all are comfortable and OK with telling us that it’s OK to cut schools says we need new leadership. Because apparently you all can’t figure it out.”

“We’re getting to the point that if things don’t change, we’re gone. Things aren’t changing,” he said this week.

The district is navigating a faltering recovery from the pandemic, at a time when educators here and across the country report feeling stressed and demoralized. Meanwhile, a mayoral election and a transition to an elected school board loom during the next CTU leadership’s three-year term, with the potential to redraw an often combative relationship with the city.

The Chicago Public Schools have pushed back against a high school student’s attempt to strike down its regime of mandatory weekly Covid tests for unvaccinated student athletes. Among its arguments, CPS says state law and prior court decisions give schools the authority to force students to comply with workplace health protection measures courts have said they can impose on teachers and staff.

When Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced unaccompanied minors would be banned from Millennium Park on weekend nights after a teen was killed, she and city officials encouraged young people to take advantage of the thousands of city-run activities in their neighborhoods. But it’s uncertain whether one of Chicago’s most popular summer hangouts — public Park District pools — will be open this summer with the season fast approaching.

Approximately 11,000 Chicago households are on a waiting list to get a meter, and city crews will strive to fulfill as many requests as possible before Jan. 1, when a new state law will take effect in Chicago that will require homes with lead service lines to have those replaced before a meter is installed.

“No, we don’t want to arrest children,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said. “If we have to because they’re breaking the law, we will. But what we’ve seen in other areas of the city, when issues have arisen, is our officers talk to the young people, educate them about what the rules are and in most instances, the young people disperse without any incident. That’s what we’re hoping will happen.”

“We are building great momentum on a plan for reuse for these extraordinary buildings,” Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, said in a statement. “Our challenge now is to stop the federal wheels of demolition motion and steer toward a viable reuse.”