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Chicago Public Faculties CEO Pedro Martinez launched a final-hour authorized bid Friday to dam his potential firing, alleging that board members about to contemplate his destiny have been appointed “to do the bidding” of a mayor and lecturers union which have “scapegoated” Martinez.
Martinez’s attorneys made these claims in a circuit courtroom submitting searching for a short lived restraining order and a preliminary injunction to halt his ouster.
The transfer got here shortly earlier than a specifically known as 5:45 p.m. board assembly wherein members are scheduled to contemplate terminating Martinez.
Earlier Friday, Martinez’s authorized crew wrote a letter to the varsity board urging members to carry off on firing the CEO, who has clashed with the mayor and and weathered months of hypothesis on his destiny.
“Tonight’s purported vote is the end result of a months-long marketing campaign orchestrated by the Chicago Lecturers Union (“CTU”) and its ally, Mayor Brandon Johnson, to improperly and unlawfully terminate Mr. Martinez based mostly on wholly pretextual causes,” wrote William Quinlan, Martinez’s lawyer, within the letter.
The letter says firing Martinez wouldn’t solely breach his contract “but in addition the related Illinois regulation governing the Board’s actions.” Martinez’s contract does enable the board to fireplace him with out trigger, which might enable Martinez to remain for an extra six months and be paid severance in quantity equal to twenty weeks of his base pay of $340,000.
The letter additionally urges the board to not appoint a “co-CEO.” Crain’s Chicago Enterprise first reported that Johnson is contemplating that choice and has newly appointed board president Sean Harden in thoughts for co-CEO. He labored as deputy CEO of group affairs underneath former CEO Ron Huberman between 2009 and 2011, in accordance with his LinkedIn profile, however doesn’t maintain an educator or administrator license, in accordance with Illinois State Board of Schooling information.
Neither the lecturers union nor the mayor’s workplace instantly returned a request for remark.
Quinlan spent a lot of the letter accusing the board of colluding with the Chicago Lecturers Union and the mayor’s workplace for his ouster after Martinez and the earlier Board of Schooling declined to take out a short-term mortgage to pay for pension obligations and labor contracts, together with with the CTU, an in depth ally of the mayor’s. The letter included particulars from a Thursday Chicago Tribune story that exposed Bridget Early, town’s Deputy Mayor for Labor Relations, informed former board members in a Sept. 12 e-mail that the mayor wished Martinez fired by Sept. 26, regardless of not less than one prior assertion from the mayor that he by no means requested Martinez to resign.
The letter additionally revealed that the Board of Schooling despatched Martinez his efficiency analysis for the 2023-2024 faculty yr on Monday. The analysis, which Quinlan described as “lower than a web page,” gave Martinez an general “wants enchancment” ranking. That ranking acknowledged Martinez “made no efforts” to fulfill one-on-one with the brand new board members — who Johnson appointed in early October after the whole earlier board resigned en masse — and that the district’s new five-year strategic plan “didn’t actually come from [Mr. Martinez’s] workplace.”
“The varied alleged deficiencies recognized within the letter have been meritless — Mr. Martinez did meet with virtually all the new Board members and his workplace did ‘actually’ lead the creation of the 5 Yr Strategic Plan,” Quinlan wrote.
This story will likely be up to date.
Reema Amin is a reporter protecting Chicago Public Faculties. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.