(WTTW News)
Mayor Brandon Johnson named a seventh and final member to the newly reconstituted Chicago Board of Education, which is set to meet for the first time Thursday and hold its first regular meeting Nov. 1, according to an agenda published Tuesday.
Rafael Yáñez, who ran unsuccessfully to represent the 15th Ward on the Chicago City Council in 2015 and 2019, is set to join the board, alongside Olga Bautista, Michilla Blaise, Mary Gardner, the Rev. Mitchell Johnson, Deborah “Debby” Pope and Frank Niles Thomas, according to the agenda.
Johnson named the new board members after the entire board earlier this month abruptly announced plans to step down.
Yáñez earns more than $114,000 as a Chicago police officer, according to a city database. His LinkedIn profile identifies his role as a hate crimes and civil rights investigator.
Johnson praised Yáñez as a “public servant” who is raising a family in the city of Chicago.
“Like all of the board members that we've had, and the board members that are coming in, these are people who are deeply tethered and connected to the neighborhoods in which, quite frankly, need bonafide, legitimate leadership that will speak to the values of our city,” Johnson said.
The Chicago Teachers Union contributed more than $69,000 and the SEIU Healthcare Illinois Indiana PAC contributed more than $62,000 to his campaign account, according to Reform for Illinois Sunshine database.
Johnson is set to serve as the board’s president and Gardner as the board’s vice president.
The board is scheduled to hold an agenda review committee meeting at 10 a.m. Thursday at the Colman CPS Administrative Office, 4655 S. Dearborn St. That meeting was originally scheduled to take place Oct. 16 but was delayed amid the tumult. The regular meeting of the board was set to take place Thursday before it was delayed.
The first regular meeting for the new CPS board is scheduled for Nov. 1 and comes as the district has been engulfed in controversy.
The board is set to meet four days before 10 candidates are elected to the Chicago Board of Education. Johnson will appoint the board’s chair and 10 other members.
That meeting represents the board’s first opportunity to terminate CPS CEO Pedro Martinez, who has been locked in a public battle with Johnson.
The mayor declined repeatedly to tell reporters Tuesday whether he has asked the board members to fire Martinez.
The controversy burst into public view nearly a month ago when Martinez said he refused Johnson’s request to resign.
The turmoil began in July, when the former members of the CPS board approved a budget for 2025 that did not make a required $175 million payment to one of its employee pension funds or set aside money to pay for a new CTU contract that includes pay raises for teachers, more art teachers and services for children experiencing homelessness.
CPS needs an additional $300 million to pay those bills, Martinez said.
Johnson has proposed borrowing money to cover those costs, but Martinez has called the proposal backed by the mayor “exorbitant” and fiscally irresponsible.
Instead, the City Council should fill that gap with property tax revenue now set aside in special funds designed to fight blight across the city, Martinez said.
But an assessment by the Cook County Clerk’s Office first reported by WTTW News makes it unlikely there will be enough unspent, unclaimed or leftover funds in the city’s tax increment financing districts to solve the financial crisis engulfing the school district.
The school district’s longstanding financial woes, caused by a heavy debt load and spiraling pension costs, worsened significantly this year, as the district exhausted its share of the federal COVID-19 relief funds that kept the district afloat during the pandemic.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | [email protected] | (773) 569-1863
