Chicago Board of Education President Jianan Shi said he is not expecting to take up Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez’s contract or Mayor Brandon Johnson’s loan idea at Thursday evening’s school board meeting.
There has been significant anticipation that the tension at the nation’s fourth largest school system would come to a head Thursday and the meeting would prove decisive for Martinez’s future. That’s after last week’s news that Johnson asked Martinez to resign, and the schools chief’s public defense of his job and reputation this week. The meeting is set for 5 p.m. at Roberto Clemente Community Academy on the Near West Side.
But the public agenda for Thursday’s meeting does not list a voting item for a loan that Johnson wants CPS to take to help pay for a new Chicago Teachers Union contract — which is yet to be settled — and a pension payment for non-teaching staff that he has demanded the school district make. The Open Meetings Act that sets rules for public meetings requires 48 hours’ notice for any voting items.
Any discussion or vote on Martinez’s contract would be in closed session, where board members conduct sensitive business like personnel matters. The board could opt to raise the issue at the last minute.
But in a statement to the Chicago Sun-Times and WBEZ ahead of the meeting, Shi said, “The Board of Education is not anticipating any changes to the current board agenda.”
CPS noted earlier in the week that the agenda didn’t include either of the big-ticket items. But while that statement initially appeared to come jointly with the school board, they later clarified it was only on behalf of the district. As a result, some uncertainty remained.
Fireworks are still expected, though, now that the fight over Martinez’s future has landed fully in the Chicago political arena, where elected officials and civic leaders are lining up to take sides and pressure is mounting from the teachers’ union to find a new schools CEO.
The school board is expected to take action on a self-imposed school closings moratorium that aims to fend off CTU accusations that Martinez has been planning to close schools. Without naming the teachers’ union, Martinez has called those claims a “misinformation campaign” and “outright lies.” The ban on closings is essentially symbolic since it’s not legally binding and can be reversed at any time, but it would last until 2027. That’s through the rest of Martinez’s contract and several months after the city’s first fully elected school board is seated.
The first-ever school board elections this November will make the body partially elected, with 10 members chosen by voters and 10 by the mayor. The mayor will also choose the board president. New board members will be seated in January.
Alderpeople are also expected to address the board and Martinez, who will conduct the meeting together in what’s sure to cause uncomfortable dynamics. Expected speakers also include a CTU leader and members of the public who have watched the drama unfold while trying to focus on their kids’ education.