Overview
- Referees who were paid by individual schools early in the season refused assignments this week after district payments were not processed following a transition to centralized pay.
- Multiple freshman and junior varsity football games plus girls flag football and volleyball matches were canceled on Monday and Tuesday when officials declined to work because they had not been paid.
- CPS says its Office of Sports Administration submitted bulk payment requests on Sept. 24 for about 1,100 officials but that roughly 70 payments were inadvertently missed and were expedited with the vendor Arbiter on Wednesday.
- More than 250 referees took part in the work stoppage according to reporting, State Rep. Kam Buckner has pressed CPS for details after officials told him some had gone many games unpaid, and the IHSA said it is monitoring the dispute.
- Because officials are independent contractors paid per assignment through Arbiter, the payment breakdown has immediate effects on earned income and on recruiting, retention and student play time if similar glitches recur.