Chicago has elected local school councils

 It was very controversial in the 1960s, when New York City introduced local school councils, but I don't think they were elected.  For a variety of reasons, they didn't last long.

Many school systems have formal councils that bring parents, teachers and school officials together on a committee that isn't powerful, that deals with "school transformation."

For decades, in Chicago, the Mayor runs the school system.  As a book pointed out, if that doesn't communicate that Mayoral control isn't the solution, nothing does.

They are moving to a hybrid school board, half appointed by the Mayor, and half elected, starting this fall ("Chicago’s first school board elections mean crash course time for voters, candidates," Chicago Sun-Times).

Modeled after Chronicle of Higher Education, a newspaper for higher education, that we used to subscribe to and read at the University of Michigan student government, Education Week provides the same type of in depth and feature coverage of K-12 education.  

I've never seen a public library that subscribes.  Most teachers don't know about it.  Plus there are other publications like Radical Teacher, blogs and other online resources, etc.

But separately, not unlike how DC has Advisory Neighborhood Commissions that weigh in on matters before the DC Government that touch on specific geographies of the city, and are comprised of elected Commissioners representing a specific geography called a Single Member District, it turns out that Chicago elects local school councils too ("There’s another important election in April. It’s for local school councils, a force for parent empowerment," CST).

LSCs act as mini-school boards and are composed of parents, teachers and neighbors. They have the power to hire and fire principals, take actions to support academic progress and approve budgets. The creation of LSCs goes back to the reform movement under the late Mayor Harold Washington. In 1989, the first LSC election was held; 17,256 people ran for seats, and 6,000 were elected. LSCs received a lot of attention then for empowering parents and being a unique tool of democracy in the nation.

Robinson emphasized the power that LSCs hold over budgets and school improvement plans. “Is there something in your school you’re not happy with? Old textbooks or not enough toilet paper?” she asked. “LSCs can help create change to get the school what they need. I say your voice matters. I’ve come across parents who feel like they don’t matter and can’t make change.”

I asked Pauline Lipman, an education professor at the University of Illinois Chicago who has long studied LSCs, about the challenges in recruiting people to run for election. She pointed to the demobilization of parents and communities. “The disinvestment of neighborhood schools and the establishment of choice and markets in education has really disconnected people from their neighborhood schools,” Lipman said.

Selective-enrollment schools are emphasized in the district, and they draw students from outside neighborhood boundaries. Charter schools don’t have LSCs. So the attachment to neighborhood schools has waned, she said.

Now they have a hard time getting enough candidates.  

While I don't know for sure, I bet like DC's ANCs, there's very little investment in board development, providing technical assistance etc.  

I mean how could the schools advocacy publication Catalyst, which was focused solely on Chicago's schools, go out of business ("Linda Lenz, founding editor of Catalyst Chicago, dies at 77 | Technical assistance for local schools advocates") if there were serious technical assistance provided to Chicago's LSCs.

In my writings on ANCs I've made this point frequently, about the need for technical assistance and a training structure (the Calgary Federation of Communities might be the best current model) and also that the opportunity to treat and leverage ANCs as a network is ignored.  

-- blog entry on technical assistance for land use organizations, "Framingham Massachusetts creates Citizen Participation Officer position" (2018)

I've suggested a small stipend too, and there isn't a stipend for the LSCs.  I found out in Salt Lake City that city committee members get $30 per meeting.  It's not much, but it's something.

FWIW, I do plan on writing a proposal to the Salt Lake City Library about creating a technical assistance program for civic groups, modeled after some of the programs and resources discussed in the above blog entry.