By Yvette Shields, includes “The Chicago Board of Education votes next week on an $8.4 billion budget as the district tries to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic’s toll on academics and local, state, and federal funding. The spending plan for the fiscal year that began July 1 is up from $7.84 billion in fiscal 2020. The junk-rated district will see some local-sourced revenue fall and the state did not fund a scheduled annual increase in aid, so the CPS plan banks on the federal government coming through with at least $343 million in a relief package that went nowhere in the GOP-controlled Senate.”