Education
Mayor Brandon Johnson Makes New Board of Education Appointments After Full Board Announced Resignation Plans
Mayor Brandon Johnson on Monday revealed his first round of new appointees for Chicago’s Board of Education after the full board abruptly announced their plans to step down late last week.
The mayor announced his new picks for the board amid a tumultuous time between Johnson and CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who said he rejected the mayor’s request that he resign his position.
The new members include: former local school council chair Frank Niles Thomas, the Rev. Mitchell L. Ikenna Johnson, Southeast Environmental Task Force Executive Director Olga Bautista, Michilla “Kyla” Blaise, who serves as chief of staff for 16th District Cook County Commissioner Frank Aguilar, West Side community activist Mary Gardner and former CPS teacher and ex-Chicago Teachers Union member Deborah Pope.
Stay Tuned: Mayor Brandon Johnson is scheduled to appear on “Chicago Tonight” Tuesday to discuss the latest on the Chicago Board of Education. The show airs at 5:30 p.m., 10 p.m. and streams on-demand online.
Johnson said there are “a number of people” who remain under consideration for the seventh board seat and the others he will appoint once the board expands to 21 members in January.
“My vision is about building a system that works for everyone,” Johnson said. “Imagine our schools down a pathway of new discovery, where you don’t have to have senseless cuts and real disruption and chaos.”
The mayor made the announcement Monday at the Sweet Holy Spirit Church in South Chicago over shouts from protesters who called the board “not legit.”
According to the mayor, the intention is that these new appointees will begin serving by this month’s Oct. 24 board meeting.
Following his election victory last year, Johnson took three months to finalize his initial board appointees, but Monday’s announcement comes just three days after board President Jianan Shi, Vice President Elizabeth Todd-Breland and fellow members Mariela Estrada, Mary Fahey Hughes, Rudy Lozano, Michelle Morales and Tanya Woods announced their plans to resign.
Johnson has portrayed the board resignations as a “transition,” as none of those members had planned to continue serving once the board expands to a partially elected 21-member body beginning in January.
In a joint statement, Johnson and the board last Friday said both sides understood “that laying a strong foundation for the shift is necessary to serve the best interests of students and families in Chicago Public Schools.”
Johnson and Martinez have been split on issues of CPS finances, the potential of future school closures and the district’s ongoing labor negotiations with the Chicago Teachers Union — Johnson’s previous employer.
Johnson, who previously denied asking for Martinez to step down, is unable to fire the CEO directly. That must be done by the board, and if it did so without cause, Martinez’s contract requires that he continue serving with pay during a six-month transition period.
Video: Joining “Chicago Tonight” are Ald. Bill Conway (34th Ward), state Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago), Ald. William Hall (6th Ward) and Ald. Byron Sigcho Lopez (25th Ward). (Produced by Shelby Hawkins)
Over the weekend, a large majority of Chicago’s 50 alderpeople signed an open letter calling the resignations an “unprecedented” move that will bring “further instability to our school district.” In the letter, more than 40 City Council members decried Johnson’s plan to take out a $300 million high-interest loan to cover CPS expenses, saying that doing so is “not a smart decision.”
“CEO Pedro Martinez and the members of the School Board, who have announced their resignation, understood the reality of the situation by passing a budget that did not include this loan,” the alderpeople wrote. “There is extreme cause for concern now that those voices have been diminished.”
The alderpeople also called for City Council hearings before the end of the month and before Johnson’s new board appointments are finalized. The council, however, has no say over who the mayor can select to serve on the board — a point Johnson made clear repeatedly throughout Monday’s announcement.
“The City Council can have as many hearings as they want,” he said. “There’s one person who has the authority by state law to make appointments. And that’s the mayor of Chicago and that’s me.”
“Yes, the mayor has the authority to appoint and fill vacancies, but they (constituents) want to know: What happened?” state Rep. Ann Williams (D-Chicago) said during a “Chicago Tonight” appearance Monday. “What were the decisions that led us to this point that we lost the board in one fell swoop?”
“This is about accountability and communication,” she continued, “and that’s what voters need to hear right now.”
Johnson wouldn’t discuss any specifics on borrowing, but repeatedly stated that “everything is on the table” to prevent district cuts and fill funding gaps. The mayor also refused to allow the new appointees to answer a question from media during the press conference about whether they supported that loan.
When asked if he had questioned the appointees about whether they’d be willing to fire Martinez, Johnson said: “They were asked to carry out the vision of public education, the one I ran on, the one that’s in my transition plan, the one that’s in this transition five-year plan, they were asked to carry that vision out.”
“It’s been a stunning turn of events in the sense that you have a board ... that was pushed out for not being willing to fire a fiscally responsible CEO,” Ald. Bill Conway (34th Ward) said on “Chicago Tonight” Monday. “Now, presumably (Johnson) replaced that board with loyalists who will probably likely fire that CEO and take out the high-interest loan that he (Johnson) wants.”
“The board was facing a failed plan by Pedro (Martinez), which he procrastinated,” Ald. William Hall (6th Ward) said of the seven board members who chose to resign. “He has a year and a half to produce a plan. ... I walked the hall with Pedro two weeks ago. There were 40-year-old lockers that are still malfunctioning in schools. This board did not want to be responsible, along with the mayor, for the 1,200 job cuts that were on the horizon with Pedro’s pandering plan.”
Johnson appeared defiant and combative during what was at times a contentious announcement event Monday, taking aim at critics of his leadership, both among the City Council and media in attendance.
“I understand there are individuals who are going to use this as a political opportunity to sow seeds of doubt,” Johnson said. “But make no mistake about it, I am going to stand firm and flatfoot to ensure that our students get what they deserve.”
The six appointees appeared with Johnson during Monday’s announcement.
Blaise had previously been on the ballot running for one of the elected board seats in the 5th District, but she previously dropped out of the race.
Johnson confirmed that Pope, whose name appeared on the CTU’s staff directory, no longer works for the union.
According to the city, Gardner was a longtime collaborator with Rainbow PUSH and in 2020 was appointed to the City of Chicago Women’s Advisory Council. She’s also served on multiple different local school councils.
Thomas has served as 21st Ward superintendent for the city’s Department of Streets and Sanitation for more than a decade and founded a mentoring program at Dunne Elementary School.
Shelby Hawkins contributed to this report.
