Thursday, October 8 Agenda Review Standing Committee Meeting Operations

The Chicago Public Schools Operations Committee met October 8, 2026, to review proposed items for the October 22 board meeting. The committee unanimously recommended renewing the CVS Caremark pharmacy benefits agreement for $444.642 million; CPS said the jointly procured services cover more than 80,000 members and generate about $60 million annually in rebates, which are not deducted from the requested authority. It also recommended extending the CDW and SHI software agreements through November 30, 2027, and increasing their combined not-to-exceed amount by $26 million, from $28 million to $54 million. The software contract supports districtwide licenses and related services, including Microsoft, Google, and cloud services.

The committee also unanimously recommended proposed updates to CPS’s relocation assistance policy, including increasing temporary housing assistance for relocated tenants from $1,500 to $9,570 for up to 90 days, and renewing a furniture and related-services vendor pool for four years with $16 million in requested authority. The furniture pool includes 11 vendors and uses negotiated discounts off manufacturers’ list prices. For the operations and maintenance trades contract, staff proposed adding 61 vendors and categories for nine existing vendors, with no change to the existing spending authority and a term ending March 31, 2029; the transcript ends before a committee recommendation or vote on this item. Separately, the committee unanimously recommended initiating a public-comment period for revisions to the student search-and-seizure policy; this was a policy review step, not a procurement action.