Chicago school board votes to fire CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, despite promised lawsuit
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Board of Education voted Friday night to fire embattled Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez, who filed a preemptive lawsuit challenging the board's authority to force him out.
Following a 90-minute closed door session at Friday night's special meeting, the board voted 6-0 to terminate Martinez without cause, and ended the meeting without further discussion.
While the board has voted to fire Martinez, because he was terminated without cause, his contract allows him to stay on the job for six months, and receive 20 weeks of severance based on his salary of more than $360,000.
Martinez and his lawyers have said, even if the board keeps him on for the required six months, it would violate his contract if they try to strip him of any of his duties, or install a so-called "co-CEO" to effectively sideline him from making key decisions.
Martinez said the lawsuit challenging the board's decision is not about doubting their power to fire him, only about making sure it is done properly and in terms with his contract.
"I'm not looking for any personal gain. I love this district. This is my home district. I'm from Chicago. This is about operating in good faith. Follow the contract. Let's not play any games," he said.
Martinez files lawsuit seeking injunction to block firing
Before the meeting, Martinez's attorney, William Quinlan, sent the board a letter claiming that there aren't sufficient grounds to fire him with cause, and any effort to immediately remove him from his post without firing him for cause would amount to a breach of contract.
Quinlan said the highly anticipated vote "is the culmination of a months-long campaign orchestrated by the Chicago Teachers Union ("CTU") and its ally, Mayor Brandon Johnson, to improperly and unlawfully terminate Mr. Martinez based on wholly pretextual reasons."
"Mr. Martinez has acted consistently with his contract and the fiduciary duties he holds both to the Board and the children and families that CPS serves. Any actions to terminate or diminish his role as CEO would thus constitute not only a breach of his contract with CPS, but also the fiduciary duties of the individual Board members—and thus, subject the Board and the members of the Board individually, to liability as such improper actions exceed the scope of the Board's duties," Quinlan wrote.
Martinez has said he declined a request from the mayor to resign in September, after he refused Johnson's request to have CPS take out a $300 million high-interest loan to pay for the costs of a new proposed teachers' contract and pension costs previously covered by the city. Johnson has publicly denied asking Martinez to step down.
In his letter urging the board not to fire Martinez, Quinlan said any move to terminate him or otherwise alter his job duties would "subject the Board and the members of the Board individually, to liability as such improper actions exceed the scope of the Board's duties."
Quinlan also raised questions about whether the current board has any authority to act on Martinez's job status "due to the Board members' failure to hold the 'same qualifications' as their predecessors and their apparent failure to complete mandatory training required of Board members before participating in Board action."
Martinez Attorney Letter to School Board on Scribd
Before the meeting started, Martinez's attorneys filed a complaint in Cook County Circuit Court, seeking an injunction to prohibit the school board from taking any action to fire him, or otherwise alter his employment status, but it was filed too late in the day to get the request in front of a judge before the board's vote.
According to the filing, firing Martinez "by making or threatening to make a pretextual and invalid 'finding' of 'cause' would breach his contract with CPS," and "would deprive the District and community of its only experienced leadership for an indefinite period."
A hearing has not yet been scheduled on that bid for an injunction, which was filed shortly after 4 p.m., less than two hours before Friday's board meeting was set to begin. It's unclear how soon a hearing on the injunction request could be held.
Martinez vows "smooth transition to a new CEO"
Martinez, a graduate of Benito Juarez Academy, and a former budget director, chief financial officer, and regional superintendent at CPS in the early 2000s, was appointed CEO by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot in 2021, and Johnson kept him on after taking office in 2023.
After the board's vote, Martinez said he was "disappointed by the board's decision" and was proud of his achievements since taking over at CPS, pointing to record-high graduation rates, record-low dropout rates, and gains in reading scores since the pandemic.
Martinez said he's "excited to continue to lead this school district through the rest of the school year."
"It's important that we have a smooth transition to a new CEO, instead of throwing everything into chaos in the middle of the school year. It's not right, everybody," he said. "If there's a silver lining, it is that educators, families, and especially our students will be spared from disruption of a mid-year change in leadership."
Martinez also said he would also work to ensure "a smooth transition at the right time for whoever holds my position next" and would continue to work toward reaching a fair agreement with CTU on a new teachers' contract.
"I will continue supporting our bargaining team in hopes of reaching a fair, financially responsible labor agreement that rewards our talented teachers, while continuing to put the needs of children first," he said.
