Crushed by a $1 billion education budget deficit, Chicago is closing 54 public schools, school district officials announced Thursday.

The official list of closings isn't due to be published until March 31, but parents were learning whether their schools were on the list in letters that were already being sent home with students.

The school district's chief executive, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, said the district is 20 percent under capacity — almost 100,000 students —  leaving many schools half-empty. The district will save $500 million to $800 million for each school that is closed, she has said in community forums and news interviews leading up to Thursday's announcement.

"We've got at least two decades of decay, of children not being able to receive the kind of education that they should," Byrd-Bennett told NBC 5 of Chicago.

Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, which has been protesting the coming cuts for weeks, said the closings would mean "utter chaos."

"This city cannot destroy that many schools," Lewis said in a statement. "These actions will put our students' safety and academics at risk and will further destabilize our neighborhoods."

Lewis blamed Mayor Rahm Emanuel for the schools' disarray, calling him "the murder mayor."

"He is murdering public services (and) murdering our ability to maintain public sector jobs, and now he has set his sights on our public schools," she said.

"But we have news for him: We don't intend to die. This is not Detroit."

The union has scheduled a citywide save-the-schools rally for Wednesday.

Emanuel said in a statement that Chicago couldn't afford to put off difficult decisions any longer.

"By consolidating these schools, CPS can focus on safely getting every child into a better performing school. Like school systems in New York and Philadelphia where schools are being closed, Chicago must make tough choices," he said. "Our children's futures are bright and consolidating schools is the best way to make sure all of our city's students get the resources they need to learn and succeed."

Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

Watch the top videos on NBCNews.com

Two days after a teen who performed at President Obama's inauguration weekend was gunned down, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is set to yank 200 cops from desk jobs and make them fight crime on the streets.

The reassignment was recommended by city officials last week, according to NBC Chicago, but it took on new significance Thursday as 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton became the face of Chicago's stubbornly high murder rate.

The sophomore was shot dead Tuesday while sheltering from the rain with fellow members of the volleyball team in a park near her well-regarded high-school, in an upscale section of Chicago's South Side less than a mile from President Obama's home.

The bullet that struck her upper back was meant for someone else, police said. No arrests have been made, and police increased the reward in the case to $24,000.

“When any young person in our city is gunned down without reason, it demands action from all of us,” Emanuel said at a press conference.

Saul Loeb / AFP - Getty Images

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, shown here at a conference on gun violence, is set to announce he will put 200 more cops on the street.

“As we grieve for Hadiya, we need to work together to protect our greatest resource, the children of the city of Chicago.”

Emanuel said when he took office he redeployed 570 officers who were on desk duty and credited that with reducing Chicago’s overall crime rate by 8.5%, even as its murder rate increased.

There were more than 500 slayings in Chicago last year. That's about half the number there were in 1974, but still represented an increase over the previous year at a time when other cities are reporting steady decreases in homicides.

Hopes that 2013 would be less bloody were dashed by a grim statistic: 42 people were killed in Chicago this month, making it the deadliest January in more than a decade, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The death of Pendleton -- a majorette with the King College Prep marching band who traveled to Washington to take part in inauguration festivities -- sparked outrage across the nation.

At the White House, a spokesman said the Obamas were praying for her family. On Capitol Hill, her name was invoked during debate over gun control.

Emanuel said the police have been getting tips about who might have killed Pendleton and wounded a 16-year-old friend – both innocent victims caught in what investigators suspect was a gang-related turf war.

The mayor had a message for anyone with information: “Please step forward. That is what a good neighbor does.”

Hadiya Pendleton, center, with her school marching band in Washington a week before she was shot dead in Chicago.

Related:

Friend: Slain Chicago teen said, 'I think I got shot,' then 'she just fell'

Gunned down after 'the happiest day of her life'

Chicago shooting victim Hadiya Pendleton starred in anti-gang video

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Nate Pendleton comforts his son Nathaniel, 10, and his wife Cleopatra in a neighborhood park where his daughter Hadiya was killed.

dnainfo.com

Hadiya Pendleton, 15, a student at King College Prep, was killed Tuesday at a Chicago park near the school, authorities said.

