Chicago Public Schools interim chief Macquline King is resisting pressure from Mayor Brandon Johnson to make a controversial pension payment and borrow millions of dollars to settle the district’s budget, a notable twist in what has become a deeply uncertain budget cycle for the fourth-largest school district in the nation.

Several city officials met with CPS leadership last Thursday without King to lay out recommendations aimed at helping her close a $734 million deficit by the end of August, according to several board members who spoke to the Tribune.

Among their suggestions: taking out a $200 million loan and asking for new state revenue, while accepting responsibility for a controversial $175 million pension payment , previously covered by the city. King initially opposed all of th

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