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Hello!

It’s Makiya Seminera, one of your Chalkbeat Chicago reporters here to bring you the latest on the city’s historic school board races.

Things are heating up (no pun intended for the sweltering summer weather) in the Chicago Board of Education races. We’re just a few months out from Chicagoans fully electing their school board, and two influential heavyweights just entered the local education arena with their endorsements.

One slate of endorsements comes from the Chicago Teachers Union, according to our own Mila Koumpilova and WBEZ’s Sarah Karp. The union backed 15 candidates Monday evening, with some notable names being left of their list. Less than 24 hours later, endorsements come out of the SEIU Illinois State Council, which oversees SEIU Local 73 — a union representing about 15,000 CPS support staffers. SEIU’s endorsement list, albeit slightly shorter, had some key similarities to CTU’s endorsements. But there was also some key differences in who the union is backing in some districts including 3B, 4A, 7A, 9B, and 10A.

If that didn’t stir things up enough, five school board candidates were removed from the ballot Tuesday after the city’s Board of Election Commissioners ruled on petition challenges, freelancer Isaiah Pinzino reported for Chalkbeat. That means two more districts races will be uncontested — totaling now at four overall.

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An Elite N.Y.C. Public School Admitted 777 Students. Only 3 Were Black, The New York Times (Paywall)

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