Chicago Public Schools staffer Ellen Rosenfeld pushed past five other candidates — and fellow CPS parents — to become the Chicago school board’s member from the largely wealthy North Side District 4, according to results from the Associated Press.
Rosenfeld, who works in CPS’ community engagement office, was supported by a slew of other groups, including some establishment Democratic organizations and more conservative “school choice” groups — the latter of which Rosenfeld has said she did not solicit. She’s also a former teacher at Dulles and Hartigan elementary schools and a parent at Whitney Young Magnet High School. She served on Bell Local School Council as a parent.
All six candidates who competed to represent the lakefront district, which includes Lincoln Park, Lake View, North Center and Uptown, have worked in education. But the contest came down to a race between Rosenfeld and retired longtime teacher Karen Zaccor, who was backed by the Chicago Teachers Union and several progressive organizations, including Northside Action for Justice, her activist home. She taught for 28 years at three Uptown schools and served on the local school councils at all three.
At an election party at O’Donovan’s in the North Center neighborhood, Rosenfeld said she stayed true to her message.
“I’m independent of the mayor. I’m independent of any special interest groups. I have the kids, they are my clients,” said Rosenfeld, a former third grade teacher. “Those are the ones that I’m working for.”
Two groups that Rosenfeld did not coordinate with spent $321,000 supporting her or opposing Zaccor. The groups, Urban Center Action and the Illinois Network of Charter Schools Action, can raise and spend without limits but they can’t coordinate with candidates. They both support charter schools and oppose the teachers union.
Rosenfeld was the lone candidate who said the school board should continue raising the property tax levy to the maximum allowed by the state each year. But she said that’s out of necessity and there needs to be new revenue sources to address the district’s structural deficit.
“It’s probably unpopular but CPS’ financial state dictates that need,” she said.
Zaccor told supporters at CTU’s election night party Tuesday that many of the voters she spoke to during the campaign agreed with her vision for CPS — arguing the only people who didn’t agree with that vision were those who poured millions into supporting candidates against the union.
“They can’t win this fight,” Zaccor said. “We’ve won tonight — we have an elected school board.”
She said the fight toward educational equity will continue.
“I will see you on the next battleground,” she said.