CTU President Calls Out Chicago Public Schools CEO Amid Tensions Over New 5-Year School Plan


Nearly one week after the Chicago School Board approved a new five-year plan for Chicago Public Schools, tensions among CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union are mounting to create a perfect storm. That’s just as the CTU and CPS are sitting down in contract negotiations.

Called “Together We Rise,” the 47-page CPS strategic plan lays out goals that the district aims to put into action by 2029. But Martinez is facing heavy criticism from Johnson and the CTU amid allegations he supports school closures, consolidations, furloughs, layoffs and more in order to balance the CPS budget.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday that Johnson told Martinez he wants him to leave his position. Also last week, the CTU House of Delegates issued a “no confidence” vote for Martinez and his ability to lead CPS.

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

CTU President Stacy Davis Gates joined “Chicago Tonight” to discuss the new CPS strategic plan. Martinez was also invited to appear on Monday’s show but declined.

Here’s what Davis Gates had to say:

On CTU’s “no confidence” vote:

“Right now, we have oversized classrooms, kindergarten classrooms with over 35 students in them. We have over 1,200 teacher vacancies currently in the district. We have schools that do not have the type of teacher assistant that we need there. We have bilingual students whose needs are going unmet, and the fallback is Google Translate. We have a list that was just uncovered of schools that will be closed. The combination of all of those things and the lack of movement at the bargaining table contributed to a unanimous vote of our House of Delegates, in fact. Their lack of confidence in the leadership of the Chicago Public Schools currently.”

On the alleged list of CPS school closures:

“It’s not an alleged list. We have the list. We were not supposed to have the list, in fact, there was a document that we received that had other tabs attached to it which were encrypted of sorts. And so we had to break that. So this is not something that anyone wanted us to have. And so then thereby receiving it, the question is now, ‘Why was this list commissioned?’ And if this list is no longer an active list, then, ‘Who made those decisions and why?’ I think the CEO owes us some explanations. He doesn’t deny the existence of the list.”

On the rising tensions among CPS, Johnson and the CTU:

“Never has there been a time of this level of alignment with the Chicago Teachers Union, the Chicago Board of Education and the mayor’s office. The Board of Education just passed a five-year strategic plan. That plan mirrors our contract proposal and it also mirrors the mayor’s Education Transition Report. All of those things mean alignment. We’ve never had that before in the history of this. The only thing that’s a sore thumb is the CEO of our school district. He’s not listening to the Board of Education who said, ‘Yes, we want the vision embedded in these contract proposals.’ Or else, they wouldn’t have passed the strategic plan unanimously. The confusion and the frustration right now, it’s palpable.”

On reports that Johnson asked Martinez to resign, and Martinez’s letter to CPS families, staff and supporters:

“There is PR Pedro, and then there is another Pedro. Our CEO is doing two things: He’s making presentations to the stakeholders as if he is in alignment with the Board of Education, with the mayor of Chicago and with the teachers and the paraprofessionals and clinicians. And on the other end of this, he is saying that all of our alignment is impossible to bring to fruition, because we don’t have the funding. And then he doubles down and says, ‘I don’t have a plan to win the funding either.’  Pedro Martinez has to do two things. He has to get in line with his Board of Education, with his boss, the mayor, and with the workers who make the district go, and he needs to create a vision and a plan for how we win the revenue and the funding to offer students what they deserve. Offering them cuts only is not the vision we have for this district, and our union will not go backwards. We’ve done that already. It doesn’t work.”


Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors