LET’S JUMP IN…
because on the city council side, there's a lot. Truly.
TL;DR at the bottom.
Here's what I'll be covering:
SPS District 186 Board of Education - Monday, October 19th, 2026
City Council - Tuesday, October 20th, 2026
SPS DISTRICT 186
Click here to Watch the Replay
The First Student meeting
What happened? Dr. Jordan said the meeting between district staff and First Student went really well.
Why it matters? If you're not up to speed, busing has been disappointing this year for a lot of reasons. This meeting wasn't only about laying out expectations. It was also an offer of support:
"how can we help you be more effective in your job?"
What came of it? Seven goals to get back on track:
95% on-time rate. "The first goal was to get to ninety-five percent on time rate... we need to get there. Bottom line." said Dr. Jordan.
Review the 20 hardest routes. District asked First Student to make sure they're realistic, and to drive them if needed to confirm on-time is possible.
Bus referrals. The district heard they aren't being addressed like they should, or there's a disconnect. The gap is in how the outcome gets back to drivers.
Classroom management training for drivers. The district offered to come over and help. Im guessing here, but I think this is connected to the previous.
Driver incentives and retention. Think rewards for drivers who are on time every day of the week. Quick refresher on why: at the September meeting First Student had 166 drivers and 109 monitors, versus 191 and 127 to be fully staffed.
Student incentives. Reward programs for kids on the bus.
Next year. They’re getting ahead and starting to plan for the start of next year now, "because things are getting better."
And then Dr. Jordan disclosed something he told the First Student team:
"I'll just be very honest... transportation has been a challenge this whole year. And I said if we had a bid out for right now we probably wouldn't select you all."
Teacher retention and the Tier Two pension
Different topic, same meeting. If you're a teacher, or thinking about becoming one, watch here.
My summation: the current pension plan isn't as teacher-friendly as it could be, and that's not only about dollars. It's about whether future teachers decide a career in the district is worth it. If they don't, we'll have a recruiting problem.
The ask: get behind Tier Two pension reform. Board member Ken Gilmore walked through an Illinois Association of School Boards resolution urging lawmakers to "at a minimum include the plan proposed in Senate Bill 1937." Among other things it would:
replace the current CAP formula with an annual adjustment that at least tracks inflation
lower the retirement age for educators from 67 to something like 65 with ten years of service, or 62 with the maximum years of service
The resolution's rationale is blunt: left unchanged, the current system "will likely contribute to the growing teacher shortages
City Council
Where. Do. I. Begin.
You know when you find a really good Netflix show and a friend asks
"you been watching anything good?"
and you get excited, so excited you start stumbling over your words, and end with
"idk, I don't wanna ruin it, but trust me, you wanna watch it"?
Yeah. That's this.
It would be awesome if everyone reading would watch, but I know that’s fantasy land, and that’s ok, so here's an appetizer.
4 pages of notes distilled to the good stuff.
1. SHOTSPOTTER (ORD. 2026-447)
What was on the table. A three-year, $1,100,012 renewal with Sound Thinking (you might remember it from Adapt or Die). Alderman Gregory's amendment asked for annual reporting to council on alerts, confirmed gunfire, and false positives. Here's the original amendment and the revised one.
This felt personal. Gregory kept asking colleagues
"Am I anti-police?"
so much so that Alderman Cox answered before Gregory could even ask. Gregory’s point: it's about data, not for or against police, plus about 70% of this happens in his ward so it’s only right for him as an alder to ask questions and require deeper, more critical thinking. Not just for ward 2 but for Springfield as a whole.
How does ShotSpotter work? Chief Behl's breakdown really helped me. Sensors triangulate a shot, a human reviewer verifies and pushes the alert, officers respond, and if there's no evidence of gunfire (fireworks, say) it gets reclassified.
Gregory's concerns:
Data. Reclassified and false alerts don't show up on SPD's transparency page, and he wants that reported to council.
Misuse. I was confused how anyone could abuse this, so see Alderman Cox's question and Gregory's answer: a case thrown out after an alert was allegedly marked as gunfire. He also cited about 6,000 cases tied to Harvard Law's Innocence Project. NOTE: Alderman Gregory didn't say out of how many total. 6,000 out of 1,000,000 isn't terrible. 6,000 out of 6,500 is a real problem. I couldn't verify it, so do your homework.
The vendor's own advice. He read Sound Thinking's pamphlet, which says "elected officials can prevent these problems" with a policy framework. His takeaway: "It didn't say Chief do it. It said us."
The other side. The Chief says ShotSpotter covers about 8% of the city's area but 73% of shots-fired incidents.
Illegally possessed guns taken off the streets went from roughly 250 a year (2016 to 2020) to roughly 450 a year since ShotSpotter came online, and crime is down about 17-20% compared to last September. The Chief was clear:
"I'm not saying that ShotSpotter did all of this."
The vote. The live vote felt like watching my favorite team line up for a game-winning field goal. The amendment failed 5-4. The original ordinance passed 7-2.
2. FORD EXPLORER INTERCEPTORS (ORD. 2026-448)
What happened? Council voted on ten new Interceptors, not to exceed $620,563.90. It passed 7-1, with one present.
Alderwoman Notariano started with
"it was never about the vehicles, it was about values, budget priorities, transparency."
Then she got a little snippy with the mayor. It all started when she recounted how she's been asking for months to see what's left in the police budget. The mayor told her "you have the ability to amend the ordinance.” to which Notariano responded: “I'm not gonna solve your problems."
But she reluctantly settled saying “I’m going to vote for this, I support buying new ford explorers for the police, I support the police having new vehicles, I just don’t know that a new vehicle is the things that’s going to improve our officers’ quality of life, ability to do their job, and their relationship with their community.”
The Chief's rundown of vehicles pulled this year (none bought, so ten new still leaves us down ten):
Reason | Number |
Carbon monoxide issues | 13 |
Wrecked, not worth repairing | 5 |
Wrecked, total loss | 2 |
Total | 20 |
(none bought, so ten new still leaves us down ten):
3. CITED PROPERTIES
Gregory wants the cited properties ordinance to come with action (trash, grass, inspection before reoccupying), not just a list. The Corporation Counsel's rundown shows why it's slow: three violations to land on the list, appeal rights at every step, and once on, a property stays at least a year.
4. A NICE NOTE TO END ON
Alderwoman Purchase made a call for civility heading into budget season: "…think before you speak, and everything you think don't gotta be said."
Which I appreciated because the tension in the room was so thick you could have cut it with a butter knife.
TLDR (Too Long; Didn’t Read)
First Student meeting: 7 goals, headlined by a 95% on-time rate
Dr. Jordan told them if the contract were bid today, they probably wouldn't be picked
Teacher pension (Tier Two) reform is the district's next retention fight
ShotSpotter renewal ($1.1M, Ord. 2026-447) passed 7-2
Gregory's amendment (annual reporting on alerts, false positives, outcomes) failed 5-4
Debate: data and safeguards vs. police tools that are working. Watch it and decide
10 new police Explorers (Ord. 2026-448) passed 7-1-1; 20 vehicles were pulled this year
Cited properties list: three violations to get on, owners can appeal, one year on the list
Alderwoman Purchase's reminder: be civil
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