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Regardless of weeks of strain from Mayor Brandon Johnson and the lecturers union, the Chicago Board of Training didn’t take away Chicago Public Faculties CEO Pedro Martinez from his put up throughout its Thursday assembly.
The college board did unanimously move a decision put ahead by Martinez that mentioned it is not going to shut colleges till 2027. That vote got here on the finish of what was an usually tense public assembly that drew many supporters and opponents of Martinez.
In an announcement issued earlier this week, the district mentioned the board — which was appointed by Johnson — wouldn’t take motion on Martinez’s contract. However the veracity of that assertion got here into query after Board President Jianan Shi mentioned the board had not authorized it.
On Thursday, Shi didn’t immediately touch upon the mayor’s request for Martinez to resign. He mentioned the board “can’t and won’t and received’t talk about confidential or personnel issues publicly.”
Earlier than the board adopted the decision, Shi additionally addressed recent claims from the Chicago Academics Union about college closures which have helped gas a push to fireside Martinez. Shi mentioned there was no plan to shut colleges, which drew applause.
The battle between Johnson and Martinez displays a basic rift over how the district ought to navigate a time when federal COVID aid {dollars} are operating out and main deficits loom.
Tensions between the 2 surfaced this summer time when Johnson criticized the district’s new funds. The CPS funds contains cuts to assist remove a funds deficit however doesn’t embrace a $175 million fee to a municipal pension fund that covers non-teaching workers and different metropolis employees.
The latter was one thing Johnson — earlier than he grew to become mayor — had criticized his predecessor Lori Lightfoot about. However now, the refusal by CPS to pay for some pension prices has helped inflate the deficit within the metropolis funds that Johnson now oversees.
Johnson pushed CPS to take out a short-term mortgage to cowl the prices of the pension fee, in addition to union contracts with the lecturers and principals unions. However CPS and Martinez declined as a consequence of fears about debt.
These tensions have been exacerbated by contract negotiations that started this summer time between the union — the place Johnson was an organizer — and CPS. Johnson stays a staunch ally of the union, which has proposed 9% pay raises, extra classroom staffing, further assist for college students, and entry to inexpensive housing for homeless college students, amongst different issues.
Final week, Johnson requested Martinez to resign, and Martinez declined. In a rare public transfer, Martinez wrote an op-ed within the Chicago Tribune saying that he needs to keep up stability for the district and described the speak of closures as an effort to undermine him.
Relatively than talk about Martinez’s job standing, Shi tried to attract consideration Thursday to the district’s efforts to present extra sources to colleges “farthest from alternative.”
Claims about college closures are ‘misinformation’ says Martinez
On Thursday, Martinez didn’t tackle his future. However he reiterated that the district has no plans to shut colleges and once more described the claims about closures as a part of a “misinformation marketing campaign.”
Jackson Potter, vp of the Chicago Academics Union, stopped wanting calling for Martinez’s resignation on Thursday. However he mentioned in the course of the assembly that colleges could be higher off if Martinez “might exert a fraction of the vitality and chutzpah you’ve exercised to defend your job” towards making certain colleges had extra funding.
The union just lately mentioned it had obtained a district evaluation itemizing dozens of recent college co-locations. However CPS mentioned the evaluation in the end led the district to resolve towards closing colleges.
Nonetheless, these reassurances have didn’t quell all considerations. Jitu Brown, a longtime activist and faculty board candidate on the West Facet who has been endorsed by the lecturers union, led a press convention with a number of group organizations earlier than Thursday’s assembly throughout which they displayed what they mentioned was the checklist of co-locations. Brown mentioned they obtained them from a dependable supply however declined to say who. (Neither the union nor the district has shared the checklist with Chalkbeat.)
Brown mentioned the checklist reminds him of college closures underneath former Mayor Richard Daley.
“Yearly that Mayor Daley and his appointed college board closed 15 colleges, closed 8 colleges, closed 10 colleges, they all the time instructed us, ‘These are simply concepts,’ in order that they have to be out of their rabid thoughts in the event that they consider that we don’t suppose that is severe,” Brown mentioned.
The district has mentioned it’s contemplating a co-location at only one college: Velma Thomas Early Childhood Middle on the town’s South Facet.
At the very least a dozen folks from the Velma Thomas group, together with mother and father and lecturers, sharply criticized the district and Martinez on Thursday for not taking swift motion to purchase the varsity’s constructing, which they mentioned is up on the market. The church that owns the constructing supplied it to CPS however mentioned the district declined to buy it, the McKinley Park Information reported in Might.
Martinez didn’t tackle that declare, however mentioned “no choices have been made” and received’t be till they have interaction the varsity group. A instructor interrupted, “You’re letting them promote the constructing!”
Individually, a number of folks spoke each in favor and towards Martinez. Natasha Dunn, a CPS dad or mum who’s a part of Black Neighborhood Collaborative, mentioned “regardless of his faults,” she credited CPS for launching a working group to discover tips on how to higher assist Black college students.
Ald. Gilbert Villegas, Ald. Silvana Tabares, and Ald. Nick Sposato all spoke in assist of protecting Martinez. Sposato wore a “Vote For Pedro” T-shirt — a reference to the film “Napoleon Dynamite.”
However Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez strongly criticized Martinez, partially due to the claims round closures.
“It’s time the Board of Training holds CPS accountable,” he mentioned.
Reema Amin is a reporter overlaying Chicago Public Faculties. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org .