Politics
Tensions Between Mayor Johnson, CPS CEO Martinez Escalate Amid Questions About School Closures
Left: Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks at a news conference on March 20, 2024. Right: Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez appears on “Chicago Tonight” on May 7, 2024. (WTTW News)
Tensions escalated Friday between Mayor Brandon Johnson and Chicago Public Schools CEO Pedro Martinez as Chicago Teachers Union officials said they were concerned Martinez was planning to close as many as 100 schools.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported Friday that Johnson told Martinez he wants him to leave his position. A spokesperson for Johnson declined to comment on whether he had asked Martinez to resign, citing the mayor’s policy of not commenting on personnel matters. A spokesperson for Martinez declined to comment.
Martinez had been scheduled to join WTTW News’ “Chicago Tonight” on Monday but declined to appear hours before the show was scheduled to air.
Martinez reports to the Chicago Board of Education, whose members — all appointed by the mayor — have the power to terminate his contract.
In a letter addressed to CPS families, staff and supporters, Martinez said he wanted to “reach out to you in light of news articles about the future of our district's leadership.”
“You should know that me and my leadership team are 100 percent focused on building on the positive momentum of the new school year and implementing the district's new five-year strategic plan,” Martinez wrote, making no mention of any request from the mayor to resign.
Martinez promised to remain true “to our new school funding model which will promote more equity” and vowed not to close schools.
“Our students have clearly benefitted from the increased stability in our school system,” Martinez wrote. “We will continue to lead with integrity and transparency in service of our students.”
A spokesperson for the mayor did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Martinez' letter.
Board President Jinan Shi did not immediately respond to a request for comment from WTTW News.
While Martinez was appointed by former Mayor Lori Lightfoot to lead CPS in September 2021, he and Johnson appeared to develop a cordial working relationship through the mayor’s first year in office.
But that rapport fell apart as CPS grappled with a 2024 budget deficit of $505 million, and the board approved a spending plan that did not make a required $175 million payment to one of its employee pension funds.
That decision exploded the city’s 2024 budget gap, complicating Johnson’s efforts to craft a budget for the 2025 fiscal year and to keep the city’s finances out of the red.
Martinez also saw his relationship with the leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union deteriorate during increasingly fraught negotiations over a new contract for the district’s teachers.
A former organizer with the CTU, Johnson has backed the union’s demand that a new contract include pay raises for teachers, more art teachers and services for children experiencing homelessness. That would likely require the cash-strapped school district to borrow a significant amount of money at a relatively high interest rate.
Martinez opposes additional borrowing, saying it would worsen the district’s financial condition. CPS has approximately $9.3 billion in debt, costing the district more than $817 million annually, records show.
A senior aide to Johnson told WTTW News the mayor is confident that a majority of the CPS Board supports his vision for the city’s public schools and is committed to making the payment to cover the pensions for the district’s non-teacher employees.
The tumult comes as Chicago voters prepare to elect the first members of an independent school board in November, ending nearly 30 years of mayoral control of the school district.
The increasingly tense relationship between Johnson and Martinez reached a new low when CTU leaders sounded the alarm that Martinez had crafted plans to close or consolidate as many as 100 schools.
In a letter to CTU members, President Stacy Davis Gates said CPS needs “a CEO who will focus on raising the revenue needed to fully fund our schools, who will finally turn the page on the shameful days of closures and community disruption.”
Davis Gates could not immediately be reached for comment Friday afternoon by WTTW News.
In a letter to CPS staff prompted by the union’s missive, Martinez acknowledged compiling that list as part of an effort to compile a five-year strategic plan for the district. But he said he ruled out a plan to close any schools.
During an Aug. 26 appearance on “Chicago Tonight,” Martinez reiterated his pledge not to close schools to save money, and he reaffirmed that promise in his letter to staff, which accused CTU leaders of spreading “misinformation.”
“Anything else you may hear is simply not based on fact,” Martinez wrote late last week. “It is also counter to our district’s integrity and our principles for making decisions.”
Johnson was infuriated to learn Martinez had crafted a list of schools that could be closed without informing him first, a senior aide to Johnson told WTTW News.
A former middle school social studies teacher, Johnson helped lead CTU’s 2012 strike and campaigned against former Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s decision to close 50 schools in 2013, the largest school closure in the nation.
More than a decade later, the closures did nothing to steady the district’s financial position and left deep wounds in communities where schools were closed.
Contact Heather Cherone: @HeatherCherone | (773) 569-1863 | [email protected]
