All new Chicago school board members are expected to be sworn in at an agenda review meeting Thursday morning, including Mayor Brandon Johnson’s seventh board appointee, Rafael Yañez, a hate crimes officer at the Chicago Police Department.
The agenda meeting — which was pushed back a week — was posted to the Chicago Board of Education website a day after Mayor Johnson’s deputy mayor for education, youth and human services Jen Johnson announced she would be taking a leave of absence from her role. The actual Board of Education meeting is now scheduled for Nov. 1.
The resignation of a top city official and the new school board appointments are just the latest developments in months of conflict over how to handle CPS’ budget woes, brought on by the expiration of federal pandemic relief funding colliding with the financial demands of a new teachers contract and a municipal pension payment.
All seven Board of Education members resigned earlier this month, and Mayor Brandon Johnson announced appointees for all but one of the seats just a few days later.
The agenda for Thursday’s meeting includes swearing in Yañez, who describes himself in his LinkedIn profile as having “over 15 years of experience in conducting comprehensive investigations, training police recruits, and partnering with federal and local agencies to prevent and respond to violent crimes.” Yáñez also ran for alderman in the 15th ward in 2019.
The Rev. Mitchell Johnson, former executive director of the Developing Communities Project, is expected to serve as president of the new board. Mary Gardner, a West Side community organizer, is expected to serve as vice president.
The new board will be sworn in just a few weeks before Chicagoans vote for their district’s elected school board member, which will replace Johnson’s appointed board. The other half of the new 21-member board, plus the board president, will still be appointed by Mayor Johnson. The new hybrid board will assume their positions in January.
The purpose of Thursday’s “agenda review committee meeting” is to review, discuss and approve the items to be considered at the actual Board of Education meeting in November.
Though not specifically mentioned in Thursday’s agenda, tension between the mayor, CTU and Martinez has been brewing for months.
The upheaval was sparked in part by tremors that the mayor had privately asked the CPS CEO Pedro Martinez to resign this fall, as he reportedly declined the mayor’s request to approve a controversial $300 million high-interest loan to bankroll a new teachers contract and a $175 million pension payment. Martinez was also reportedly under fire by CTU President Stacy Davis Gates for refusing to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to fill the district’s budget holes.
It has become common practice to schedule agenda review meetings before actual monthly meetings, where the board votes to discuss and approve CPS policy and investments.
Following the mayor’s stunning board shake-up, October’s board meeting was pushed to November. The next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 12.
Regardless of whether or when the newly sworn-in board addresses Martinez’s position, he is up for a performance review in January, where he could be voted out by the newly appointed Board of Education. If fired without cause, he would stay in the position for a six-month “transition period” and receive severance pay. If fired “for cause,” Martinez would be terminated immediately.
In the middle of the complete board turnover and at a crucial point in budget discussions, it is still unclear how long the city’s deputy mayor will be on leave. No personal information could be publicly shared about her decision, according to a spokesperson from the mayor’s office.
The mayor’s deputy mayor for education assumed her position in 2023, after having worked as the Chicago Teachers Union’s chief of staff. She is allegedly taking leave because of health issues, which was reported first by Crain’s Chicago Business.
Chicago Tribune’s Ikram Mohamed contributed.