Chicago Teachers Union-backed candidate Yesenia Lopez prevailed in the school board District 7 race, according to the Associated Press, ahead of stay-at-home parents Eva Villalobos and Raquel Don, ending an expensive campaign.
Lopez, Don and Villalobos battled it out in the city’s first elected school board race to represent the district that includes Pilsen, Little Village, Gage Park, Brighton Park and the Near West Side, along with parts of Bridgeport, Chinatown and McKinley Park.
Lopez is an executive assistant in the office of the Illinois Secretary of State and has worked with several area schools. Don and Villalobos are stay-at-home parents who volunteer at schools, and Don serves on two Local School Councils. Don is a parent of Chicago Public Schools students, and Lopez and Villalobos are CPS graduates.
The race and campaigns were marked — and funded — by the Chicago Teachers Union and the Illinois Network of Charter Schools, which has financially backed Villalobos.
Lopez’s victory is a win for CTU, which had endorsed candidates all 10 districts and had hopes for a strong presence on the new board.
While campaigning, Lopez focused largely on improving neighborhood schools so families don’t feel the need to seek out charter or selective enrollment schools, setting her apart from her opponents, who both supported school choice.
“It was not Yesenia on the ballot, it was the community on the ballot,” she said Tuesday night at the CTU election party.
She warned that their work was not over, pointing out the money that poured into the school board election from out of state.
Lopez is a graduate of Benito Juárez Community Academy, a Chicago public school in Pilsen. She campaigned on the issue of improving dual-language learning in the district, where many students are English language learners.
In a WBEZ/Sun-Times/Chalkbeat questionnaire, Lopez said CPS CEO Pedro Martinez should keep his job, diverging from Mayor Brandon Johnson, who Martinez said asked him to resign after a clash over how to resolve the budget deficit.
When it comes to reducing the district’s budget hole, Lopez said the mayor’s suggested short-term loan isn’t the way to handle the district’s shortfall.
Villalobos said she had no regrets about running.
“In two more years, there’s going to be another election,” Villalobos, a mom of four, said Tuesday night. “And I’m hoping that we have more open-minded, independent mind thinkers that can also make it on the board, so we can have a more balanced board where we can have representation from the whole city.”
Contributing: Lisa Kurian Philip