Robert Jones is a dedicated pastor and community organizer with deep roots in the Bronzeville community. His unwavering commitment to education and social justice has made him a steadfast organizer for his community. As the pastor of the Mt. Carmel Missionary Baptist Church and a leader on the local school board at Dunbar High School, Pastor Jones has consistently stood up for working class families and the fight to quality education. In 2015, Pastor Jones went on a 34 day hunger strike to save Dyett high school from being closed.

Rev. Robert Jones Position:

Neighborhood schools are anchor for our communities and centers of civic life and grassroots engagement. Quality neighborhood schools offer our children a level playing field to develop intellectually, creatively, and grow into productive, responsible adults. Upon Rev. Jones arrival in Chicago he has diligently worked with the community organizations, Lugenia Burns Hope Center and the Kenwood Oakland Commiunity Organization -K.O.C.O. for the reality of an Elected School Board, the fight against School Closings, and many successful campaigns to get justice to the people of Chicago.

Rev. Robert Jones Supports:

​

• School Funding Equity – All of our Neighborhood schools deserve progressive, culturally relevant curriculum opportunities, services, and building maintenance.

  • While Understanding the three areas of current funding being:

    • Local Revenue:

      • Property Taxes, TIF (Tax Increment Financing), fees, fines, and other local contributions.

    • State Revenue:

      • General State Aid: CPS receives funding from the state based on student enrollment, Categorical Grants for programs like special education, transportation, and bilingual education, and Block Grants

    • Federal Revenue:

      • Title I Grants, IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) Grants: Funding for special education services and various grants and initiatives.

    • Rev. Robert Jones supports Progressive tax initiatives

      • That imposes a lower tax rate on low-income earners and a higher rate on those with higher incomes bringing equity to the tax burden of the citizens and bringing in new money that can be used for education.​​​​

• Sustainable Community Schools – Every neighborhood school in our 10th District should have librarians, counselors, nurses, and the services necessary to provide a wholistic learning environment.

  • The Six Pillars of Sustainable Community Schools include:

    • Engaging, culturally relevant, and challenging curricula.

    • High quality teaching, not high-stakes testing.

    • Wraparound supports and opportunities

    • Positive discipline practices, such as restorative justice and social emotional learning supports.

    • Authentic parent and community engagement.

    • Inclusive school leadership.​​​

• Wholistic Restorative Practices for Students, Teachers, and Staff – The existing model of our Sustainable Community Schools have the wrap-around services to meet the needs our our students, teachers and staff that will create and maintain a safe learning environment for our children, teachers, and staff.

  • Some of the benefits that our schools will experience using restorative justice models include:

    • Building stronger interpersonal relationships

    • Improving respect amongst peers and teachers

    • Reducing overall stress in the school community 

    • Narrowing racial disparities in disciplinary action

    • Improving student academic performance​​​

• Scheduled Community Engagement –This elected school board provides an historic oppoertunity to establish deeper levels of engagement –tranforming the board from a bodythat was not accessible to engaging families in their neighborhoods. Our Board meetings should be in the communities of our City. There should also be community engagement between the Board representative and the people of the 10th District.

• Support and engagement with our Local School Councils – Our LSC’S need to know that they have the support of their Chicago Public School Board.I will meet with Local School Boards to hear from the valuable collaboration from parents, community members, students and staff.