The school district is grappling with tighter budgets and is locked in a labor dispute that advocates worry could lead to worse services and care for children with the highest needs.

“The word bankruptcy has been hanging over Chicago like a storm cloud about to burst,” wrote American Enterprise Institute fellow Andrew G. Biggs, a federal overseer of Puerto Rico’s insolvency reorganization, in a recent New York Times commentary. Last year, Chicago’s official pension actuary issued a similar warning.

The list of Chicago-area schools closed into anticipation of the winter storm headed to Illinois continued to grow Wednesday morning, to grow, with more than 100 schools across the city and suburbs announcing closures or shifts to e-learning.

As many as seven Chicago-area schools had announced delays, closures or e-learning Tuesday due as a cold weather advisory continues.

President Stacy Davis Gates and her caucus, which propelled Mayor Johnson into office, are being challenged by a group that says the current CTU leaders are closed to differing views.

The advisory and school closures comes amid extreme cold warnings for 11 states across the U.S., stretching from the Canadian border to Oklahoma and central Texas.