A 15-year-old Chicago girl gunned down a week after she performed during President Obama’s inaugural festivities was remembered Wednesday as a “walking angel” – the last person her family could imagine dying by a bullet.

Hadiya Pendleton was an honor student, a marching-band majorette, and a doting big sister who thought about becoming a journalist or a pharmacist or even getting into politics after she witnessed history in Washington last week.

The biggest trouble the insatiable reader ever gave her parents: running up their credit card buying books on Amazon.

“I couldn’t ask for a better child,” her mother, Cleo Cowley, said through tears at her Chicago home. “She didn’t give me any hard time at all. She had a heart of gold.”

A sophomore at Chicago’s selective King College Prep High School, Pendleton was walking with fellow members of the volleyball team in a park Tuesday afternoon when the skies opened. They ducked under a canopy to get out of the rain, joining other teenagers.

At that moment, Chicago police say, a gunman came running down an alley behind the park, opened fire and then darted into a waiting vehicle and took off. No arrests have been made.

Courtesy the Pendleton family

Hadiya Pendleton during her trip to Washington.

Pendleton was struck in the upper back, and a 16-year-old schoolmate was hit in the leg. They ran about a block before she collapsed on the street, police said. She died at the hospital.

When it happened, her mother was at work at the TransUnion credit company, in a meeting. Her cellphone rang and she saw it was one of her daughter’s friends and quickly answered.

“She was screaming on the phone that Hadiya’s been shot, she’s been shot, and I just didn’t understand,” said Cowley. “I had to get someone to help me understand that my baby has been shot.”

The murder – about a mile from Obama’s Chicago home – quickly caught the attention of Washington during a day of debate over gun violence.

The White House called it a “terrible tragedy,” and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel called the shooter a “gangbanger” and a “punk” who had stolen the dreams of a girl with a bright future.

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., was emotional as he spoke about Pendleton’s inauguration activities during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on guns.

 “Just a matter of days after the happiest day of her life, she’s gone,” he said.

Cowley said the trip to Washington -- an invitation to a band competition that was part of the inauguration festivities -- was “everything” to her daughter.

“She was extremely excited about it, to go there and witness history and perform at the Capitol. She told me, ‘Mom, I might think about getting involved in politics,’” she said.

For the moment, though, she was focused on traveling with the band to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and a planned educational trip to Dublin, Paris and London in March. “She even thought about studying abroad,” her mother said.

At King College Prep, which is in an upscale neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, tears flowed Wednesday. The band played in her honor. Many students changed their Twitter handles to remember their fallen classmate, described as bubbly and sweet.

“She was always smiling and laughing,” said Tyler Genovesi, 14. “She was just a really nice person.”

Cousin Shatira Wilks recalled how Pendleton was designated to be the “elf” at Christmas this year and delighted in handing out gifts to everyone. The only presents she had asked for was books.

“Honestly, she was a walking angel,” Wilks said.

But also a normal teenager. She texted her friends like crazy, listened to rock music on her headphones, posted silly pictures of herself, and gently tweaked her parents on Twitter.

She had a 10-year-old brother, Junior, who worshipped her.

“He’s crushed because she loved, loved, loved her brother,” Cowley said. “From the moment I had him, she wanted a little sibling and at the age of 5 she started mothering him.”

“She had a heart that was huge,” her mother said, her voice cracking. “She had her own brain. She didn’t roll with the crowd. If there was someone being ostracized, she was their friend, because she said everyone needs a friend.”

In short, there was nothing about Pendleton that would have led anyone to predict that she would be shot – even in a city where more than 500 people were murdered last year and more than 40 have been killed this month.

Cowley said that two nights ago, she was watching a TV program about a woman who had lost all four of her children to gun violence.

“Never in a million years did I think I would get a call that my own baby had been gunned down the next day,” she said.

Told that her daughter’s death had been mentioned on the floor of the Senate, where Durbin complained that Chicago was “awash in guns,” Cowley’s composure broke and she began to sob.

“Something does need to change,” she said.

Related:

Tale of two cities: Homicides leap in Chicago, plummet in New York

Background checks take center stage at fractious Senate hearing

Sitthixay Ditthavong / AP file

Chicago Public Schools CEO Jean-Claude Brizard delivers a presentation at a Chicago Board of Education meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012 in Chicago.

