Mayor Brandon Johnson Tribune Content Agency
All seven members of the Chicago Board of Education for Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are resigning later this month after experiencing conflict between Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez.
CPS board members had refused to accept Johnson’s orders regarding having Martinez fired. Martinez had refused to step down after rejecting a short term, high interest loan to cover the Chicago Teachers Union and pension payments for this year.
This decision may affect 300,000 Chicago public schools students.
The Chicago Board of Education who’ve resigned include President Jianan Shi, and following members Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Mariela Estrada, Mary Fahey Hughes, Rudy Lozano Jr., Michelle Morales and Tanya Woods.
It is unclear whether these members have been either forced to resign or protested against Johnson. However, this has occurred during teacher contract negotiations.
Prior to the resignations, Johnson had handpicked all members of the board only 14 months ago. Johnson will now appoint interim members until a new board is later elected in the new year. This decision leads Johnson to appoint new board members for CPS Monday morning at a South Side Church.
“In three decades of mayoral control, no Chicago mayor has replaced all of their hand-picked members so quickly. Johnson hand-picked six of seven members last July,” states Chalkbeat.
For the first time, Chicagoans have the option to vote for which members will be placed on the school board which has moved onto 21-members who will be elected during November.
Chicago voters will decide on 10 elected members who will serve four year terms while the mayor will appoint 11 members who will serve single two-year terms.
Johnson had claimed all seven board members would “transition from service” later this month and denied the situation was a power move for his own gain. None of the members plan on being a candidate for election.
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