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The Chicago college board is assembly Friday to contemplate firing district CEO Pedro Martinez after months of hypothesis about his future pushed by a battle with Mayor Brandon Johnson.
A board agenda posted Wednesday night lists two agenda objects: approving Martinez’s termination and approving a settlement settlement. No different particulars are included.
The agenda says the board might vote on these issues at a later date. The particular assembly is scheduled for Friday night.
The vote will come three months after Mayor Brandon Johnson requested Martinez to resign, which Martinez has refused to do. Amid that pressure and questions in regards to the district’s monetary future, Johnson’s beforehand appointed board resigned en masse.
Martinez’s potential firing would come simply weeks earlier than a brand new 21-person physique made up of 10 elected officers and 11 mayoral appointees is seated. 4 of these appointees are present board members. Some elected members and different elected officers have requested the present board to withhold making main choices earlier than the brand new board is sworn in on Jan. 15.
In a Wednesday interview with Chalkbeat earlier than the particular assembly was introduced, Sean Harden, the mayor’s appointee to steer the college board, demurred when requested if Martinez ought to proceed to steer the district, saying it wouldn’t be applicable to get into personnel issues.
“The board will consider all of its management and guarantee that it’s targeted on delivering high-quality training for college kids,” he stated. “What you will be assured is that no matter resolution is made, whomever is the chief, that particular person goes to have a spotlight and a dedication, and can be capable to tangibly level to their concentrate on ensuring college students are first.”
Harden, a consulting agency govt and former CPS administrator, might be named board president at Friday’s particular assembly.
Martinez’s contract, which was amended in December 2022, permits the board to fireside him for simply trigger – reminiscent of felony exercise or “any improper act that’s opposite to the most effective pursuits of CPS.” The board also can hearth Martinez with out citing a motive, however that might permit Martinez, who makes $340,000, to maintain his job for an extra six months, plus 20 weeks of severance, in response to his contract.
Over the previous a number of months, the mayor has declined to reply questions on Martinez’s future, citing it as a personnel concern that might be inappropriate to debate in public. However the mayor’s workplace and Martinez have disagreed on plenty of points in latest months, together with Johnson’s thought for CPS to take out a short-term mortgage to pay for pension obligations and labor contracts. These contracts embrace one with the Chicago Academics Union, an in depth ally of the mayor, who was once an organizer with CTU.
Negotiations have grown more and more tense between CTU and CPS in latest weeks, with CPS unclear over the way it can pay for the contract and CTU claiming Martinez has been a hindrance to a deal. The union has pushed for a contract deal by Christmas.
Pressure additionally grew in latest weeks after the Acero constitution college community introduced it might shut seven campuses, impacting 2,000 children and greater than 200 staffers who’re members of the Chicago Academics Union. The deliberate closures sparked rallies from households and the union, which has pressed CPS to soak up the constitution faculties. Whereas Acero is permitted to shut these faculties below its contract with CPS, Johnson pressed the district to create a “contingency plan” in response to the closures.
On Friday, the board can even transfer to direct the CEO to “create an in depth plan” to show 5 of the Acero faculties — Cisneros, Casas, Fuentes, Tamayo, and Santiago — into CPS-run faculties beginning within the 2026-27 college yr. At a board assembly final week, CPS officers stated they supported conserving these faculties open and would take into account ultimately transitioning them into district faculties.
With Martinez out, the mayor might probably appoint a CEO who’s extra amenable to his concepts, together with taking out the short-term mortgage and extra rapidly closing a take care of the CTU.
However firing Martinez would even have important political prices for the mayor — and trigger profound disruption mid-school yr to a district that has grappled with fixed management turnover for years.
Many aldermen have come out in vocal help for Martinez, whom they’ve come to see as a bulwark in opposition to the academics union’s unchecked affect over the district. Nearly 700 CPS principals and assistant principals representing about 80% of district campuses signed a letter urging the board to maintain the faculties chief in his job, arguing he has introduced succesful and collaborative management that resulted in tutorial beneficial properties and nationwide recognition for CPS’s pandemic restoration.
A Chicago native and former CPS chief monetary officer, Martinez was the superintendent of the San Antonio Impartial College District when Johnson’s predecessor, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, tapped him to steer CPS in 2021. He steered the district throughout a turbulent time, as college buildings reopened for full-time in-person instruction after being shuttered through the top of the COVID-19 outbreak.
By some accounts, his tenure has introduced a measure of stability after COVID’s huge disruption. His administration has touted knowledge exhibiting the district’s college students have recovered in studying quicker than most different districts throughout the nation, in addition to commencement fee, school enrollment, and different scholar final result enhancements.
Throughout his roughly three years on the helm, Martinez presided over a big enlargement of its workforce, utilizing federal pandemic reduction {dollars} to convey on 1000’s of latest academics and help employees. He additionally oversaw an overhaul of the district’s method to budgeting this spring that de-emphasized scholar enrollment; as a substitute, the district now gives base staffing positions to all faculties and elements in a college’s stage of scholar wants in budgeting for added positions and help.
Some college board members elected to a brand new hybrid board have joined aldermen and others calling on the outgoing college board to not take motion on Martinez’s submit till the partly elected board steps in come January.
A type of elected members, Ellen Rosenfeld, voiced dismay at the potential for a Martinez ouster Friday — and urged the present board and mayor to face down.
“I don’t suppose this instability is in the most effective curiosity of our college system and our children,” she stated. “The elected college board must be concerned in all choices relating to our faculties, and we’re just some days shy of being sworn in.”
It is a growing story.
Reema Amin is a reporter overlaying Chicago Public Faculties. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org .
Mila Koumpilova is Chalkbeat Chicago’s senior reporter overlaying Chicago Public Faculties. Contact Mila at mkoumpilova@chalkbeat.org.