Jean-Claude Brizard, plucked last year from Rochester, N.Y., to lead Chicago Public Schools, is out.

"I leave this role with great sadness, but with the knowledge that the seeds for true innovation and transformation have been planted," Brizard said in a statement sent out shortly after midnight Friday morning.

For more visit NBCChicago.com.

Spokeswoman Sarah Hamilton classified the move as a "mutual agreement" between Brizard and Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The Office of the Mayor issued a statement Friday morning stating Emanuel would be making an "announcement about education" at 10:30 a.m.

The announcement will name CPS Chief Education Advisor Barbara Byrd Bennett as Brizard's replacement, Hamilton said.

Sources said Brizard gave his resignation to Emanuel on Monday, but the mayor opted this week to focus on his budget proposal to the Chicago City Council. A source added that Brizard personally informed Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis.

"You cannot fire your way to a new school district," Lewis said through her spokesman. "There is chaos at the top that trickles down to the bottom."

The development is a dramatic turnaround from late August, when Emanuel expressed confidence in his school leader and shot down a published report that Brizard was on his way out.

Also on NBCChicago.com: Evergreen Teachers Reach Tentative Agreement

"Its just that, rumor," Emanuel told reporters on Aug. 31. "He's (Brizard's) doing a great job."

It didn't go unnoticed, however, that Brizard was absent from many of the public statements made by officials during the recent teacher strike that kept students out of class for seven days.

His lack of visibility fueled speculation that he'd resigned or been fired.

"The reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated," Brizard said in a public email in mid-September.

Brizard came to Chicago in April 2011 after a three-year stint as the superintendent of schools in Rochester, N.Y. He replaced interim chief Terry Mazany.

As for Bennett, she came to Chicago earlier this year after helping to lead reform efforts in Detroit, Cleveland and New York City.

More content from NBCNews.com:

• Maryland boy, 4, injured but alive after fall from 9th-story window
• Panetta: Cyber intruders have already infiltrated US systems
• Dottie Sandusky in letter to judge: 'Jerry is not the monster'
• Firefighters in pink? Bristol, Conn., mayor now OK with cancer fundraiser
• BP, Obama administration reportedly near deal on Gulf spill
• Stun gun used on pizza deliveryman leads to jail instead of food
• Why did environmental nonprofit donate to conservative pro-coal group?

Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Updated at 10:25 a.m. ET: Delegates from the Chicago Teachers Union told their bargaining team Sunday that they want to meet with the schools they represent before making a decision about whether to end their strike.

"They’re not happy with the agreement and would like it to be a lot better for us than it is," Union President Karen Lewis said in a news briefing Sunday evening, adding that they are returning to their schools with the proposal because they do not want to feel rushed to make a decision.

That means Chicago public schools will remained closed Monday and likely Tuesday, affecting 350,000 kindergarten, elementary and high school students. Parents should plan for their children to be out of school until at least Wednesday, Lewis said.  

Following the announcement, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, calling the strike "illegal," said he would file an injunction to force an end to the walkout.

"I will not stand by while the children of Chicago are played as pawns in an internal dispute within a union," Emanuel said, adding that the union walked out over issues that are not subject to a strike under Illinois state law. 

The union delegates aren't scheduled to meet again until Tuesday, in part out of respect for for the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, which began at sundown Sunday.

A union bargaining team and city officials had hammered out a proposed contract that would move away from merit pay and allow teachers to appeal their evaluations. 

Sitthixay Ditthavong / AP

Chicago Teachers Union delegates arrive for a meeting Sunday in which they are expected to review a proposed contract and vote whether to suspend the week-long strike.

A faction of the union sees it as a "back room deal" that does not have unified support. A source close to the union told NBC Chicago that Lewis' caucus shouted obscenities at her and other leaders late Saturday night, saying, "You sold out" and, "Rahm's getting everything they wanted, what the hell did we get?"   

Lewis, exhausted from a tense week, indicated that she's done negotiating and asked "Will my own caucus defy me?"

At the heart of those who oppose this new deal - they feel the negotiating team did not fight for paraprofessionals and special education teachers and students.

Read full coverage at NBCChicago.com

Some delegates shouted at Lewis there is "no way to vote on something we haven't seen."

