Mayor Johnson to announce picks for Chicago Board of Education after entire board resigns
CHICAGO (CBS) — Mayor Brandon Johnson will announce his new picks for the Chicago Board of Education after the entire board resigned on Friday.
The resignations came after months of uncertainty over funding for a new teacher's contract and the future of CPS CEO Pedro Martinez.
These are temporary appointments because, for the first time, voters have the chance to elect 10 new board members in November.
The mayor will announce the seven new appointments to the board at 10:30 a.m. at a South Side church.
In a joint statement, the mayor's office and the school board cited the upcoming shift from a board appointed entirely by the mayor to a partially elected board. Voters in November will choose 1o board members, while Johnson will appoint 11 others, as well as the board's president.
None of the seven current board members – board president Jianan Shi; and members Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Mariela Estrada, Mary Fahey Hughes, Rudy Lozano Jr., Michelle Morales and Tanya Woods; all of them appointed by Johnson last year – planned to continue serving on the hybrid board when it is seated in January.
District CEO Pedro Martinez is against that move. Sources tell us the mayor wants Martinez to resign. Without a resignation, the only way to remove him from office would be fore the school board to fire him. The current members decided they'd rather quit than fire Martinez.
Why does Johnson want Martinez to resign from CPS?
Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd) and other sources last month said Johnson asked for Martinez's resignation last month, amid contentious contract talks between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union, but Martinez refused, saying he would wait to hear from the Board of Education. Martinez has two years left on his contract, which was approved by the Chicago Board of Education after he was appointed in 2021.
Jonson later denied asking Martinez to step down.
According to published reports, the current board had backed Martinez in a dispute with Johnson over the CPS budget and contract negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union – for which Johnson was once an organizer, and was a major financial supporter of his campaign for mayor.
Martinez is opposing high-interest loans the mayor wants CPS to take out to support teacher raises being negotiated with the CTU, at a time when CPS is facing a $500 million deficit for the 2025 contract year. The board did not include the loan in the approved CPS budget for the 2024-25 school year.
"I didn't ask anybody to do anything. I didn't ask anybody to do anything," Johnson said earlier this week. "The only thing that I'm requiring in this moment is leadership that's prepared to invest in our children, and the strategy is ultimately about what's best for our children."
Ultimately, the board makes the final call on firing its CEO, but it made no move to fire Martinez at its September meeting.
