(Bloomberg) -- Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday announced a new slate of board members for the city’s public schools after last week saying that all his previous appointees would step down amid rising tensions over budget shortfalls.
“I was elected to fight and fight I am,” Johnson, a first-term mayor who previously worked as a Chicago Teachers Union organizer, said at a press conference at a church on the city’s South Side.
The mayor’s plan to replace all seven board members sparked concern on the part of most of the city council, members of the Chicago business community and watchdogs. The district serves more than 320,000 students, making it one of the nation’s largest.
Tensions between the teachers union and the district have flared for years, spurred by a fight for resources, a plunge in enrollment and the risk of school closures. Johnson’s election in early 2023, backed by teachers union organizers, raised questions from the get-go about the role this political force in Chicago would play in City Hall.
Amid all the financial issues facing the district, Johnson said at the news conference that he wouldn’t tolerate cuts in its budget. Everything, including borrowing, is on the table, he said.
A major issue is a $175 million payment the city was anticipating from the district for pension costs for non-teacher school staff. The district, facing about a $500 million shortfall because of expiring pandemic-era aid and mounting expenses, didn’t cover those costs.
That missing payment is contributing to a nearly $223 million gap in the city’s budget this year. The district also projects budget deficits for the next several years.
CTU Influence
The swift overhaul of the board is the clearest indication of the CTU’s influence as it negotiates a new five-year contract with the district. Friction has escalated as talks over a new contract failed after the last one expired in June. Then came reports that Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Pedro Martinez rejected Johnson’s suggestion to take a short-term loan to pay for rising salary and pension costs.
Martinez was appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot. He defended his rebuke of the loan proposal in an opinion piece in the Chicago Tribune last month. Martinez also said he refused Johnson’s request for his resignation.
The decision to overhaul the board unilaterally “raises fundamental questions of governance,” said Joe Ferguson, president of watchdog group The Civic Federation.
The upheaval comes right before the school district is set to start shifting from a seven-member board appointed by the mayor to one with 21 elected members. Ten members will be elected in November and the remaining 11 will be appointed by the mayor for now. The transition to fully elected will be completed in 2027.
In a release Monday, the mayor’s office named Olga Bautista, Michilla Blaise, Mary Gardner, Reverend Mitchell L. Ikenna Johnson, Deborah Pope and Frank Niles Thomas as nominees for the board, who are undergoing a vetting process before their official appointment.
(Adds comments from press conference in fifth paragraph, candidates for board in final paragraph.)
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