Teachers revolted last week against sweeping education reforms sought by Emanuel, especially evaluating teachers based on the standardized test scores of their students. They also fear a wave of neighborhood school closings that could result in mass teacher layoffs. They want a guarantee that laid-off teachers will be recalled for other jobs in the district.

"They're still not happy with the evaluations. They're not happy with the recall (provision)," Lewis said of delegates. 

Still, Lewis seemed energized in a statement Saturday night, buoyed by the agreement, which came after a weeklong strike that began on Sept. 10.

"This union has proven the Chicago labor movement is neither dormant nor dead," Lewis said in a statement on the union’s blog late on Saturday. "We have solidified our political power and captured the imagination of the nation. No one will ever look upon a teacher and think of him or her as a passive, person to be bullied and walked on ever again."

Emanuel's chief negotiator, School Board President David Vitale, said the union should allow children to go back to school while the two sides complete the process.

"We are extremely disappointed that after 10 months of discussion reaching an honest and fair compromise that (the union) decided to continue their strike of choice and keep our children out of the classroom," Vitale said.

The contract includes what Lewis called victories for the 29,000 union members, which she outlined on the union’s website:  

PAY: The teachers union wants a three-year contract that guarantees a 3-percent increase the first year and 2-percent increases for the second and third years. The contract also includes the possibility of being extended a fourth year with a 3-percent raise. A first-year teacher earns about $49,000, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality; the highest-paid teacher earns $92,227.

Chicago Public Schools would move away from merit pay for individual teachers.

EVALUATION: Teachers would be evaluated 70 percent in terms of how they teach (“teacher practice”) and 30 percent in terms of how their students improve (“student growth”). Evaluations will not affect tenured teachers during the first year, and teachers may appeal their evaluation.  

HIRES: Responding to parent demands, Chicago Public Schools would hire more than 600 teachers specialized in art, music, physical education and foreign languages, among other teacher specialties. More than half of large school districts rehire laid-off teachers, according to The New York Times; the Chicago school board has pushed to leave control to principals.

Those new hires will allow for the longer class day – which will be seven hours for elementary school students, up from five hours and 45 minutes. Chicago had been known for one of the shortest school days in the country -- a point that became a sticking point for Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Of those new hires, half must be union employees who were previously laid off. (Higher-rated teachers would have a better chance at being rehired, the Chicago Tribune reported.)

BULLYING: The contract demands ending bullying by principals and managerial personnel to “curtail some of the abusive practices that have run rampant in many neighborhood schools.” Principals, however, will continue to exercise power over hiring teachers, the Tribune reported.

In one instance, according to CBS Chicago, dozens of complaints were made about a principal at Josiah Pickard Elementary School during his five years on the job. A union representative told CBS Chicago that the volume of complaints was not normal for a principal.

TEXTBOOKS: Chicago students would have their textbooks on the first day of school instead of having to wait up to six weeks

Related: Chicago strike: Will teachers union approve proposed contract?

The strike may have hurt Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s image as a hard-nosed innovator, the Chicago Tribune reported, largely because of the mayor’s aggressive statements about teachers – which he implied after the school board nixed half their pay raise.

The strike received nationwide attention in part because Chicago is the third-largest school district in the nation and its teachers hadn’t gone on strike for 25 years, since 1987.

But the strike has made headlines also because Emanuel was Obama’s first chief of staff. Obama, whose daughters attended the private University of Chicago Laboratory School (known as the “Lab school”), campaigned on public school reform and has advocated merit pay.

On Friday, Emanuel released a more muted statement than his ones in the past, according to the Tribune:

"This tentative framework is an honest and principled compromise that is about who we all work for: our students. It preserves more time for learning in the classroom, provides more support for teachers to excel at their craft and gives principals the latitude and responsibility to build an environment in which our children can succeed."

Emanuel had argued for a long school day – which he appears to have achieved with the proposed contract. For high schools, the bell would ring after seven and a half hours.

The contract doesn’t end the school district’s woes, however. After school doors open again, the school district is likely to shutter schools to help close a projected $1 billion budget deficit for the 2014-1015 school year, according to the Tribune.

NBC's Isolde Raftery, Sevil Omer and Reuters contributed to this report.

