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The Chicago Board of Schooling is slated to vote on a decision that commits to no faculty closures till 2027. The transfer comes after the Chicago Lecturers Union claimed faculties CEO Pedro Martinez was planning for closures.
The decision, which Mayor Brandon Johnson’s appointed faculty board will vote on at its Thursday assembly, additionally comes days after Johnson requested Martinez to resign. However in an op-ed for Chicago Tribune printed Tuesday, Martinez mentioned he is not going to step down.
The decision is worded as a advice from Martinez that the board shall be requested to approve. However within the Tribune piece, Martinez mentioned each he and Board President Jianan Shi are asking the board to approve the decision. In a letter to workers and households, Martinez mentioned the decision has the board’s “enthusiastic help.”
If handed by the board, the decision would place a moratorium on faculty closures till the tip of the 2026-2027 faculty 12 months. At present, state regulation prevents Chicago from closing faculties till Jan. 15, 2025. That’s the identical day that the metropolis’s new, partially elected faculty board shall be sworn in.
In an electronic mail, Mary Ann Fergus, a spokesperson for Chicago Public Faculties, mentioned the decision is binding, “however, after all, it may very well be reversed by future Boards.”
The decision goes on to say Martinez has “constantly and publicly said that he is not going to suggest district-managed faculty closures, consolidations or phase-outs throughout his tenure as CEO.” It provides that the board has additionally been “constant” about no closures throughout Martinez’s employment.
The decision additionally notes that by 2027, the town could have a totally elected faculty board. In January, simply 10 of the members shall be elected, whereas the remaining 11 shall be appointed by Johnson. However in 2026, all faculty board seats shall be up for election.
In a letter despatched to workers and households Tuesday, Martinez wrote that the decision was an effort to “put to relaxation” what he described as a “misinformation marketing campaign,” though he didn’t say who was liable for that marketing campaign.
“I’m upset that this misinformation marketing campaign is on the market, as a result of I do know it has brought about pointless stress and fear for a lot of in our college communities,” Martinez mentioned within the letter.
Faculty closures are a political third rail in Chicago, the place in 2013, former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s determination to shut 50 faculties is nonetheless painful for a lot of Chicago residents.
Final week, the union mentioned it had obtained a faculty services evaluation that included a listing of 70 faculties that may very well be consolidated with 70 others. Citing this doc, the union’s Home of Delegates handed a vote of no confidence in Martinez.
The union didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark for this story.
District officers have staunchly denied that they’re planning faculty closures, and Martinez has mentioned he wouldn’t shut faculties throughout his tenure as head of CPS.
In a letter final week to workers, Martinez mentioned the college board requested the evaluation, and that the district carried out it to assist create a five-year strategic plan, which locations extra give attention to bolstering neighborhood faculties. Martinez has mentioned the evaluation led the board and CPS officers to determine that closures have been pointless.
Neither the union nor the district have shared the services evaluation with Chalkbeat.
The board’s passage of a decision, which partially defends each the board and Martinez, comes lower than every week after the mayor referred to as Martinez into his workplace and requested him to resign.
Tensions between the mayor and CPS turned clear after Johnson advised reporters that he was sad with the CPS price range, which had a slew of cuts to shut its deficit.
Johnson’s want to oust Martinez got here after Martinez and the board declined to cowl a piece of pension funds for non-teaching workers, a value that CPS took on throughout Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s tenure that Johnson criticized on the time. CPS was dealing with a roughly half-billion-dollar deficit when it coated a few of these funds underneath Lightfoot. The refusal by CPS to cowl that price has helped inflate a metropolis price range deficit.
When the Johnson administration pushed CPS to take out a short-term mortgage to assist pay for the pension prices, in addition to the prices of latest academics and principals union contracts, Martinez and the board balked.
In an inner memo obtained by Chalkbeat, CPS management mentioned taking out such a mortgage could be fiscally irresponsible, might lead to an extra downgrade of its bond scores, and would worsen the district’s long-term money owed. Martinez publicly confirmed these considerations in his Tribune op-ed.
In a Tuesday assertion, Metropolis Corridor spokesperson Ronnie Reese didn’t immediately deal with the decision.
“As an organizer, Mayor Johnson fought in opposition to faculty closures and took part in a starvation strike to save lots of neighborhood faculties,” Reese mentioned. “His imaginative and prescient for public training in Chicago requires investments in our college students — not layoffs and dangerous faculty actions which have traumatized households and communities throughout the town.”
Reema Amin is a reporter overlaying Chicago Public Faculties. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org .
