Regular meeting dates for the beginning of 2010 are:

• Saturday Jan. 9 - moved to GEM/CORE Summit at Malcolm X -details here
  
• Saturday, Feb. 13 - cancelled (watch for new date)
  
• Saturday, March 6
  

 The Chicago Parents Union celebrated its first birthday on November 14th, sharing the party with big sister organization Parents United for Responsible Education, completing its 22 year. Which meant, of course, two cakes! 

Join with PURE in a celebration of the CPU's first year!

This is also PURE's annual meeting, celebrating 22 years of PURE service to Chicago parents.

Birthday brunch: Saturday, November 14, 10 am to noon at the PURE office, 100 S. Morgan Street.

Please download and share this flyer! 

We have scheduled two new CPU union steward training dates. More details on this flyer!

• Thursday, November 5 or
• Saturday, November 7  

Training both days will run from 9:30 am to 4 pm. You only need to attend ONE of the two days.

Traning will be at the PURE office, 100 S. Morgan Street.

The training is free, and lunch will be provided.

You must take the CPU training to receive your CPU union steward ID badge and to act as a  CPU union steward. 

You MUST pre-register for this training! Call us at 312-491-9101 or e-mail us at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Leave your name school, and the date of the training session you would like to attend.  

We had a great planning meeting yesterday and we are on track to make a presentation for CPU at the Wednesday, August 26 Board meeting. Steve will speak about CPU in general, and Pat will present our
recommendations for a memo to parents confirming that students CANNOT be suspended for not wearing a school uniform.

We would like to see at least 10-15 CPU members (more would be great!) standing with Steve and Pat. Pat, Steve, Wanda and Diane are making phone calls this week to encourage you to attend.

Remember, this is an AFTERNOON Board meeting, something that hasn't happened in a long time. You have to be there (125 S. Clark Street) by 2 pm to sign up to speak, and by at least 3 pm to be sure to get a seating pass into the Board chambers.

We will have some CPU t-shirts (for members only!). We are also working on the union steward ID tags for our first class of trained union stewards. I need to get a photo of every trained steward for their ID. I will have my camera at the Board meeting so I can take your photo then.

UPDATE ON OUR NEXT REGULAR MEETING - Saturday, August 29 10 am at PURE

Wanda told us that there is a major conflict with our first planned regular CPU meeting - Rep. LaShawn Ford is having his back-to-school rally at the same time, and a lot of our west side CPU members are committed to being there.

We don't want to cancel the meeting, but we may have a shortened meeting and then adjourn so that anyone who wants to can go to the rally.

Wanda also suggests that the CPU should have a table, pass out flyers, and sign up members at the rally.

Remember that we also set our September meeting for Saturday, Sept. 26^th at 10am at PURE (UPDATE: Rescheduled to 9:30 am) .

Here's the CPU schedule of events for August 2009:

We have four meetings/events coming up.

1) Wednesday, August 19th at 2 pm at the PURE office, 100 S. Morgan Street

Meeting to plan for the August 26th Board meeting. Remember that we are going to recommend that CPS send home a letter or memo to parents – and post the memo in every school office -- reminding everyone that students cannot be suspended for not wearing a school uniform.