More content from NBCNews.com:

• One year later, what ever happened to Occupy Wall Street?
• Suspected anti-Islam filmmaker questioned by Feds
• Obama: US has 'profound respect for people of all faiths'
• 144,000 offshore wind turbines could power East Coast, study says
• 83-year-old held over hit-and-run crash that killed boy, 6

Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

After another violent weekend in his city, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has a message for anyone involved in the shootings that left nine people killed and 37 injured: Stop the culture of silence.

"I'd like to remind everybody that it also requires a community to step up," Emanuel said Monday at an unrelated press conference. "You're not a snitch, you have a role in community policing."

The "s" word is a particularly powerful one in Chicago. 

Last year a Chicago mother was arrested after she allegedly drove her son and an accomplice to shoot a person they believed was a snitch. The year before, a dying 17-year-old took the name of his killer to the grave.

"I know," Robert Tate reportedly said when asked if he knew who shot him in the chest, "but I ain't telling you."

Read original story on NBCChicago.com

Last week, eight people were struck in a drive-by shooting at 79th Street and South Essex Avenue, and community activist Andrew Holmes said some of them reportedly weren't cooperating with police.

"The persons have been struck by gunfire, they need to step up and speak up for us," Holmes told NBCChicago.com. "Nine times out of 10, they knew who was firing the shot at them."

Emanuel's message is one that Chicago has heard before. Former Mayor Richard Daley said it too -- over and over again.

Emanuel said police have moved in more officers, removed guns and drugs off the street, and over the weekend, arrested 307 people and confiscated more than 100 weapons during several drug busts across the city.

"We can keep doing that," he said, "but we have to pass stronger gun laws in this state. We're not talking about repealing conceal/ carry, but making sure we have a tougher set of laws dealing with assault weapons and other types of guns."

More content from NBCNews.com:

• Isaac nears hurricane strength and heads for New Orleans
• Teens charged after 5-year-old girl found dead in trash
• Israel court says US activist not unlawfully killed
• Jury seated for Amish beard-cutting trial
• Student shot at Md. high school on first day of class
• Video: Grizzly kills hiker in Alaska

Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel explained publicly for the first time Tuesday why he is throwing his support behind a controversial proposal that would give police officers the option to ticket, rather than arrest, people for having small amounts of marijuana.

"It’s not decriminalization. It's dealing with it in a different way and a different penalty," Emanuel said Tuesday at an unrelated press conference.

The mayor last week issued a statement announcing his backing for the proposal introduced last fall by Alderman Danny Solis.

He said he changed his stance on the matter after his administration analyzed the amount of police time used to chase and prosecute suspected users, especially given that many of the cases are thrown out in court.

"I got comfortable with this because I think this is the right thing to do for a number of reasons. It does not undermine what we're trying to do on fighting crime," Emanuel said, according to the Chicago Tribune.

For more visit NBCChicago.com.

People currently found to possess small amounts of marijuana face a misdemeanor charge punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,500 fine. The proposal stipulates police officers would have the option to write tickets with fines ranging from $100 to $500 for people carrying 15 grams or less of marijuana, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Emanual also announced he had amended the proposal so that a portion of any revenue collected would be earmarked for an anti-drug campaign aimed at kids.

"I want to make sure our children get a clear and unambiguous message as it relates to drug use: it is wrong and it is dangerous," the mayor said.

A majority of Chicago aldermen signed on to the proposed ordinance, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle has long endorsed a change to the area's pot policies. Police Supt. Garry McCarthy's support of the idea has been tepid.

Some aldermen worry about how police officers will apply the discretion they would be granted, the Chicago Tribune reported. Alderman Ed Burke said Monday he needs more information before deciding whether he'll support the proposal.

The mayor said the move would free up police resources and save the city about $1 million.

The plan will be considered Thursday by the Committee on Public Safety, the Chicago Tribune reported, before it goes before the full council on June 27.

NBCChicago.com contributed to this report.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• No charge for man who killed daughter's molester
• Bridging the digital divide in America's rural schools
• Record heat forecast for Northeast
• Sandusky's wife testifies she never heard or saw evidence of abuse
• Fort Hood shooting suspect barred from court for beard
• Video: Vandal seen spray-painting Picasso painting

Follow US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook