(Bloomberg) -- The Chicago Board of Education will consider firing the school system’s top executive who has clashed with Mayor Brandon Johnson amid contentious negotiations with the teachers’ union.
In a special meeting on Friday evening, the board is scheduled to hear two reports from outside counsel on a settlement and termination of chief officer, according to the public agenda. It comes before next month’s transition to a partially elected board. Currently, the entire board is appointed by Johnson.
The controversial move to possibly overhaul the leadership of the nation’s fourth-largest school district follows months of tension between Johnson, backed by the Chicago Teachers Union, and Chief Executive Officer Pedro Martinez who refused to take out a short-term loan as the district faces deficits topping $500 million.
Johnson has made transforming education in the city a key focus. The former social studies teacher, who previously served as a union organizer, completely overhauled the school board in October.
That came after Martinez said in a September op-ed in the Chicago Tribune that he had refused Johnson’s request to resign. Martinez said the district, which serves more than 320,000 students, needed stability in the midst of contract talks. The school system has been negotiating since April with the union, which currently doesn’t have a contract and is seeking higher wages among other demands.
Adding to the pressure, Chicago had been counting on the district to pay about $175 million of non-teacher pension costs this year. Amid the financial woes, Martinez said he is against what he called “exorbitant, short-term borrowing,” warning about the risk to the credit rating.
Earlier this month, S&P Global Ratings said that the district’s management uncertainty and union negotiations could further strain its fiscal stability. S&P grades the district’s debt with a BB+ rating, one step below investment grade.
Negotiators from the Chicago Teachers Union are working to settle its pending contract before Christmas, according to an emailed statement.
“At the bargaining table, CEO Martinez is stonewalling,” the union said in its statement. “Until CEO Martinez comes to the bargaining table with real financial answers, he’s delaying progress for educators and the students we serve. Our schools and communities cannot wait.”
Martinez and Chief Education Officer Bogdana Chkoumbova said the district is also trying to get a contract “done as quickly as possible,” according to a Dec. 18 labor update to families and staff on the district’s website.
“Given that CPS is facing structural deficits for the foreseeable future, there is still work to be done to ensure the eventual contract is affordable both in the short and long term,” Martinez and Chkoumbova said in the post.
Martinez Defenders
Before Friday’s board meeting, local leaders, including former US Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who previously served as the Chicago schools CEO, defended Martinez.
“Pedro Martinez’s apparent ‘sin’ is refusing to enter into a contract that CPS cannot afford, and that will negatively impact both the district and the children it serves for years to come,” Duncan said in an emailed statement.
Duncan and the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club, which includes business leaders, have asked the board to cancel the special meeting Friday.
“For a lame duck school board to call a special session with just two days’ notice and just three weeks before a hybrid elected school board is seated is an affront to the voters of Chicago,” according to a statement emailed from the committee.
Outside counsel at Cozen O’Connor retained by the board and attorney William Quinlan, who is reportedly representing Martinez, did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Chicago Public Schools did not provide comment regarding the board’s agenda items or provide comment from Martinez. A spokesperson for Johnson did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment.
Janice Jackson, who served as Chicago schools CEO during the 2019 teachers strike, the longest since the 1980s, warned about the financial risks if the board pushes Martinez out.
“The planned special session by the Board of Education to fire CEO Pedro Martinez is dirty Chicago politics at its worst,” Jackson, who is now head of Hope Chicago, a nonprofit focused on postsecondary education, said in a statement posted on X. “The interim board and Mayor Johnson are trying to ram through an irresponsible teachers’ contract they know Chicago cannot afford and which will further destabilize the school district.”
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