Chicago's Board of Education met Friday, Nov. 1, 2024 for its regular monthly meeting. (WTTW News)

Amid ongoing turmoil, Chicago’s Board of Education on Friday pushed ahead with its first meeting in more than five weeks — one day after president Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson became the eighth person to resign from the seven-member board in the last calendar month.

Johnson, who just last week was voted by his fellow board members to serve as board president, stepped down Thursday following pressure from dozens of Chicago alderpeople and Gov. J.B. Pritzker over after a series of antisemitic, misogynistic and conspiratorial social media posts.

As of Friday morning, his name had already been removed from the Board of Education webpage and the board unanimously voted member Michilla Blaise to serve as chairman pro tem solely for Friday’s meeting following Johnson’s resignation.

“Before we go any further, I’d like to reaffirm this board’s commitment to inclusivity and collaboration with all stakeholders to foster a supportive learning environment,” Blaise said, while not mentioning Johnson specifically. “In alignment with Mayor Brandon Johnson, we are dedicated to our mission of transforming Chicago’s public education system.

“The academic, social and emotional growth of our students remains our primary focus and I know I can speak for my colleagues here on the board when I say we will remain laser focused on students and families.”

After additional inflammatory posts were uncovered, Mayor Brandon Johnson on Thursday said he had asked for and received the board president’s resignation.

“Reverend Mitchell Johnson’s statements were not only hurtful but deeply disturbing,” Mayor Johnson said. “I want to be clear: antisemitic, misogynistic, and conspiratorial statements are unacceptable.”

Mitchell Johnson’s brief tenure marks the shortest for any Board of Education president in recent Chicago history and his resignation comes as a hit for the mayor, who had stood behind his appointee earlier this week.

Rev. Mitchell Ikenna Johnson addresses the news media on Monday, Oct. 7 after being named to the Chicago Board of Education by Mayor Brandon Johnson. (WTTW News)

More than 40 Chicago alderpeople signed onto a letter calling for Mitchell Johnson’s resignation, saying his continued role on the board was a “non-negotiable” and that the mayor needed to act to “correct this terrible mistake.”

Mitchell Johnson apologized to “the Jewish community” earlier this week for those social media posts in an interview with WBEZ and the Chicago Sun-Times, stating they were “clearly reactive and insensitive.”

But on Thursday, additional controversial social media posts from his Facebook account were circulated online. In one, he shared a post that described the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks as an “inside job.” In another, he commented “Sad Facts” on a post criticizing the way women handle money in comparison to men.

Pritzker, who had previously said there should have been more vetting done before Mitchell Johnson was appointed to the board, joined calls for his resignation.

“Any person charged with the stewardship of the Chicago Public School Board must exemplify focused, inclusive, and steady leadership,” said Pritzker, who is Jewish. “The views expressed in the current chair’s posts – antisemitism, misogyny, fringe conspiracy theories – very clearly do not meet that standard.”

Jackson Potter, Chicago Teachers Union vice president, on Friday called Johnson’s resignation a “teachable moment.”

“As a Jewish educator and officer in our union that proudly stands up for members who work, for our students who live in every zip code in the city, every race and gender, every religious faith (and) belief,” he told the board, “I want to acknowledge and appreciate Rev. Johnson’s resignation and thank each of you for moving forward in your role of public service to deliver quality education for our students.”

In comments to the board Friday, Dan Goldwin, an official with the Jewish United Fund, called Mitchell Johnson a “blatant anti-semite, sexist and conspiracy theorist” and accused two other board members — Debby Pope and Olga Bautista — of “hostility toward Jews.”

According to Goldwin, Pope retweeted a message in recent weeks stating “Zionists are not welcome in Chicago,” while Bautista signed a letter following the Hamas-led attacks in Israel last October that compared Zionism to white supremacy.

Later in the meeting, Pope — who is Jewish — said it is “extremely important for us to make all children in our system comfortable.”

“Jewish children, Palestinian children, Muslim children, Hindu children — everyone must be comfortable and must attend school together,” she said. “I think that it is important that we put our ideologies aside and focus on children and focus on their wellbeing and them feeling safe and comfortable in our schools.”

The mayor declined earlier this week to answer questions about whether his team vetted their board president pick’s social media activity before tapping him for the high profile role.

Mitchell Johnson was one of the mayor’s seven new board appointees announced last month after the entire previous board resigned en masse amid continuing strife between Brandon Johnson and Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez.

The board on Friday opted to forego its regular closed session where it could discuss personnel matters, including the potential termination of Martinez.

He was voted by his peers as board president during last week’s agenda review committee meeting, where he expressed full support for the mayor’s vision for education in Chicago.

“This is a moment in time that we cannot afford to squander,” Mitchell Johnson said during the Oct. 24 meeting. “My opinion is the mayor has a clear vision for public education here in Chicago — a fully-funded school district that gives every Chicagoan a world-class public school in their neighborhoods.”

Chicago’s mayor has historically had full authority over Board of Education appointments, but city residents will select 10 new members in next week’s election as the board will triple in size — expanding to 21 members — beginning in January.

The remaining 11 members, including a new board president, will be picked by Mayor Johnson.

Heather Cherone contributed to this report.