CTU officials repeatedly have accused Martinez of stalling a deal on a new teachers' contract.
"Mr. Martinez put his personal politics, career goals, and media stardom ahead of the needs of our students and their families. As educators, we saw and felt the true impact of Martinez's lack of leadership up close and personal," CTU said in a statement after the board voted to fire him.
Mayor's critics accuse Johnson of using school board as "patsies" to fire Martinez
Martinez waved to supporters ahead of a passionate public comment session at the start of Friday's meeting, which saw both supporters and critics of Martinez speak out about the plan to fire him.
Cook County Commissioner Tara Stamps, a former CPS teacher and CTU administrator, blasted Martinez's handling of CPS.
"Pedro Martinez's leadership has left these schools in a drought, and our students and teachers are paying the price for that," she said.
Some other elected officials who spoke out during the meeting raised concerns that Martinez's ouster would open the path for CPS to accept a controversial high-interest loan to fund teacher raises and pensions costs.
Ald. Silvana Tabares (23rd) said the school board members were allowing themselves to be used by the mayor, a former CPS teacher and CTU organizer, to advance the teachers' union's agenda.
"The mayor is a walking conflict of interest when it comes to CPS and CTU. The Manchurian Candidate of a mayor has hand-picked you not as board members, but as patsies for his CTU overseers," Tabares said.
Many people who spoke out during the meeting asked the board to withhold any decision on Martinez's job status until a new partially-elected school board takes office in January, including some of the newly-elected school board members
"Are you going to condemn the first elected board to serve in a capacity where our sole job for the next two years is not to address student outcomes and making CPS a better place; but to figure out how to steady the ship in the wake of the chaos that was created by the decision to fire a CEO mid-year, and inevitably agree to a contract that we can't afford?" said Jennifer Custer, who was elected to the 1st District of the school board.
Custer was one of 10 members elected to the new school board in November, and who will take office in January. Mayor Brandon Johnson appointed 10 other members for the new hybrid board this week, including new board president Sean Harden. The mayor has one more seat to fill, meaning he will still control a majority of the board until it becomes fully elected in two years.
Martinez' future as CEO has been in doubt for months
In September, Martinez said he refused a request from Mayor Brandon Johnson to resign his post after he declined the mayor's request to take out a $300 million high-interest loan to pay for the costs of a new proposed teachers' contract and pension costs previously covered by the city. The entire previous school board resigned in October after being pressured by the mayor to fire Martinez. Johnson then picked a new school board within days.
Martinez's future has been in doubt for months. CBS News Chicago obtained a September email between a top aide for Mayor Brandon Johnson and school board members, which provides talking points for Martinez's ouster.
Weeks later, Johnson insinuated he never called for Martinez's job.
Martinez said he respects the board's decision to remove him if they want a new CEO, but he said the move to terminate him was not done "in good faith." Specifically, he pointed to news reports that the mayor was considering installing new school board president Sean Harden as co-CEO of CPS in an effort to effectively sideline Martinez without firing him, and allowing CPS to quickly settle its contract dispute with CTU.
Martinez's lawyers questioned the legality of such a move, and said any effort to alter his job duties would be effectively the same as firing him, and would amount to a breach of his contract.
"What my issue is, is when they don't do it the right way. Again, all I've ever asked, let's not play games. Let's not confuse families. Let's not start putting out there, 'Oh, there's gonna be a co-CEO.' I'm sorry, that is not good faith," Martinez said. "There is a right way of doing things, everybody, and so that's all I've ever asked."
New partially-elected school board to take office in January
Many of the mayor's critics and even some of his usual allies have criticized the move to fire Martinez – especially before a new partially-elected school board takes office in January.
When it comes in particular to the incoming class of school board members—the first ever elected by voters—they say any intention to oust Martinez before they start undercuts the role they were elected to fill.
The new elected board members do not start until January. But CBS News Chicago caught up with them as they were leaving a training session on Wednesday.
"We are asking the mayor, we are asking this board, to please stop," said Chicago Board of Education member-elect Ellen Rosenfeld (4th).
"The whole point of an elected school board was consistents saying that they wanted 21 members to work together for the betterment of our children, the betterment of our schools, and the protection of our tax dollars," added boardmember-elect Che "Rhymefest" Smith (10th).
Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th) also took the board to task for scheduling the meeting during Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath. She wrote that the scheduling "creates an unnecessary barrier to participation for Chicago's Jewish community, including residents, teachers, and school parents who observe this sacred time."
However, Silverstein's office said they never heard a response from the school board.